chapter ten | STAY THE NIGHT
summary: “What about our rule?” No sleeping over or staying to make things weird.
Kamari sat up. His eyes fell briefly over her naked chest and then up again. “Doesn’t have to mean anything.”
w.c: 3.1K
warnings/content: cravings; suggestive content; tattoos; mommy issues.
A/N: one of my favorite chapters to write. it only took ten chapters for them to be with each other??? HA no. don't get fooled.
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JJ USED THE FREE TIME HE HAD BETWEEN WORK AND GOLD SEARCHING TO FIX HIS BIKE.
He sat cross-legged on the grass with his girl flipped upside down in front of him.
The chain hung loose while he worked, fingers black with grease as he tightened one of the bolts near the rear wheel. His blond hair kept falling into his face and he shoved it back with the back of his wrist, leaving a faint smear across his temple.
The afternoon was quiet except for the occasional buzz of cicadas and the faint sound of a boat motor somewhere close by.
He spun the wheel once to test it when his phone buzzed against the wooden porch step behind him. He pushed himself up and grabbed it, brows lifting slightly when he saw the name on the screen.
Kamari: hi
Kamari: busy?
JJ wiped his hand on his shorts before typing back.
JJ: depends on whos asking
Kamari: the dead body i found in my garden.
JJ snorted, leaning against his porch with a shake of his head.
Three dots appeared.
Disappeared.
Appeared again.
Kamari: just asking.
“You are not just asking...” JJ mumbled as his lips stretched into a smirk.
He then answered with:
JJ: not really
A moment later another text came through.
Kamari: house is empty
JJ stared at the words for a second longer than necessary.
Kamari: back door’s open
He glanced down at his half-fixed bike sitting upside down in the yard, turning the tip of his hat backwards.
“Sorry, girl. I’ll fix you up real good tomorrow.” JJ explained as he pulled her upright gently. “Be good, yeah?” He patted her seat. “Don’t die on me on the road.”
𓇢𓆸
The massive houses stood behind trimmed hedges and iron gates, everything looking too clean and expensive for someone like JJ Maybank to even breathe near it.
Foley Estate stood further down the street. The largest house on the block. All white stone and dark windows, long balconies stretching along the second floor. Tall trees surrounded the back of the property, casting long shadows over the lawn.
JJ took the side path, parking his bike and walking the rest of the way around to the backyard.
The inside of the house was cool and quiet. He hesitated before stepping inside, wondering if Marcus Foley was behind the door to maybe kill him or something. He was slightly terrified of the man, that's why he never came over when he was home. After that one time he almost got caught sneaking out of her window… It was not nice running on his underwear in the middle of the night.
“Kamari?” he called quietly.
His voice echoed faintly through the large kitchen.
Then her voice came from somewhere deeper in the house.
“Upstairs!”
He saw her in her room, shrugging off a blazer into her bed. High-waisted trousers fitted neatly at her waist paired with a tucked-in dark blue blouse. A thin necklace caught the light near her collarbone, and her hair was pulled up, a few dark curls escaping and falling on her forehead.
She probably just got home from work. He thought, knocking softly on her bedroom door as if he hadn't been there before.
“Going on a hot date?”
She turned around upon hearing his voice. “I wish.” She said and walked closer. He felt like a prey being studied for the kill. “Close the door.”
He did as told and leaned against it, hands behind his back. “So? What was so important you had me coming over to Kooklandia?”
Kamari’s smirk was visible as she approached him, taking off his cap and throwing it in the black beanbag on the corner of the room. “You got one of these for each color?”
“It’s part of my fashion taste—”
“Oh, don't even finish that sentence.” She rolled her eyes and closed their space completely. He watched her through half lidded eyes. JJ shivered when her cold fingers reached beneath his shirt, lifting to his stomach. “I really need to get my mind shut off or I'm gonna lose it.” Her breath mixed with his when she got on her tiptoes to bump her nose with his. His hands finding her waist. “Can you….”
His fingers tightened slightly at her sides as he studied her face, trying to read what she wasn’t finishing. Can you distract me?
“Yeah,” he said quietly, kissing her shoulder, guiding them both backward toward the bed. “I can try.”
Her hands slid up his chest and hooked into the collar of his shirt, tugging it upward. That was her favorite thing to do, pull his shirt off so she could feel his skin. He was always so warm.
JJ lifted his arms automatically to help, the fabric dragging over his head before she tossed it somewhere behind them without looking. Her eyes moved over him for a second before her attention shifted again.
JJ reached for her in return, his hands moving to the buttons of her blouse. He worked them open quickly, his knuckles occasionally brushing her skin as the fabric loosened. Kamari shrugged it off her shoulders once the last button gave way, letting it slide down her arms and fall to the floor. Next were her pants. Her hair began to loosen as she moved and a few more strands slipped free, brushing across her cheek as she tilted her head to give him more access to her neck.
He kind of loved her hair. He loved running his fingers over her curls because they were so smooth and they smelled wonderful.
His knees hit the floor with a soft thud against the carpet.
The blonde's mouth found her thighs like they always did, a familiar path he followed every time they saw each other. It was never much talking but more doing.
Kamari’s fingers slid into his hair automatically, brushing it back. She let out a little gasp when he reached her inner thigh, blue eyes glancing up as his hands rested at her hips, fingers hooking lightly against the fabric there. She nodded slowly and he got the message to keep going.
Two hours later and they were both dead tired. The earlier rush of movement had settled into something calmer now, the air warm and still. Kamari laid on her back beside him, staring up at the ceiling while she tried to slow her breathing. JJ was stretched out next to her, one arm tucked behind his head, the other resting loosely across his stomach.
JJ eventually sat up first, dragging a hand down his face before reaching for his jeans from the floor. He swung his legs off the bed and started pulling them on like it was the most normal part of their routine. Which it kind of was.
Kamari watched him quietly from the bed, her curls spread across the pillow.
He grabbed his shirt next, shaking it out before pulling it over his head. By the time he reached for his cap from the beanbag across the room, she finally spoke.
“Stay the night.”
He paused. He was convinced the whole world did too because when would he ever imagine Kamari Foley to utter these words out loud for him?
She was still lying there, staring at the ceiling like the words hadn't just slipped out from her mouth.
He sat back down. “Stay the night?” he parroted.
She finally glanced at him. “Yeah.”
There was something in her voice that he couldn't quite put it.
JJ rubbed the back of his neck and gave a small exhale through his nose. “You serious?”
Kamari shrugged one shoulder against the mattress.
“I mean… you could.”
JJ tilted his head slightly, watching her in that way he did when he thought something wasn’t being said.
Then he lifted the cap and spun it loosely in his fingers.
“What about our rule?”
No sleeping over or staying to make things weird.
Kamari sat up. His eyes fell briefly over her naked chest and then up again.
“Doesn’t have to mean anything.” She shrugged. I also just really need someone here right now or I'm going straight to Hannah’s.
Kamari's relationship with coke was confusing. She was either two weeks snorting non stop while also being on sleeping pills or a few days without it, convinced that she needed a break to recover and embrace reality a little, no matter how shitty it was. The maximum she got was three days without it.
Today was her third.
Her thumb hovered over Hannah's contact a few times but she didn't call. Not yet, at least.
She usually tuned out the racing thoughts by going on a shopping spree or …. She actually had a shopping spree schedule but her best friend was fuck nows where on the mainland and Rafe wouldn't be much help now, and she was sure that as soon as she got into her car she'd drive straight to her dealer’s house.
The craving had been sitting in the back of her head all day, clawing at her nerves. Being alone tonight equals a really bad idea.
What better to cure withdrawal than sex?
What started as lying there for a few minutes slowly turned into conversation. Things about nothing in particular. At one point JJ shifted onto his side, propping his head up on his arm. As he did, his eyes caught something on her hip he hadn’t noticed before.
A tiny tattoo.
He leaned a little closer, squinting.
“…Is that a ladybug?”
Kamari glanced down, then back at him.
“Mhm..”
JJ reached out and lightly tapped the spot beside it with his finger. She squirmed a little and he noticed that. “Since when do you have that—are you ticklish?”
“Nineteen and no.” Kamari slapped his hand away when he tried again. “One of my bad decisions.”
His thumb touched another one on her forearm. That one he did notice before but never understood what it meant since it wasn't English.
Memento Vivere.
“How do you pronounce that?” He found himself wondering out loud.
“Memento vivere.” She had her eyes closed but she felt where he was touching.
“And what does it mean? Is that Spanish?”
She chuckled. “No, it's latin. It means remember to live. I did that one last year, on my birthday.” She sighed. “I always thought it was a pretty thing to have in your body, it didn't really carry a meaning to me when I did it.”
JJ’s eyes were glued to her as she explained it. Her tired voice, slightly rough, was something enjoyable to listen to.
“Does it carry a meaning now?” He connected the dots through her words.
“Mhm. It does.” She turned her head to glance at him. “What about you? Got any tattoos you don't like remembering?” She drawled out, resting a leg on his stomach and her chin on his chest with her hands under it. “Any skeletons in the closet, Jesse Maybank?”
His chest moved when he laughed and she smiled a little.
“Not really, no. I'm pretty perfect.”
“I’m sure you are.”
He poked the dip in her hip and she gave him a warning look. “I am.” He insisted.
“I don't have any tattoos.” He added later. He shivered when her thumb hovered over his lip.
“You don't like them?”
He shrugged slightly, eyes half-lidded as he watched her hand move. “Nah, they’re fine,” he said. “Just never cared enough to get one. Plus I feel like I’d pick something stupid and regret it later.”
Kamari smiled faintly. “Like a ladybug?”
“Exactly like a ladybug,” he teased.
Her thumb lingered near his lip before she leaned in closer, studying his face. Her finger shifted, tracing just beneath his lower lip where she felt something uneven.
“When did you get this?” It was a fairly unnoticeable scar that he had under his lower lip, but she could feel the little bump when she ran her index over it.
JJ instinctively touched the spot after her, like he’d forgotten it was there.
“Oh. That?” He gave a quiet snort. “Fell off my skateboard when I was little. Bled everywhere,” JJ said casually. “Looked way cooler than it actually was. Mom freaked out when she saw me on the ground.”
Kamari’s finger stilled where it rested near his lip. “…Your mom?” she uttered softly.
JJ seemed to realize what he’d said a second too late. His eyes flicked away from her, landing somewhere over her shoulder.
Kamari pushed herself up slightly on her elbow, studying him now.
“You never mentioned your mom before.”
The blonde let out a small breath through his nose, like he was deciding how much he felt like saying. One shoulder lifted in a half-shrug. “Not much to mention,” he settled for.
“What was she like?”
He stared at the ceiling for a second before answering.
“Nice,” he said simply. “Too nice, probably.”
A small, crooked smile tugged at his mouth.
“She used to patch me up every time I came home busted up. Which was… a lot.” He glanced at her. “Skateboards, bikes, dumb kid stuff.” Those bruises that belong to childhood and tell you you're living your best life. Not the ones provoked by a parent.
Kamari’s voice softened. “What happened to her?”
JJ went quiet again.
“Left when I was pretty young,” he said after a moment. “Couldn’t deal with my dad anymore.”
He said it like it was an old story, like it didn't hurt at all to be talking about it. Kamari knew it was a facade.
Kamari’s brows knit slightly.
“You ever see her?”
He shook his head once.
“Not really.”
“I’m sorry.” She frowned. She couldn't imagine not having her mom when she was little.
“Don’t be.” He brushed her off as if it didn't matter anymore. “Twas a long time ago.”
JJ lay on his back with one arm tucked behind his head, staring up at the ceiling while Kamari traced slow, absent circles on the mattress beside him.
Eventually she pushed the blankets off with a quiet sigh.
“I need a shower,” she murmured.
JJ turned his head slightly, watching as she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her curls had completely fallen out of the loose bun from earlier, spilling down her back and over her shoulders. She gathered them lazily with one hand as she stood.
JJ didn’t say anything, but his eyes followed her.
He watched the easy sway of her hips as she walked across the room toward the bathroom, the dim light catching on her skin. She got halfway to the door before she paused, glancing back over her shoulder.
Her lips curved a little when she caught him staring.
“You gonna join me?”
Pushing himself up from the bed, he didn't wait another second until slipping off his pants again. Her laughter echoing through the bathroom.
They took separate showers afterwards (actual showers).
Kamari disappeared into the bathroom first, the light clicking on as the door stayed slightly ajar. The sound of running water followed, then the faint scrape of a drawer opening. A minute later she stepped out in the corridor and came back with a bundle of clothes and gave it to him.
“I appreciate the thought but I don't think I'll fit into your clothes…”
Kamari groaned at the joke. “They’re my brother's, he's thinner than you but they'll fit.” Her voice echoed into her bathroom as she walked in and then out with a toothbrush, outstretching it to him. “Here. You can go in after me.”
“Thanks.”
That was more than they have ever done before. He never stayed the night at her place. They never talked. So that was pretty weird.
JJ pulled on the borrowed shirt and wandered toward the open doorway of her walk-in closet because he was that curious. It was bigger than his entire room back at the Chateau, that and her room together were bigger than the whole Chateau.
Shelves lined the walls neatly, stacks of clothes folded in tidy rows, shoes arranged in pairs. A faint scent of whatever sweet perfume she used hung in the air.
JJ dragged his fingers along one of the shelves as he walked deeper inside, glancing around with quiet curiosity.
Then he froze.
Sitting near the back corner of one shelf was a very familiar, sun-faded red cap.
JJ snatched it up immediately, turning it over in his hands like he didn’t quite believe it.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for this!” he exclaimed, grabbing his hat and knowing it was inevitably his because of the black marker smudge on the tip.
A moment later the bathroom door opened.
Kamari stepped out quietly, rubbing a towel through the ends of her damp curls. She had changed into soft sleep shorts and an oversized t-shirt, the fabric hanging loose off one shoulder. She paused when she heard him talking, following the sound of his voice down the short hall until she reached the open doorway of the closet.
“That thing?”
JJ narrowed his eyes at her tone. “Yeah, that thing is mine, by the way. Are you getting attached? You're gonna start stealing my stuff like girlfriends in the movies—Ow!” She had thrown a shoe at him.
“Only in your dreams you'll be able to call me your girlfriend, Maybank.”
“I dream alright.” He mumbled but left the closet before another shoe could hit his head.
The room had settled into a softer quiet now. The lamps were off except for the faint glow of a small light near her dresser. Kamari slipped under the blankets first, curling onto her side while JJ lingered near the bed, not really knowing where he'd fit.
“Are you gonna stand?”
“Can I put these on the floor?” He grabbed two pillows out of the ten that were on her bed.
This was about boundaries. It wasn't because they slept together that they're actually gonna sleep sleep together, literally. This was another level, probably.
Kamari stared at him blankly. “You are not going to sleep on the floor.”
“Uh, yes, I am.”
“Jesus, I'll put a pillow between us!” Kamari gesticulated wildly. “What? Fucking is okay but not sleeping?”
JJ’s face heated up immediately. “I didn't- I just didn't think you would want-”
Kamari crawled to where he was and pushed him toward the matters, he yelped in surprise and fell on it. He barely had time to adjust the pillow before a long groan escaped him.
“Jesus,” he muttered, sinking deeper into the mattress. “This bed is illegal.”
Kamari huffed softly, staring at the ceiling.
“I’m serious,” he continued, stretching his legs out. “If I had this thing at the Chateau I’d never leave it. I’d just live here. Bring snacks. My joints. . .”
He shifted again, settling his head into the pillow like he was testing the luxury of it.
“Feels like sleeping on a cloud,” he added, quieter this time.
“But if you rather sleep on the floor…”
“’m not moving.” He answered with his cheek smashed against the soft pillow.
A/N: this season is probably gonna carry the most chapters on this fic because that's how I'll set the mood and the backstory for the following seasons (it's not gonna be boring, stick around).
