Left Behind - Outer Banks

Talk first, Party Later

Kiara POV

That night JJ, Pope, and I left for the boneyard party. We arrived there around sunset. It was a beautiful place, filled with dead white trees. The way the sun hit the ocean was perfect. John B would have loved this.

We jumped out of the van and walked to the keg. Luisa was the first to greet me. 

"Its so great you came." She said as she jumped and hugged me, for the second time today. Then handed me a beer.

"Yeah, I mean who misses a party?" I responded. Luisa turned to Pope and handed him a beer. She smiled at him flirtatiously. 

"I'll leave you two. Pope, try not to talk about dead bodies." I giggled.

JJ had already found the stoners, and was sat around a fire with them.

Since this was a typical party I expected kooks to be here. I did see one I recognized, Topper. Now I not defending him, because he is a complete dick who didn't deserve Sarah. But we all lost someone that night. For some unseemly reason I decided to talk to him. I grabbed a beer from the keg, and walked over to him. He was surrounded by his kook friends and when I walked forward they all stared at me. Topper didn't notice me, because when I tapped his shoulder he jumped. "Beer?" I extended it towards him. He took it.

"Can we talk?" I asked. 

"Uh yeah." We away from the party and sat down on a fallen tree.

"I don't hate you Topper." I said while taking a sip.

"I don't hate you either?" He joked.

"No I'm serious. I just want you to know that I don't blame you for what happened. I want us to be on good terms. You know, Pogues and Kooks. I feel like it's time to move on, I don't want to lose anyone else." I said. He looked me in my eyes. I could see them watering.

"Thanks Kiara, I think you're right." He responded. "You should probably go before your friends notice." I stood up and extended my hand to his. He shook. Then I went back to the party. A weight was lifted off my shoulder. There was one more weight still. Pope.

I found him laying on a beach towel. I flopped next to him. We looked at the stars.

"I'm sorry." I said. 

"For what? He responded.

"Kissing you."

"No, don't apologize. I was the one who pressured you. It was during an awful time. I acted irrational." He reassured.

"Friends?" I asked.

"Always." He responded.

I stood up, while Pope remained laying. "Luisa's nice." I expressed. 

"Yeah, she is." Pope smiled.

For the rest of the night I danced, drank, and partied the hardest I had in a long time. It was refreshing. Freeing almost. I'm not 100% sure how I left, but I ended up back at Pope's house.

"Morning." I heard in a loud voice. I opened my eyes to see Pope standing over me. "You two sleep well?" He asked. I sat up to see JJ laid on the floor with a blanket over top him.

"Uh, what happened?" I asked.

"You were drunk and passed out on my bed, so I let you stay." JJ replied.  

"Yeah we got bigger issues, school starts in 20 minutes." Pope urged. JJ and I quickly got up and ready. Then, all three of us left for school in the van.