❝ A F T E R Y O U ❞

"What are you doing?" Amity asks, eyeing Jack suspiciously as he jumps in front of her, conveniently blocking Bey and Jonah from view.

"Me?" The curly haired adult points at himself, grinning innocently. "I'm not doing anything. I just really enjoy walking backwards."

Daniel appears at the girl's side, successfully distracting her from asking too many questions.

"So, what's your favorite place you and Bey have went to?"

Amity smiles, having taken an instant liking to the younger boy. Although, according to Bey, she's always been too easily trusting when it comes to meeting people. But anyone that looked at her best friend in complete awe was immediately okay in Amity's books.

He so obviously wore his heart on his sleeve, as well as all of his other emotions. Unlike Jonah, she could read Daniel like a book. He reminded Amity of herself before Bey came along; the quiet one of the group, always appearing nervous and as though any loud noise might scare them off.

Amity felt a strong urge to look out for him and hoped to grow close to him within the next couple of weeks.

"Not so fast, Mr. Seavey," she jokes, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I'll be asking the questions here."

Daniel gulps, his eyes widening as his mind races through everything that has happened in the short time since the two met, in an attempt to figure out what this was about.

"What's your-"

"Intentions?" He interjects, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm not going to murder your friend, if that's what you're worried about."

"Oh don't worry," Amity giggles, linking her arm through Daniel's as Jack continues to walk backwards. She hadn't missed the grin on his face at the thought of the other wild girl. "If you try to kill Bey, she's more than capable of ending you herself. I was just gonna ask what your favorite flower is."

"My favorite flower?" Daniel furrows his eyebrows together in thought. "Lilies."

Amity believed you could tell plenty about any male - no matter his age - by the simple question. Not by their answer, of course, but by their reaction to it.

If they wrinkled their nose at the question, or spouted some bullshit about how 'men don't like flowers', she dubbed them too filled with toxic masculinity and knew she ought not to be around them. If they responded like Daniel, however, actually taking time to think about it or appearing pleased that someone asked, they passed the test.

"My favorite flowers are sunflowers, thanks for asking," Jack comments, promptly tripping over a rock seconds later.

Amity giggles, tugging on Daniel to walk faster as Bey, Jonah, Zach, and Corbyn turn onto a concrete path - far sturdier than the sandy path they had been on.

"By the way," she calls out over her shoulder, giving Jack a dubious look as he pushes himself to his feet. "I know Bey put Jonah in a headlock. You weren't hiding anything."

<<>>

When the group of seven finally reached the docks, Daniel was carrying Bey on his back, Amity was on Corbyn's, and Zach was on Jack's. Corbyn, Daniel, and Jack we're constantly arguing over who got to carry who on the way back and complaining about how hard they had it, each boy trying to make his situation sound worse.

Bey and Amity casually spoke over their heads about anything and everything; university, the vacation so far, and retelling their favorite stories for the boys' amusement.

Jonah lead the others around the large boats, trying to remember where his was anchored.

"It's around here somewhere," he mutters, mostly to himself. "Here! Found it!"

Amity slides off of Corbyn's back, taking in the fancy contraption.

"Oh damn."

Jonah's boat was parked at the end of the dock where it could easily be maneuvered into the open water. It was the perfect size, if not too much room, for the large group.

There were two stories that Amity could visibly see, the top mostly bare except for basic steering equipment that made it move, leaving plenty if space to sit around abd relax. The ground level of the boat had what looked like a room under the dashboard. Under the patio, as Jonah referred to it, was an empty deck with a few benches. At the very back of the boat is a small entry, with two steps leading into the ocean water.

Jonah tugs on the rope anchoring his boat to the dock, moving it closer to them so they could board.

Turning to Amity with a small smile, he holds his hand out and bows dramatically. "After you, ma'am."

She let's out a giggle, blushing heavily as everyone's eyes fall on her, waiting for her to board. Taking Jonah's hand, she pulls herself up and over the railing. Jonah's other hand snakes around her waist, steadying her as she wobbles for a moment.

Bey is standing next to her in a split second, having practically catapulted herself onto the boat.

The rest of the boys clamber on board, with Jonah getting on last. He goes into tour guide mode, which also conveniently happens to be his job on the island.

"It's not much," he begins, gesturing around. "But-"

"Not MUCH?" Amity can't help but to interrupt, her jaw dropping in disbelief. "This small yacht is worth my college tuition!"

Jonah chuckles, immediately rattling off more facts and things to know about the boat as he leads them to a door.

Amity pauses as the boys disappear into the room, glancing around for her best friend that wasn't by her side and being suspiciously quiet.

Walking back to the railing, she does a double take, having to blink a few times to be sure she wasn't seeing things. The boat was no longer anchored to the dock. In fact, they were well away from the dock and the anchor was sitting on the deck by her feet.

Putting the puzzle pieces together, she can't help but to laugh quietly, dashing up the stairs to the top deck and finding Bey standing behind the steering wheel. Luckily for her, the boat had a fairly quiet motor.

Leaning against the gold plated railing, Amity puts all of her trust into Bey and simply watches the clear ocean water beneath her and the island fading into the distance.

With the beautiful blue sky above, stretching for miles without a skyscraper or pollution to interrupt it and the glistening ocean below, it truly was breathtaking. Brightly colored fish darted away from the boat, creating their own underwater rainbow. She could see the entire island, with the mountains being the only feature she could distinctly make out from this distance; the tourists and smoothie shack both turned to the size of ants.

The boat stops, followed immediately by a splash as the anchor is dropped into the water.

Bey appears next to her, her cover-up gone as she stands in her bathing suit. Amity quickly throws her shorts and shirt to the side, revealing a maroon two-piece underneath. Even though she knew the answer that would come out of her best friend's mouth, she still asked anyways.

"What are you doing?"

"Jumping off the boat," Bey answers simply, giving her a goofy grin. "Duh."

Amity doesn't respond, instead taking her hand in her's. The girls jumped off the top deck together.

----

"Where are the-" Jonah's question is cut off by the sound of a splash, followed by loud laughter.

Corbyn is the first one to rush outside, followed closely by Daniel and the others.

Jonah grins at the sight of the girls in the water, both laughing their heads off and splashing each other. The shy and flustered girl he had met only an hour ago was gone, replaced with one completely at ease with herself and not a care in the world as long as she was next to her best friend.

Suddenly realizing his boat was no longer by the dock, he crouches down by the wheel to examine it.

"How the heck did you get my boat out here?" He wasn't angry at the fact his boat had basically been stolen with him on it. If anything, he was impressed.

Bey and Amity swim up to the end of the boat, propping their elbows against it in perfect sync.

"This guy Amity and I met in Venice taught me how to operate a boat," Bet explains casually, Amity nodding in confirmation. "And your key was in the ignition."

"I keep forgetting to take that out," he mutters, having the decency to blush at being called out.

Bey grins, hauling herself out of the water as Amity stays behind, swimming over to where Jonah stands on the deck.

"Do you have-"

Corbyn tackles Bey, having stripped to his shorts, cutting off her sentence and sending both of them falling back into the water.

"CORBEAN, WHAT THE FUCK?"

"MY HAIR IS WET!" Jack yells, clearly anguished.

Amity merely laughs, holding her hands out to Jonah.

"Will you help me up?"

He's quick to oblige, leaning forward and taking her hands in his. Letting out a loud war cry, Amity uses all of her weight to pull on him, causing him to immediately topple into the water fully clothed. Next to them, Bey drags Jack in and Jonah is quick to turn back around and pull a laughing Zach overboard. Daniel is the only one remaining on the boat, having no desire to join the splash battle about to commence.

Amity and Jonah put distance between them and the others, not wishing to be drowned either.

"I thought you were the innocent one of the group," Jonah comments, looking at the girl with mock betrayal. "And then you go and use my trust against me."

"Hey!" She gasps indignantly, splashing him. "At least I didn't threaten to chop your balls off!"

"But you didn't stop her from threatening me either," he fires back, sending a larger splash in retaliation. "That makes you just as bad!"

"You take that back!"

"Never!"

Amity pounces, dunking Jonah's head under the water. He grabs onto her waist, bringing her under with him. The two resurface, sputtering to get the salt water out of their mouths.

Wiping her eyes, she stiffens, suddenly acutely aware of just how little space was between her and Jonah. So close, in fact, she could make out the flecks of dark blue in his light blue eyes. Jonah's smirk falters, his gaze not so subtlety drifting to her lips.

"HEY, LOVEBIRDS," Jack shouts, causing them both to jump away from each other and him to receive a swift smack to the back of the head from Bey. "OW!"

<<>>

Amity and Bey lay on the top deck, suntanning as the boys attempted to outdo each other with flips anf dives off the side of the boat.

For the first time in too long of a time, the girls were able to truly talk to each other about everything; gossip, family life, uni, the differences between England, Canda and their home town, Boston, Massachusetts. It was as though they had never even been apart, the duo picking up right where they left off last summer.

It was such a stark contrast from the FaceTime calls they had endured in the past year. There was no glitching phones, time zones, or roommates to distract them.

"- we found a spikeball game in their cabin," Bey continues her story. "So we played that for a while, at least until we decided to order pizza. It was actually kinda fun, except the loser got dunked in the ocean."

"That sounds fun," Amity comments, stretching like a cat on her towel. She turns onto her back to even out her golden brown tan, relishing in how good the sun felt on her skin. Living in constantly cloudy England made her want to spend every spare second she could soaking up the vitamin D.

Conversation lulled as the two girls tan, both having sprayed sunblock on a few hours earlier. Now, both were several shades darker than their normal skin tone.

Amity turns on jer side, adjusting her sunglasses so she can see Bey. "How's Carter?"

Carter is Bey's younger brother, and practically Amity's as well. They had grown close within the eight years since she had first met Bey. She knew the boy had been going through hard times recently, having been diagnosed with a tumor behind his eye only two years ago.

As soon as Bey found out, Amity had immediately left England and flown to Canada to be there for the girl. Her and Bey had spent the week together, Bey showing her around her university and the two talking another anything but the reason she flew out.

Amity would never forget the third day of her visit, when Bey had finally cracked and sobbed into her shoulder.

"He's - they had to-" Bey sighs, sitting up and letting her head drop into her arms. "Amie."

Amity puts her arm around Bey, pulling her close as she starts to sob quietly. Amity felt her heart tear in two, bracing herself for the worst.

Amie was a nickname Bey had decided on for her back in their freshman year, after she also came to the decision that Amy didn't sound right. Having currently been taking French, she instead began to call her Amie which translates back to Amy. After binging on the Uglies series, Amity chose the nickname Beyla for the redhead.

But not too long after, it became an unspoken rule to only use the nicknames in dire situations, when they immediately needed to let the other know that they weren't okay.

"Hey,"Amity says quietly, rubbing soothing circles along her back. "Hey, it's okay."

"They told him-" Bey gasps, barely able to get the words out. "They told him that chemo wouldn't work, that it got too bad."

"Wait," the brunette sits up, her now dry curls bouncing with the movement. "You mean. . . ."

"Carter's blind," she sobs out. "He had the surgery two weeks ago."

"Beyla," Amity sighs, her heart aching.

She pulls her hest friend up and grips her tightly, wishing she could take away all of the bad things with the hug. The two girls hold each other as tears keep falling down Bey's face, more than a few falling down Amity's as well.

Bey squeezes her tightly, trying to convey how grateful she was for her in that moment. Amity was her rock, and always will be.

"Amie-"

"Hey," Amity says softly, rubbing her best friend's back. "He's just as strong as you are, I swear it's genetic. He will heal - you will heal. It'll just take time."

Bey nods, finally pulling away. She wipes her eyes as Amity continues.

"Come on, I believe we have a vacation to get back to."

Bey grins up at her, so grateful to have a sister like her.

"Let's do this."