THE Pogues were currently crowded around Heyward's truck, upon the ferry which would get them out of the OBX and towards the mainland. 

JJ is sitting atop the roof of the cab, legs dangling down into the cargo area of the vehicle as he rolls a joint for himself. Eden sits across from him in the truck bed, cross legged, with Kiara and Pope on either side of her—the Carrera perched within the inside of the edge, back facing the ocean while the Heyward stands on the outside of his dad's car, leaning against it with the envelope in his grasp.

"My parents are so paranoid of me being a Pogue like it's the worst thing that could ever happen." Kiara retells the events of what went down when she asked her parents about Charleston—as Isla and Tom had, Anna and Mike had been quick to say no. The family had argued, before Anna admitted to wanting to send Kie off to a boarding school, (Eden's surprised her mother hasn't thought of that one yet).

JJ tries to be reassuring, "Hey, I heard they got good weed at boarding school, though."

"I'm not going to boarding school." the Carrera says bluntly, the wind blowing her curls behind her. "They're going to have to kidnap me, tie me up, and throw me in a van." 

"Well, I say....." JJ's words were muffled by the joint between his lips. He takes a small inhale of the joint and hops off of the truck cab, joint in between his fingers. He offers it out to the girl sitting in the truck bed, Eden taking it with ease. "....we just crumble some herb right now."

"Amen, to that." Eden praises before taking a drag from the joint herself. JJ smiles and lowers himself into the truck bed as well, now sitting across from the Bexley. 

Ignoring the joint being passed around by his friends, Pope looks towards the Carrera girl, "Hey, Kie, have you tried to hit John B. back on that number yet?"

Kiara sighs, "Like, twenty million times."

JJ fixes his hat upon his head while commenting, "That's quite a few times."

"Some random lady at a hotel keeps answering."

Eden shrugged, "He probably stole the phone from that woman, texted us, and gave it back to her. I won't be surprised if we don't hear from him for a while." The Bexley takes another inhale of the joint, tilting her head back as smoke fell from her lips.  She hands the weed to Kiara.

"Well, until we hear from him again, we gotta try and clear his name." the Heyward states. He holds up the letter, "Right now, this letter's our best bet."

"Right. Stay on task." the Maybank confirms, nodding his head. "That's why I love ya, Pope." 

Kiara stands up and walks over to where Pope was leaning against the truck, joint outstretched in her hand as she made eye contact with him, "What Pope are you gonna be today?"

Pope stares at the joint in her hand for a moment before pursing his lips—he's pushing back any sort of desire for the weed and putting the letter and Limbrey first. He shakes his head in denial at Kiara, "I'm good. I'm gonna try to focus."

"Good Pope." Kiara turns back to face her other friends with a slightly annoyed expression.  She takes a seat next to JJ and mutters, "Boring Pope."

"Someone has to stay clean for the benefit of the group." Eden lightly pats Pope on the shoulder—there was no reason for Kiara to call him boring for not wanting to take the joint; whatever high the Heyward had gone through after the runway events was clearly a one time ordeal.  Now he was back to his regular clean, serious and smart self.

JJ's fingers tap against one another excitedly as he looks at the joint in between the Carrera's fingers, "I'll take that, though." He takes the joint from Kiara and chuckles, making circles with it, "Do tricks now! Roll over, boy!"

"Sit." Kiara takes the joint back, acting as if the Maybank was a dog of sorts. The two teens chuckle, as the girl raises the joint in the air. "Try to catch a fish. Catch a fish!" The blonde boy barks, "Fish on."

Eden rolls her eyes, "Ya'll are weirdos."

Once off the mainland, the group of four cramped back into Heyward's truck.

Given that there was no backseat to the truck, the four were forced to sit in one row—Eden's sure it's only met for two or three people at the max, but no one volunteered to sit in the bed for the eight hour drive, so it'd have to do. 

The Bexley sits in between JJ and Kiara while Pope drives, the truck being his fathers.

"Guys, I've read this thing, like, a thousand times. It makes no sense." Kiara huffs, eyes looking over Pope's letter—as they had been for the majority of the drive. The group had taken turns reading it, trying to figure out the purpose; why had Pope gotten the letter? Who was Limbrey and why did they know about the murder in Kildare while they lived in Charleston? "I mean, the Limbreys own, like, half of Charleston. What do the Kook kings of Charleston know about a murder on Kildare Island?"

"Why you specifically?" JJ continues the thread of conversation, glancing at the boy in the drivers seat. Eden could agree that it was sketchy that only Pope had been sent a letter and invited to the Limbrey house—if she knew about Pope, surely she knew about JJ, Kiara and Eden herself, too. "That's the other creep thing, you know?" 

Eden hums in agreement, adding, "Not to mention the fact that this Limbrey person wants you alone? Pretty creepy...." 

"I was thinking the same thing." Pope nods, "I think it's because—"

A popping sound cuts him off, and the four teens look out the windshield to see a huge puff of smoke leaking out of the hood of the car. 

"Oh, come on!" Pope groans, trying his best to see through the smoke that was blowing over the windshield, constructing his view of the road—a tell tale sign that he should pull over the car, yet he doesn't.

Kiara sounds concerned as she asks, "What's that?"

There's another clatter and another round of smoke puff's from the bonnet of the car, Eden cringing at the sound and the sight—this wasn't going to end well. 

"Pull over. That's a lot of smoke, even for your dad's truck." Kiara continues to press, eyes darting back and forth between the hood of the car to her boyfriend, who was still pressing upon the gas pedal.

From the seat nearest to the window, JJ begins to cough from the amount of smoke that was now pouring in his direction. His arm makes quick work to roll up the window, his eyes staying on the Heyward as he cries, "Pope, I got sensitive lungs, man!"

"I'm pulling over." Pope states over the ruckus of the engine and his friends' confused questions, steering sideways. The truck goes in the right direction, but he doesn't take his foot off the gas, the car staying the same speed as it harshly turns.

"Pope, you're supposed to slow down when you pull over, not the other way around." Eden informs loudly, slightly rocking as the truck makes rough contact with the grass. "Slow down!"

"What are you doing, man?"

"Oh, come on!"

"Okay. Yeah. Sure, right now."

The truck finally comes to a halt and the three other occupants clutch on to their seats to stop them from flying forwards. Now that the vehicle has stopped, it's clear the smoke is a true problem—there's much more than Eden thought, and it doesn't seem to want to stop pouring from the hood anytime soon. 

Eden puts her hands on her face and glances at Pope, who laughs in disbelief and panic at the situation. "We really need to stop letting you drive."

"Shit." Kiara exclaims.

"No, no, no, no." Pope takes his hands off the wheel, starting to panic at the sight of his father's truck smoking. He practically rips off his seat belt and opens the door to check out the scene, "No, no—"

JJ opens his own door, "Oh my...."

Eden climbs out of the vehicle, JJ holding the door open for her. The smoke is flowing out to the sides of the vehicle, and the Bexley fans a hand in front of her face to stop the exhaust from entering her own lungs.

"It's gonna blow up!" Kiara freaks, repeating herself in a panic, "It's gonna blow up!"

"No, it's not gonna blow up." JJ closes her theory down with an eye roll. His eyes catch hold of the hub cap lying in the grass—it must have flown off in the rough emergency landing, too. "You probably unhooked the radiator, Pope."

 Despite the Maybank's calm demeanor, Pope is flying towards the hood of the car, frantically waving a towel in front of the hood to blow away some smoke.

"I haven't seen this before." JJ continues commenting, as if it's making Pope feel any better whatsoever. "You knocked the entire hubcap off." 

Eden light chuckles, "You know, this low-key reminds me of when you and John B. crashed that car I got for my sweet sixteenth." She recalls the memory—for some reason, she'd allowed John B. and JJ to take the car for a spin, and fifteen minutes later she received a call they'd gotten into a small accident, (more so an accident that got the car totaled and her car purposes taken away by her mother).

He dryly claps before picking the piece from the grass. "Whoo!"  He looks at the Heyward boy, who looks utterly blank, "You might wanna reschedule your meeting tonight, Pope."

"Uh...Plan B? We could, um.....public transportation. We could hitchhike. We could rent bikes." Kiara offers some suggestions of other ways they could make it to Charleston, but Eden shakes her head at each—with the time it would take to do either, they'd surely miss the 8:00 p.m deadline, and she isn't too sure this Limbrey person would be willing to reschedule.  

JJ comes forward and takes a look inside the hood of the truck—Pope had opened it, and it wasn't smoking anymore. The blonde pokes around for a few moments with his bandanna before confirming his previous thoughts, "Yeah, it's the radiator."

"My dad's gonna kill me." Pope deadpans, face flat.

"Yeah, he might." JJ whirls around, tongue pressed against his cheek, "He might."

Eden sighs and whips out her phone, beginning to start googling the nearest mechanic—this could take all night. 

So much for clearing John B.'s name by nightfall. 

The Pogues managed to find a mechanic, and were currently waiting for Heyward's truck to be examined and fixed.

By the time Eden was able to find a mechanic—which actually had to be found at the nearest gas station, which wasn't close whatsoever—get the mechanic to their location, as well as have the mechanic tow their car to his garage, night had fallen; they were past the deadline of the invitation, and were definitely past getting home at a reasonable hour. 

Currently, JJ and Pope were conversing with the mechanic, both boys trying to explain what had happened, as well as asking what could be done about it. Meanwhile, Kiara and Eden sat in the bed of some other truck at the garage, waiting out the time it took for their vehicle to get fixed in silence—the curly haired girl was staring off into space and Eden was playing Subway Surfers to keep herself company.

Every few moments, there'd be a small ding from Eden's phone; her mother. The Bexley hadn't texted or called her mother to let her know the situation, or that she'd stolen her father's wallet, or that she wasn't even in Charleston yet, let alone on her way home. She'd stayed silent, more than likely worrying Isla, especially after their argument.

"Imagine that Limbrey person doesn't let us reschedule, and we drove all the way down here and ruined Heyward's truck for nothing." Eden lets out. She doesn't mean to sound pessimistic, but what if?

Kiara blankly shrugs, "My parents already hate me."

"I take it you had a bad argument, too?" Eden offers, sympathetic. If she understood anything, it would be the idea that you were hated by your parents—she knew Isla and Tom loved her, but sometimes, during their worst arguments, she's surprised her mother doesn't let the words die or hate slip out.  She understands how Kiara's feeling because she's been in the same boat; she is in the same boat.

Kiara slowly nods, "I get they don't like JJ or Pope or John B.—I mean, who would want their perfect daughter hanging around with those ragtag boys from the Cut?" She struggles to say the word perfect because she knows it isn't accurate; she's not perfect, not by a long shot. "But....it's like they don't even try to understand me? They wanted me to be this perfect Kook girl, but I'm not. I'm always going to have one foot in the Pogue world, and whenever I try to tell them, they look at me like I'm some massive screw-up—like I'm so wrong to want to live a life with my friends rather than rich assholes." 

"If you want to talk about massive screw-ups, then you befriended the right girl." Eden tries to send Kie a sympathetic smile, but the girl still looks like she's one wrong word away from crying. "If my mom could erase who am I now, she would. I'm sure of it. She hates that I prioritize you guys—that I prioritize John B. She hates that I hang out with people like JJ, that I want to travel, that I party, that I want to have a jewelry business, that I can't hold my tongue, that I don't want Rafe Cameron in any way other than dead." She manages a light chuckle. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure my mom hates me too, Kie."

"I used to think you had the perfect life, when I was younger and we weren't friends." Kiara recalls. She used to see Eden walk out of her house in her nice clothing with her fancy book bag into her mom's expensive car, all the while she was forced to stray away from items she wanted so her parents could afford their new Figure Eight home, or could pay the fee of the Country Club. "I was honestly jealous. But now I realize your life isn't too different than mine."

She isn't surprised with what Kiara admitted—everyone thought Eden Bexley was perfect. With Isla Zhèng; renowned Kook who had more money than she needed and Tom Bexley; Pogue who got so high up on the social chain he turned himself into a respected Kook.  Who would have imagined anything other than perfect from their cherished daughter Eden? 

"My dad once drove me through the Cut so I could see where he grew up and Isla was pissed. It's like she didn't even want me to have the air they breathed in my lungs. Karma hit her like a bus..." Eden trails off, "My mom must have been at an all time low when she decided she wanted a kid with my dad of all people."

"My mom just wishes I actually gave a shit about the Kook academy, or the Country Club." the Carrera sighs, "I wish she knew I didn't. All I want to do is spend the day with my friends on a boat."

Eden wraps her arms around her body, "Who would have thought Eden Bexley and Kiara Carrera weren't so perfect after all?"

"Well, nobody thinks I'm perfect." the Carrera looks over at the Bexley, "It's you who get's the reputation."

"Personally, Kiara, I just ignore it." the Bexley sighs. She knows how many people look up to her, aspire to be as respected as she is, but she doesn't know why. Sure her parents are rich and respected but she's only a teenager. She hasn't done anything to earn their respect. "I live my life how I want to live it—riding on the HMS Pogue, sleeping over at the Chateau, making bracelets—because it's mine. Not my mom's. She might not like it but it's my life and as long as I'm spending it how I want to spend it, that's fine by me."

"Middle of nowhere." JJ's voice interrupts the small heart to heart that had been happening, approaching the two girls in the truck bed. "Dude's in heaven right now.  'Gotta know the calibration point before you do anything with the intake valve, JJ. You do the—' " He stops himself when he notices the Carrera's frown and Eden's sympathetic expression. He places his arm in the truck bed and smacks the two girls' legs lightly. "Hey. Ya'll alright?"

Kiara shrugs, "My mom is so worried that I'm gonna be a Pogue that she's willing to send me to boarding school."

"Well, I guess that's what you get for hanging out with the wrong crowd, Kie." JJ stated, taking a swig from his flask. 

"I mean, I'm not gonna go. It's too late, anyway. I already am who I am."

"Ain't all that bad. Just look at that guy over there." JJ twists the cap back onto his flask and points to Pope, who was still discussing with the mechanic. The two girls look at him. "He would do anything for us. That's a Pogue if I've ever seen one. Bone-deep." He pauses, "That's just one man's opinion, though."

Kiara weakly smiles.

The trio sits in silence for a few seconds before Pope sends them a look, the boy entering the check out part of the garage. Eden can sense that it may be time to pay for the damage and hops of out the truck bed to follow, Kie on her heels.

She meets the Heyward boy and her and the Carrera stand in silence for a few moments as the mechanic rounds up everything that had been done to the truck, passing them a receipt with the number $370 written sloppily upon it. 

"Three-Seventy? Are you serious?" Pope exclaims lightly, clearly surprised at the amount of money that it cost—he hadn't brought anything with him, not expecting such a mishap to occur. 

The man behind the counter shrugs, "Well, yeah, man."

The Heyward turns his head to look at the two Kooks beside him, "Guys, are you sure your parents are okay for letting you pay for this, because—"

"No. Hell no." Kiara states before stating, "But, I'm already a day late and they can only kill me once—"

Eden comes forward, fathers wallet drawn out in hand, "Uh-uh. Let me sugar-mama you guys." She pulls out three hundred and seventy dollars out of one of the pockets and hands it to the man with a smile, "That should cover it."

After Eden payed for the expense's of Heyward's truck, the Pogues ended up in an empty field for the night.

They had chatted for a while, but eventually, the night caught up to their tired eyes and exhausted bodies and one by one they curled up in the small space of the truck bed to try and catch some sleep—they'd been up late thanks to John B. for the past few nights, and it was starting to creep up upon the four teens.

Luckily, as if Heyward knew this would happen, there were blankets kept within the bed to give them some more comfort than the stiff base of the cargo area of the truck. They laid them down below to provide some support, curling up with the space they could and trying to get comfortable.

Eden was set up beside JJ—he was on his back, hat drawn over his eyes to provide more darkness, crossed legs propped up against the bed's wall. He's grasping the flask in his hands—in the same position as the blonde. She's propping her head up against his back pack and has her legs resting against the wall, over Pope's still body.

Beside her is Kiara, who takes the flask from JJ's grasp with a small smile, setting it aside.  She sends Eden a small smile to signal a 'goodnight' and Eden returns it, watching as the curly haired girl begins to fluff her book bag.

"Goodnight everyone." Pope mutters.

Eden mumbles, "Night."

Kiara pauses as if she's going to speak before leaning down towards the Heyward boy, pressing a small kiss to his temple. Eden lightly smiles from where she's laying, and looks to her side to look at JJ, who'd also seen the small show of affection. He, unlike her, doesn't wear a smile, and turns his back to the couple without another glance or comment.

The Bexley notices the cold shoulder, but decides not to say anything—it's late and they're all a little tired. Besides, she didn't know anything about her friends and their romance, (she's the single one out of the group, as well as someone who'd never dare date one of her friends in the fear of loosing the bond they originally had).

"Good night." Kiara muses with a warm smile.

Eden lightly closes her eyes and hopes tomorrow holds more success for the Pogues. 

mara's misc!

and what if next chapter was the reunion we all know and love????? then what???

anyways this is my birthday gift to the one and only mvybanksss!!! go give her a follow and check out her fics, (specifically my personal fav tidal) if you haven't already!                                             kensie you're my wattpad bsf and my summertime sadness savior, ilysm and i hope you have the best day ever <3333 

little eden and kiara heart to heart???? honestly surprising i'm giving her so much screentime bc as you may know me and kensie are #1 kiara carrera haters tbh. read any comment rant between us ever i'm sure there's at least one kie hate comment per chapter.

eden definitely sees herself as a "screw up" but just ignores it bc she is who she is (i can't get the euphoria scene out of my head but whatever). 

also little plot twist next chapter bc i got bored while writing it????? maybe????

hope you enjoyed <3 see you back with chapter 36!!