Kie looked at her in a sort of funny way that Collins felt herself getting embarrassed all over again. She wasn't good at this whole thing- making friends and acting like it wasn't totally new territory to her. She was like a dog begging to be put down in the way that she was trying to socialize with another girl whom Collins desperately wanted to like her. Kie could be so intimidating, yet so gentle at the same time. It was just hard finding out which one she was in the mood to be like. 
"Thing or not, just try not to hurt him." Kie said honestly, which in Collins's opinion, seemed completely flipped if you were to ask her. JJ was the unpredictable one, he was the one spitting out flirtatious remarks like they were watermelon seeds and making her feel like she was the only girl he'd ever had eyes for, which they all knew was far from the truth. "Those are my boys. I don't want anything happening to them."
"I know what you mean." Collins responded empathetically. "I'm the same way with my brother. I wouldn't do anything that I wouldn't want done to me or him. And that goes for JJ, too. If there really was something going on between us. Promise."
"I'll hold you to that." Kie told her with a grave look before it was overtaken by a small smirk. Perhaps that was her way of showing Collins that she wasn't a girl who's word should be taken lightly, but there was still kindness beneath that hard exterior. 
"So are we gonna get this boat moving or are we just gonna screw around all day?" Pope piped up from the back of the boat. 
JJ and John B ceased their wrestling, John B retreating to the driver's seat and JJ plopping onto the cushion along the edge of the boat. As the watercraft slowly began to wean its way further from the dock, Collins gripped the handle on the side with an anxious deep breath in. 
So, here's the thing, she'd never really been on a boat before. 
You'd think so given that she's been living on an island where their world turned with the help of the boating industry, but alas. Collins was obviously not a Kook who grew up with a yacht ride every Saturday in the summer, and she wasn't one of the girls who worked the docks and tended to those fancy yachts. She'd been by the water plenty of times, but only to dawdle by the shore with the surface coming up no further than her waistline. 
As John B increased the speed and the wind was blowing Collins's hair out of her face, she felt like her stomach was doing somersaults, and not in the nauseous way that one would expect. It was more so in the way you'd feel when you're riding a rollercoaster with lots of dips in height and you're actually having fun. Collins remembered the feeling when Charlie took her to the county fair as a kid and they'd rode whatever the ride with the cars that formed into the shape of a dragon was called tens of times before they ran out of tickets. And she recalled seeing it for the first time in a long while walking past and being so shocked that it was still even in service before she realized how un-scary it actually was and how boring it must've been for Charlie to have to ride because she didn't want to go alone. 
Anyways, riding on the boat felt a lot kinda like riding a boring rollercoaster, except riding the boat was fun. It was tranquil even. There were times when the waters were smooth and it was just the cool wind blowing through her hair and there were other times when they hit a bump in the surface and a spray of cool water splashed across her face. 
Soon the stretch of shore faded from natural wildlife to the Outer Banks marina where the majority of the nicest and most expensive boats resided. Peering over the expanse of water to observe the people of the Outer Banks in their natural habitat, Collins felt the morning sun begin to appear from behind the clouds and burn hot upon the island. Not to mention that they were on the water, and it was probably reflecting the sun's rays to its utmost burning potential.