𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝 {𝚓𝚓 𝚖𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚔}

𝚜.𝟷 𝚎𝚙.𝟹 -𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝-

"you must know that you're my muse / my favorite color when you bloom / favorite poem with your gloomy attitude."

~

"JJ!" Tate shrieked, pulling her legs up to her chest in the hammock the two of them were sharing. "Stop!" She couldn't help her voice breaking into giggles and she could hear JJ's soft laughter from the other end of the hammock.

"What is happening over there?" John B asked, sounding equal parts amused and concerned. "I'm kicking you both out if you can't behave." The heavy night air was broken by the sound of JJ and Tate's combined laughter.

When Tate had re-joined the group after going to her dad's, she'd carefully deflected every question her friends asked about what had happened there and managed to play off pretty successfully that she was alright. Despite the summer heat, she'd changed into long pants after spending a tedious and painful half hour picking all of the glass shards out of her leg while the others surfed all evening. It was hard to ignore the weird looks JJ and John B gave Tate when they saw her wearing jeans in the middle of the summer, but she figured as long as she didn't have any visual injuries, she'd be able to play it off just fine.

Pope, thankfully, changed the subject. "You really think it's out there?" he asked, and everyone immediately knew he was talking about the treasure. "Like, no bullshit?"

"My father thought it was," John B said without missing a beat.

"But do you?" asked Pope.

Thunder rumbled in the distance and Tate pulled her knees to her chest, carefully avoiding touching the injured parts as the hammock swayed back and forth in the breeze. She could feel JJ just inches away, leaning back and staring up at the stars. She could just barely make out his silhouette, but she felt comforted just having him there. In the next hammock over, she heard John B let out a slow sigh. "After hearing his voice on that tape..." he said tentatively, "I think I do."

"Only one way to find out," Pope said, and Tate was surprised at how easily he'd accepted John B's answer.

Tate could almost see Kiara nod her head in the darkness. "Look, we're gonna find it, you know?" she said, and she sounded genuine. "Even JJ believes."

Pope let out a soft laugh. "Oh my god, JJ, do you really believe?"

"Totally," said JJ. "Wait, are we talking about five mil?"

"Five hundred mil," Pope and Kiara said at the same time.

"Jinx," Kiara whispered softly.

JJ reached out a hand and grazed the side of Tate's leg before leaning back and adjusting his hat over his head. "I'm gonna dream about shipwrecks," he murmured, his hand still resting just centimeters from Tate's. "Goodnight, bird!"