——

The hot air coated her sun-kissed skin as she let her body soak up the UV rays. A book was in her hands, courtesy of Pope, and waited for her four friends to retrieve from the ocean.

Only one, although she wasn't sure if they were even friends, made his way over to the spot where all their belongings lay. She tried her best to ignore him, keeping her eyes locked on the paper of words, but it was hard when he hollered her name.

"Yo, Em! Kie's calling for you. You sure you don't wanna surf with us?" JJ asked, walking up closer to her beach towel that she sat on.

Emelina looked at him through her sunglasses, "You almost sound like you want me to come."

He rolled his eyes, pushing back his wet blonde hair, "Are you in or not?"

"Can't," Emelina raised the book in hand, "I have to report back to Pope about chapter six pronto. I'm sure the waves won't miss me."

JJ groaned. "Dude, the wrong Pogue is rubbing off on you. You know you don't actually have to read that... unless you're avoiding surfing."

"I'm not avoiding surfing!" she exclaimed immediately and closed her book. She was lying, of course, because even after living in the Outer Banks all her life, she learned that her feet and a surfboard don't mix well together.

On their way to the beach, John B was in her ear informing her that JJ was one of the best surfers he knows—but told her to not spread the word in case the blonde heard and let it inflate his ego. So, she figured reading would prevent her from humiliating herself when all is revealed that she cannot balance herself on a board.

"Look, I'm pale and it's best if I lay here and risk the possibilities of getting wrinkles at age twenty-five," she told him, humor lingering in her voice.

JJ shrugged but the look on his face implied he wasn't convinced. She hoped he wouldn't pressure her. "Gotcha. Suit yourself but isn't that what sunscreen is supposed to prevent?" he asked.

"Shit, I have to reapply," Emelina dug her hand into her tote bag and pulled out the sunscreen, "Mind putting it on my back?"

She knew he wouldn't want to, which is exactly why she asked. He obliged, to her surprise, and dropped his surfboard to the sand before telling her to turn around.

Emelina hesitantly gave him the bottle and did as he told, moving her dark hair away from her back. She expected him to decline and run back to the ocean with the others.

It felt weird for him to do something nice for her. It left her speechless and almost missed him asking, "What's the real reason you don't wanna surf? Is it 'cause you don't know how?"

"No," she answered and closed her eyes when she felt his cool hand touch her hot skin. "I just don't have a board, that's all."

"Excuses. You could rent one at the shop. I know money's not tight. So, am I right? You don't know how?" he inquired from behind. In all honesty, she couldn't even think let alone speak with his hands roaming on her back.

What is wrong with me?! This is JJ Maybank we're talking about. The same annoying hotheaded boy, who most likely would tease her until her last breath after figuring out she can't surf, and now her brain was foggy from being so close to him.

She wondered if he felt anything the day she teased him on the boat. He seemed to be the same after that. Maybe she wanted something to happen... maybe not. God, these thoughts were driving her insane. She hated him. It was as simple as that.

"I know how to surf, JJ." she lied, pulling her body away from him and collecting the bottle from the ground where he had left it. The application to the rest of her body began.

Emelina needed him to leave due to these thoughts that were beginning to scare her. She knew better than to let this nice gesture get to her because he was often ambivalent toward her. One minute he is nice, the next he is not.

It wasn't like she had feelings for him. No, she could never let that happen. It was more of an attraction. He had good looks, that she couldn't deny, but his personality prevented her from seeing him further than that.

Rixon's was fairly empty, which left plenty of room for the group to surf in and to be honest, the heat was sticking to her skin and she needed to cool down. "I'm gonna go in for a swim."

"Just a swim?" he asked, suddenly behind her now, and she turned around to look at him not realizing he was so close. She took a step back, "Yes. Just a swim."

He shrugged. "Alright."

The surfboard was in his hands and he was running back to the shore. She followed, stopping when her feet touched the water meets the sand. He paused too, tilting his head at her sudden movement. "Swimming requires fully submerging yourself, y'know?"

Emelina rolled her eyes. It was quiet for a moment before she spoke. "The ocean is so... tranquil, right? It's peaceful and sometimes I need a minute. I don't know. It's a second home."

"Yeah, no, I get that actually." he told her.

It was almost like they were having a staring contest. She didn't want to break the gaze and it seemed as though he shared the same thought. John B called their names and then it broke. JJ placed his board in the water and joined the others.

Kiara was sitting on her board further from the boys and Emelina swam over to her, leaning her arms on it for some support. "I'm here as per your request. You happy?"

"I didn't call you over, Lina. I know surfing isn't exactly your level of expertise," she told her while swaying her hands in the water.

"Oh, but JJ said—never mind." Emelina shook her head, turning it around to catch a glimpse of the blonde surfing on the waves. He was actually good. She looked back at Kiara, "So, is everything good with you and John B?"

"Yeah. It seems to be." Kiara sighed softly. "It's a good reason why the no macking on pogues rule was created. One wrong move could ruin this entire friend group, you know?"

Emelina nodded. The rule seemed to be holding pretty strong after all these years but noticing Pope's googly eyes on Kiara, she wondered how long that would last before he bursts.

"Are you excited for tomorrow?" Kiara grinned, looking down at her friend. Emelina shrugged, "Yeah, I guess. Who's boat are we using again?"

"Heyward's." Kiara answered, "As long as we help him send off some groceries, he will lend us his boat. Luckily, Pope and JJ volunteered so we just have to meet them later."

"Oh, okay. Do you think we'll actually find the Royal Merchant?" Emelina asked, skepticism clear in her voice.

Kiara chuckled lightly. "Have some faith. I think we'll find it. I mean, even JJ believes."

Emelina looked down. "Like I care what he thinks."

"You should." she replied and pushed her hair out of her face before asking, "What's the deal with you two anyway?"

"I don't know, Kie. You should ask him," Emelina said, mostly being sarcastic. "It seems like it's on his terms whether or not we have a good day. I'm just tired of it, that's all."

"And what about today? Good or bad?"

"...Good."

§

Knocking on the wooden door, Emelina took a few steps back and waited for an appearance from the resident. Topper opened the door. His hair was disheveled and had an angry look in his eyes.

"What do you want?" he asked, his body blocking any gaps in the door. Emelina, surprised by his tone, answered him, "I wanted to talk to you."

The text message from the other night still raised a question in her mind. He was out of her life for good so why was he trying to crawl his way back in? She had to know.

"Talk to me? Talk to me about what, exactly? Maybe we can start with your slum friends and what they did to my boat." Topper said and she crossed her arms, furrowing her eyebrows, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't lie to me, Em. I saw them eyeing my boat like a hawk yesterday."

"Topper, what happened to your boat?" she inquired, showing no source of patience. "They sunk it. That's what they did." he replied.

"What makes you think they did it?" Emelina grew defensive, not liking this idea of her former boyfriend blaming everything on her friends because of their status.

"Because..." Topper stopped talking because he knew they had an ulterior motive. "Because why wouldn't they? They're Pogues, always wanting what we have... and pressing charges will for sure leave a message." he continued.

"What?!" Emelina gasped, "You can't press charges on them, Topper."

"Yes I can. And I will." he said and went to close the door, but she stopped it with her hand and gave him a look. "I'll pay for it." she told him.

"Are you crazy?" he asked with a bewildered look plastered on his face. "No. Let me pay for it and we can forget this happened." Emelina pleaded.

"You would really do that for them?"

"Yes."

"I can't let that happen, Em." Topper said one last time before closing the door and she sighed, staring down at the floor.

§

"Hey, Emelina. Where were you this morning? I thought I texted you saying we needed help setting up?" Kiara asked with her hand on her hip.

Emelina stepped onto Heyward's boat and offered an apologetic smile. "Sorry. I had to take care of something." she replied vaguely, the conversation with Topper still fresh in her mind.

They all rid on the boat, anxious to see what they can find with the drone. "All right, JJ. Pin it here." John B ordered his blonde friend. JJ nodded, "Roger that! X marks the spot."

Emelina sat on one of the seats sipping her water bottle, thinking of all the possibilities that could've led them to sink Topper's boat. Her mind couldn't think of finding the merchant when her friend's financial life could be on the line over some silly speculation.

"You okay, E?" Kiara asked her and Emelina nodded briefly, "Yeah, just excited." she replied, keeping her eyes out to the sea.

Her eyes traveled to JJ and she had her conclusions that he could be the reason Topper's boat sank. Neither Kiara, John B or Pope could do such a thing, but she didn't want to put the blame on JJ. She wanted to ask him about it first, to see if it's even true to begin with.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen." John B pulled out the drone next to Pope. "To going full Kook."

Emelina got off of her seat and moved next to Pope, her eyes going overboard to watch John B dunk the drone underwater with the help of ropes. Kiara kept ahold of the yellow plastic rope, moving it down more and more so the drone could go lower.

Pope stared at the screen that the drone was recording and Emelina peeped her head over his shoulder to find the mysterious shipwreck.

John B looked down over the map his father provided him and on top of that was an iPad to conduct the boat's whereabouts linked to the coordinates. "All right, JJ, we're right over it. Ten seconds northwest."

"Got it!" JJ turned the wheel, "Ten seconds northwest."

Emelina turned her head over her shoulders to get a look at the back of JJ's body. He had his lucky red hat on and for some reason, she was starting to like it on him. She then flipped her attention back toward Pope and the screen.

"One hundred feet," Kiara stated, continuing to push the rope down. A sea creature appeared on the screen and Pope jumped back, gasping. Emelina laughed as John B rushed over to see what had happened, "What? What, what, what?"

"Nothing. He's just a scaredy cat." Emelina snickers and Pope pushed her with his shoulder, "No, I'm not."

"Don't do that to me, man." JJ called out from inside the control box. "My bad. I just thought I saw..." Pope cleared his throat.

"And to quote The Hobbit, 'Down, down, to Goblin town. Down, down, you go, my lad.'" Pope quoted and Emelina gave him a small smile.

"Four hundred feet!" Kiara said out loud, keeping track of the numbers with her chalk against the railing of the boat. "The tide's turning."

"Hey, JJ?" John B asked, looking down at the iPad. He ordered him to go ten seconds easy and south-southeast, and he did. "Copy that!"

John B started instructing JJ to move the boat wherever it needed to be, to the point where Emelina toned out their voices.

"The clouds don't look great." Emelina frowned as she looked at the sky. A storm was certainly coming, of course. "Keep the tether out of the prop!" John B told Kiara. "I'm trying!" she told him.

"Here, let me help." Emelina stepped over to Kiara, pulling the rope as needed. The thunder rumbled above them and JJ kept turning the wheel at John B's commands.

"Okay, seven hundred feet!" Kiara told everyone and Emelina took a step back to let her friend do all the work again. The thunder kept crashing louder and louder, causing them all to look up at the sky.

"JJ, hold it steady!" John B said and Kiara marked down another line, "Okay, nine hundred!"

"JJ, we'll turtle in this storm." John B told him and Kiara kept calling out the numbers, getting closer and closer to where they suspected the merchant would be. "Crank it north by northwest! Ten seconds!"

"John B! There's too much current. We're going to lose it!" Kiara pulled at the rope and Emelina joined her, using her extra strength to surpass the current as much as possible.

"South, southwest, JJ! Hard!" John B shouted out then continued, "Half speed. Steady at this bearing, JJ!"

The monitor whirred and started to beep rapidly. Emelina turned to her shoulder, looking at John B incase they found something. "What do you got, Pope? Come on, man. What do you see?" John B asked.

"Nothin'. A whole lot of nothin'." Pope answered and Emelina exhaled a sigh, but kept her hopes up and kept pulling the ropes. "You should be right above it, brother." John B pushed his own hair out of his face.

"Guys?!" Pope asked and Kiara moved her head, "960... 970... 980!"

"I'm at the bottom! I'm at the bottom!" Pope repeated excitedly. "Okay, steady here, JJ! Steady here. Quarter speed." John B told him.

"You should be seeing something, man." John B looked at Pope. Both Kiara and Emelina let go of the ropes and moved to stand next to Pope, eyeing the monitor. "I know, I know! Wait, wait... Oh, good God."

And there she is. The Royal Merchant.

"See anything?" JJ asked, and John B chuckled. "It's the Royal Merchant."

The drone moved around, due to Pope controlling it, but there was no sight of the gold anywhere. "It's not there," John B sighed, "Look, just—just pull the drone up... Shit."

"Look, we can do another pass. Recharge the battery. We can—we can go back down." Pope suggested and Emelina sighed as the sun started to shine through the clouds.

"We've done it three times. There's nothing there." JJ told them, and John B strolled to the edge of the boat to overlook the body of water. "Shut up!" Kiara said to him, and JJ turned around, "What? It's true!"

"We shouldn't lose hope, JJ." Emelina responded, fixating her sunglasses. "Are you Kooks always this delusional?" he asked her and she whipped her head around, giving him a hard glare. "We're not going to find it." he added on.

"The gold could be buried. We don't know!" Kiara said with her hands outwards. "If it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay? Somebody beat us to it." John B pointed out and Emelina groaned softly, nodding.

"Or it was never there."

§

"Hey, JJ. Can I ask you something?" Emelina asked him, her toes sinking in the sand beneath her. Pope had dropped them off at the beach where they had originally met up, and he drove the boat back home to its spot.

"What?" JJ turned around and walked closer to her. Kiara and John B were long gone, already leaving to their vehicles.

"I was told what had happened to Topper's boat. Did you have anything to do with it?" she inquired, taking off her sunglasses. JJ, now in front of her, scoffed, "Where did you hear that from?"

"Topper told me."

"Oh, was that your "taking care of something" business?" he asked, using his fingers to quote her words.

"Yes, in fact it was. So, tell me. Is it true or not?" Emelina crossed her arms. The sound of the waves crashing behind them was fainting in the background, and the hot sun continued to melt their skin.

He didn't answer her question. Instead he replied, "Did Topper tell you what he and Rafe did to Pope?"

"What?"

"Yeah, didn't think so. They beat him, Em. All for being on their side of the island." he told her and she gasped. "What?! Is he okay?"

JJ scoffed again, "Here you go again... pretending like you care."

"I do care, JJ. What reasons have I given you that make you think otherwise?" she retorted, getting fed up by his attitude toward her every time she's with him.

"Other than being a Kook? I don't know." he replied simply, not looking in her eyes. She sighed, "You can't blame me for what Topper did."

"No, but I can't sit around and wait for you to do something only a Kook would do." he responded, now facing her with exasperated eyes.

"I haven't betrayed you once, JJ. Why can't you just move on from my title?!" Emelina snapped back, letting her arms fall to her sides.

"I can't get it out of my head that you're a Kook, the ones that make my life miserable, the ones that jumped Pope the day he sent out groceries. Every second I'm with you, I am reminded of the life you live in... and it'd be better off if you weren't here pretending to be one of us."

"I'd be better off?" Emelina repeated his words, her heart thumping against her chest and the light in her eyes had drained.

"Yes. I still wonder what's keeping you here." JJ replied and her breathing goes short. The only way he could truly understand is if she unravels it all to him.

"Because I am alone, JJ! Ever since my dad passed away, the house is empty. I feel empty. My mom barely looks at me when she gets back from work. I got a job so I'm far away from my house as possible. I started hanging out with you guys because it fills that void. I start to feel like myself again." Emelina took a moment to pause, the tears threatening to spill, "And as soon as I come home, it—it returns. That feeling of emptiness returns. So, if you want me to leave, I'll leave."

Guilt waved over JJ once her words hit his ears. He didn't respond. How could he? He only judged the outside of her, not knowing the battle she was facing inside. She kind of reminded him of himself.

Emelina nodded, already turning her body to leave like she said she would. "No... Em, I didn't mean it. I didn't know—" JJ tried to call her back, but she didn't dare to face his way.

"Save it, JJ. I'm going."

JJ stood on the stand for a few minutes to reflect the conversation he just had. He knew he fucked up, but he doesn't think he'll do anything about it.

Kiara came down the hill, car keys in her hands. "JJ! I've been waiting in the car for the past ten minutes. Are you coming?"

"Yeah." JJ replied, his voice hoarse. "Have you seen Emelina? I noticed her car was still in the parking lot." Kiara pointed to behind her, confused since the beach is vacant.

"She's gone," JJ looked up and squinted his eyes, fixing his cap, "and I don't think she's coming back."

"What did you say to her?" Kie asked slowly. There's nothing but silence between the two. "You better go find her and apologize, JJ."

"Why?"

"Because you created this mess, and you're going to fix it."