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“shit,” john b cursed as he finished unbuttoning his shirt so that he could pull it off of his sweat soaked torso. it didn’t really make a difference but now he had something to act a cushion between his head and the pipe he’d been resting it on,
sarah wasn’t faring much better, her hair was soaked and sticking uncomfortable to her face and neck and shoulders. her cheeks were flushed a dangerous red and john b assumed he looked the same.
“do you… i don’t know. do you wanna play a game?” sarah asked, her voice a little hoarse from not speaking.
“no. i don’t”
“cool.” sarah started. “so, there’s this game that my sister and i play. it’s called truth or dare, except there’s no dare.”
john b let out a snort. “so it’s just truth, sarah. that’s truth.”
“yeah,” sarah nodded, her lips turning up in a grin. “do you wanna play truth?”
john b rolled his but nodded anyway. “sure. you go first.”
sarah hummed for a second, trying to decide what to ask him before it came to her. “okay, who was your first kiss?”
“jj.”
sarah nodded, a little surprised at how quickly john b answered when he'd been so reluctant to play the game.
“your turn.” sarah nodded as she gathered up her hair and pulled it into a bun on the top of her head in an attempt to cool off at least a little.
“who was your first kiss?” john b asked, his head tilted back against the pipe and his eyes closed.
“you can’t just ask me the same question, get a little creative,” sarah laughed. “but fine, my first kiss was william williams.”
john b’s head immediately popped up, his eyes wide as he stared at sarah. “are you fucking serious? that creep was your first kiss?”
sarah nodded, regret written all over her face at the memory of letting william williams kiss her at her thirteen birthday party.
“wow,” john b said as he settled back down, still processing that piece of information. “your turn again.”
“okay, who and when was your last kiss?” sarah asked, figuring that john b would probably say the name of some tourist or one of the girls from the cut or even kiara for that matter. she tried not to think too much about the last one and the way it made her heart beat heavy in her chest.
“jj and this afternoon, right before i left.”
it took a minute for sarah to comprehend what john b had just said. her brows furrowed for a second despite that relief that ran through her.
“oh,” john be looked at her, one eyebrow quirked upwards and a little smile on his face. “oh, i didn’t know that you two were, y’know?”
john b nodded. “yep, for a few years now, actually.”
sarah hummed, still a little surprised, though looking back on how jj and john b were always together and always touching one another somehow. neither jj nor john b seemed like the type to hide who they were in a relationship with so she figured they must be pretty open about it.
“that’s cool,” sarah said genuinely. she may not be the best of friends with any of the pogues but she was happy for them, that they could be themselves so effortlessly and fully. she wished she could be that brave. “your turn.”
“well, i asked you who your first kiss was and i assume that your last one was topper?” sarah nodded. “so what about your first kiss that actually mattered because i know it couldn’t have been william williams?”
sarah’s heart skipped a beat. she was sure her eyes were wider than they’d ever been as she looked at john b in shock. she swallowed drily, her hands shaking as she pushed back a piece of hair that had come out of her bun. she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath before she opened them again and locked them onto john b’s own.
“kiara.”
john b nodded, like he might have known all along but he didn’t question her any further. “your turn again.”
sarah nodded again, her heart still skipping beats. she forced herself to calm down but her voice still came out a little shaky as she asked her question.
“what does the b stand for.”
“booker. is wheezie her real name or?”
“wilhelmina. what’s jj’s full name?”
“jackson james. what about rafe, why does your family have weird as hell names?”
“rafe’s real name is raphael, y’know, like the angel, but obviously you can see why we just use rafe instead. and you can blame it on ward.”
the two of them continued to play truth back and forth until they felt the ferry come to a stop. They donned their yellow raincoats, sarah with her sandals in her hands as they made a run for it.