❁ • 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 • ❁ a pope heyward fanfic

𝟷𝟺 ❁ 𝚜𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚛𝚞𝚕𝚎𝚜

Kayanna felt the warm breeze on her face and smelt the ocean as she slipped off her shoes and dropped her bag in the sand. It felt warm between her toes.

"Hey, save some waves for us!" JJ yelled to John B and Kiara, running into the ocean with his surf board.

"Are you sure you don't wanna come?" Pope stood over her with his board in hand.

"Yeah, I mean, I don't have a swim suit on, soo..." She replied with a tight smile.

"Yeah, okay." He nodded. "We won't be too long."

Kay gave him a thumbs up before he turned around, following JJ into the water. She decided to walk along the shoreline. It felt so peaceful with barely anyone there. She loved water and living at the beach was something to be grateful for.

Her abdomen ached from where Rafe had taken a swing at her. When she looked down her shirt she could she the dark purple mark forming on her stomach. Although, she had, in fact, had a bikini on, she didn't want anyone to see the bruise or ask questions. Kie and John B didn't know anything had happened at all. It was supposed to stay that way and she was scared that if they asked, she might tell everything. Kay was never good at lying.

• ❁ •

Kayanna dug her feet into the sand where she sat, feeling the cool grains underneath the hot surface. She watched as the teens surfed. They all had such good relationships with each other. They really cared.  And they were letting her hang with them. Another thing to be grateful for.

Pope had peeked at the girl on shore quite a few times. He'd noticed her walk down the shore quite a ways before finally coming back and taking a seat in the sand. He caught one last wave, riding it out as long as he could, before making his way back to shore.

Kay noticed him approaching and smiled softly. "the water nice?" She called.

"Nice and cool," He answered, sitting down next to her.

She nodded.

Now what?

What was she supposed to say?

Why was normal conversation so difficult? Other people just talk and the right words come out and then a conversation takes place. So why couldn't she think of anything? Maybe, "It's hot out here," or "I can't wait for you to teach me to surf," or "your board is cool,". 

Or not. They all sounded dumb in her head. Maybe—

"Are you mad at me?" Pope blurted out.

Kayanna turned her head to him, surprised when she saw his worried expression. "No, of course not." She said softly. "Why would you thin—"

"I sunk the boat. And I didn't ask if you were okay with it, like, with being there. You said you didn't think it was the best idea and we should have at least let you go home or something— I-I don't know... are you... mad?" Kayanna watched as his words tumbled out.

"No, I'm not mad." Kayanna replied, her heart melting over the fact that he'd probably been working himself up over that for the last hour. "I don't really think it was the best choice, but I understand why you did it. I mean, I got beat, too."

Pope's finally looked at her face. "I'm sorry."

"What— don't be sorry! It's not your fault. And you got it worse than me," She shook her head as she looked at his eyes.  "I'm sorry I couldn't get him off you."

Pope's face held an... almost confused expression as he stared at Kayanna. He glanced down her face causing Kayanna's heart to beat faster. Was there something on her face? But she didn't eat anything. His face seemed closer. Was there blood on her face from before? Was her nose bleeding again?