June walked past where her and Cleo had been sitting, not entirely sure what it was she could do to comprehend what Pope had told her. She had a flurry of emotions running through her. She wanted to rip her hair out and scream because he had almost kissed another girl. She wanted to jump into the water and swim back home because that girl was Kiara. She wanted to fall to the ground and cry because of what she had trusted him not to do. She wanted to sit down and just go about her business, because there was nothing she could do about it. She wanted to do a lot of things. But more than anything she just wanted to ask him about it.

She started towards the stairs that led to the top deck where the two of them were, the sun finally setting and cooling the air around her. The wind whipped and whistles all around her and her wind was a jumbled mess of fog and doubt. She took a few more steps, her hand grabbing the railing as she approached the staircase.

A strange thought transpired in her head the moment she put her foot on the stair, her mouth falling open and a breath leaving her conflicted lips. She looked at the stairs as she took a moment to really delve into the thought, wondering the authenticity of it. And the thought was:

Did she have the right to be angry?

While thinking rationally was not June Marchs particular strongsuit, this thought had hit her all of a sudden. And when it had it made perfect sense. She stopped on the stairs, her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes stuck to the stair as she really decided to think this one through. This one decision could change a lot of things. If she went up there and started arguing and accusing and yelling and fighting, things would be difficult, they would be tense. But did she have the right to do that?

Her mind traveled back to before the island, when Rafe had visited her in her room. He had aired all of her dirty laundry, brought things up that he had promised to never speak of again, and he had kissed her. And although she had pushed him away, the guilt associated with that interaction still clung to her. The guilt of still feeling for him back then. Along with the selfishness of all of her previous lies.

Her fingers detached from the railing, her foot moving back from the stair and her eyes blinking a few times to gather the decision she was making. The decision: indifference. Maybe it was something Pope saw wrong, maybe it wasn't real, maybe if she let Pope take care of it, things would be better. Maybe she didn't have to ruin the last remaining source of happiness in her shitty life. Maybe she could just let it go. Maybe she could just let it go.

Still her heart didn't ache any less, she felt betrayed, but she refused to show it, she refused to make it clear. So she swallowed her pride, swallowed her hurt and her broken trust. Her breath shook as she pressed a hand to her stomach, the girl having to work manually to regain a regular breathing pattern. She walked away from the steps and towards the railing, her eyes glued to the water as she tried to find a way to feel less shitty. She wondered if it had been any other girl if she would have been more okay with it, not that she would be okay at all, but the fact that it was Kiara had just rubbed salt into the wound.

June hated herself for leading JJ astray. Maybe she had been so focused on going home on the island that he looked elsewhere for affection. Maybe she wasn't enough anymore. She couldn't blame him, she would leave herself too. A mess of a girl, who never truly knew what she wanted, who never seemed all that interested in anything. A girl who they had only really know for a few months, while JJ had known Kiara for years. June couldn't even blame them, perhaps she had just been an obstacle in the way.  Maybe Kiara was never the problem but June was, infiltrating their group, standing in the way of true love. Maybe she had read it all wrong.

She leaned against the railing of the boat, her head going between her arms as she closed her eyes. Her knees wanted to give out from the devastation that just the insinuation that she would lose JJ gave her. Her hand shook as she used it to push hair from her own face, her thoughts swirling in her head. 

She gasped as she reached into her pocket, her fingers closing around the object inside of it. She pulled it out and opened her eyes, gazing down at the seashell that JJ had given her when he had proposed.  At Singhs she had made sure to grab it before she changed, she couldn't leave it behind. She stared down at the ridges and the pattern and then  she closed her fingers around it. She considered throwing it out into the ocean, or smashing it under her foot, but she thought both to be too dramatic, so instead she just slid it back into her pocket, because she wasn't quite ready to let go.

She felt nauseous as she tried to care a little less, she knew that if anyone saw her right now they would immediately know she was upset. Her nausea contributed to a paled look on her face, because she was literally sick with worry for her relationship. She wasn't even sure if she was angry, she didn't even know.

"June?" Her head turned and it was Tyler, her face going slack as she tried to hide the emotion. He was too good though, his eyebrows furrowing once again as he looked at her. It was that same tense and sweaty look from earlier, except now it was ten times worse. He didn't even have to ask, the boy just titling his head forwards and waiting for her to tell him.

"Fuck. You really are just everywhere." Her tone was a little harsh, his lips straightening into a line as he leaned back.

"Sorry." He started to turn away but she shook her head and sighed, running her hand over her face and grabbing his arm.

"No, I'm sorry I didn't mean it rude or anything." She leaned against the railing but turned her body towards him, her eyebrows raising as she spoke again. "I mean you have to admit that you are always in the right place at the right time."

"Considering the fact you would be dead or in prison if my timing wasn't so correct, yeah I'd say I am everywhere." She laughed,  feeling some reprieve from the terrible mood she was in. He joined her laugh with a short one of his own, his elbows against the railing as he looked out at the ocean. June watched him as his eyes filled with some emotion, and for a moment she wasn't thinking about how hurt she was.

"What are you gonna do when you get back? I'm sure you've got some kind of plan." June asked, her eyes flickering across his side profile. She turned back towards the ocean, her eyes going to look out at whatever it was he was looking at.  He sighed and she glanced at him again, the breeze managing to push dark curls back from his face and making him look younger than he was. She had spent every day with him for the past month or so, and it was easy to see a difference in someone who you see everyday. But for the first time in awhile she saw how different he really looked, compared to when she had originally met him. He looked older now, maybe from stress, maybe still from the fact that they had lived and survived on an island for a month. He was a bit skinnier, probably due to the scarceness of food. Still with the look of hope in his eyes he aged in reverse, the wide was of them making him look almost childlike.

"I don't have a plan. I'm broke so...I don't know. I'll figure something out. I always do. Find another ship or something." Junes face fell and she shook her head, her lips turned down into a frown as she looked at him.

"What? No. You're not leaving again. Why would you do that?"

"Well I...it's what I know. And I need money and a place to—"

"Tyler you sound ridiculous, dude. You can stay with me. Once I talk to my parents I'm sure they won't care. We can find you somewhere to work and hell, you and my brother would probably get along real good. You guys are the same age, and he's running low on friends right now." Tyler looked at her with so much confusion, how she could do something like that, offer him something like that. His options were no longer extremely limited. He could try to live normally for a change. He was a 19 year old, acting like he was 35. She was giving him something he hadn't had in a long time...a chance. "Plus I kind of owe you anyways. You did save my life...like 4 times."

He laughed, June cracking her own smile as she looked at the water. It was easy to joke about, but the traumatic experience of it still scratched at the back of her brain. Her nausea had cleared up, but Tyler still wanted to know what had happened, so he asked.

"So what happened?"

"What do you mean?" June asked, her face lined with confusion as she thought about what she had offered him.

"Why were you upset when I walked over here? Last time I saw you, you and Cleo were cutting up. Now I walk by you and you look sick and upset." June was quickly reminded of why she felt that way, the image of JJ and Kiara going in for a kiss making her body sway. Tyler watched as her entire expression changed into one of pure hesitancy, her eyes filled with irritation and vacillation. She sighed, dropping her hand into her face and speaking rather candidly with him.

"Pope told me that he saw Kie and JJ almost kiss." Tyler's face immediately contorted into one of shock, the drama making him outright stunned.

"What?"

"Yeah. I know. I mean I knew that Kie had feelings for him, but I didn't know that JJ you know...had them too. I guess I was blind or something." June bit the inside of her lip, Tyler scoffing and shaking his head as the confusion set in.

"Um...I didn't know that either. JJ is so obsessed with you, I never would've seen this coming honestly." Tyler was so astonished that he had to blink a few times to try and gather the information, his eyes of June as she shrugged and looked back out at the water. He realized how nonchalant she seemed about it, so he figured the decision making part of the process was over, which drove him to his next question. "What are you gonna do about it?"

"Nothing. I'm not going to do anything about it." She sighed again, her eyes on the stairs that had made her decision. "I mean what—what can I do? I cant even really do anything about it. It's not like I can tell JJ to stop talking to her or—or fight with Kie. Or fight with JJ for that matter. If it's what Pope said then it seemed like both of them were equally into it."

"That is insane. Like actually...crazy to me. JJ has been up your ass since I met him. No way was he about to kiss another girl. Are you guys like—still to-together or uh—" Tyler stumbled over his words trying to find an explanation, but June nodded, her face obvious and her eyes wide as she answered.

"Yes, dude we've literally been fine. I mean today he had an attitude but I didn't think anything of it really like...I didn't know it was that serious. But now I don't know if I should say something or if I should just let it play out." 

"Well if you say something it could cause problems. But if you let it play out it might play out too far. I mean...I'm all for letting you duke it out with Kiara but you guys are friends and—"

"We're not friends. But still it's not her fault entirely. Sure she knows he's in a relationship but he is the one in the relationship. I cant attack her and not give him the same treatment." Tyler nodded at her words, crossing his arms over his chest and going deep into thought.

"Wait...why aren't you and Kie friends again?"

"Because she tried to leverage my imprisonment for her freedom to Singh." She dropped this piece of information like it was nothing, Tyler's eyes getting wide as he looked at her.

"I'm sorry, what? She did what? And you're still okay with her?"

"No...no I'm not okay with her. And she knows that. But this is not the time or the place to have all this drama. I mean...we literally left John B in Barbados. We're sailing through the Caribbean to get back to the fucking Outer Banks and we're actively on the run from about 4 different groups of people. Girl drama doesn't really have a room here." She let out a deflated breath, Tyler still looking at her  appalled at all the information that had been dropped in the past minute or so. This was about how the conversation from earlier had went too. "Neither does relationship drama I guess. So uh...it's whatever. This time it slides."

"But what about next time?"  June thought about it,  her nose scrunching up as she tried to think rationally. However she was struck by an idea, Tyler quite literally seeing it hit her.

"Oh my god I just had the best idea."

"Talk to him and see what happened?" Tyler suggested, June shaking her head and looking at him like he was stupid.

"No, shut the fuck up, no. I have a better plan." He looked afraid for a moment, terrified by what her mind could be brewing up. One of the reasons why the group said her and JJ were so perfect for each other was because of their similar impulsive decisions and outrageous plans. Maybe her having an idea wasn't the best news. And it only got worse when she looked at him, a evil and meticulous glint in her eyes. "And I need your help."