PROLOGUE , 000 Whisper
✶

John B Routledge watched from his porch while Nailea Westwood was laying tummy-down on the distant dock, painting random images on the wood below her. Silly hobby, John B thought. He tilted his head as the sun set over her, the wind kissed her wild smile, and little things of nature floated in the velvety picturesque air. "And then we have Nai. Nailea Rose-Clay Westwood, if we're getting technical. She's definitely a full blooded Pogue and maybe not tell her I verbalized her full name..she can be...temperamental, yeah, temperamental's a good word. And her rings are like brass knuckles, so just don't tell her. She's also one of the lucky kids (like me) whose dad is missing. Yeah, that doesn't help her emotions either. Although to spite her aggression, I will give her credit for being the only one willing to climb fifty feet up a tree to watch some dumb birds hatch. But that's just Nai, the spontaneous, the adoring-all of it. You could slap the ugliest looking child in front of her and she would still love it. I guess that's why she tolerates me and JJ. Even though we've been a tight trio since the first grade, her and JJ were a lot closer in different ways. Everyone could see it, but we would rather have our toenails pulled off than acknowledge it and have JJ burn down a whole village, speaking from experience, of course (my black eye in seventh grade can testify). Although..I don't really know what you would call their relationship. It's an enigmatic pairing for sure, but they just kinda..fit I guess."

         Nine months ago.

       "I will bet you a solid five dollars that they come back expecting me to have dinner fixed." Nailea expressed from the hammock while plucking a cashew from the bowl in her lap and throwing it at John B's face.

         It was mid-evening and the pair was lounging their time away without a care in the world.

         Well, almost.

         He wiggled around in his own hammock to find said cashew. "You act like they treat you like a maid." he grunted and sat up as the stubborn nut stayed buried beneath him.

         "That's because they do!" she worded around the cashews in her mouth. "Nai clean this, Nai cook that, you," she pointed an accusatory finger at him partnered with a razor sharp glare, "can't say shit, just because you're a boy and people don't have the same expectations for you."

         "Hey," he reached over and stole some cashews from her. "I'll cook tonight, alright?" While their conversation started as a joke, he could tell she was genuinely exhausted right now. Ghostly purple circles resided under her eyes, but oddly it didn't look bad. Who knew, even sleep deprivation facial deformities looked like makeup on her bronze porcelain face.

"And our fathers don't mean to treat you like a maid."

         "Yeah I bet your dad would love to see me dressed as a maid." Nai said under her breath and looked down at her cashew bowl. She worked hard to suppress a smile and feigned absent mindedness. Her poker face was gold so obviously, John B thought the black-haired girl was being serious.

         With his jaw slacked and eyes bewildered, John B let out something of a high pitched scoff. "Oh my—Nailea!" John B whined and dragged a hand down his face. He looked down for a moment and found the cashew.

"You don't have to make everything about sex, y'know." he threw the cashew with her face as the target as Nai erupted with laughter. She managed to squeeze out a 'Where's the fun in that?' somewhere in her hysteria.

         He got up, realizing just how shameless she was, and flipped the laughing girl out of the hammock. Nai shrieked as she rolled out. A smile of achievement and admiration plastered on John B's face as he looked down at the girl who was still paralyzed in her fit of giggles on the ground.

         Her dimples alone could single handily pull a hook-line-sinker on any poor unsuspecting soul. But adding the rest of her complexion to that wild insanity made everyone around think how nice it would be to grovel at her feet.

         The purr of a motorbike came from behind them. Nai sat up on her elbows and took deep breaths as she crashed from her high. The golden sun ricocheted off her skin in a glittering madness, succeeding in portraying her as a drop of sunlight that had dripped tantalizingly from the star itself.

         "Awe, did our little girl fall out of the hammock?" JJ approached them with fake concern.

         In any room, Nailea immediately had his attention. The closer he got the clearer her appearance got. He couldn't lie, she looked good today. Her wavy black hair was disheveled, but in a pretty way. She wore a small, baby blue tank top that contrasted with her tan skin amazingly. And he couldn't even bring himself to think about the shorts, he just knew his brain would go to a point of beyond return. JJ couldn't look at her shorts so he scanned her plain white chucks briefly before dragging his eyes up painfully to meet hers.

         The thoughts plagued and blessed him at the same time. The forbidden fruit. The look but never touch rule (metaphorically, of course, the duo, in reality, was very touchy). The everything that made him clench his sharp jaw a million times a day.

         "You checking me out, pretty boy?" she cocked her head to the side with a squinting smile.

         "As always." JJ shamelessly stated before extending his hand to help her up. "Your dads out again?" he questioned while slinging an arm around Nai's shoulders.

         Nailea pouted her lip when she saw her tipped cashew bowl on the ground.

         "Yeah, they made it seem like it was big time, maybe uh...maybe it is big time, guys." John B looked off to the side as JJ and Nai looked at each other.

         Something pricked Nailea's brain. Something so painful that she had convinced herself that she had amnesia. If I'm not back by sunset, don't look for me, Junior.

         "Hell, if they find that gold I'm gonna buy the whole fucking island and make Topper Thornton my bitch." she effectively changed the mood because John B and JJ chuckled. As previously stated, Nailea Westwood was fantastic liar with a gold ticket-poker face.

         "Our bitch, 'what's mine is yours' remember the vows?" JJ grinned down at her.

         "Oooh," she sarcastically winced, "Sorry to break it to you, but remember the divorce in fourth grade?"

         "Okay, first of all you got Pope as your lawyer. I had Jimmy-fucking-McCrosky." Nai looked up into his eyes with pure amusement. "Y'know the same Jimmy that went to federal prison last year?" he finished with a cocked eyebrow.

         "So? You still got the kid." a dimpling grin infiltrated her features. They were always like this when they were together. John B never minded, he was just used to being sandwiched in with their extremely odd-totally normal-best friend-dynamic.

         "Yeah okay, you say that, but in reality I only got John B for two recesses before we decided to be friends again."

         "Oh the story of young love." she sighed before escaping from his arm and making her way to The Château, also known as the shack of a house they tried to spruce up by giving it a cool name. The boys instinctively followed after her. They go where their Nai goes.

         John B picked up her discarded bowl on his way.

         Nai was now standing in the clean, quaint kitchen. The oak wood counters and vase of baby's breath flowers always touched her heart. It was the small dose of simplicity that everyone needed a day. And 9/10 times her dose was flowers and the kitchen. Sometimes she referred to it as her kitchen since she's the only one who utilizes it. It was a nice sight, for about ten seconds.

         The train wreck that comes in the form of teenage boys crashed into the room pulling dishes out, food out, spilling stuff, leaving the napkins from the spills out, etc.

         "Hey!" she snapped at both boys.

         They looked up from their bowls of cereal, both with chipmunk cheeks. "Yeah..?" JJ mumbled through his food.

         "Bowls down." she reprimanded them.

         "What?" John B looked at her like she was crazy.

         "Bowls down." she said in the most no-bullshit voice they've ever heard. The boys slowly placed their bowls of cereal on the counter. "No food until you clean this kitchen."

         Her voice was still smooth and thick like honey, but at this particular moment it was accompanied by an underlying deadliness.

         "Yeah," "Sure, okay." the boys complied out of fear.

         She took a seat on the high stool and rested her back against the counter as they got to work. John B started out the door with trash bag in hand and JJ got a wet rag to wipe the counter.

         JJ had a fleeting thought-fleeting, but still there. When JJ got to the portion of the counter that Nai was rested on, he leaned with his left arm on the counter beside her and used his other arm to clean the surface on her right side. JJ proceeded to lower himself to her level, nonchalantly caging her in.

         This sure as hell wasn't her first rodeo when it came to the game of JJ Maybank. The dynamic was odd. There truly was no definition and anyone who tried to force a label would evidently face the burning wrath of Guard Dog JJ Maybank.

         She cocked an unimpressed eyebrow as a knowing smirk graced her lips. Her eyes fanned his close face; he was pretending to be focused on his task, but his flickering gaze gave him away.

         "¿Te estoy molestando? Am I bothering you?"he tilted his head curiously at her. His voice was low and innocent, and it sounded how he intended it to sound.

         She was all too confident that the control was always hers. JJ, never even having kissed her, took the most he could get without crossing the extremely blurred line. This way was safe.

         "Sigue soñando, amor. Keep dreaming, love."she beamed back at him. When she grinned up, the whole atmosphere shifted. With just three words, Nailea changed what was supposed to be a heavy moment, into something sweet and nostalgic.

         JJ chuckled downwards as a heavenly smile broke onto her face. He moved to lean against the counter beside her. From this angle he could see where the refracted sunlight danced off her dark eyes. He could really see her from there.

         "¿Has estado bien tu día? Your day been good?" his face sank into seriousness and his eyes narrowed in concern. It was only seven o'clock and he could already see the tiredness looming in her features.

         JJ picked up Spanish after spending so much time with Nai's family for ten years straight, all for her of course. They didn't invent the language, nor were they the only ones on the island who spoke it. But in their group, it was just theirs.

         Their smart friend, Pope, could often pick out a few words here and there, but that never changed the fact that no one knew what was truly being said.

         "Slow, but good overall." she vaguely answered before placing her elbow on the counter and resting her head in her hand. Once again, she was a good liar and sometimes even JJ couldn't tell when she was deceiving someone, but this was not one of those times.

         John B reappeared through the screen door and bee lined for his cereal bowl.

         JJ stared at Nai intently and she looked back at him, already knowing he knew. Dread creeped up her stomach due to his eyes yelling the unspoken words she wanted to hear least: we'll talk about this later.

         "What are you guys thinking tonight? Pizza?" John B spoke with a mouthful of food.

         "Why would we buy pizza, John B?" Nai exasperated. "There's plenty of food here to make dinner. Why waste the cash?"

         In all honesty she could care less if they ate pizza or not. She really just wanted John B to actually cook for her, for once.

         "C'mon JB, cook for me won't 'cha?" Nailea pleaded with a crooked grin.

         "But The Wreck is so close," he whined.

         She gave him nothing but a pouty lip...and JJ may have given him a look that kinda dared him to say no one more time.

         John B sighed in defeat and took a pan from the cabinet. "By the way, the whole pout thing," he moved his hand in motions gesturing to her face. "is a one-time use card."

         JJ stepped over to John B and patted his shoulder before whispering in his ear. "You're her bitch, man."

         "Oh we're going there?" John B's eyebrows shot through the roof. "You wanna talk to me about being her bitch?"

         Nailea watched their continuous argument with full awareness that she owned both of them.

         She hopped off the chair and grabbed JJ by the hand. "Be done in thirty?" she interjected and led them to the screen door.

         "Yeah, I guess. Get outta here, ya hooligans." he tossed a dish rag at the door, shooing them as they slipped away.

         She planted herself on the sand by the water that fronted The Château and brought her knees to her chest with a distant look in her eyes. Gaze, fixated on the sunset that was shining though the marsh.

         JJ joined her on the sand. She stayed silent, and it was safe to say that he was concerned.

         The wind's light whispers whisked at her baby hairs and the sky fallen, golden orb's sunlight melted onto her somber face. Her dark eyes, that were still being used as the sun's dance floor, were beautiful, but also managed to terrify JJ—epecially now.

         "We should come here more often, it's a nice little rendezvous spot." he was trying to make light with her tense mood. On any other day she would've cracked a smile, a grin, a twinkle, an anything.

         He prayed that she would break the nothingness, but what she gave him was so much worse.

         "JJ," she called to him, eyes still fixated on the water.

         "Yeah, I'm sorry, I-" he looked down at his hands sounding like a rebuked puppy.

         "JJ," this time his head had never snapped up so fast.

         Her voice was broken and she looked at him with glass coated eyes. Her tone was crying for help.

         She was crying for help.

         No moment could match the terror that he felt then. Someone had bruised her. Someone had shattered the glass that normally coated her eyes. Most days said glass melted to fall in soft raindrops, but today it was falling hard in sharp shards and JJ was going to catch them, open-palmed. He was going to allow her breaking to scar him because every reminder (good or bad) was a permanent kiss of her existence.

         "Nai? Hey, Nailea—" he reached for her and cradled her tear streaked face in his hands. She squeezed her eyes shut and JJ just stared at her for a second. Her floodgate was cracked. JJ Maybank was a tidal wave and she couldn't hold herself together when she was with him, not when he eroded every wall she's ever built.

         JJ grabbed Nai by her sides and pulled her onto him. His broad body enveloped her as he held her close. Her head, now buried in his neck, was being comforted by JJ's hand. Her cry was silent, but still there and JJ knew it.

         When she let out the first audible sob JJ held on even tighter. His own eyes were now pooling. He was hurting because she was hurting. He wanted to help, he wanted to do so much more than whisper sweet nothings and hold her in the dusk light.

         JJ never asked what plummeted her so far down that day. But when a week passed and her father never showed, deep down he knew.

         The next day it was as if nothing had happened, for Nai at least. JJ watched closely at their natural interactions, but he never forgot.

         And neither did she.

         Neither JJ nor Nai ever mentioned that moment at sunset again, all because the both of them were too far gone in their own state of sweetly glitzed oblivion.