kie is sitting alone at the edge of the pier where they let go of sarah and john b, where she and pope kissed when he was high and they were both reeling off heartbreak. her legs are crossed and she’s watching the water lap against the sun-bleached wood. her dark hair shifts with the breeze that passes through, and she lifts a soft hand to push a loose strand back behind her ear. she has a damp towel curled underneath her, skin shining slightly with a thin sheen of water from when she must have taken a dip earlier. with the waning light bouncing golden off her skin she looks like some kind of water angel, but at the same time pope thinks she always looks like a sort of angel. glowing with something impossible to identify, something that you’ll never see elsewhere.
pope pulls away from where he’s been watching her carefully, stepping bare foot onto the pier and letting the quiet creak of the wood alert kie to his presence. she turns and smiles that soft smile of hers, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, toes curling into her towel. pope settles down beside her.
he’s been meaning to say it since yesterday, since when they kissed, but they’d been caught in the whirlwind of losing john b and sarah and the reality of it had only just settled in the morning after, leaving them mourning in the unsettling quiet of a story cut short. kie takes pope’s hand, and when their fingers intertwine he knows he’s forgiven.
“pope, i shouldn’t have kissed you.” her eyebrows crease, her voice jumping as she tries to articulate, “i just… i feel like i should like you, like it should feel right but it doesn’t. i’m sorry.”
pope holds kie’s hand with both of his.
“don’t. it’s okay,” he says, and he means it, because he loves her and he knows she loves him too, but they’re stepping into this with the wrong feet. he can look at her now and know that she’s probably his soulmate, just not that soulmate: so pope breathes in and lets himself be seen.
“kie, i was high, and confused, and i’m still confused, and i– i think i’m bisexual, as well, so.”
pope opens his eyes and kie is laughing.
“yo, hold up,” pope says, feeling a little offended when kie continues to laugh, eyes bright and creased as she rolls onto her back, hair falling into a halo around her head and hands coming up to cover her mouth.
“pope, oh my god, i’m so sorry,” kie laughs, unable to stop the tears from welling up in her eyes from all the feelings bubbling over in her chest after being held down for so long.
“kie, stop laughing, i just emptied my heart out to you– why are you crying?”
“did i do something wrong? i don’t know what’s happening.”
“we’re so stupid,” kie hiccups, laughs still shaking her shoulders. she covers her eyes and groans, blocking her view of pope sat twisted over her in concern and confusion.
“please explain what’s happening right now, kie.”
kie lifts her arms away from her eyes, squinting through the last of the sun to look at pope, and there’s a pause where they just see each other completely for the first time.
“wow, we really are stupid,” pope says, falling back to laugh and let relieved tears fall with her.
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