𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐒 𝐒𝐎 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 ➝ 𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧

𝟖. 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐆𝐔𝐍𝐒

𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍 𝐁 stole from his extremely rich boss and Rafe's dad, I joined Kie at The Wreck, hoping to pass some time. I sat on the counter off to the side while Kie re-wrote the specials on the chalkboard. The restaurant was busy, since it was almost six o'clock, and every few minutes, steaming plates of food would come out of the kitchen and towards a hungry customer. "What's with you and the golden boy," Kie said, snapping me out of my daze.

"Excuse me?" I asked quickly as she brushed off her dusty hands.

"Don't play that card," She replied as she drew another line on the board, "I saw you two talking at the kegger, last night," My cheeks heated up and I had no idea why I was blushing since it wasn't that big of a deal. "What were you two talking about?" She asked with a cheeky smile.

Words flew out of my mouth before I could comprehend what I said, but saying, "We were insulting each other," wasn't what I expected. Maybe it was a big deal.

"You two were insulting each other?" Kie asked both skeptical and confused. I quickly nodded and she shrugged it off, getting back to her chalk art.

Why did I lie to Kie, I've never lied to her, ever. What was going on with me and why was I trying to hide my acquaintance with Rafe? Do I... no, absolutely not.

He's a Kook and I'm a Pogue; we don't mix.

✮

The wind swirled around us as we sat in the HMS Pouge, the sun getting ready to set in the distance. I was wearing an open flannel with my bathing suit, watching as Kie looked at the scuba tanks John B borrowed from Ward Cameron. I fixed my pair of sunglasses and she groaned, "Okay, this one's a quarter full, it's enough for one of us,"

"Love it when a plan comes together," Pope said sarcastically from the seat in front of the wheel of the boat, "Does anybody know how to dive?" He asked and everyone shook their head.

"It's kind of a Kook sport," I pointed out, knowing that people at the country club always talked about it.

"Well, I've... read about it," Pope offered and Kie rolled her eyes.

"Great, Pope read about it, so someone's gonna die," She exclaimed and I knew that she wasn't being dramatic. Diving was hard to master, especially if you have a quarter-tank of air.

"Look, y-you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?" JJ inquired from the side of the boat.

"If you come up too fast, nitrogen gets into your blood, and you get the bends," Pope informed us, reminding him that he only read about it.

"Bends like, bend over and..." He said inappropriately and Pope quickly shot him down, telling him that the bends kill you. 

"I can-- I can dive," John B proclaimed and Kie immediately questioned him, "I'll do it. It's fine," He continued and Kie looked at him before walking away from the front of the boat.

"Let me do some calculations real quick," Pope said as he grabbed some paper from a hidden nook in the boat, along with a pen. "That boat's about thirty feet down, so it'll take twenty-five minutes at that depth. This means you need to makeyour safety stops at about... ten and fifteen feet," Pope told all of us and I pulled off my shirt and jumped into the water as the boys continued to talk. Kie jumped in with me, shirt in her hand as well.

We swam down, following the rope of the anchor and stopped at the two marks. I tied my flannel to the fifteen-feet mark and pushed back up to the surface. I took a breath as I broke through the water with Kie beside me. "We tied our shirts at the safety marks so you don't die," I told the boys as I pushed my wet hair out of my face. We swam towards the boat and pulled ourselves up, still dripping wet, while Pope and John B talked about the air.