Chapter Text
Three months after getting back from one of the best and worse trips possible, Pope and Cleo are still easing their way into something more than the “no love club”, John B and Sarah are still trying to navigate their way through life after losing their dads, and JJ and Kiara, well they are the same as they were before, but kissing and showing their emotions towards each other a lot more.
It was a bright sunny morning when John B, Sarah, JJ, and Kie were all in the kitchen of the condo Ward had gifted to Sarah. After getting back to Kildare from the Orinoco, Pope and Cleo went back home to the Heywards and the two bedroom, 2 bath condo was “home” to the other four for now.
“Do y’all wanna go surfing?” asks Kie. “I mean it’s been forever since we just had one of those lazy pogue days where we try to have the time of our lives and leave all our worries for another day.”
JJ, who is sitting on the countertop shoving eggs in his mouth, gets a huge grin on his face while throwing up a thumbs-up. After swallowing his mouth full he jumps off the counter and says “Heck ya I’m in! It’s been months since this stud right here has blessed yall with his surfing skills.”
John B had just took a sip of his coffee, “Seriously J? Stud? You almost made me spew my morning brew all over the place!”
Sarah perks up and hands John B a napkin, “I think it’s a great idea! We haven’t done much of anything since being back and with what we all went through, I think it’ll be good to get out and have some fun! Count me in Kie!” John B smiles and pulls her into a soft kiss. “Well the lady has spoken, we calling Pope and Cleo?”
“Already texted, we’re meeting them at the Break in 30 minutes” yells JJ as he walks off towards the room him and Kiara have been sharing. “Let’s get a move on it people! Waves are calling my name!”
Kiara starts following behind him with a big grin on her face. “I love how you just take charge over my idea!” JJ turns to look at her, wiggling his eyebrows, “Oh come on Kie” he says, “you know you love it when I take charge” Kie smacks him on his arm, rolling her eyes “yea sure JJ, only when I wanna charge right off the cliff you’re headed for.”
John B and Sarah both bust out laughing. “Ooh burn JJ, she got you good on that one, lover boy!” replies Sarah. “Someone’s gonna be in the doghouse tonight” yells John B.
JJ standing at the bedroom door with his mouth open with a shocked look on his face gets shoved to the side while Kie walks in the room. “Really Kie? How you gonna do me like that?!” He sticks his middle finger up at Sarah and John B and turns to walk in the bedroom to get ready for the day.
Sarah looks at John B with a grin “They are so cute together, I’m glad after everything that has happened, something good came out of it all.” “Come on” says John B smiling, putting an arm around his girlfriends shoulders “let’s get ready.”
John B is so glad to see a smile on Sarah’s face. It’s been a rough few months for both of them with Ward and his dad dying, but Sarah has taken it extra hard, feeling guilty about the whole Ward jumping in to save her that day. Maybe this day of sun, waves, and fun is just what they all needed to get back to normal.
——————-
45 minutes later, and everyone is finally on the beach, ready to hit the waves. Cleo and Sarah are debating on who out of the other four will be the best teacher to show them how to surf.
“JJ is the best surfer out of all of them, oh but please don’t let him know I said that or he’ll never let me live it down.” Sarah says as she’s taking her shirt and shorts off revealing a blue bikini underneath. “But I’m not sure he’s the most patient one out of the group to be teaching us.”
Laughing together, Cleo says “oh no, not rude boy for sure. I can see him trying to drown us if we don’t get it right after the first 3 tries.” She’s dressed in a new red bikini that Mrs. Heyward had bought for her. After getting back from the Orinoco, Mama Heyward wanted to take her shopping, and have a little “bonding” time. Cleo loved it, she’s never really had a “mother figure” in her life, let alone an adult that actually wanted to buy and do stuff for her.
“What’s so funny guys?” says Kie as she comes walking up beside them wearing a tie-dyed bikini. Sarah stops laughing and starts to rub sunscreen on her shoulders. “Me and Cleo are trying to decide on who can teach us better at surfing and we both agree that JJ is not the one.”
Kie starts laughing at that and says “oh definitely not, he’ll drown your asses after two tries if you can’t get it.” That makes Sarah and Cleo laugh even harder as Cleo responds “Dang girl, we at least said three tries! Some faith you got in your boy!” Kie glances over at JJ and the guys who all have a strange look on their face wondering what the hell is so funny then she looks back at Cleo, “What can I say? I know JJ too well. Pope is probably yalls best bet. John B will volunteer, but don’t take him up on his offer cause he’s the worst out of all of us with patience, those puppy dog eyes will fool you thinking he’s caring and sweet and nice and then Bam!! he’ll push you off on someone else and dip cause you aren’t doing it “exactly” like he says.” Cleo looks at Sarah, “This true girl?”
Smiling as she puts the sunscreen in her bag, “Pretty much sums it up, yeah. Last week I asked him to show me how to drive a stick shift and he was all excited about it. We get in the Twinkie and he’s elaborately telling me all this stuff that, in my opinion, I don’t need to know about on my first lesson but, whatever, I let him explain it all then finally, finally!..he tells me to “crank her up baby!”” rolling her eyes as she says it gets more chuckles from Cleo and Kiara. “So I go to let off the break and of course it stalls, it’s my first time, what do you expect, you know? Well I end up doing it three more times and out of the blue he tells me that he forgot JJ needed to use the Twinkie for something and then he proceeds to yank the keys out of the ignition and shoots out the passenger seat before I even have a chance to say anything. Then, wouldn’t you know, here comes JJ out of the condo telling me he “ugh has to go somewhere” and I know that’s a bunch of crap cause he wasn’t even wearing a shirt or shoes!”
Laughing uncontrollably Kie says “Smooth JJ, smooth. I was wondering where he went! I went to the bathroom and when I came out, he was gone and John B was chugging a beer looking all flustered and when I asked what was wrong and where JJ went, he said “nothing everything is fine” then walked out on the dock.”
Hearing all the laughter makes the boys curious so they start making their way over to where the girls are. “What are y’all finding so funny?” says John B as he walks up next to Sarah. “Oh I was just telling them how you were teaching me to drive the Twinkie the other day, and how well it went.” Giving him a sly smile.
John B sighs, “Yea, about that, I can’t believe I forgot J needed to go somewhere that day…” “Cut the bullshit John B.” Sarah says, interrupting him, “I know you just lost your patience with me and dragged JJ into the lie about needing the Twinkie.”
John B puts his hand on his heart, looking all shocked, “What? I can’t believe you would think that of me! Baby, I have all the patience in the world for you.” Sarah stands there and rolls her eyes.
“Dude! Give it up.” JJ has his arm casually around Kie’s shoulders “You rushed in the condo, threw the keys at me and pushed me out the door saying I needed to go to the store and to tell Sarah that it was important. You didn’t even give me a chance to put on a shirt or shoes! Did you really think she was gonna believe you dog?”
“OK, so, yea, I lied, moving on, love you Sarah. I promise next time I will be better. We going surfing or what?” John B kisses Sarah’s forehead and ushers her towards the water.
Pope turns to Cleo, “Sure hate we miss all the excitement staying at my parents house huh?” Laughing Cleo pulls him by the arm and says “Come on Pipe, you’re teaching me and Sarah how to surf today!”
Looking back at JJ he says “Wait, how did I get picked for this?!” Grinning wide with his dimple showing “Just lucky I guess, oh and you have the patience of a saint, which me and JB lack man!”
Kie turns her body and slides her arms around JJ’s bare midsection and looks up to him smiling, “So, you ready to hit the waves, yea?” He bends down and puts a light kiss on her nose, “oh yea baby, born ready!” He bends down and picks up both of their boards, handing Kie hers, they both walk to the water to meet the others.
——————
Some time later, Cleo has rode two waves already. Pope has stuck by her since the beginning, making sure to tell her what to do, and helping her up when she falls off the board. John B ended up helping Sarah after he told Pope he was showing her the wrong way to stand up. Both couples were sticking pretty close to the shore line the whole time, that left JJ and Kie to be together further out in the waves.
“Hey J, I bet you I can last further on the next wave than you can.” JJ turns to look at the wave then her, “Oh, and what am I getting when I win, cause I definitely am!” He lays down and starts paddling as he says it. “Hey that’s cheating!” yells Kiara as she’s too stunned to even grab the wave so she just watches him. Nearing the end of the wave he does a front flip off his board and pops up out of the water throwing his hands up looking back towards her “Winner, winner, chicken dinner baaaabbbyyyy!”
“I didn’t even ride the wave asshole!” Kie lovingly yells his way. JJ gets on his board and starts paddling back out to her “Yea I know, I won by default since you forfeited the wave, duh! Now what do I get for winning?” Once he gets close enough back to her, Kie takes her hand and splashes water at his face wiping that beautiful grin off. “Hey!” he spits out some water as he wipes salt out of his eyes. “Yea, I deserved that prize.” Shaking his head and resuming his smile “Come on, we’ll get the next wave for real, and I won’t cheat.”
Another couple of hours later and JJ and Kie are still riding the waves and relaxing on their boards in the water. John B and Sarah had given up earlier and they were laying on the beach quietly chatting with each other. Pope and Cleo were still goofing off in the shallow part of the ocean, Cleo pretending to teach Pope how to properly ride a wave but just making fun and pushing him off the board into the waves laughing the whole time.
“Looks like a storm is brewing over that way.” Pope tells Cleo when he recovers from the fall. They both look towards the East and sure enough it was starting to get black and cloudy and the waves were starting to pick up by all the white caps showing in the water. “Come on, let’s get out, I’m getting tired anyway.” Pope says as he takes Cleo’s hand to help her out of the waves. “What about them?” Cleo nods her head in the direction of JJ and Kie sitting on their boards looking out into the ocean. Pope sighs “I’m sure they see it and are gonna come in too. JJ would ride the waves in a storm but Kie isn’t that dumb.”
“Is it just me, or are these waves getting bigger?” Kie asks as she looks at J. They both turn their boards around to look out towards the ocean and see the darkness that’s approaching. “Yea, it’s not just you, storms a coming, bringing some gnarly waves with it.” He turns around towards the shore and sees the other four sitting on the beach. “Guess they already saw, yeah?”
“Alright then, last wave of the day, who’s gonna be the champ?!” Kie says as she turns her board around to face the shore with JJ’s. “Oh, you know it’ll be me.” JJ says it with a wink
Today has been perfect thinks Kie. Waves, fun, sun, hanging out with her best friends, goofing off with JJ. She hates that the storm came up to cut it short. If she had it her way, they would stay out here well into the night and have a bonfire.
She sees the wave coming and hears JJ say “Let’s do this!” noticing that this wave is the biggest one of the day she gets excited and starts paddling after him and stands up underestimating how tired her legs have become after surfing all day. She goes to swerve the board up and slips off crashing into the big wave, her board unceremoniously slams on top of her, hitting her in the head knocking her out and forcing her down under the waves.
JJ rides the end of the wave out and gets off his board, standing up looking back to smile and hoot at Kie for winning again but he doesn’t see her anywhere. “Kie?! Kiara?!” he yells out. He feels like all the blood has rushed out of his body as he frantically looks into the water for that bright colorful bikini she’s wearing.