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THE GROUP OF TEENAGERS SOON EMERGE FROM THE depths of the murky waters. Gasping for air, they all look at each other as the smile on their faces grow bigger.
"Did you guys see that!?" Kiara excitingly yells
"Yeah, I did," Marty yells in agreement along with her friends. They share a sound of deep breaths and gasps for a moment before laughing again.
"That's a Grady-White. A new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy." JJ speaks as the group swims back to the pogue.
"It looks kinda old though, so maybe around 300 K," Marty inputs, turning her head towards the sunken boat to get a good look at it again.
"How do you figure that?" Pope says as he lifts himself up from the side of the HMS pogue. The rest of them get on —except for Martha, who was happily chilling in the cold water.
"Trust me, I know. That's a primo rig!" Dad's been taking me to boat shows ever since I was a kid.
JJ smiles as he looks down at his girl, the bloody red bathing suit hugging her tremendous figure. "C'mon baby," he states, holding out his hand for her to take. She grins, grabbing his hand —swallowing the idea of playfully yanking him in the murky waters— and is heaved onto the deck.
"Yeah, yeah, that's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge. Maybe it hit the jetty or something"—
—"You surfed the surge?" Kiara interrupts John B, with a confused and worried look upon her face. Martha looks at John B with the same face, sending a disappointed look towards JJ when he congratulates his friend.
"That's my boy. Pogue style."
"What the heck?" Martha shook her head before connecting her eyes with Kie's. "Boys, amirite?"
"You betcha." Kiara mumbles, giggling at their own joke.
"Wait, wait. Do we know whose boat that is?" Pope questions, popping off the driver's seat.
"No, but we're about to find out." John B hints as he kneels to a compartment with the anchor.
"Dude, it's too deep," JJ warns looking down at the glistening water.
Martha bites her lip before she said something stupid —she wanted to talk him out of it but she knew he wouldn't listen to her.
Instead, she walks over to where JJ was at, surprising the boy when she touches his dewdrop-y arm.
He smiles, nodding to her unanswered question. His fingers dance to her face, pushing her wet, mopped hair behind her ear.
"Oh, for the weak and feeble, JJ." John B retorts, heaving the rusty anchor onto the steaming floorboards.
JJ rolls his eyes, before giving another witty comment back. "Well, I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear upfront." Martha giggles softly. Her angelic laugh brings his heart to a race again.
"That's fine."
"John B," Kiara warns as a protective mother would do.
He chuckles before dropping the smile and says "what?"
"Diver down, fool." Pope interrupts their stares and the tension between the two friends.
"Diver Down." He states, motioning his hand in an 'aye-aye captain.'
"Yeah, he is," JJ exclaims, forcefully pushing his best friend down into the deep and dark depths of the marsh.
"JJ!" Both Martha and Kiara scold before they crouch over the side of the boat looking anxiously for their submerged friend.
"What?! It needed to be done or he would've never made it." He sighs, before hugging Martha from behind. In his bare arms —just like the night before.
He felt the goosebumps on her skin rise then fall, how her breathing became infrequent, how her face grew to be a warm shade of pink and it was all because of him. He smirks cockily, before planting small and quiet kisses on her neck, before whispering in her ear, "it'll be alright."
But in the back of his mind, he doubted himself. How could it be alright? We both have a target on our backs, Rafe's gonna make her life a living hell when I'm not there to protect her or calm her down. And now to top it off, John B isn't resurfacing.
"Should we go get him?" Pope questions, his eyes scanning the water.
As soon as Pope said that, John B resurfaced. Everyone left out a breath they were keeping in.
"Oh, my God. That took forever!"
"Ah, jeez."
"You really scared us!"
"Any dead bodies?" "No."
"Looting potential?" "No."
"I-I found this motel key." He states, lifting up a key ring with his finger —two keys were attached.
They all stand up, Pope complains about what Johnny B found, Kiara helps her friend back on his boat, and JJ and Martha haul up the anchor.
"A key?"
"Yes, a key, Pope."
"Great! We salvaged a motel key." JJ also complains, but his whines are cut short when Martha walks his chest with the back of her hand. "Stop complaining, and help me with this."
"Thought you were strong enough, babe," he smirks.
"Do you want me to drop this on your toe?" She deadpans.
"Guys, we should report the wreck to the coast guard. Maybe we'll get a finder's fee." Kiara offers up the idea as Pope and John B turn on the gas and starts to head back into town. JJ has his right arm over Marty's shoulders, his hand holding the boat's bar and her hand simultaneously.
"Yeah, and not have to work all summer. Thanks, Agatha, ya batch."
