Deep Water [OuterBanks]

15: girls night out

Fast dying sunlight glimmered off the marina a couple yards from Kiara's two-story colonial. It was mainly work and fishing boats decking the basin, as Kooks typically preferred to keep their beloved Grady-Whites, and Malibu-Wakesetters docked outside of their homes, as a means to keep the compliments rolling. And while it was a bit egotistical, it worked well in their favor. Rich people weren't exactly against commending other rich people for dropping over a hundred grand on watercraft; even if the kids just across the bridge were struggling, and the island was gradually slipping into the great Atlantic.

Nonetheless, Alana and Kiara were ambling down the long dock, where the HMS Pogue rocked gently against the teal waters. Alana, shielding her frosty eyes from the sun, blinked at Pope Heyward standing behind the helm of the boat. "Code red!" He informed the pair over the chatty seagulls and groaning of the sun-bleached dock.

Kiara rolled her eyes, tugging the straps of her olive green backpack higher onto her shoulders. "What the hell is going on?" She asked, arms now swaying at her sides.

"JJ and John B conked out in the marsh. They need a tow." Pope explained, adjusting the salmon colored hat covering his coily hair.

"Uh, okay, well, what does that have to do with us?" Kiara wondered, her thick eyebrows arching with curiosity.

"We need you for mechanical." Pope replied as the two teenage girls stepped down from the stable heights of the dock and into the worn interior of the HMS Pogue.

Alana's lips twitched slightly as she settled onto the bow. "I'm having a hard time believing you couldn't fix this yourself, Einstein." She quipped, as Pope started up the motor, gliding the boat out further into the marsh.

"Well, did you know that it's been scientifically proven that girls are smarter than boys?" The intelligent Pogue mentioned, his chocolate eyes steady on the horizon.

Kiara jutted out her bottom lip, shrugging her shoulders lackadaisically. "Sounds accurate."

It didn't take long for Pope to get to where they needed to be, and per usual, the marsh was reposeful; nothing but the lapping of water and the lulling of wildlife. Heyward's delivery boat undulated gently against the blue-green ripples, the last of the days light hitting its tattered white exterior. "John B and JJ are up in the Alp." Pope explained, inching the Pogue as close to his fathers boat as he possibly could without chipping the paint.

"Can't you guys do anything without us?" Kiara questioned rhetorically, abandoning her post alongside Pope and working her way towards the stern. She clambered over onto the notably larger vessel, and Alana followed suit; arms outstretched to steady herself as the soles of her converse met with the fiberglass floor.

As Kiara slipped into the cockpit, JJ slipped out, his near-perfect physique snagging at Alana's aegean eyes. "What are y'all up to? " She looked from his defined abdominal muscles, grinning perceptibly as he raised his eyebrows and raked his rough digits through his blonde hair. It was something that he did subconsciously whenever he and John B were putting forth some typically harmless, yet half-assed plan. In retrospect, it had taken Alana quite some time to pick up on the tell due to the nature of his unparalleled poker face, though now, she saw through the gesture nearly every time.