a jj maybank x fem!reader outerbanks rewrite - season 1 to 4
synopsis ; y/n woods has spent every summer in the outerbanks since she was a baby, she never expected for the summer after her mother died to change everything. she especially didn’t think that meeting a certain blonde pogue would have her head spinning. secrets about her family are revealed and strangers become everything.
warnings!: slow burner, violence, murder, death, suicidal thoughts, grief, drugs, alcohol, non-con, smut, abuse, kidnapping, suicide, more to be added…
particular warnings will be at the beginning of each chapter!
authors note: I’ve wanted to write one of these for so long and I’ve finally decided to do it! after finally watching ‘the summer i turned pretty’ I got some inspiration. If anyone else has done a storyline similar then I apologise, but I did get the idea myself! hopefully you all enjoy!
Rating:PG-13 ~ For fluff and cuteness, but some adult commentary or even some triggering content.
Edited: Yes
Word count: 5,105
Post Date & Time: March 23rd 2025 at 5:01 PM
Ko-fi
Masterlist
Warnings Here
Listen to the story be read out loud here {coming soon}.
Summary: The reader, her brother (cousin) and all of their best friends go on a adventure of a lifetime. Feelings become muddy as the adventure gets more and more dangerous.
Authors Note: This is a very very VERY slow burn, so beware of that. Updates for this series will most likely be very slow so be warned. Each episode will have chapters for that episode. We hope you guys enjoy our first real JJ Maybank series.
You sit leaned up against JJ who sits right next to you on the scaffolding and you can’t help but feel absolutely content to just stay right there. He keeps one arm around your shoulder and the other holds his beer hooked over the bar in front of you guys. Your own beer sits off to the side completely forgotten about.
“That’s what?” Pope asks, breaking the peaceful silence you all sit in as he looks up at John B who stands on the roof occasionally standing on one foot and trying to balance.
“A three-story fall to the deck…?” Pope continues “I give you about a one-in-three chance of survival,” he finishes off, John B just hums sucking his finger into his mouth before holding it up as if trying to figure out which way the wind blows.
“Should I do it?” He asks after a moment still holding his foot out over the edge.
“Yeah, you should jump,” Pope agrees and you shake your head curling into JJ some more as the wind picks up.
“I’ll shoot you on the way down,” Pope calls out as he holds the drill he’s been playing with up at John B.
“You gonna shoot me?” John B asks as Pope gives out a small ‘yep’ as John B holds out his hand pointing it like his hand is the gun making a ‘pew,’ sound as he pretends to shoot the imaginary gun his hand makes.
“They’re gonna have Japanese toilets with towel warmers,” Kiara speaks up as she walks back out from looking around the house.
“Of course they are. Why wouldn’t they?” JJ asks like it’s a no brainer and you stifle your own laugh into his shoulder at his sarcastic comment making him smile when you do.
You reach out and grab his beer before tossing it back and taking a drink. When you’re done you put it back in his hand and he gives you a look at which you only shrug too. He smirks before shaking his head and only pulling you back into his side.
“This used to be a turtle habitat, but who cares about the turtles, I guess,” Kiara comments with a halfhearted shrug and you scoff looking down at her.
“I’d protest this house a million times if the doofus on the roof would let me. I tried to, but he and doofus number two sitting next to me stopped me,” you add as you look up at your cousin up on the roof and jab an arm into JJ’s side.
“Rude! We just didn’t want you sitting in the slammer again,” JJ protests after he groans and rubs where your elbow had jabbed him in the ribs.
“It’s not like I haven’t done it before. I would have been fine,” you disregard with a shrug before again taking JJ’s beer.
“Doesn’t mean we wanna see ya in there princess,” JJ replies and you smile softly at him trying so hard not to blush.
You go to take another drink of the liquid, but you pout when JJ takes it back. He pokes your nose and you only pout at him even more while crossing your arms.
“You have your own right next to you. Don’t finish mine off,” he points to yours down by your side and you shrug.
“I like stealing yours,” you tell him with a smirk and he playfully gasps.
“Then I’m going to steal yours,” he jokes back and you gasp.
“Now that’s just crossing a line, blue eyes,” you quip to him as if it’s the most serious thing ever and he chuckles, shaking his head before pulling you closer again as well as leaving a small kiss to your forehead.
“I can’t have cold towels,” John B comments, changing the conversation again as he shakes his head after watching you and JJ mess around like the two of you always do.
It brings him a bit of peace whenever he watches you two. He knows, heck everyone knows you and JJ have always been so close. He knows JJ has always had a soft spot for you and you him, but he also knows you two would never in a million years break the no pogue on pogue macking rule. Maybe JJ would, but you would never and JJ respects you enough to not break it if you don’t want him to.
“Can you you please not kill yourself?” Kiara asks as she looks up at John B on the top of the roof.
“I second that!” You call out and giggle when Kiara holds a hand up at you as if to say ‘see I’m not the only sane one here,”
“Don’t spill that beer. I’m not giving you another one,” JJ calls out and you again jab your elbow into his side making him laugh before he tilts the beer back to take another drink.
“I’m the only one that gets to,” you joke with a smirk when JJ rolls his eyes and shakes his head again.
“Only because you steal from me and end up drinking mine then I have to drink yours,” JJ comments and you giggle smiling at him.
“So that means we each get one. If we share them both,” you tell him and again he rolls his eyes at you.
“That actually kind of makes sense…” Pope comments, almost confused by how much sense it actually makes.
“Woah!” John B then shouts and down drops his beer to the ground.
“Oh, shit,” he calls out as he regains his balance and you giggle.
“Of course you did. Like right when I told you not to,” JJ shouts dramatically rolling his eyes and you laugh.
“Smooth,” Kiara muses with a smirk and she turns to look at you to which you shrug, smiling at her.
“A-plus,” JJ remarks as he claps while John B groans from the roof.
“Dumbass,” Kiara comments, making you laugh again as she shakes her head.
“I mean, really…” you add on to Kiara’s words with a playful roll of your eyes.
“Hey!” A new voice calls out making you look over at Pope who leans against the railing.
“Hey, uh, security’s here. Let’s wrap it up,” Pope calls out as he taps the banister railing and turns back to the group.
“Alright. Boys are early today,” John B wanders out loud as he looks over at the officers.
“Humpty Dumpty, let’s roll!” JJ calls out to John B as he looks over at the roof and you bust out laughing.
He then leaves a big kiss on your cheek before pushing off and rolling back behind you. He makes a funny noise as he stands. “Yeah,” John B agrees with JJ as he starts to climb down the side of the roof.
“Let’s go guys,” Kiara calls out and she smiles up at you.
“Gary, is that you?” JJ calls out as he leans over the side of the scaffolding to see what cops had come.
“Get down,” Pope orders with a roll of his eyes as John B finishes climbing down the side of the roof.
“It’s me! Gary, good to see you man!” JJ calls out like he and the cop are old friends and you can’t help but to laugh as you stand behind him.
JJ then swings down off the scaffolding then turns and reaches up to help you down. Once he knows you're on your own two feet he goes over to Pope and Kiara.
“Is it time?” John B asks as he too swings down from the scaffolding behind you.
“You’re just asking for it,” Kiara remarks as JJ comes up to them.
“Isn’t he always?” You ask with a giggle when Kiara just agrees with you.
“Rude! Just rude, Princess,” JJ bursts as he looks aghast at you before wiggling a finger at you.
“What you gonna do about it?” You playfully tease him, bouncing your eyebrows and Kiara gasps before smirking as you run past a shocked JJ.
“Oh, now it’s on,” JJ calls out once his shock wears off and he runs after you.
Kiara shakes her head and laughs before running after the two of you guys as well. You all run though the house all laughing and taunting the police officers. You dodge the guy coming around the corner, but you don’t warn JJ so he ends up almost running into the guy. He thinks fast though and quickly dodges the guy as well. JJ runs in front of you now just as the other cop tries to wrap his arms around him and he again dodges making the cop trip so you can run right behind him.
“Not much of a hugger man,” he turns back to tell the officer before turning back around, he pushes through a small opening and you follow right behind him coming up right beside him as you continue to run now right behind Pope.
“Go, Pope! Go! Go, go, go, go, go, go, go,” JJ calls out as you both continue to run behind him.
You slow down for a moment, but JJ comes up next to you and gives you a small push telling you to keep going. Pope comes to the fence first and jumps over it falling to the ground. You jump over right along with JJ who squats down to a groaning Pope.
“Get up, Pope, fatso’s coming,” JJ tells Pope, tapping him on the butt before standing and rushing around the tree just as fatso gets to the fence.
“Hey! Come here, you little pricks!” Fatso yells out at you guys as he gets stuck trying to jump over the fence.
Kiara and John B then drive up in the Twinkie and he honks the horn. “Bus is leaving!” He shouts out to you guys making you run faster with JJ right by your side.
“Come on guys! Whoo!” Kiara shouts out just as you guys dive in the back.
You land in the very back seat with JJ off to your right as you land laying against him. You then sit up huffing and puffing trying to get air back into your lungs as JJ rubs your lower back for a moment while turning to the back watching the cop run after the bus.
“Check out Gary, gunnin’ for a race,” Pope calls out and you all laugh watching the cop chase after you.
“Come on, Gary!” JJ encourages in a sarcastic vote of confidence.
“Wait. Slow down. Hey! You little pricks!” Gary calls out as he continues to run after the car.
“Come on guys…” you chide with a playful roll of your eyes.
“Yeah, you’re gonna give him a heart attack,” Kiara adds onto your statement with a smirk of her own.
JJ quickly pushes up from where he sits and he carefully rounds you. He stops and looks out the door at Gary, holding a hand out to him.
“You're so close! You can do it!” He playfully pretends to cheer the man on as he leans out of the door reaching his hand out to him and you can’t help but to put your hands to your face as you laugh hard, so hard you almost turn red.
“There you go!” JJ encourages as he throws him a beer, but Gary misses and it flies behind him.
“Ohhh…. They don’t pay you enough, bro!” JJ taunts the poor guys some more, shaking his head which only makes you laugh harder.
“JJ, stop. Stop,” Kiara tells him as she holds up a hand in front of him.
“Oh, come on. That sort of initiative is just begging to be punished,” JJ laughs with a smirk as he leans back into the bus.
Finally he moves back to sit with you again and you're still laughing, making him feel proud of himself. You calm down along with everyone and cuddle into his side again as he wraps his arm around your shoulders. Kiara spares you a look and you fight not to blush at her knowing look. She smiles softly at you before turning around to watch on as John B continues to drive.
John B finishes in the bathroom after just having woken up. He flushes before walking out of the bathroom and through the château. He walks past what’s counted as JJ’s room, the one he mostly uses when he’s not sleeping on the couch or in Y/n’s room with her. As he walks past he catches JJ in the room with some touron he’d met at some point.
“Dude! Come on, man. Get outta here,” JJ tells him, throwing a can at him as he walks past and reaches in to pull the door closed as he leaves.
He then walks into the living room and finds Kiara on the couch where she’d slept. He mutters a “Morning, Kie,” as he walks past her and she sighs out a ‘Morning,’ back. He sees a picture on the wall so he walks over and grabs it before putting it back up onto the wall. He looks at the picture of his parents for a moment before looking up at the picture of his uncle and cousin. A picture he knows his cousin despises to look at so he looks at the next picture that’s just of his uncle who’s supposed to be his and his cousin’s illegal guardian, but has somehow also disappeared again.
It wasn’t out of the ordinary for his uncle to disappear though. His uncle had left y/n with them when she was the raw age of three and since then he’d visit, make her promises he couldn’t keep then just up and leave again. John B has always thought of his cousin as more of a twin sister than a cousin. Every time his uncle would break her heart, both JJ and he would always without fail or hesitation seek to cheer her up.
“Uncle T!” he calls out as he lifts the bottle he holds up and clinks it against the glass.
He then walks to the kitchen and grabs another beer. He walks out of the château onto the porch and finds Pope on the couch.
“Hey,” he calls out to him as he walks up.
“Oy,” Pope replies holding up a hand and John B walks over doing a quick handshake with him.
“Have you seen bee?” He asks Pope about his cousin wanting to check in with her.
“She’s in her hammock. Seemed upset over something… had her headphones in like she does when she wants to ignore the world,” Pope informs him as he points lazily over at the hammocks.
“Okay. Thanks, buddy,” he replies before rushing off as Pope just mumbles out an “hmmm,” before going back to sleep.
John B walks out down the stairs and into the yard. He then walks over and sees his cousin laying in her hammock writing in her journal.
“Bumblebee?” he calls out to you, but you just keep writing.
“Bee…?” he calls out again, now plucking your headphone from your ear.
“Oh. Hi JB,” you nonchalantly greet him and just keep writing.
“You okay there, bee?” he asks with a sad look, knowing you're definitely upset about something.
“I’m fine, JB. Thank you for checking up on me, but I’m good,” you mutter out, but he gives you an unconvinced look, making you sigh.
“Okay. I’m not fine… please just leave me be…” you finally admit and his face falls in sadness for his cousin.
“Is it what I think it is again?” he asks, eyebrow popping up and you just nod, biting your lip as you try to keep the floodgates of tears at bay.
“Do you want some company or maybe cuddles?” he asks, knowing those are the two things that help you and he ignores the small words of “I’ll never be the one that’s enough,” that he reads in your journal pretending he never saw them because you’re journaling is your safe place.
You’ve always been a writer and your journal has all your thoughts and feelings inside of it. He’d never in a million years be the brother that reads your stuff. He respects your privacy even when he does catch small glimpses into it, he never says a word. Yet he can’t help but feel sad for his sister whenever he catches sentences like that, knowing exactly why she’d written it.
“No. JB, really, I’m fine,” you insist and he sighs before laying on his own hammock.
“Yeah, well I don’t give a shit. I’m going to keep you company,” he replies and you roll your eyes as you finally look over at him as he holds his beer out to you.
“You really don’t have to, you know?” You ask him as you take the beer, take a sip before handing it back to him and he shrugs before laying down on his own hammock next to yours, one arm behind his head the other holding his beer on top of his stomach.
“Just pretend I’m not even here,” he tells you and you roll your eyes, playfully annoyed, yet secretly you start to feel better with your cousin brother next to you.
“Oh, DCS called again. Cheryl wants us to come into her office,” you inform him and he groans, covering his face before rubbing it.
“Can’t they just leave us alone…” he groans out and you nod in agreement.
“Really. We’re fine right where we are. Do you suppose we both have to go…” you question and he sighs before taking a drink of his beer.
“I’m guessing they want us both there, bee. Why? You got a hot date or something…?” he asks and you shake your head at him.
“Something like that…” you trail off and he sits up to look at you.
“No shit? You actually have one?” he asks and you giggle at his sudden interest.
“No. Just thought I’d scare ya a bit. You know there’s only one person for me…” you answer him with a smirk that soon falls.
“Yeah I know… why won’t you be coming?” he sympathizes with you before deciding to change the topic and you pause.
“I’m going to my cove…” you inform him and he understands right away.
The cove was a place you, JJ, and John B had found when you were younger. Maybe thirteen or fourteen and it kinda just became your place you’d run to whenever you need time to yourself. JJ, you and John B are the only ones to this day that know about it and that it’s your place. They both know if they can’t find you anywhere else that’s where you’d be. They even started calling it your cove because you just love it so much there.
“Just stay safe, okay? Going out there alone is dangerous. Way to many big ass sandbars out there,” he reverently requests and you smile softly at him.
“I will. Don’t worry, I go there all the time,” you promise him and he shrugs.
“It’s still dangerous. Even if me and JJ are there or not. Just be safe, please,” he practically begs you and you smile appreciatively at him.
“Really, JB. I promise I’ll be safe,” you reiterate and he grins at you, pleased with your answer.
“Alright, John, it’s come to our attention that you and your sister are unemancipated minors living on your own,” Cheryl starts as she walks into the room and takes a seat at her desk taking off her glasses as she sighs.
“Had Bee been here, Cheryl would’ve been chewed out for that one,” John B thinks as he rolls his eyes at the use of his name.
He doesn’t even correct her on her comment about y/n being his sister because as far as he’s concerned, she is. It’s on all their paperwork that they are cousins, but anyone that really truly knows them knows they’re more like siblings. Cheryl learned this back when his uncle first took custody after his dad disappeared. She called y/n his cousin and he immediately corrected her that she was his sister.
“No… no,” John B scoffs rolling his eyes and she gives him a strict look.
“No,” he finalizes with his eyebrows raised and she gives him a look of disappointment.
“John, I need honesty to help you. That’s what we both want, right?” she asks and he shrugs nonchalantly. “I’m being honest,” he easily lies to her and she sighs.
“Okay. Then where’s your sister?” she asks and John B looks right at her.
“She had an appointment. Couldn’t make it,” he again nonchalantly answers with another shrug and Cheryl fights back a groan.
“Okay… then when was the last time you spoke to your uncle?” she asks as she looks down at her paperwork before looking back up at him.
“Uh… thirty four minutes ago,” he tells her as he sarcastically looks at his wrist that definitely doesn’t have a watch on it.
“When was the last time either you or y/n saw him?” she asks very pointedly as she starts to write his answers down on her paperwork.
“Two hours and… forty three minutes ago?” he answers like it’s a question before shrugging as he just hopes she’ll buy what he himself knows he’s making up.
“We had a good ol’ family lunch together,” he makes up on the spot and she goes quiet for a moment as she sets her pen down to look at him.
“John, we’re gonna come out there tomorrow to talk to your uncle. If he’s not there, we’re gonna move forward with foster care. For both you and y/n,” she informs him as she picks up her pen.
“I want to assure you, we’re going to find you both a safe and loving home,” she finishes off and he just nods along.
What they don’t know is that John B, nor you would do everything in your power not to be separated. You both would stay together and in your home no matter what. John B had made that promise to himself a long time ago; that no matter what happens it’s him and his sister against the world and nobody was or is going to ever take it from him. That’s what he thinks of as now Kiara, JJ and Pope sit by the fire on the beach just talking and laughing as John B sits over on a small hill trying to figure out just how to keep himself and his cousin together.
“Holy shit,” John B comments when the idea hits him as he watches the news on the Tv where the anchor woman is warning people about hurricane Agatha.
He looks at the lady next to him as if to ask her what she thinks and she mumbles out a “I don’t know,” while shaking her head. He looks back at the tv a moment before backing out of the crowd of people watching the tv. He walks out of the shop and says hi to Howie as he passes the man. The storm alarm blares and people all run around screaming for things as they scramble to get ready for the storm. He walks out to the pier and stops for a moment to make a phone call.
“JB? What’s up?” You ask through the phone and he shakes his head.
“Looks like that assessment won’t be happening, bee… I’m gonna call right after this and ‘reschedule’ it,” he informs you and you let out a happy laugh.
“Thank God! I was so dreading it!” You tell him and you chuck a rock in the water.
“Okay. I’ll see you at home then?” he asks as he hears wind behind you and you pause.
“Bee?” he asks when you don’t respond.
“Ugh, fine. I went to my cove… now I’m stuck on a sandbank and can’t get the pogue off of it…” you sheepishly admit and he groans, rubbing his face.
“Okay. Uh, call JJ. Ask him to get Pope on his dad’s boat and pull you off. Send him your location. I have to make this call really quick,” he explains and you nod even though he can’t see you.
“Okay… I’m sorry, JB. I started home as soon as the weather changed,” you promise him and he nods, sighing.
“It's okay, bee. JJ will help you. Just call him,” he tells you and you nod again before he’s hanging up the phone.
Once you end the call with your cousin you sigh, setting your phone on the small dash space above the wheel and trying to get the pogue off of the sandbank once more. You groan, letting your head lean against the wheel for a moment when it doesn’t move even an inch and pick up your phone again. You battle with yourself for a few minutes before finding JJ’s number and clicking the call button.
“Hia, Princess. What’cha need?” he picks up on the second ring, chirping ever so happily into the phone as he always does and your heart leaps.
“So, umm…” you pause, biting your lip and he hums, hinting at you to go on.
“I got the pogue stuck on a sandbank. JB says he’s not able to come out to help me. Can you maybe ask Pope if he can use his dad’s boat and come pull me off of it?” You ask him and fear creeps up though him as his eyes widen.
“Woah woah, you went out in the pogue now?!” he asks and you bite your lip again.
“To be fair. I went out before there was any indication of a storm. I started to head home right as the weather started to change,” you inform him, biting your lip and he sucks a deep breath in while pinching his nose.
“Okay. Okay. Send me your location,” he tells you and you hum out in confirmation as you pull the phone away from your ear and put it on speaker.
You hear him rushing somewhere and then you can vaguely make out a conversation with Pope. While he talks to him, you shoot him your location and wait a few minutes.
“There, it’s sent to you,” you inform him after a moment and you hear the conversation stop for a moment.
“Okay. We’ll be there soon. Hold on babe, we’re coming,” he quickly rushes out before hanging up, leaving you a mess of emotions.
While you wait you take the time to remind yourself that JJ always uses nicknames and pet names. The ones he calls you don’t mean anything, but whenever he does use a pet name for you, you can’t help but feel pure happiness. Finally after a few minutes you see another boat come into view and immediately recognize it. The boat pulls up right in front of the pogue and you can’t help but smile when you see both JJ and Pope. JJ rushes over and hops onto the pogue just as Pope gets the other boat stopped.
“You okay, princess? No injuries?” he asks over the growing wind as he ties a line to the boat before coming over to you and you smile up at him.
“I’m okay, JJ. No injuries. Promise,” you reply as he seemingly looks you over and he smiles softly at you when he deems your words true before pulling you into a tight hug.
“Come on, then. Let’s get you outta here before the storm goes crazy,” he tells you as he holds out his hand for you and you smile while taking it. He helps you over onto the Heyward boat before hopping back over himself.
“You okay there, bee?” Pope teasingly asks and you slap him in the shoulder as you walk past.
“I’m very okay. Thank you for coming to rescue me,” you reverently tell them and JJ grins big and wide.
“Anything for you, Princess,” he tells you as he comes over next to you.
Pope works hard, revving the boat's engine a couple of times and soon he’s able to pull the pogue off of the sandbank. You sit down on the back bench and JJ comes alongside you. You shiver unintentionally and JJ raises an eyebrow at you.
“You cold?” he asks and you shrug lightly as you start to rub your arms.
“A little. The wind really picked up while I was waiting for you. I don’t have anything to cover up with,” you inform him and he frowns as he realizes you’re only wearing your suit.
“Where’s your sweater? You always wear that thing,” he asks, referring to your favorite sweater you’d once stolen from him and you shake your head refusing to tell him why you’re not wearing it.
“You’ll laugh at me if I tell you,” you tell him as you shiver some more and he sighs before pulling you into his side.
“I won’t laugh,” he reassures with a frown and you sigh.
“Fine. Promise me you won’t?” You ask with a look of skepticism.
“Come on, Princess, you know me. I won’t laugh at you,” he points out and you sigh again, trying to gain the courage.
“It stopped smelling like you…” you admit, not looking at him as you wait for the laughs to start.
“Awe, princess. I’m flattered, really, but you should be wearing it. We don’t need you getting cold,” he finally speaks and you look up at him, he looks amused yet there’s no hint of laughter on his face.
“Also, if you wanted it to smell like me, shoulda just asked,” he now jokes and you roll your eyes, slapping him lightly on the chest.
“Oh yeah, cause I’d definitely come up to you and say ‘Hey JJ. Your sweater that I wear doesn’t smell like you anymore… mind changing that?’ I don’t think so,” you sarcastically reply with a roll of your eyes and he shrugs.
“Something like that. I know it calms you. I woulda done something about it in a heartbeat,” he nonchalantly informs you and you feel like your heart might just beat out of your chest.
“Good to know. Thanks, JJ. Hey, Pope, hear that?” You ask the other boy on the boat and he chuckles.
“Oh, that JJ’s your bitch! Yeah, I heard it!” Pope jokes, making you smirk as JJ’s mouth drops open.
“What?! No I'm not!!!” he defends himself, making both you and Pope appease him by just agreeing.
To Be Continued…
If your user is no longer on here we are terribly sorry, but it means that you have been removed from our list. If you wish to reapply to be back on the list you can do so below.
If you are wishing to apply for future fics you can also do so below with the same link.
She starts off in a relationship with Noel but it will soon transfer to Jason and then Mike and then probably back to Jason
This will cover trauma (PTSD, lying, stalking, sexual assault, underage sex, anxiety, depression, underage drinking, bullying, substance abuse, other mental health challenges, violence, murder, etc.)
the second is for Outer Banks
OC is John B's sister
She and John B have the same Dad but not the same Mom
She's best friends with Kiara
Kiara and JJ probably won't have a thing at all
This will also cover trauma (including but not limited to: physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual assault, anxiety, depression, underage drinking, underage sex, underage smoking (weed and tobacco), bullying, substance abuse, other mental health challenges, violence, murder, etc.)
Slow burn, but eventually JJ X OC
both will be posted to my wattpad account too. i will post the link at a later date.
summary of series ∞ mistakes aren’t Ottoline Windrich’s forte. In fact, she would tell you that she actively tries to stay away from them. How fitting it is then, that she makes a split second decision to board the boat with Sarah and John B the day of the tropical depression. All she can say is, “oops.”
summary of series part ∞ arriving in Nassau, Ottoline finds herself facing her decision to join Sarah and John B.
words ∞ 4k
trigger warnings ∞ knives, exhaustion, blood, bad puns, ( if there is anything else let me know ! )
gif credit; celebrities-imagines
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Ottoline stirred underneath against the hard metal of the ship. Her back sat against its side, and her fingers wrapped around the headboard of the bed next to her.
“Sarah?” John B’s voice was barely a whisper, but caught in the shallow space, it was like a scream.
“Hmm?” Sarah let out as though she was still half asleep.
“Do you want to get married?” John B said, and Ottoline could hear the chuckle in his deep voice. She let out out a sarcastic giggle and rolled her eyes.
“Don’t laugh, Olly. I’m seriously asking Sarah.”
“Thats exactly why I am laughing, JB.” Olly replied, licking her chapped lips and tasting the blood in her mouth. It all returned to her in that moment, where she was, how far she was from home.
Stop thinking about it. She repeated to herself for the hundredth time, and she knew inside that her mind would never comply. Stop. You’re here Olly. And its shitty and terrible and everything but you can’t get back.
“To answer your question, no. I don’t want to get married.” Sarah finally replied, leaving John B to exhale in fake anger.
“No?” He asked, confused. Olly held her fingers up to her mouth to stop herself from bursting into laughter.
“No.” Sarah replied evenly.
“Well how come?” Olly could hear John B move around the bed to get more comfortable, even from her spot a few feet away on the floor.
“It would take us the rest of the time to Nassau for us to get through the list.” Olly replied to the question that wasn’t hers.
“But the biggest reason is that you’ve got no prospects.” John B’s girlfriend answered.
“You don’t have any prospects either.” JB shot back.
“Ouch.” Sarah and Olly said at the same time.
“Well anymore,” John B continued.
“So its not about the money?” Sarah questioned, and John B’s reply didn’t come until several seconds too late.
“Let me answer for him here, Sarah. It was once about the money, and now its about you.” Olly faked gagging to her own words, even though her own mind was filled with the picture of JJ.
Stop thinking about home until you return.
“You are pretty good looking.” There was a grin in JB’s tone of voice.
“Stop.” Sarah smirked.
“I’m serious.” Olly could hear JB move again. “Come here.”
“I’m trying to sleep. ” Sarah whined, but then moved again, the bed creaking underneath their combined weight.
“You want to be a Pogue for life?” He asked.
“If I say yes, then you have to promise not to die. ” She replied, the words slipping off of her tongue easily.
“If he promises then for sure he’ll die.” Olly butted into the conversation.
They didn’t even talk when they’d gotten on the boat. She’d understood that the lovebirds would want to be together, and even though Olly and her parents sometimes called her selfish, she took one for the team and slept on the floor.
Her fingers dropped to the side of her carhartt shorts, the canvas material thick in her fingertips. She adjusted the quarter length sleeve on her shirt, the cotton soft and delicate. She remembered when she’d won this shirt at a beach volleyball conference, and she’d given JJ one that would fit him. He wore it often around her, and though she didn’t know it now, he was sleeping with it layed out next to him, as though it was her presence there instead of a shirt.
But of course, Olly was just a girl on a boat, miles away from her friends, the friends that contemplated the mystery of her every day, and miles away from everything she knew.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Ottoline woke up from her uncomfortable sleep as the horn blasted on the boat two times above her, sending her eyes, the hazel and green orbs, flying open. She caught a look at the piece of the gold that rested easily in John B’s hands as he sat on the bed, Sarah next to him. She got up wearily, hearing someone coming down the stairs into the room they were all in.
“John B, Olly, someone’s coming,” Sarah alarmed, and John B shoved the gold into his pocket.
“Morning lovebirds,” the captain of the ship said, and then, motioning to Olly, “and well, lonely bird. Coming into port. Best not be on board if you don’t have a passport, if you know what I’m saying.”
“Yes, we hear you.” Olly spoke up, resting a hand on the bed to keep support on her tan legs, the aching from her sleeping spot soaking into the rest of her body.
“You guys can go on my bridge,” the captain said in his low rumble, motioning behind where Olly stood to a door.
“Through here?” John B asked, and the captain muttered a yes.
Already at the top of the staircase she’d been met with, she heard the captain urge on Sarah to climb the steps to the bridge faster. Olly’s fingers rested gingerly on her leg, ready to defend herself.
As John B and Sarah thanked the captain, Olly searched through the bridge they were all in, examining every object in case it was a weapon.
“Hey, captain, we really appreciate you.”
“Thank you,” Sarah added, and Olly joined in with her gratefulness too.
The captain ignored their words, “stay put, don’t come out.”
“You got it, thanks again, cap.” Olly gave one final look down the ladder to nod at the captain, who shut the door quickly.
Olly looked around, taking in the view of the Bahamas. For a girl that had never been out of the United States, even she was overjoyed. She picked out children playing on shore, and houses of the different colors of the rainbow. It looked like someone she could never be hurt.
“What!” John B said, leaning on the side of the bridge next to Olly, who gave him a smile as he held out his hand for a high five. She shook her head, and he lowered his hand, not bothering to ask why. Olly was never a big fan of touch, and he, Pope and JJ had found that out in their own separate ways over the years of their friendship. “I’ve never been to a foreign country before.”
Olly giggled, “me either.”
“Well, welcome to Nassau,” Sarah held out her arms as if showing them her land.
“Its fucking beautiful,” Olly chirped. “Dudes, look at those big ass houses over there.” Her finger, still taped from her last beach volleyball game, pointed toward a neighborhood of huge mansions directly on the water.
“Well, see that big ass house there?” Sarah’s hands wrapped around John B’s to point both of their fingers toward a large, looming home. “That's my family’s house.”
“Holy super Kook! I mean, maybe we could crash for a couple nights?”
Olly nodded her head quickly, “yes. I would kill for a shower right now.”
Sarah put a sarcastic tone on; “hey dad, I’m alive, by the way, and I’m also thinking about getting married. Can we crash?”
“Yeah, maybe search around the house for a couple things you might have left, like the gold you stole from us. But also, please let us get married.” John B added.
“Again with this marriage stuff. I’ve changed my mind, guys. I think I’ll officiate it for you.” Olly leaned into the glass to position herself to look at John B and Sarah.
“Great. I’ll call the caterer and let's get a venue booked.” John B slid an impish grin at one of his best friends.
“I’ll just have to get one of those fancy robes that they wear.”
“No! Stop messing around.” Sarah whined.
“God, Sarah. You gotta let us ruin your most special day?” Olly asked, a sideways look on her sculpted face.
“Yes, we can get married on our way home. Right now we are fugitives in a foreign country.” Sarah finished.
Olly and John B both sighed. “Yep.” She said.
“I get it.” John B let out a breath.
“We just have to be careful.”
“Yeah, yeah. I got it.”
“Sarah why are you looking at me!” Olly burst out.
“I’m looking at John B. You need to actually be careful here, okay?”
“Yes, John B, we need to be careful.” Olly agreed with the other blonde.
“Yes, I’ve got it.”
“Wait, wait, guys?” Olly’s monotone rose slightly, “the customs people are coming aboard the boat. I repeat, the customs people are coming aboard the boat!” She bolted down the door as Sarah and John B started discussing in frantic voices how they were supposed to get out.
“Fuck!” Olly tried to pull open the door but it was locked. Kicking her Vans covered toe at the wooden door, she found out it wasn’t going to budge. She sprinted back up the steps and found, just at the lock clicked in the doorway below her, the window smashed and John B ushering her outside.
“Hey! Stop!” One of the customs officers shouted, just as another yelled the same thing. Olly followed John B as he jumped from deck to the boardwalk, almost crashing into him as she glanced back at the boat.
She hauled herself over the rope fence and told John B in a shout, “follow me!” Not knowing where to go, Olly sprinted as fast as she could to the end of the boardwalk, Sarah and John B further back then she would have liked.
She let Sarah take the lead as the group ran down the streets, turning left when Sarah told them to. Olly glanced at John B as they ran, her lip curled down in a frown as he breathed heavily.
They took another left and Sarah pulled them all behind a shop’s building, Olly still holding her knife in her fist, her eyes open and tracing the horizon for any sign of someone chasing them.
She heard the captain shouting and then when that disappeared, she let out a breath.
Panting, Sarah turned to her friends as Olly shoved the knife back into her sock. “Okay, I think I know of a place we can hole up, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Follow me,” Sarah whispered, and Olly was right behind her a second later.
“Sarah, are you sure about this?” John B eyed the expensive hotel as they walked closer, Olly to his left and his girlfriend to his right.
“Its the safest place for us to be,” she responded.
Olly smirked, “ a five star hotel?”
“Just trust me you two.”
Entering the hotel, Olly almost drooled at the expensive furniture and the welcome drinks on platters by the doorway.
“Looks a little spendy, no?” John B, still questioning the decision, asked.
“Just act like you know what you are doing.” Sarah responded evenly.
Shrugging, Olly and John B agreed.
“And smile, and say hi to people.”
“So overall be a decent person.” Olly sarcastically asked, grabbing one of the welcome drinks in her dirt and oil greased hand.
“Yes, exactly.”
They veered around to what looked like the restaurant area, and Olly ran her fingers along the mahogany wood tables.
“Excuse me, excuse me. May I help you?” One of the waiters sped to catch up to the group, frantic worry crossing his easy to read gaze.
“Actually yes, do you have any bottled water?” Sarah looked perfect in this situation, and Olly walked over to where they were all standing, chugging the last of the lemonade and mango drink she’d nabbed. “Maybe Voss, Fiji, or-”
“No,” the waiter interrupted. Olly already found herself disliking him.
“No, no. Oh, here,” Sarah turned suddenly and grabbed two more welcome drinks from a new platter being brought out. “Thank you,” Sarah grinned. “I am so parched.”
“I am literally sandpaper over here,” John B added, and Sarah gave him an angry glance.
“I cannot wait to get out of these clothes,” Sarah added, sipping the welcome drink through a straw Olly knew Kie would not approve of. “Hey Olly, what time is our reservation?”
Sarah threw the pressure onto Olly before she could disagree, and Olly was left slurping what small amount of water she could get from the quickly melting ice in the bottom of her cup. “Our reservation? God its like forever ago when we made that. Let me think here, well, 4:30 if I remember right.” She improvised.
“Reservation?” The waiter questioned, lifting his eyebrows.
“Yes,” John B nodded at Olly thankfully.
“You have a reservation?” The waiter said again, as if he didn’t here it right the first time.
“Yes, we have a harbor-view king on the third floor with the twin bed in the corner, and we’ve been patrons of your hotel for years. And I will be very sure that the manager knows of your hospitality, Elliot, thank you.”
“Yes, thank you.” Olly set down her drink quickly and followed Sarah.
“You stay here?” John B goggled as they walked up a few flights of steps.
“Yes, well, not anymore.”
Before one of the cleaning maids could notice, Olly nicked her phone and the hotel administered one, handing the cell over to John B as they climbed more steps.
The steps lead to the roof of the hotel, and two folding lawn recliners told Olly that people came up here to watch the sunset all the time. She stared out across the ocean for a moment, noticing the waves crashing on the shore. Her heart panged for Pope and JJ in that moment, and she knew both of them would be freaking out to go and surf. Inside, she was freaking out to go and surf. But she’d seen the paper tacked up in town of her face, and above her name, Ottoline Windrich, was the words in red ink, WANTED. She knew if she went down to the beach, it might be her last time ever touching the ocean.
“Okay. You know what? You didn’t tell me you lived on a beach filled with rollers that just slide in each day.” John B faked offense in his voice.
“That's what she said.” Olly whispered just faintly enough for Sarah and John B to here, who both looked away, giggling to themselves.
“Yeah, we used to come here as kids when we were building the vacation house right over there.” John B’s blonde girlfriend pointed to where the mansion they’d seen earlier sat, its white wooden panels almost blinding Olly in the late day sun. Oh how she wished she’d taken JJ’s sunglasses before she’d left.
“I bet thats where the gold is,” he said, his voice excited.
“Promise me you won’t do anything stupid?”
“Sarah, you need to realize he does stupid shit all the time-” Olly was cut off abrubtly by her brunett friend.
“Yes, I do stupid stuff all the time without realizing it.”
“No.” Her voice was firm as she turned to both Olly and John B, “I know both of you are pining to go over there, but there is a gate, there is security, there are patrols! Its a death trap.”
“Okay,” John B didn’t sound like he fully understood what Sarah had said. But Olly knew that he did know, just didn’t care. “But just think about it, if I can get some money…”
“Real money? Not the stupid chunks of gold?” Olly questioned, flopping down onto the rooftop below her feet. Her black Vans tilted against the side of the roof as she pulled off her dark red five-panel hat, her hair dirty as she untied it from the bun it had been in for several days. It rested low on the cape of her neck, and ignoring the stiffness against her head, she ran her fingers through her brown-blonde hair.
John B was quick to defend, “no. Real money okay. I can get a lawyer. I clean clear me and Olly’s name. We can go home.”
Olly sighed and shook her head, not wanting to pop the bubble of his dreams. She was never as positive of a person as John B ever was.
“Look, the gold is only going to be there for a couple of days.” He kept going, “and after that its gone. It's gone forever. The world thinks we’re dead.” John B shrugged, staring into Sarah’s eyes. “It's perfect, we just go, hop over the gate, and steal some gold.”
“And get arrested and killed in the electric chair on the way. It's one of my most valuable bucket list wishes, actually. Go to the Bahamas, go to Nassau, stay in a nice hotel, get killed trying to steal gold that they know we want.” Olly held up her taped fingers, pulling off the white bandage slowly.
“No.” Sarah finally let her voice out. John B rolled back his head in exasperation, blocking Olly’s sunlight for a moment. She kicked him lightly and he glared and moved a little further away from her.
“John B, you and Olly are wanted.”
“They think Olly is dead.”
Sarah put on a harsher tone, “John B, you and Olly are wanted. It’s just way too dangerous.”
“I agree with Sarah, for once.” Olly slipped out. “I don’t want to get fried in the electric chair yet, JB.”
“Yeah.”
“Please promise me. Please, both of you promise me you won’t go over there?” Sarah pleaded, and Olly let out a breath.
“I promise,” John B answered, giving Sarah and weak smile.
“Fuck it, me too.” Olly joined in, hopping up to slap hands with both her friends. "Unless he does something dumb."
“Besides, we have got a super sweet crib.”
“It might just be a crib if they didn’t put the twin in there for me.” Olly caused her friends to giggle lightheartedly. As Sarah walked away from where they had been talking on the roof, John B sent Olly a sideways glance. She stared at him, and mouthed, if you do it, John B, you’ll break her heart.
He mouthed back, god, Ottoline, I won’t.
But she always knew when he was lying. Olly realized that Sarah needed to learn that skill, and quickly, if she wanted to stay married to John B.
A few minutes later, Olly lay splayed out on the roof of the hotel, holding the hotel administration phone, which suddenly died on her. She figured she’d just steal a cord from somewhere and keep this thing to herself until they got back to the obx. Well, if they ever got back to the obx.
John B’s phone dinged as he sat himself on the lawn recliner, staring down at the dark rectangle.
Olly got up quickly, realizing what he was doing, and sat next to him, causing John B to scoot over to give her room on the white chair.
“Where’d you get that?” Sarah questioned, sending a look at Olly that she couldn’t place.
“He just borrowed it.”
“For a minute,” John B added to Olly’s analysis.
“What are you doing?” Sarah followed.
“He’s sending a message from beyond the grave.” Olly made her voice shrill at the ends, holding her hand up and jumping at the last second as though she were a ghost.
The phone dinged, and she traced her eyes silently over what John B had sent, giving herself a smile.
He’d sneakily taken a photo of him and Sarah leaning against one another while Olly was still laying on the ground.
“They are going to have an aneurysm.”
WTF, is this you? A number Olly recognized as Kiara’s typed quickly, and John B quickly typed his own reply.
Is JJ there? He asked the group chat.
I’m here Bree. JJ’s number typed quickly.
Did you pimp my short board?
A few moments later, the same number typed back; Why isn’t Olly in the photo, bree? Is she okay?
Olly snatched the phone from John B’s fingers and sent a picture of herself, her red five-panel hat, the same one JJ had gotten for her, was back on her head. She gave the camera her signature lopsided smile, the one she only gave to her deepest friends.
I can’t believe the hat didn’t come off in the storm. Pope’s number typed.
Kiara added in, and now JJ is looking like a mad dog.
Laying super low in Nassau, Olly typed into the phone. Which means the cops will find us soon.
John B took the phone back, and typed in quickly, not missing a letter; can you clear our names? We want to come home
Olly took it back, tightening her grip on the black rectangle as she held back her emotion. Be in touch, k? P4L
Coming down from the roof, Olly followed John B and Sarah down the elevator, clutching the few dollars she had in her Carhartt short pocket. The phone that needed charging sat on top of it, and she prayed she could find a cord. She needed to talk to JJ to make sure he was taking care of Butcher, her gangly mutt. She also had a few words she needed to say in private to Pope and Kiara.
It had crossed her mind that JJ wouldn’t take the news of her and John B’s apparent death well. She’s worried about him while on the boat, wondering if he’d done anything stupid out of sheer anger and sadness. She needed to make sure he didn’t get himself hurt over her or his best friend.
“We gotta find some food,” Sarah said, looking out across the hallway of the open air hotel.
“Very true.”
“Yeah.”
Seeing the maid that they’d stolen the phones from, John B said a quick hi, her response being the same. Olly watched as he set the phone back on the cart. He glanced, as if asking if she was going to give the hotel one back, and she shook her head. He shrugged in response.
“Lets go.” Sarah broke the silence.
Running down the stairs, Olly heard a mic check on the bottom floor.
“Check one, check two, check, check.” Was followed by a guitar strumming, and Olly wished she could touch the instrument. “How does that sound, okay?”
“Go check it out?” The blonde girlfriend turned to her brunette boy and his close friend.
“Sure, sure.” The blonde friend nodded lightly. The blonde girlfriend chuckled at her words.
“Get some chairs over here man.” Another voice, the same one that did the mic check, said.
Following her friends through the hotel, Olly turned her head to see a table stacked with platters of freshly prepared food. Watching as Sarah turned and mouthed a spoonful of some casserole, Olly followed John B’s action and grabbed a large pan full of bread crumb topped mac and cheese. It was not a food that she’d expect to find in a foreign five star hotel, but it was one of her comfort meals, and so she thought it would do.
Leaning against the pole and shoving the mac and cheese down her throat, she watched as John B and Sarah, after hearing one of their favorite songs come on in the background, turned and held each others hands. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, so she closed her eyes and enjoyed the flavors pulling around her mouth.
The worries nagged her, filling her up like she was eating them. You will never get home. You will never see JJ or Pope or Butcher again. You will never touch the ocean again. You will never play volleyball again.
She imagined holding JJ’s hand instead of the spoon, and imagined pulling him against her thin lips. Pushing away the thought as she realized how painful it could be, she immersed herself back into the mac and cheese.
She looked up to see John B and Sarah, still holding fingertips together, turn and run towards a covered awning, dancing lightly. Olly smiled warmly, her heart throbbing. What she would do to dance with JJ right now.
When they finished, she joined others in clapping for the two lovebirds. Come on, lonely bird. She remembered the nickname the captain of the ship had called her. Lonely bird. How fitting.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
ok. so how was that? I honestly don’t know. this is only part one of the first episode!
Don’t hesitate to reblog, like, leave constructive comments, send feedback on what you just read or what you’d like to read next.
Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist and let me know if you are on the taglist but didn’t receive the notification.
My requests are open! Ask away people !
Read me here!
General Masterlist
Series’ masterlist
Pairing: OC!Elizabeth Miller x JJ Maybank
Word count: approx. 9687
Episode: 3 (usually i would cut the episode in half but felt like this one needed to be whole.)
A/N: fluff, jj and Beth being teeth rotting sweet, swearing, stealing, mentions of abuse, breaking and entering, mention of assault & light description of injuries, mentions of death, mentions of gun, jj being cute AF,
************************
Elizabeth Miller has been standing in the Redfield’s family crypt for the past few seconds, eyes locked on a FedEx envelope stuck in a large and deep crack in the wall. She tugs it out, shining a lit on it.
“For Bird”
She reads, noticing the weird shape of the R, Big John. She walks back towards the hole, handing the envelope to John B.
“That's not gold.” Pope sighs disappointed in seeing the envelope. Grunting, she pulls herself through the hole, latching onto JJ’s hand to get to the other side.
“Holy shit. This is from my dad.” John B mutters looking down at the package in his hand. Kie and Ellie looking at each other with weary but hopeful looks.
Beth looks up at JJ as she hears his lighter click, watching the flame light up the rolled up, weed filled piece of paper to his mouth. She watches as he inhales and exhales the smoking the builds up in his lungs.
“Hit me.” She says quietly, her hand reaching up and taking the joint out of his mouth and into hers, watching as JJ’s eyes follow her hand’s movement. They both look away from each other when the bright glares of a vehicle blind them.
“Code red. Code red. Square groupers! Square groupers!” JJ hurries his friends quietly, leading them behind the crypt, his hand wrapped around her wrist makes her the last one to be hidden.
“It's the guys who robbed your house.” Beth blinks and winces when she gets hit in the eyes by the glare of the lights the friends were carrying.
“Fuck, guys. Light! Light!” She tells them, reaching up and clicking off JJ’s headlamp, as he tapped his joint on the cement wall.
“I see something!” A masculine voice says from far away, making the teens, mostly JJ, try to see.
“Do you think it’s them?” Kie says from next to John B. Beth blindly reaches for her best friend’s hand.
“Homie’s got a gun.” He says going back against the hard wall.
“Screw this.” Kie says before running towards their van, the others following closely behind her.
With their lights on to see where they were stepping, they run towards the tall, metal fence. Climbing over the fence, they go John B first, Kie following, JJ and Beth next
“Hurry up!”
Once they get back on the solid ground, Ellie turns back seeing Pope stuck on the fence.
“Guys, I’m stuck.” He says and Ellie walks to him, trying to pull him down.
“I got you.” Kie and Beth says as they try to get the boy off the fence.
“Pope don’t move, okay?” Elizabeth hears JJ say, turning around she sees the blonde with the gun in his hand.
“You good?” She asks Kie and the girl nods. Both tugging on the boy’s hips.
“You're gonna rip me. Wait. You're gonna rip me!” Pope panics and Ellie leaves him for a few seconds to turn to JJ laughing and mouthing “that’s what she said” the boy letting out a loud laugh as the light brunette goes back to pulling Pope off.
“You’re fine. Come on!” Kie says as they finally get him off, his pants stuck at the top of the fence.
The teens laugh at their friend’s appearance, walking quickly towards John B’s van.
“Nice! Come on, dude. It's a little Tootsie Roll.” JJ mocks earning a light flick on his forehead as they all get inside the van laughing.
Kie shuts the sliding door and Elizabeth watches as Pope covers himself with his hands. The five friends laughing off the adrenaline rush they just lived.
********************
Still a little bit high on the adrenaline and the little amount of weed Elizabeth had she moves to the spare bedroom and changes into spandex and a hoodie belonging to either JJ or John B. She makes her way to the center of the home, stopping as she notices JJ making himself a PB & J sandwich.
“That bread had mold on it three days ago.” Pope says to the blonde, seeing he wasn’t stopping Pope sends the light brunette a disgusted look.
“I'll just pull off the bad parts. Plus, mold is good for you. It's just a natural organism.” Beth huffs out and walks to the boy.
“No, it’s not. I’m not taking care of you if you empty your stomach during the night, sweet.” She says, the nickname slipping off her tongue even though she rarely called him that with other people. The teenager just smiles at the girl warmly before tucking her under his arm.
“JJ! Ellie!”
“We’re coming!” She rests under his arm circling her arm
“Hot damn! Let's do it.” The blonde says taking a bite of his shoulder and Ellie watches in amusement as he gags, spitting out the chewed-up piece of moldy bread into his hand, he leaned away to throw the whole thing away, the light brunette never leaving his grasps.
She turns back her attention to the Routledge boy, the friends gathering tightly around the round table. She watches as John B opens the FedEx package and pulls out a map.
“Holy shit.” John B mumbles, flattening out the paper.
“Oh. X marks the spot.” Pope points to an “X” written with a black marker.
“Longitude, latitude. Wait, there's somethin' else in there.”
“What's that?” JJ asks, staring at the object in his best friend’s hands.
“It's a tape recorder, dumbass.” Kie answers bringing a snicker to the back of Elizabeth’s throat. John B clicks the play button and they all gasp when the voice of Big John echo through the now silent room.
“Who’s bird?” JJ asks to the others.
“That’s what my dad called me.”
“I hate to say, "I told you so," but I told you so. And you doubted your old man. I suspect at this moment, you're filled with guilt and self-loathing over our last fight, but don't kill yourself just yet, kid. I didn't expect to find the Merchant either. You were probably right to call me out. Wasn't exactly Father of the Decade. What can I say, kid? I could smell the barn. And hopefully, we're listenin' to this in our brand-new sugar-shack down in Costa Rica, livin' off passive investments and pulling on permits. If not, and you find this for less than optimal reasons, well, that's what the map is for. There she is, the wreck of the Merchant. If somethin' happens to me, finish what I started. Go for the gold, kid. I love you, Bird, even if I didn't always act like it. I'll see you on the other side.” Ellie lets go of JJ and takes a step before wrapping her arms around John B’s shoulder. “Oh, and John B? Take care of the Miller girls for me, huh?” His father’s voice says before it clicks and stops. Elizabeth’s head snapping up in shock.
Big John and her mother had been the Romeo and Juliet of their time, a kook falling in love with the boy that was John Routledge when he had fixed something for her father. They were together for five years before Robin had found Ellie’s dad and John had found John B’s mom. After her dad left, Robin and Elizabeth moved back to the cut, living with the Routledge for a year and a half until she had enough money to get them a two-bedroom house a street away. John B and Ellie had always said that they were the closest thing each other had for a sibling.
John B taps the girl’s arm making her back away before he stands up and supports himself against a wall, sobbing.
“Holy shit, he did it! Big John... He found the Merchant...”
“JJ come on. Please?” Ellie says to the blonde, a disapproving look on her face. He apologizes and sends his best friend a sorry look.
Kie looks at Ellie in a “go comfort him” manner, the brunette shaking her head, she puts her hand on her friend’s shoulder.
“He needs you right now. Go.” She says and watches as Kie wraps herself around John B.
They wait as John B and Kie go outside for a few minutes, letting them talk, letting Kie be there for John B. When JJ decides that they should join, Ellie grabs Kie’s ukulele, scratching the chords, strumming a little melody she was making up as they went down the dock.
“How much was it again?’ JJ asks making Pope and Ellie, who were sitting on the bench, look up at him.
“Four hundred mil”
“Alright, let’s talk the split. Now, before we say "evenly," may I remind you that I am the only one that can properly defend us from those groupers who were after us. Protection? Not cheap, okay?” JJ says raising the gun in the air, wiggling it around.
“Get that away, JJ. God! And you haven’t even trained.” Elizabeth says, moving away from the blonde.
“You’ve done zero training.” Pope deadpans at the same time.
“YouTube, bro! That's at least a five percent bump right there.”
“You haven’t—”
“Any objections? Didn’t think so.” Ellie rolls her eyes and crosses her leg, her head resting on Pope’s shoulder. “I don't hear any, so…”
“What are you gonna do with your 800 mil, Pope?” Kie speaks up, looking down at the boy, Ellie lifts her head from his shoulder and looks at him.
“Pay for college in advance. And also, textbooks. Those are expensive.”
“What about you, Kie?”
“Yeah, what does a socialist do when she's rich?”
“Just wanna make a double album. About OBX, the Pogues.” Ellie looks at her best friend and chuckles. “You know, the way Catch a Fire is about Kingston. Record it at Marley Studio, Peter Tosh producing.”
“Peter Tosh is dead.”
“Peter Tosh is dead. I know.”
“His spirit will never die, though.” Ellie said smiling.
“I know what I'll do. I'm gonna get a big ass house on Figure Eight and go full Kook.” JJ says staring at the side of Ellie’s face.
“You're gonna go full Kook?”
“Yup. Gonna get a marble statue of myself, and then I'm gonna get a koi pond. Put a bunch of those fish... Get the little lady the restaurant she’s always wanted, big ass kitchen with the best stuff money can buy.” Ellie looks up at JJ with a content smile on her face, nodding, her lower lip tucked between her teeth.
“I’m never visiting.” Kie says looking at Ellie with a knowing smile.
“Will you visit me? Y’know in my little apartment over my restaurant that JJ is gonna buy me.”
“Sure.” She says, taking a sip of her beer. “But seriously, Ellie, what do you wanna do?”
“Find my dad, pay off my mom’s debt, get myself through culinary school maybe?” She sighs dreamily, half drunken beer in her hand before her gaze darkens a little, her demeanor changing. “I’d wanna help a foundation or charity against kids being abused or neglected.” She says quietly, looking at the floor of the dock, everyone shooting her a sad look. “What about you, JB?” She asks the curly headed teen.
“To going full kook.” John B says and the phrase is repeated between the friends, clinking if beer bottles and laughter the only sound heard.
********************
In the morning, all four teens, clad in their swimsuit, are sitting in the boat enjoying the bright and warm sun. JJ sitting on the bow, Kie sitting on the border, sunglasses on, Pope and John B taking turns driving the boat.
“You guys see that? That's the Malibu 24-MXZ, the world's finest wake setter. Number one in luxury, quality, and performance. 200K, easy.” JJ says looking back at the boat many feet from them.
“We picked the wrong parents.” Pope says.
“I hate to break it to you guys, but that's Topper and his girlfriend.” Kie says looking away when the expensive boat and its snobby passengers passed by them. They watch as Sarah Cameron, Kook princess, Elizabeth and Kie’s old best friend looked at them, her sunglasses down. “You don't have to act like you don't see us, bitch.” Kie mutters.
“Weren’t you and Beth like friends with her?” JJ asks curiously.
“Yeah, were.”
“Remind me why Ellie couldn’t be here?” John B asks his best friend.
“Had to work.” JJ mutters slipping back his sunglasses on his face.
Hums of surprise and agreement goes around the group before they make their way on the water.
********************
Later that day, still only the four teenagers find themselves at the Island Club, a hotel that was popular with Kooks and rich tourons.
“All right, keep a look out. We're behind enemy lines.” JJ says taking the gun out of the glove compartment.
“Yo, come on, man. Just put it back.”
“What?” The blonde looks at his best friend, finger on the trigger, safety on. “You can never be too careful.” He turns his head around, seeing Pope lean on the door.
“Hey, I predict that bringing a weapon to a four-star hotel will likely cause more problems than they solve.”
“Thank you, Pope.” Kie walks the few steps to the front of the car, leaning her hands on the two front seats.
“I swear to God, I'm gonna throw that thing in the ocean, JJ. Put it back.” John B grabs the gun from the barrel and carefully shoves it back into the glove compartment.
“There you go.” Pope sighs in relief.
“You can't grab a gun like that.” JJ sighs exasperated, walking out of the van. “Can't forget my badge. Professional busboy.” He says clipping a badge on his pants.
“So, where are we going now?”
“We're getting on the internet because only rich people have electricity right now. This way!” He says motioning towards the hotel.
The group sneak in the hotel, making their way towards the kitchen. Kiara, John B and Pope follow JJ as he expertly makes his way around the kitchen.
“Andrew!” JJ calls out teasingly, making his presence known. “What’s up bro? Mama L, good to see you!” He says trying to sneak off a piece of food.
“Hey, no! JJ!” He stops and looks around the kitchen.
“Your little lady just went off with a few plates, should be back in a few seconds.” Mama L says smiling up at the boy as she handed a few pieces of fruit to the other three.
JJ walks to the double door leading to the large dining room and searches around the room before his eyes fall on Beth.
“Oh fuck, she’s wearing the good uniform.” He feels John B come up behind him.
“What? Oh, that’s Ellie. I didn’t know you guys were working together?”
“Yeah, she got me the job a few months ago.” JJ watches as the girl looks up, seeing him looking at her through the round shaped window. “Yep, good uniform.” He says as she smiles at customer, a notepad in her hand.
“What do you mean?” John B asks confused.
“Well, you see the way her shirt is tucked into her pants?” John B hums positively. “Well, after a few hours it’ll—” he gestures to his chest area, a goofy smile on his face.
“Don’t finish that JJ.” Kie warns the boy as the brunette walks into the kitchen with a tray full of dirty dishes that she puts on the counter.
“Hey,” she smiles up at him, her voice soft. “What are you doing here?” a soft, yet wide smile on her face as she looks up at him.
“We need internet.” He states and she looks at her friends, waving, her focus staying on the blonde.
“Oh, okay.” She said tightening her ponytail.
“You look good, by the way.” He says softly and she blushes.
“I got your note, by the way.” She mutters turning a little bit away from their friends.
“Oh yeah?” The rest of the Pogues all share confused looks at seeing the girl all blushy and the boy looking so adorably calm.
They watch as Mama L looks at them with pride and Kie turns around seeing that the kitchen has gotten quieter.
“What’s- what’s happening?” She asks the cook.
“It’s just so adorable seeing them.” She says as she puts together a large plate of seafood.
“Them?” John B asks.
“They’ve been like this ever since JJ started working here, leaving notes in each other’s locker, taking their breaks together, all the flirting. It’s like watching a reality show.” She says and Kie looks up at her best friend in shock.
“Hey, JJ?” John B calls getting the blonde focused on them, the hushed conversation between the two being stopping, leaving JJ smirking and Ellie playing with her hands nervously.
“Yeah, buddy?”
“The internet?”
“Oh, shit. Yeah, okay let’s go.” He says squeezing the girl’s hands subconsciously and leading his friends towards the hotel’s media room.
“You guys are not staying?” She asks.
“Go with your friends, baby, you’ll help me when you get back.” The cook smiles as the teenage girl grins at the idea of going with her friends and getting to help the cook. Elizabeth nods before walking to join her friends.
“Kie! Wait for me!” She shouts in the hallway, receiving weird and offended glances from the customers, the other employees simply chuckling.
Kiara turns around seeing her best friends briskly walk towards them.
“We gotta talk.” Kie whispers in her friend’s ear.
They walk through hallways, the group trying to stay as quiet as they could before they arrived in front of two doors. JJ opens the door for them and all five push through trying to get to a computer.
“Sweet Lord, the internet!” Pope says walking towards the computers. “I've missed you.”
“Let me get in there. Gotta check out my Insta models.” Ellie rolls her eyes as she shut the open Google page in front of JJ.
“We don’t have time.” She says before turning towards the computer Pope was using.
“Well, if it's off the deep end, it's not gonna be much of a treasure hunt, is it?” They watch as the computer focuses on one location in particular. JJ and Ellie turn around when they hear footsteps and laughs on the other side of the closed door.
“Shit, it's on the high side. It's only 900 feet.”
“That's not too deep.”
“Is that doable or something?”
“Yeah, totally doable.”
“Will we be taking your personal submarine?” Kie and Ellie watch as the three boys converse.
“How do you know this, Mr. Dive Master?”
“The salvage yards. They got a drone that can drop 1,000. It has a 360 camera and everything. It's for, like, deep dives and stuff. It's exactly what we need.”
“Can your dad get his grimy little hands on that?” Kie and Ellie both roll their eyes at the mention of the “man”.
“Well, my dad's grimy little hands got his ass fired. I guess the salvage captain frowns on showing up shitfaced, turns out. But the drone's there. It's in the impound yard out back.”
“How much did you say was on the Royal Merchant again?” Kie asks her friends.
“Huh, 400 million.” He says and the rest of the Pogues look at each other nodding.
“400 million dollars?” Kie, Beth, JJ and John B stand up seconds after Pope, walking towards the door urgently.
“No. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. No!”
“Get away, Pope!” Beth says moving the boy from the door.
“Come on, let’s go!” Kie calls out to her friends.
“Can't we do anything legal for money?”
“Hey, wait, guys, I won’t be able to come.” Beth stops in the hallway, redoing her ponytail.
“What? Why?” JJ asks confused.
“I got work.” She smiles gesturing to her uniform.
“Yeah, but once we get the gold you won’t have to work, princess.”
“I know, JJ. But we don’t have it yet and we gotta feed ourselves, y’know. Mom’s making money but she’s part time, no one wants to hire the ex-wife of a fraudster.” She plays with her hands, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “I gotta go, guys!” She calls out to her friends. “let me knows how it goes? Alright?” she looks at him, closing her eyes as he presses a quick kiss to her cheek, their friends looking at them surprised. “Don’t forget JJ.” she waves them off before jogging back to the kitchen where she’s awaited by the chef.
*******************
The Pogues, minus Elizabeth are all in the van, making their way to the salvage yard.
“Pope, we're not stealing the drone. We're borrowing it.” John B says amused.
“"Humans are the only animal that can't tell fantasy from reality."”
“Did you come up with that?”
“Albert Bernstein came up with it, but it applies to this whole treasure-hunting thing.”
“Oh,”
“So, which is it? Fantasy or reality?”
“Why are you so weird, Pope?” JJ focuses on the joint between his fingers, his eyes never leaving the tightly rolled piece of paper.
“It's fantasy, but possible reality.”
“Reality.”
“Virtual reality.” JJ watches as Pope takes the joint from his hands, throwing it away towards the back.
“Keep the signal clear.” John B parks the van, watching as Kie gets out of it.
“You know what your problem is?”
“You?”
“No! It's that you need to relax, man. You're always so tense!”
“I'm not too tense.”
“Hey, don't worry. You got this.” John B smiles at his best female friend.
“It's not me that I'm worried about.” Kie looks at the back of the van.
“Got it. Let's hope this works.”
Kie gets in her parents’ car, the HMS pogue tied to it as she drives it to the salvage yard.
“Hello? Excuse me?” She calls out to the security guard, seeing him get out of his chair and walk to the fence.
“Can I help you?”
“Hi! Um, I actually have a flat tire. I was wondering if maybe you could help me out?” The guard looks at the teenage girl, up and down before nodding, a smirk on his face.
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, good.” She turns away from the men, shaking her head disapprovingly. “it’s too easy.”
JJ and John B watch from a few feet away, the van hidden in trees and bushes as they hide behind a wooden structure.
“How's it going with Kiara?”
“It's not awkward, weird, or anything.” JJ snorts, shaking his head.
“Yeah. Honestly, I did not think you were gonna actually listen to me.”
“What?”
“I was 100 percent sure she was into you. Pope would agree.”
“Ehh...” the teenager says, an uncomfortable look on his face.
“So, like, Kie, she, like, definitely gave you the Heisman?”
“Oh, no question. Yup.”
“Gotcha.”
“Maybe she's just into somebody else.” Pope offers receiving weird looks from the other two.
“What about you, JJ?” John turns towards his best friend.
“What?”
“You and Ellie, what was that at the hotel?” John B looks at his best friend and if it wasn’t so hot out, he would’ve sworn that JJ Maybank blushed.
“Nothing.”
“Oh yeah sure, because John B and I talk quietly with smitten looks on our faces while our hands are busy doing whatever the hell that was?” Pope says interlacing his fingers, then using one of his hands to leave feather light touches to his other hand going up his arm, John B and JJ laughing at their friend. “Even that lady said it, you guys leave notes in each other’s lockers, y’all flirt...”
“Ok, whatever.” His gaze goes to where Kie and the security guard are standing. “look, it’s time.”
“It's just this back one right here. I mean, it must've been a slow leak or something.”
“Go! Go, go, go, go.”
“Been sitting in the yard too long?”
“Yeah.” Kie smiles down at the man. The three teenagers run down the length of the metal fence, before going through the closing doors of the gate.
“Yeah, I... I got this.”
“Thank you.”
The three boys run to a storage unit, JJ grabbing a piece of paper with the combination on it, he grabs the lock and enters the numbers, ending up being unsuccessful with unlocking it.
“Do you have the right numbers?”
“All right, so I might have the wrong numbers.” JJ turns around towards his friends
“Damn it!”
The ferocious barking of a dog is heard and seconds later a German shepherd appears running towards JJ, John B and Pope.
“Oh! Hey!” JJ says trying to attract the dog’s attention.
“That’s a cougar! Never mind.” Pope watches as John B leaves, running for his life.
“Hi! No, stay there! Good boy. No, you're okay! Pope, run!” JJ yells moving away from the dog.
“Back off! Back off! Back off!” Pope grabs a piece of pipe, waving it around the dog, trying to scare it.
“I got a toy, boy! Wait, no. I was just kidding. Shit! Okay, sit!” JJ grabs a red tissue, attracting the dog and running away.
The security guard’s head snaps up, hearing the barks of the dog.
“Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Oh... Oh, Tebow's got somethin'.” He stands up.
“It's probably just a raccoon, maybe. You know?” She says quickly. “Nothin' to worry about. Yeah.” The man goes back to fixing the tire, Kie going around the car and letting air out of another tire, making it hiss. The man hearing the noise joins her, seeing the teen crouched down.
“What are you doing?”
“This one looks a little low too.” The man looks at her suspiciously before running towards the yard, following the dog’s bark.
“Wait! Wait! Shit.” She runs to the driver’s door of her car and starts the engine.
John B comes back to the storage unit, seeing the lock still securely placed, he grabs a pipe and bashes the lock with it, breaking it open. He’s then able to go in and grab the drone and its equipment.
The security guards finally find the dog, barking up at a canoe that’s tied in the air.
“What's that, huh? What's that, Tebow? What you got, huh? What you got?” The man grabs his firearm.
“Whoever's up there better come on out! I mean it! Don't make me go up there and get your ass!” JJ is crouched down in the boat, hiding.
“Wait, Bobby! Don't shoot. It's me, JJ. Luke’s kid?” He says, his hands shaking.
“Luke's kid? What are you doin'?”
“I swear, okay? I didn't want to, okay?” He looks down, a pained expression on his face. The man demanding his dog to be quiet. “My dad made me.”
“Don't you lie.” Bobby says, looking at the bruised teen.
“He told me Captain Leo kept his cutting torch. You know, after he got fired.” The blonde takes a shaky breath, never losing the eye contact with the man. “He said if I didn't get it for him, he was gonna... he was gonna hit me again.”
“Son of a bitch.” Bobby cursed, upset.
“I'm sorry.” JJ apologizes, his voice breaking.
“Come on down,” bobby waits for JJ to be on the ground “I almost killed you. Here! Come on. Come on.”
“I'll just come up with somethin'. Tell him I couldn't find it.”
Mm-hm. All right.”
“Sorry.” He sniffles and walks away, a satisfied smug smirk appearing on his lips once he turns away from the man, he wipes away a tear and jogs a little.
*******************
After her shift at the hotel, Elizabeth makes her way to the Wreck to grab a bite before going to John B’s house where her friends would most likely be.
“Hey Mike!” She says once she gets through the door.
“Hello, miss Miller.” He mumbles his eyes not leaving the grill.
“Still mad at me?” She takes a seat at the counter, her bag taking the stool next to her.
“No, I’m just disappointed. He turns and looks at her. “I don’t like having to bail my daughter and goddaughter out of jail.”
“You didn’t bail us out of jail, only John B.”
“That didn’t sound as okay.” He looks up and frowns. “I’ll get your shrimp burger ready, why don’t go get changed?”
“Yeah, sure.” She mumbles and go through the back store.
John B parks the car in front of the restaurant, all four friends piling out of the car.
“Stealing drones makes you hungry.”
“What I would do to a beer and shrimp and grits right now.”
“It would not be pretty.”
They get into the restaurant, Kiara smiling as she sees her father.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Hey.”
“How'd we do?” She joins him in front of the cash register, hugging him.
“Didn't turn it over once.”
“It's probably just bad luck because of the storm.”
“Yeah, I'll be sure to tell the banks that.”
“Guess now is not the best time to ask for free food for me and my friends?” She says, smiling. They look at the three boys, watching a customer’s food as if they hadn’t eaten in days.
“Look at them. They're greedy pelicans.”
“So hungry.” John B mumbles just as Ellie gets back to the front of the restaurant, putting her work clothes into her bag. She ties her hair and moves to the grill where Kiara’s father was making her burger.
“I told you to stop hanging around them.”
“Well, everybody at the Kook Academy hates me, Dad.”
“'Cause you never gave them a chance.”
“I did give them a chance. They got stuck up. They care more about shoes than surfing. What am I supposed to do with that?” Kie asks looking behind the counter and seeing her best friend. “These are my friends.” She gestures to the boys in front, seeing them send her dad peace signs and weird waves, making her chuckle.
JJ sees movement behind Kiara and her father and sees the light brunette in front of the grill, his eyes catching the way a few hairs didn’t stick to her ponytail, or how the t-shirt she has on is a few times too large for her... Beth looks at the father-daughter duo, being too small to see JJ’s eyes on her.
“Look,” Mike sighs. “I got- gotta throw it out. Might as well take it.” He says and a huge smile appears on his daughter’s face, she kisses his cheek, thanking him.
He goes back to the small girl behind the grill, adding a secret sauce to her toasted hamburger buns.
“Don’t share with them, they’ll eat it all.” He chuckles.
“Sure.” She grabs fries adding them onto her plates and sees the boys celebrating quickly as they sigh in victory and grab a few chairs. Making sure Mike isn’t looking she quickly grabs her wallet, getting out a few bills from her tips today and puts it in the tip jar.
“C’mere.” She hears JJ say, looking back at her with a smile on his face. She watches the fours chairs on the table being occupied but she doesn’t have much time to think before JJ pulls her on his laps, securing her with his arms around her hips.
“You’re lucky I didn’t drop my food.” She says and watches as he steals a fry off her plate. She looks at his face with a calm and satisfied smile, taking off his hat and passing her hand through his hair, both totally in their world.
When Kie arrives with the food for her and the boys, they all attack it.
“Jesus, guys! I’ve been feeding you! Why are you acting like I haven’t?!” She looks around at the table, seeing her and Kie’s three boys stuff their faces.
Kie goes to the back for a few seconds and they hear the music get louder. Ellie stands up to join Kie, getting JJ hands off her. She grabs her best friend’s hand, twirling her before they start moving to the beat of the music, laughing out loud. After Kie dips her, Beth falls face to face with JJ, leaving the curly headed girl to dance alone before she grabs JJ’s hand, pulling him to her.
His laugh is in her ear and they don’t notice the looks their friends give them as they start a conversation. Kiara asking John B to dance with her.
“So, how did it go?” she asks him as she settles her arms around his neck and his hands on the small of her back, pulling her in.
“We got it, had a few unplanned things, but overall it went great, you?”
“Well, I mean. Mr. Dunleavy came today, again. Tipped me a generous 70$.” She chuckles. “Think he’s got a thing for me.” She mumbles.
“Yeah, I think it’s more the uniform, god only knows what that thing does to a man.” He whispers tightening his hold on her.
“Oh yeah? You’d know, wouldn’t you JJ.”
“Yeah, I would.”
“What kind of trouble did you get in?”
“Bobby was there, caught me hiding, but I got out, yay!” he exclaims quietly.
Elizabeth’s attention shifts from the blue-eyed boy a few inches away from her to the teenager that is currently pining after her best friend. She takes JJ’s hands in her, interlacing their fingers before she kisses his cheek sneakily, looking up at him with a smile.
“I’m gonna go entertain Pope.” She says with a knowing smile.
“Not too much.”
She walks to the waitress that’s making her way to him, grabbing the bowl in her hands.
“I got it, Jules.” She smiles. “Hey there.” She sits next to him, resting her head in her hand.
“Hey...”
“What’s up?”
“Nothing much, you?”
“Well, I’m sad, because my friend is upset.”
“I’m not sad.”
“Tell that to the laser eyes you’re sending to the back of John’s head.” She chuckles and he rolls his eyes. “just tell her, P”
“Nah.”
“Why not?”
“To save myself utterly crushing humiliation that will definitely come with me talking to her.”
“Hey, worst case scenario she doesn’t feel the same.”
“I don’t want the worst-case scenario Ellie; I want the best-case scenario. I’m not fucking John B or JJ, I don’t have women dropping in front of me, I—”
“Shit Pope, you’re like a boiling pot of hot water. You can’t keep all your feelings on the inside.”
“Go back to JJ.” He mumbles.
“What?”
“Stop pitying me and go back to him.” He says coldly.
“I’m no—”
“Leave, Ellie.” He says his voice stern. She looks at him concerned, a pout on her face before placing a comforting hand on his shoulder before leaving him alone.
*******************
The next day, the five teens (mostly Pope) set up the drone in the marsh behind John B’s house, John B, Kie and Beth in the water while JJ and Pope make sure everything was working on the dock. Ellie swims to the lens on the drone, watching John B tap it, she looked straight in the camera, smiling then blowing a kiss. The three teens watch, impressed as the drone move forward in front of them, and swim back to the surface for air.
“God bless geeks, Pope. Truly, man. What would we do without you to control the drones?”
“It's not a drone. It's an ROV.”
“Shut up. Shut up. It's too early for that right now.” JJ says moving to the railing looking at his friends coming back up.
“Hey, once we get footage of the wreck, we'll bring it to a lawyer in town and file a formal claim.”
“It's bullshit. Why do we have to do that?” Ellie gets on her back and floats, resting peacefully while her friends were talking.
“Well, there is maritime salvage law. You can't just go to the ocean floor and scoop a bunch of stuff up.” Pope explains joining JJ.
“I know. I know. It's just lawyers aren't cheap, bro.”
“As soon as they see the footage, they'll work for a comp.” John B adds.
“How do you know all of that?” Ellie pipes from near the dock.
“'Cause my dad said it, like, a million times.”
“Yeah, that's fair.” Kie says chuckling.
“This tether is, like, really long. In the wrong weather, it could get pushed around.”
“Then we'll go at dead calm.” They all look up hearing the thunder rumbling and the sky getting darker.
“At slack tide?” Ellie says climbing up the ladder, Kie following close.
“So now, we just gotta wait around for the right weather. And today is not that day.”
*******************
“So, what are we doing now?” Ellie asks as she walks through the door frame to the spare room JJ is sitting in, pulling a crop top shirt over her wet hair.
“I don’t know about you, but Pope and I got some deliveries for Heyward.”
“Oh, I didn’t know.” She mumbles going through the drawer for a hoodie.
“Aren’t you working later today, anyway?”
“Hum, no. There’s a new guy and they asked someone older to train him, leaving me with the day off.” She says sitting down next to him, using a towel to wring her hair out. “Thought we could hang out.”
“Sure, you can come with us, y’know.”
“Not sure Pope wants me there.”
“Why?”
“He kind of “snapped” at me yesterday when I talked to him about Kie. Nothing big, I just think I struck a nerve.”
“Meh, he’ll be fine. C’mon we’ll have fun, maybe go fish after.” He smiles, extending his hands to help her stand.
“Yeah okay,” she grabs his hands, standing up and they walk out of the room. “gotta go home first, say “hi” to my mom.” She walks to the back door, searching for John B, seeing him near the shack. “Yo! John B, we’ll be back later tonight!” she tells him, and they leave getting on JJ’s motorcycle.
day.”
*******************
“You boys get these groceries over to Figure Eight. Get straight back here when you're done. No fishin'.” Heyward says grabbing the bags handing his son plastic bags. “I promised delivery this afternoon. And you, Miller, you keep them in check. Especially him.” He points to the blonde, making the girl chuckle.
“Of course.”
“Rich folks don't wanna wait for you lazy sons of...” he turns with the bags in his hands, seeing JJ waiting with his arms out. “Oh, JJ, thank you. ...sons of bitches.”
With Heyward’s boat the three go around the edge of the cut, ending up in Figure Eight.
“Doesn't even look like the storm hit there.”
“That's because they got generators, bro. Get used to it. And then they say the juice will be out all summer at the cut.”
“It's nice to be a Kook.”
“Lucky bastards.”
Knowing JJ was supposed to go deliver to the Cameron’s and also because she wants to talk to Pope, Ellie grabs a few bags of her own and follow after the boy.
“I’m sorry if I overstepped, yesterday.” She says to the teenager a few feet in front of her. He stops and turns around, the sun making him squint, his brown eyes trying to see over the glare of the sun.
“Yeah, no. You’re fine,” he says as she arrives next to him. “where are you going?” he asks trying to catch the name on the delivery paper.
“Mr. Dunleavy, I swear that man is never far.” She laughs as they pass a few trees, she hears a man screaming from far away and she lifts her head, her eyes falling on Rafe and Topper. “Shit. Pope let’s move.” She says quietly.
“Hey, Rafe. Rafe! Let's get your ball, man.” She hears Topper say before she sees the Cameron son go down the small sand dune.
“Hey, you guys, what’s up?” he grabs his golf club by the end, poking at the Stella Artois beers under Pope’s arm. “Hey, how much for one of those beers?”
“They’re not for sale, Rafe.” Ellie says her voice hard as she tries to move past the two teenagers, trying to fray a way for her and Pope.
“Oh, wait, wait, wait. You can just give us one, then, right?”
“Or you can order one, like everybody else.” Pope pipes up, tensing up as Topper puts himself in front of the brunette.
“Listen. Wait, wait, wait. You're not listening to me. Um... You've got so many, bro, and we've got nothing.”
“Nothin’” Topper repeats keeping the girl from moving forward.
“They’re not mine, they’re already paid for.”
“By one of yours, so.” Ellie says looking at Topper.
“Already paid for? What the hell? You probably stole 'em, right?” Rafe tears Pope’s bag, the contents spilling on the ground.
“What the hell? You owe me for that.”
“What the fuck, Cameron? Who do you think you are?” She says turning around from Topper, sending death glares at the blonde.
“Dude, I don't owe you shit, Pogue.” Pope pushes back Rafe, Ellie trying to grab her friend so they can start running but Topper holds her back.
“Buy your own shit!”
“Hey. Come on, man! We just want one of these beers! Just give us one of these...” Topper holds the girl’s wrists in one hand while the tries to get the beers from Pope with the other.
“You guys are freaking crazy!”
“Give us a beer, man!” Topper shouts, shoving Pope to the ground, the surprise of it making him release Elizabeth’s wrists and she runs to her friend crouching over his body, looking up at Rafe with hatred in her eyes.
“Shit, my bad, man.” Topper chuckles while Ellie tries to see if the boy is badly injured.
Pope pushes off Ellie behind him as he stands up and takes a swing at Rafe, receiving the end of his club in the ribs and then over his head. Pope fell to the ground with a groan, Elizabeth standing up fuming while Topper gives her a subtle warning glance, knowing the girl’s sudden aggressive impulses from when they were kids.
“Lizzie! Don’t”
“arrrghhh!” she groans loudly trying to jump on Rafe but failing as the boy jumps back and swings at her chest, almost hitting her jaw in the process. She falls back, gasping for breath as the wind was knocked out of her lungs but the kook’s hit and the shock from falling on the ground.
“Hey! Rafe, Rafe! Come on, man!” Topper yells at his friend, trying to keep him away.
“Stay down, bitch!” Rafe shouts, his voice hoarse as he steps harshly on the girl’s hand, the shape of the ring on her thumb imprinted harsh and bright red lines and motifs on her thumb, breaking it in the process.
“Hey, let's go! Let's go, man!”
“What, man?”
“Knock it off, Rafe! Come on! Seriously. Rafe!” Rafe laughs maniacally as he swings one last time right between the Pogues’ heads. “Knock it off! Rafe, listen. Come on, man.” Topper and Elizabeth watch as Rafe Cameron crouches down next to Pope, slapping his face, making the boy groan in pain.
“We don't want you here. Got that?”
“Let him go, man.” Topper pants, slightly panicking at his friend’s behavior.
“Stay off Figure Eight, Pogue. See ya!”
Ellie opens her eyes, to see Topper stand over her and her friend while Pope gargles over the blood accumulating in his mouth.
“Fuck off, Topper, you lap dog.” She mumbles gathering all the strength she has left to sit up, helping Pope turn around so he could spit his blood out.
The pair panting as they heart race. She hears them laugh and a tear fall down her eye at the pain on her breastbone and sternum, making her cough and suck in a breath. She breathes in deeply before pushing off the floor, a yell leaving her lips as she uses her thumb to balance herself.
“Fuck.” She cries out once she’s up, she helps Pope up, bringing his arm over her shoulder as they make their way back to the boat.
When they get to the boat, she goes on first, helping Pope on and he makes his way into the cabin, staring off into the distance. She opens her bag, grabbing the hoodie she had packed earlier and JJ’s hat putting both on and sitting behind next to Pope, it doesn’t take long until they hear running footsteps on the dock and she turns her head seeing the blonde coming their way, a smile on his face. Her hand covering her tape covered hand, the ring in the hoodie’s pocket and her thumb a dark blue-purplish color, darker around her joints.
“Pope, Beth! Dude, you are not going to believe what just happened to me, man!” JJ jumps onto the boat, signaling Pope that he could start it. The driver of the boat still looking ahead, his mind raging with fire. “Whoo! That was the best 100 bucks I've ever made! When I say count me in on all these grocery deliveries, Pope, I mean it.” JJ smiles at the girl when he arrives into the cabin, receiving a half-assed smile that he finds strange, the girl never meeting his blue eyes.
He walks next to Pope, making a mental note about asking her what was going on later, and frowns when he sees the emotionless face of his friend. “What's up with you? Bro, you good?” he sits down next to her, not questioning why she’s dressed for cold weather. JJ leans forward, worried and tenses up when he sees blood dripping down from the hat. “Yo, what happened to your face, dude?” he lifts up the cap seeing the wound, his jaw clenching in anger. “Jesus! What happened?”
“Rafe and Topper jumped us. They said no Pogues on their side of the island.” Pope says as a few tears fall down his face.
JJ looks back at the back of the boat, towards where they came from and froze, his whole body tensing up, his fists clenching until his knuckles turns white, he snaps his head towards the girl, still talking to Pope.
“Pope, what do you mean, us?” He says through gritted teeth, his gaze hard on the small brunette.
Suddenly, his hand goes over her face and she tries not to flinch as he takes the hat off, breathing in relief when he sees no bruises and no blood. His eyes rake over her body, watching any signs of redness on her legs, what he can see of her neck and—
“Beth, take off the hoodie.” He demands, trying to harden his voice, even if it still cracked.
“What? No, I’m cold.” She says hugging her arms to her body.
“Princess, please take off the hoodie.” She rolls her eyes, handing him the ring that’s in the pocket, making him frown, before she groans quietly so he doesn’t hear and passes the piece of clothing over her head, her shirt hiding a small part of the chest area that is bruised, the rest uncovered as it starts to spread. “Beth what the—” his eyes open wide at the large bruise in the middle of her breasts. “what the fuck did they do to you, guys?” he asks gently pulling the girl against him, trying to examine the size and severity of the bruise.
“Don’t use this as an opportunity to look down my shirt, Maybank.” She chuckles pushing her away behind her ears, wincing as the tape stuck to her hair. “Ugh.” JJ grabs her hand.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing.”
“Did they break your hand too?” he unwraps the tape, a red mark on her hand from the tape but her thumb and the base of her pointer finger turning a violent violet. He groans in frustration, subtlety kissing her knuckles a few times before her puts back the hoodie on her, putting the large ring on her other hand and wrapping her thumb correctly. “Here, I know how to do this, done it before.” Her eyes snapping up from their joint hands to his blue eyes when she saw the familiar look that came with the thought of Luke Maybank. He wraps her hand in silent, Pope buzzing with anger beside them, she kisses his cheek when he’s done, going to sit out on the bow. “What are you gonna do?” JJ asks Pope.
Pope drives them to a dock, stopping in front of Topper’s house, Ellie looks up from her bruised hand to the two teenagers.
“2020 Malibu, 24-MXC. The world's finest wake setter. Number one in quality, luxury, and performance.”
“This is war, Pope. They hit us, we hit them. Do it.” JJ says after pulling what looks like a neck cover, over his head, his sunglasses following. Ellie pulling the hood of her hoodie over her head she watches as Pope halfway undresses and half plunges half face plants in the water.
JJ turns around to look at her, pulling his glasses down to wink at her and she shakes her head disapprovingly.
“Why didn’t you say something if you don’t approve?”
“I never said I didn’t approve, just why Topper? Why not Rafe, the one who actually hit us?” She says confused.
“I don’t think he cares, actually.” JJ turns around watching Pope swim towards the boat.
JJ starts to bring out the ladder as Pope climbs onto the kook’s boat, grabbing something and swimming back. Pope comes up with a smile, holding up the small metal piece.
“Wow, you did it. I'm so proud of you right now. Holy crap.” JJ pulls back the piece of clothing, placing his glasses against his tank’s collar, his eyes shining bright with mischief. Ellie walks to them, Pope handing her the piece.
“Won’t that make the boat sink?” she asks and JJ nods eagerly and she smiles, the blonde pulling her to him and kissing her hairline.
“Guys?”
“Yeah?”
“You can't tell anybody.”
“Oh, no, yeah.”
“Totally, dude.”
“No, I'm serious, dude. Not Kie, not John B, nobody.”
“Yup, our lips are sealed. Give me that. Give me that.” He grabs the piece from Beth before throwing it as far as he could into the water.
“Okay! Let's get outta here.” Ellie grabs the ladder, putting it back into the boat as JJ pulls her with him in the cabin next to Pope, the three leaving with satisfied grins on their faces.
Later, Pope, JJ and Elizabeth join their friends in the water, Elizabeth wearing her black wet suit, covering up the bruise on her chest.
“Hey! Save some waves for us!” JJ calls out, the three paddling towards their friends.
“Hey, where you been?”
They surf for about an hour, Pope and Beth’s body sore from the hits they were given earlier that day, she gets back on land a few minutes before her friends, laying down on her rigid surfboard.
“Hey, you okay?” Elizabeth opens one eye to see her best friend standing over her, hair dripping wet.
“Yeah, Kie, what’s up?”
“Don’t know, just feel like we haven’t spent much time together since the summer started.” She sits down next to the brunette.
“Yeah?” Kie nods. “Well, that’s because you spent the majority of the time following after John B like a whipped pussy.” She laughs as Kiara sends her a shocked and surprised expression.
“I’m spending too much time with him? What about you and JJ? Huh? The guy’s got more than half of his stuff at your house, you work together twenty hours a week... Don’t think I haven’t been noticing y’all macking on each other.”
“We are not, though and you know about his home life, mom and I are just trying to help out.” Kie nods and they stare off at the water, seeing the three boys walk back towards them, falling down their hair, bodies illuminated by the sun setting. “Fuck, I like that part.” Ellie mutters her eyes never leaving the blonde’s body she turns, looking at Kie, both letting out loud laughs.
“What’s so funny?” JJ asks as he pushes his hair back.
“Nothing.” Both girls answer as Beth slips underneath JJ’s arm, him grabbing her board and carrying them to the van.
*******************
After a few showers for the Pogues and a batch of grilled cheeses from Beth, the five of them made their way outside to the chairs and hammock. JJ and Beth using half the hammock, Pope on a chair in front of John B and Kie, sitting higher than JJ halfway on his lap, none of them saying a work about the other half of the hammock that’s unoccupied as Ellie leans back against him, her cheek against the top of his head where she could smell the cheap men shampoo John B would buy. Her fingers tracing lazy and soothing patterns on his arms; writing out her name, his... His head resting against her hoodie covered shoulder as she reached around the underside of his head and scratch at the light stubble there, his eyes closing at the feeling.
“You really think it's out there? Like, no bullshit?” Pope speaks up, breaking the comfortable silence the Pogues were in.
“My father thought it was.”
“But do you?”
“After hearing his voice on that tape... I think I do.”
“Only one way to find out.” Pope sighs.
“Look, we're gonna find it, you know? Even JJ believes.” Kie says looking at the cuddled-up pair. Hearing his name, JJ gets pulled out of his trance, Beth’s nail still scratching his scalp, a quiet satisfied sound coming from his throat, only heard by the two.
“Oh, my God, JJ, do you really believe?”
“Totally.” He says confidently, his voice heavy with sleep. “Wait. Are we talking about four mil?”
“Four hundred mil.” Kie, Pope and Beth say at the same time.
“Jinx.” Kie smiles at her best friend, Beth glad that it was too dark and that they couldn’t see her expression clearly. She leans down, grabbing JJ with her as they finally use the whole hammock. She rests her head on his shoulder, it’s so dark outside that none of them see her place sleepy little kisses on his cheek and his jaw. He hums happily, tucking her comfortably under his shoulder before he leans down, placing a feather light kiss- a brush of his lips against her, before pressing them harder on her forehead.
“I'm gonna dream about shipwrecks.” Kie and Beth chuckling.
“Good night, Bird!”
“Good night, bird shit!” Beth lets out a last tiny chuckle before officially closing her eyes and going to sleep.
*******************
“All right, JJ. Pin it here.”
“Roger that! X marks the spot. All right, ladies and gentlemen. To going full Kook.” John B says, letting the drone down into the water, Beth watching from beside Kie.
Monitoring the descent, Kie and Ellie watch as the cable go deeper and deeper into the water.
“All right, JJ, we're right over it. Ten seconds northwest.”
“Got it! Ten seconds northwest.”
“One hundred feet.” Kie smiles, watching as her best friend marks it. Everyone turns around when Pope gasps, all on edge.
“What? What, what, what, what?”
“It's nothing. Sorry, I thought...”
“Don't do that to me, man.” JJ calls from the cabin.
“Come on, bro”
“My bad. I just thought I saw... And to quote The Hobbit, "Down, down, to Goblin Town. Down, down, you go, my lad."
“Four hundred feet!” Beth calls before she looks up at the sky, the clouds appearing, turning it a dark grey. “The tide's turning.” She says, making sure Kie was okay before slipping her the chalk and walking inside the cabin to grab her sunglasses. Putting them on she wraps her arms around JJ’s body, feeling him tense up immensely before he looks down, seeing the large silver ring with a native’s face on it. One hand leaving the wheel a few seconds before he pulls her to his front, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and placing her hands on the wheel.
“Hey, JJ?” John B looks behind him, seeing the last two members of his family, he smiles and focuses back on the task.
“Yup?”
“Ten seconds easy. South-southeast.”
“Copy that!” JJ moves the girl gently to the side, and she settles down next to him.
“JJ, 20 seconds mid-speed, all right? South.”
“Copy that! Aye, aye. Come on.”
“Keep the tether out of the prop!” Pope asks Kie.
“I'm trying!” hearing her friend struggle she sends JJ a look to which he winks before she puts on her sunglasses and join her friend, helping her stabilize the tether.
“JJ, keep going!”
“John B, is that good?”
“We're good!”
“Okay, 700 feet!”
“Okay,” Beth turns around when she hears JJ’s voice faintly, seeing him lose his balance, before looking up to the storming sky.
“JJ, hold it steady!”
“Okay, 900!” Beth calls out over the thunder.
“JJ, we'll turtle in this storm.”
“920!”
“Crank it north by northwest! Ten seconds! Pope, how are we doing?”
“Almost there.”
“There's too much current!” the girls grip on the tether tightens.
“We're gonna lose it!” Ellie says at the same time.
“South, southwest, JJ! Hard! Half speed. Steady at this bearing, JJ!” JJ looks at the storm approaching, letting out a stressed breath. “What do you got, Pope? Come on, man. What do you see?”
“Nothin'. A whole lot of nothin'.”
“You should be right above it, brother.”
“Kiara!”
“960. 970! 980!”
“We’re at the bottom! We’re at the bottom!”
“Okay, steady here, JJ! Steady here. Quarter speed, all right?” Kie and Ellie move quickly behind the boys.
“You should be seeing something, man.”
“I know, I know! Wait, wait. Oh, good God.”
“See anything?” JJ asks from his position, Beth looks up at him with a wide smile, his own face mirroring hers.
“It's the Royal Merchant.” Beth runs inside the cabin, an excited chuckled leaving her lips as she wraps her arms around the blonde.
warnings: a few mentions of y/n, grief, smoking, drinking, language, kissing, gun violence, mentions of drowning, not proofread.
———
Arriving in the Outerbanks always feels like coming home. The sun is shining, birds are chirping, it’s like a scene from a movie. This time is different; this time, you and your brother aren’t bickering in the back seat over the last chocolate left in the packet, this time your dad isn’t snoring in the passenger seat because he stayed up late watching the football — even if he said he was working — the biggest difference of all is the lack of your mother, singing along to the radio, telling you and your brother to shut it and slamming on her brakes to wake your dad up.
This time, it’s just you.
Tannyhill always astounds you, no matter how many times you’ve driven up the driveway, you always feel your jaw fight the urge to drop at the size of the house. Your friends back home say that your house is big, they’d have a heart attack if they ever stepped foot in the Cameron’s home.
“Better late than never!” You heard a loud, teasing voice come from the front porch; your head turned to be met with a grinning Sarah Cameron.
Sarah had been your best friend since you were born. Two weeks apart but miles away. She grew up in the Outerbanks, paradise on earth, whilst your family lived in Charleston. Approximately 439 miles away.
“I’ve been driving all day, dickhead,” you called back as she came skipping down the stone steps, her white sundress swaying.
“I meant that we’re already a week into summer!” Sarah argued, barrelling into you. You squealed, giggling as her arms wrapped around your middle and yours around her shoulders.
Your dad had grown up in the Outerbanks, alongside Ward Cameron. He’d told you plenty of times he’d imagined raising his children on the same island he grew up on, but meeting your mom had changed that. They met on a night out, he just so happened to be in Charleston for the weekend and within the next couple months he was living there. Love changes things, or so he says.
“No Josh?” She questioned, pulling away from the hug to open up your trunk and retrieve your many bags.
“He’s heading here for Midsummer’s with dad,” you explained. Your brother and father hadn’t been set on the idea of spending the summer in Outerbanks, not without a missing piece of the puzzle, but you’d come to a compromise. You would head over a few days before Midsummer’s, they’d come for a week and then head home. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing.
“You’re just in time for dinner,” Sarah stated, changing the subject once she saw the light in your eyes start to dim. “Rose made spaghetti.”
“Lucky I didn’t stop at that In-N-Out then, huh?” You joked, making her snort.
“Idiot.”
The inside of the house looked the same as always, at least that hadn’t changed. Wheezie hardly nodded at you, she was thirteen now and most definitely taller than she was last summer. You remembered being thirteen, nothing was more interesting than your phone and the people inside of it.
“Nice to see you too, Louisa!” You yelled after her as she disappeared upstairs.
“She’s going to put a hex on you now,” Sarah murmured. “Rafe! Y/N’s bags are outside and you’re needed to bring them inside!”
“First of all, what did I say about yelling?” Ward appeared in the doorway, an annoyed yet fond look in his eyes. “Secondly, Rafe isn’t here.”
“Isn’t that a shame?” Sarah joked, making you scoff.
She was obsessed with the idea of you and Rafe getting together. It wasn’t necessarily because she thought he’d be a good boyfriend, but it would make the two of you sisters and if that meant you had to put up with her brother then so be it. You didn’t share that same fantasy.
“How was the drive, kid?” Ward asked, walking over to embrace you in a tight hug. “I did tell your dad I’d be happy to have come and got you.”
“And spent nine hours in a car with me? I doubt it,” you teased, making him chuckle.
His arms lingered around you. The last time you’d seen him was the funeral, but there were so many people around you’d hardly had time to breathe let alone communicate with the few there you actually cared about. It was lucky he was there, otherwise who would have gotten your dad out from the bathroom at the wake?
“I’ll have someone get your bags, don’t worry about that. Your rooms all ready for you,” Ward said, finally pulling away. “You got here just in time, there’s a hurricane tonight. Definitely not safe to drive in.”
“I heard, Josh was panicking about it. Probably why he didn’t come with me today,” you joked.
“I’m sure Michael will enjoy the company,” Ward shrugged. “Dinner’s ready, but we were going to wait for Rafe if you’re not too hungry. He’s been looking forward to you coming back, maybe a little too much.”
You just shook your head in amusement as Sarah muttered the word simp. Rafe was a gentleman, at least he always had been towards you, but he was also a snob. He cared too much about his appearance and too little about anything else. He was a nineteen year old college dropout who you were fairly certain was doing hard drugs from the random 3am phone calls you’d received over the last six months. If Rafe wanted to be with you, he was going to have to do better.
“I can wait,” you reassured.
“We’ll go for a walk. But if he’s not back by the time we are then we’re eating,” Sarah threatened.
“Did you not hear the part about the hurricane?” Ward sighed, crossing his arms over his chest.
During the summer he doesn’t just have two daughters, he has three. Especially now that your mom isn’t here, and your dad won’t be for a few more days.
“I’ve been working all day with Scooter, daddy,” Sarah pouted. “C’mon, a ten minute walk along the beach hasn’t ever killed anyone.”
“Fine. But if you’re not back in twenty I’m coming to look for you myself. I’m sure that you don’t want that,” he teased, ruffling his daughters hair.
Sarah’s arm was linked through yours as the two of you walked along the sandy ground, shoes in hand and giggles leaving your lips as she told you about her new boyfriend. You’d heard a little about him during your FaceTime calls, she’d also posted countless pictures of him on Instagram. He sounded like a dickhead, but you weren’t one to jump to judgements.
“So, what happened with Denny?” You asked, hardly remembering her ex’s name. Sarah Cameron was a man-eater, she had been since you were eleven and starting realising boys weren’t that gross.
“He was insecure,” she shrugged. “Topper’s not like that, I mean, not really.”
“I’m already planning his goodbye party,” you murmured.
She laughed, swatting at you as she took a seat on the dry sand. You sat down next to her, taking a cigarette from your handbag and lighting it.
“Thought you quit,” she muttered, narrowing her eyes at the stick between your lips. You just shrugged in response, earning a sigh. “What about you, then? No men back home?”
“Fuck men,” you said, taking a long drag before lying down.
“You seem to be doing a lot of that,” she teased. You gasped in mock offence, holding a hand over your chest.
“Is the Sarah Cameron slut shaming me right now? Because I most definitely haven’t had six boyfriends this year,” you smirked back at her as she reacted similarly to you.
You didn’t do relationships. The last time you’d had a boyfriend you were twelve years old and you dumped him after two weeks over text. You knew how men were, especially teenage boys. All they care about is sex, the boys and beer. They don’t want relationships, they want someone to hang onto their every word and follow them around like a lost puppy. You refuse to be that girl, so sex and ghosting is your best bet.
“Maybe you’ll have a summer romance. Or maybe you’ll realise my brother is head over heels in love with you. Honestly, you being here is my favourite time of year; he’s always in the best mood,” Sarah grinned.
“Probably because he wanks off in his bedroom constantly,” you muttered.
Sarah gagged, smacking your arm as you started to giggle at your own joke. “You are disgusting. If you ever say something like that again I’m sending you home.”
“Yeah, right,” you snorted. It was probably the best threat she could come up with, but going home was the last thing you wanted to do right now. You’ve only just got to Outerbanks and you’re already dreadfully counting down the days until you’ll have to go back.
“C’mon, it’s been longer than twenty and I have a feeling my dad actually will come looking for us,” Sarah sighed, forcing herself up from the sand.
When the two of you arrived back to Tannyhill, a bike was parked down the side of the house. Only one person in this family would ride something like that. His voice echoed through the halls, he was complaining to Ward about something. For as long as you’d been coming here, Rafe and Ward never seemed to get along. They’d have their moments, like when Rafe got into college and Ward posted an appreciation post on Facebook that had you and Sarah giggling over FaceTime for hours, but for the most part they’ve just never seemed to click.
“And here I was thinking you’d be in a good mood for once,” you tease as you walk into the room, Rafe’s head snaps over to you.
A genuine smile breaks out on his face. “You look different,” he stated, walking towards you.
“So do you. What’s with the hair?” You snorted as his arms wrapped around you. He lifted you off the ground, making you laugh in amusement.
Rafe’s most definitely in love with you, that’s no secret. Ever since you were fifteen and grew boobs he’d been eyeing you up; but over time it seemed to change from an attraction to a real crush. Last summer you’d spent a lot of time together, Sarah had her first real boyfriend and she was infatuated — for a few weeks — so you went for the next best thing. One night the two of you had gotten high in the backyard and he’d opened up, telling you about how un enjoyable college was, how his relationship with his dad felt like it was never going to get better. It was the first time you’d really seen him.
“Wheez! Dinner!” Ward yelled up the stairs.
“I thought you didn’t like yelling,” Sarah smirked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Ward pointed at her, narrowing his eyes playfully. “I’m allowed. I’m the adult.”
Sitting at the dining table in between Sarah and Rafe as Wheezie told you all about the fallout she’d had with her ‘best friend’ felt like home. There were three empty seats, and your heart felt a little more heavy, but the smile on your face was genuine. You never knew how much you missed Outerbanks until you were there, but for the last seven months the only place you wanted to be was there.
———
The hurricane kept you awake for most of the night. The power went out pretty quickly, so you and Sarah just stayed up gossiping until you fell asleep. It was about 11am when you woke up and made your way down the stairs, plaid shorts and white t-shirt covering your body as you walked into the backyard.
“Whatcha doin’?” You asked with a smirk, arms crossed over your chest as you watched Sarah run and jump to chase away the birds.
“They’re trying to eat the mice!” She called back.
“You hate mice,” you said.
“I hate rats. Mice are different,” she retaliated, continuing to run and jump.
You giggled to yourself, watching in amusement before a clearing of a throat caught your attention. Rafe stood behind you, your signature mug in hand; lilac coloured with your initial on it.
“Made you coffee,” he stated, handing it over to you. “Could hear you and Sarah talkin’ all damn night, kept me up.”
“How chivalrous,” you teased, taking a sip. “Thanks, Rafey.”
“No worries.” He’d grown used to the Rafey a few years ago. Once you realised how much he hated it you’d started the nickname, it seemed to have become a part of your natural vocabulary now. “What the hell is she doing?”
“She’s saving mice,” you replied fondly.
“Of course she is,” he scoffed, rolling his eyes.
You swatted at his chest. “Don’t be mean. It’s cute.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he murmured. “Any plans for today, then? You’re gonna have to actually get outside now that the powers out.”
“I think I’m meeting Topper. What’s he like?” You sighed. Sarah had told you last night that she’d made plans with Topper for the afternoon, but she wanted you to come.
“He’s a pussy,” Rafe responded bluntly, making you giggle into your mug. “I doubt it’ll last. But he’s been obsessed with her for a long time now, he asked for my blessing too long ago.”
You tilted your head at him, swallowing the sip of coffee. “So, you’re friends with him?”
“Friends is a strong word,” Rafe smirked. “I’m headin’ out, just thought I’d say morning. I’ll see you later?”
“Yeah, see you later,” you replied, giving him a smile.
Just as you were about to give up on watching Sarah try to save mice, Ward came outside with a woman you didn’t recognise. “Morning,” he greeted you with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Sarah!”
“I’m busy!” She yelled back.
“What are you doing?” Ward questioned.
“The burrows filled with water from the surge. The birds are having a field day!” Sarah explained.
“The birds have to eat too, Sarah,” Ward sighed.
“No, it’s a mouse genocide out here. No!” She exclaimed, chasing off another one.
Ward looked at you, exasperated. You just shrugged your shoulders. “Just let her have it.”
“It’s the cycle of life is what it is, sweetheart. Now, come on,” Ward carried on, stepping closer to his daughter.
“Good luck with that,” you murmured, patting him on the arm before disappearing inside.
You got ready for the day, showering and washing your hair with Sarah’s expensive shampoo before getting dressed in a white bikini top and a tennis skirt. Sarah came up shortly after, she laid down on your bed and read a magazine as you finished up.
“Who was the lady? Ward having an affair?” You asked, in the middle of applying mascara.
“Scooter Grubbs’ wife. He’s one of dads… friends? I don’t really know. He hasn’t been seen since he helped out around here yesterday,” Sarah explained with a sigh.
“Jesus,” you murmured, looking back at her.
“I’m sure he’s fine. C’mon, we have to be at the club in half an hour,” Sarah explained.
You were meeting up with Topper and one of his friends, Kelce, for lunch and drinks — hopefully. Apparently Kelce was cute, so maybe you would have a summer fling, as long as he wasn’t going to expect any kind of commitment.
Sarah drove the two of you down there, she had a few warnings for you. Everything that’s said to Topper and Kelce gets back to Rafe, the two boys are quite snobbish towards the Pogues, they may come across as sexist but they’re just joking! Stuff like that.
Maybe you’d find someone else for that summer fling.
“There they are,” Topper grinned. Just his voice had you ready to flee. He stood, giving Sarah a kiss on the cheek before he turned to you. “And you must be the famous Y/N.”
“That would be me,” you nodded, accepting the hand that he held out towards you.
“I’m Topper, Topper Thornton. This is Kelce,” he introduced, nodding to his friend whose eyes hadn’t left you since you’d walked over.
“Nice to meet you,” you replied — lied — as you sat down in one of the spare seats.
Once you’d had a few margaritas, the two boys weren’t so unbearable. Topper’s unfunny jokes started to make you giggle and Kelce’s far from subtle flirting didn’t make you cringe quite as much. It was all fine, until a girl you didn’t recognise came over to the table.
“Have you guys heard about Scooter?” She asked, not even bothering with an introduction.
“Yeah, his wife came by earlier looking for him. Have they found him?” Sarah replied, sipping on her drink.
“Yeah, yeah they found his body. He washed up on shore earlier!” She exclaimed.
Everyone around the tables jaw dropped, even yours and you had no clue who the man was other than Sarah’s vague description. “What?” Topper questioned. “How did he die?”
“Drowning, I think. They haven’t found his boat yet, but he was out there last night,” she explained.
“God,” Sarah murmured, shaking her head as she looked down at the table. “That’s awful. Why would he got out during a hurricane?”
“Who knows,” she shrugged. “There’s a kegger down at the Boneyard, if you guys fancy it.”
“Who’s throwing it?” Topper asked quickly.
“Who cares? It’s free booze. Me and the girls are heading there soon if you guys want to join us,” she offered, eyes on Kelce. It seemed he had a few fan girls.
It took only one more drink for you guys to decide that the Kegger could be fun. The parties back in Charleston were usually thrown in a house, and the people that you knew weren’t all that into it so it had been awhile since you’d been able to let loose. Sarah’s arm was linked through yours as the four of you made your way to the Boneyard.
There were already dozens of teens there, covering various areas of the beach. There were certain people that you recognised from your years spent on the island, including non other than Kiara Carrera. There was a time her and Sarah were tight, so you’d spent almost an entire summer with the other girl. It was when you were back home when the two of them fell out, although you never fully found out why.
“What’re you doing, weirdo?” You laughed as Sarah climbed up on the phone booth.
“Looking at the view!” She exclaimed, giggling to herself as Topper stood underneath with his arms held out ready to catch her. He lifted her down and you smiled; maybe he wasn’t so bad.
“I’m gonna get a drink,” you stated.
“Want me to come?” Kelce offered, already taking a step towards you.
“I’m sure I can find my way,” you responded before turning around and heading into the crowd. You weren’t that easy, at least not for someone as snobbish as him.
You found the keg easily, due to the crowd that stood around it. There was a blonde sat behind it, his back to you as he called after a brunette boy. As you came in front of it he turned, and you swear your heart stuttered in your chest. He was utterly gorgeous, a charming smile played on his lips as he stared into your eyes.
“You’re new,” he stated. “Although… you’ve got a familiar face.”
“Is that a line?” You asked, tilting your head at him.
He held his hands up in surrender, chuckling deeply. “Nope. Not a line. I’m serious, I feel like I recognise you from somewhere.”
“I’m here every summer,” you explained. There was a high chance this mystery boy had seen you around before, but you were sure you’d never seen him. You’d remember a face like that.
“Well, I was going to say I coulda sworn you were in my dreams last night but now I’m thinkin’ I must’ve seen you around,” he responded.
A line like that from anyone else would’ve had you turning and walking away as fast as possible, but for some reason you found yourself laughing. “That was awful.”
“I know,” he chuckled, grinning at you. “So, you come here every year? What’s the occasion.”
You shrugged your shoulders, running your hand through your hair. “Nice place to spend the summer, right?”
“Can’t argue with that. Now, what can I get you? A beer or… a beer?” He smirked, tapping his fingers on top of the keg.
“I think I’ll go for the beer,” you laughed.
“A fine choice,” he nodded, grabbing a red-solo cup to fill up. He held it out to you, fingers brushing against yours as you took it. “On the house, you’re too pretty to charge.”
“Isn’t it on the house for everyone?” You teased.
“You’re really not lettin’ me get away with any of these lines,” he said, a smirk on his face.
“Okay, okay, try another one,” you giggled, taking a sip from your drink.
“It’s pretty loud ‘round here, why don’t we go somewhere quieter?” He suggested. You weren’t sure if that was a line or if he was serious, but you’d hope for the latter.
“I’ve always been told not to walk off with strangers,” you responded.
He stood up, holding his hand out for you to shake. “JJ Maybank.”
You didn’t intend to end up pressed against a tree with his tongue in your mouth, but it wasn’t your fault that he was so attractive. Maybe it was his goofy charm, or the fact he’d tripped within two seconds of the two of you wandering away from the crowd.
“You’re so fuckin’ pretty,” he murmured against yours lips, hands tight around your waist.
You hummed, hands in his hair. He groaned as you tugged on the ends of his hair, making you giggle. “I should get back.”
“What?” He pulled away, looking at you in surprise.
“What? Thought you were gonna get lucky against a tree?” You mocked. He narrowed his eyes at you playfully, pinching your waist to make you squeal.
“Can I at least get your number?” He asked hopefully.
“I’ll think about it,” you replied, pecking his lips before you began walking away from him.
“Your name?” He laughed.
You turned around and grinned at him, laughing as you carried on walking. He was cute, too cute. That’s not something that you can get yourself into, as much as you may want to.
“Where the hell have you been?” Sarah asked as you wandered back over to the group.
“Mingling,” you shrugged.
“I thought you were getting a drink,” Kelce stated, nodding to your empty hand. JJ had ended up kicking it over after you placed it next to the tree.
“I drank it,” you replied, taking a seat next to Sarah.
“Your lipstick is smudged,” she snorted quietly.
A couple more hours went by and you were ready to go home. Kelce had been trying it on with you all night, but every now and then you’d catch JJ’s eye and the thought of kissing Kelce made you feel a little ill. Sarah and Topper got up with you, the three of you started to make your way down the beach when a now familiar blonde stopped you.
“Hey, hey. Hey, Sarah!” JJ called, stopping the three of you. “Sarah, can I interest you in a tasty Milwaukee beverage?”
“No, thanks,” Sarah replied.
“C’mon. Is it not fancy enough for you?” He asked. He was most definitely more drunk than he’d been earlier in the night, his voice a little slurred.
“No. We were just leaving,” Sarah explained.
“How ‘bout you Miss mysterious? Want a drink?” JJ asked, turning to you with a charming smile.
You were going to accept, or maybe flirt a little, but Topper interrupted. He held his hand out towards the drink. “Hey, you know what? I’ll take it. I’ll— thank you, man. I appreciate it.”
“That’s a nice suggestion, Topper, but I didn’t ask you,” JJ replied, pulling the drink out of reach. “Now, if you said pretty please, maybe.”
Having come here so many times, you knew about the Pogues v Kooks war that went on. From what you could tell, JJ was a Pogue. You had no problem with that, honestly the whole thing felt a little pathetic, but clearly these two boys didn’t get along.
Topper shoved JJ’s hand, causing the drink to splash over him. “She doesn’t want it, you—”
“Okay,” Sarah tried, and failed, to mediate.
JJ shoved Topper backwards, but he didn’t get far before his friend was jumping in front of him. “No, no, no, no.”
“You’re so funny, man!” JJ yelled towards Topper.
“Hey,” JJ’s friend said, trying to calm him down.
“Dirty Pogues!” Topper shouted.
“Topper,” you sighed, shaking your head. It took all of two seconds for JJ’s friend to come storming over, pushing Topper.
“John B,” another friend warned, giving you the name of the now angry looking brunette. “We’re supposed to be incognito, remember?”
“Babe, babe, babe, babe—” Sarah repeated just before Topper threw the first punch.
John B fell straight into the water, the crowd started to grow as people let out gasps and Sarah carried on trying to intervene.
“Come here,” you ordered, grabbing her arm before she could accidentally get a smack.
“Hey, John B, don’t make me drown you like your old man, alright?” The words that left Topper’s mouth had your stomach turning.
Sarah had told you about the older man that went missing. Big John, if you were remembering his name correctly. His body hadn’t been found, but he was presumed to be dead and long gone at the bottom of the ocean. You didn’t know he had a son, but clearly this boy in front of you is him.
This boy in front of you was far too similar to you.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” The crowd chanted, like immature teens. Maybe it was a good thing you didn’t go to many parties back home.
John B got to his feet and charged at Topper, you couldn’t bring yourself to blame him. There were people back home, at school, who had made comments about your mom, you understood how that felt.
“Give it to him, man!” JJ exclaimed. You shook your head at him and he shrugged. “You want me to root for Topper? No one’s hot enough for that.”
For a moment, it felt like John B was winning. He had the upper ground, and every time he fell he got back up, but soon enough things took a turn. Topper flipped him into the water, but he wasn’t letting him up for air. His hand rested on the back of John B’s head, holding him under.
“What the fuck is he doing?” You exclaimed, looking to Sarah in shock.
“I don’t know,” she replied anxiously. “Topper, stop! No!”
“Sort your friend out!” You yelled to Kelce, who was stood there doing absolutely nothing. You definitely didn’t regret not kissing him.
“He’s drowning him,” one of John B’s other friends said to Kiara.
You watched as JJ made his way over, but instead of him pushing the Kook like you were expecting he held an object to his head. It took you a second to work out what it was, but when you did your stomach dropped.
A gun.
“Yeah, you know what that is,” you heard JJ say confidently. “Your move, broski.”
“JJ!” Sarah exclaimed, panic all over her face.
“He’s got a gun!” The crowd began to disperse, leaving behind just you, Sarah, Kelce and John B’s friends.
“Put the gun down!” Sarah pleaded.
“Did you say somethin’, Princess?” JJ asked sarcastically, not even bothering to turn and look at her.
“We’re good. We’re good,” Topper stated as he began to stand up, hands in the air.
“Kie! Can you check your psycho friend, please?” Sarah exclaimed, briefly turning to look at the other girl.
“Okay, everyone, listen up! Get the hell off our side of the island!” JJ yelled, holding the gun in the air before shooting twice. Panic ensued, groups running off in different directions to get away from the boy waving a gun around.
“Are you crazy? You idiot! Why would you do that?” The other boy yelled as Kiara shoved JJ.
“I’m saving his life, okay?” JJ argued.
You turned to look at John B, watching as he fell back into the ocean. You cursed under your breath. Sarah was helping Topper walk away, as if he’d actually been shot. You ran over, grabbing the boys head and yanking him up. He groaned, eyes opening.
“C’mon, can you stand?” You asked, looking down at him.
He winced, but nodded his head as he allowed you to help him up and out of the ocean. As soon as you were on the sand he collapsed to the floor and coughed up a lung. You cringed, but patted his back nonetheless.
“It’s alright,” you mumbled, looking around for some help. Kiara caught your eye and her face fell, in the midst of the chaos it seemed she hadn’t noticed you yet.
She rushed over, kneeling down beside John B. “You okay? Huh? Still breathing?”
“Yep,” he replied, giving her a weak thumbs up.
“I didn’t know you were here,” she stated, turning to look at you in annoyance.
You hadn’t even done anything to her. Sarah and Kiara had fallen out and therefore the two of you weren’t friends anymore. It wasn’t like you lived there and had to choose, not that there would be much of a choice. Sarah had always been your best friend, so if she didn’t like someone then you didn’t either — in most cases
“Well, here I am. I guess you have this sorted, so I’ll be going,” you muttered, standing up. “Uh, feel better soon.”
“Thanks,” John B replied, giving you a small smile.
“I didn’t know you were friends with them,” JJ said, face upturned in disgust as he wandered over to the three of you.
“She’s friends with Sarah,” Kiara explained quietly.
“We’re like Romeo and Juliet,” JJ smirked, wiggling his eyebrows at you. You didn’t answer, just rolled your eyes and began to walk away. “See you later, Juliet!”
You flipped him off over your shoulder. You don’t date, but you especially don’t date men that run around with guns.
authors note: jj doesn’t feature in this chapter, this is sort of a slow burner but also i have to get TR into the storyline! for the rafe girlies, this chapter is for you. this chapter is also quite a bit shorter than the previous one, but the next one should be longer!
———
“John B has officially lost it,” Sarah announced as she came wandering into your room, your eyes flickering up from the old magazine you were reading; you hadn’t read this much since you were a kid, but there’s hardly anything to do with the power outage.
“Hm?” You hummed, folding the corner of the page so you didn’t lose the story of Justin and Selena — this thing must be old.
“I’m, like, ninety nine percent sure that he stole from my dad. I slept on the boat last night, my room is way too hot, and I woke up at, like, six this morning to him returning some scuba gear,” she explained, using air quotes on ‘returning’.
You weren’t sure why she was telling you this. You hadn’t heard a word about John B your entire life, but ever since the Kegger from hell the other night it seemed Sarah couldn’t get him off her mind. One minute she’s complaining about how annoying he is, the next it’s about his crazy friends, and then she’ll be asking if you think she should go round and make sure he’s okay.
“You gonna tell Ward?” You asked, sitting up from the position you’d be comfortably laying in.
Sarah shrugged, hesitating before she shook her head. “He’d probably get fired, I don’t want that. I just… he I dunno. Anyways, are you ready?”
“For?” You asked, tilting your head at her in confusion. Your plan for the day was to just chill, after the other night you’d decided you wouldn’t be going out for at least a week.
“Top and Kelce are coming over,” she explained, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Apparently Kelce hasn’t stopped going on about you. He thinks he’s getting lucky. Hopefully he hasn’t mentioned that to Rafe.”
You snorted, shaking your head at the idea. “He can think whatever he wants, it’s not happening.”
“Really? I thought maybe you were feeling it?” Sarah asked.
You were yet to tell her about your make out session with the gun wielding Pogue. You were going to, but then he held said gun to her boyfriend’s head and it felt a little awkward to admit to. The other part you didn’t want to admit to was how you couldn’t stop thinking about him.
The slight manic episode he’d had was a turn-off, but that wasn’t the JJ you’d met a few hours prior. You’d met a charming, hot, funny guy who was now stuck on your mind like glue.
“We’ll see,” you murmured. “Guess I better get ready then?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry, Rafe’s gonna be around and I highly doubt Kelce will try anything in front of him. It’s a known fact you’re his future wife,” Sarah teased, already up to look through your half-unpacked bag.
“Never say that again,” you cringed.
Maybe there was a time you’d seen Rafe in a different light, last summer when the two of you were hanging out more you had thought about it. You knew he’d take care of you, not just due to the fact his family had more money than you’d ever know but he looked after the people he cared about; the very few people. He could be sweet, when he wanted to, and he wasn’t bad to look at. But then you’d get in your own head, you’d remember this was Rafe. The same Rafe who used to cry at Bambi and threw up the first time he smoked a cigarette.
Sarah chose your outfit, some denim shorts and a bikini top, one of the best parts about being in the OBX was that you could just walk around in a bikini and no one would bat an eye. In heat like this, especially with no air-con, the thought of being fully clothed made your skin itch.
“Girls,” Rose greeted with a nod as you walked outside, as robotic as always.
“Afternoon,” you replied in the same tone.
You’d never been a huge fan of Ward’s wife. It didn’t make much sense, because you’d known her for almost ten years, but she was just so different from Sarah’s mom. You were young when she died, but you would always remember her warm smile and her famous ice cream sandwiches she’d make for you kids when the sun started to set.
Sarah scared the hell out of all of you as she pretended to be electrocuted whilst saving a little girls toy, but what scared you more was the feeling of an arm wrapping around your waist. You turned your head, half expecting Kelce to be stood there, but instead it was Rafe.
“Hey,” you greeted, giving him, Topper and Kelce a smile.
“Where’ve you been?” Rafe asked.
“Here,” you shrugged. “The other night tired me out. I’m not as used to partying as the rest of you.”
“Well, I can promise they’re not all like that. The ones that don’t involve Pogues don’t normally end like that,” Kelce reassured. “A friend of ours is throwing one tomorrow night if you’re up for it.”
“Down on the beach again?” You asked. Sarah had briefly mentioned this to you, but then she got more into telling you about a beach clean up.
“No. At his house. No Pogues, no guns,” Kelce responded.
“No threats to my life,” Topper joked, you had to fight the urge to roll your eyes.
Of course having a gun held to your head would be utterly terrifying, but after you’ve tried to drown someone else it feels more deserved. You weren’t sure how it would come across if you said that, so you stayed quiet as Sarah started to walk over.
“Here’s the drama queen herself,” Rafe stated, nodding to his sister.
Sarah dramatically bowed, making you giggle. The group of you wandered over to the table and sat down, you in between Rafe and Kelce. Rafe’s arm rested around your shoulders; he was proving a point. You assumed Kelce had said something to him and now he was standing his ground, trying to prove you were his.
“So, uh, John B? His dad’s the one that went missing?” You asked. They all looked at you. “Well, I heard the comment that Topper made.”
“C’mon, that was deserved,” Topper huffed. It was clear he didn’t get called out often.
“What did you say?” Rafe questioned.
“I don’t—”
“Asked if he should ‘drown him like his old man’,” you explained. Rafe and Sarah turned to you, sympathetic looks on their faces.
“That ain’t right, man,” Rafe sighed.
“Now you’re defending him?” Topper scoffed, as if he couldn’t believe that Rafe would do such a thing. He was right, he wouldn’t.
Rafe isn’t defending John B, he’s defending you.
There was no way Topper could’ve known what happened in your family, unless one of them two had mentioned it to him but you doubted that. Maybe that just proved that you should think before you speak, but these boys didn’t seem like they did that often.
“Shut it, man,” Rafe replied, shooting him a glare.
“Yeah, it’s John B’s dad that went missing,” Sarah chimed in, answering your previous question.
You just nodded in response, an awkward silence took over the table but Rafe was quick to interrupt it. “C’mon, you can help me grab some beers.” He tapped your arm.
“Okay,” you agreed, getting up from your seat to follow him inside.
You leant against the kitchen counter as he grabbed the cooler filled to the brim with cans, but he didn’t make any move to head back outside. “Topper’s a dick.”
“I can tell,” you laughed, earning a small smirk from him.
“I mean it. He doesn’t think about what he says, y’know? I mean, I’m sure he wasn’t really going to drown John B, he wouldn’t have the guts. But, he shouldn’t have said that,” Rafe rambled.
“It’s not your fault that your friends an idiot, Rafe,” you reassured. You could feel the guilt radiating off of him.
He nodded his head, looking down at his shoes. “How’s, uh, how’s your dad? How’s Josh?” He asked, coughing awkwardly.
“Josh is fine. College is good.” You purposely ignored the part about your dad. He’d see him in a couple days anyway, he could make his own decision on how he was.
Rafe nodded again, giving you one of those sympathetic smiles you were getting sick of. It’s all you’d see at home, even going to your local grocery store it felt like everyone in there knew who you were; the girl with the dead mom. You didn’t think you’d have to deal with that here, but turns out you couldn’t escape who you were.
“C’mon. We shouldn’t leave them out there alone for too long, they’re all idiots,” Rafe smirked, picking up the cooler.
“Sarah can keep ‘em in check, I’m sure,” you laughed, he shrugged his shoulders.
You only drank two beers before you got bored. Topper and Kelce were the last people you wanted to spend this summer with, but with him being Sarah’s boyfriend and all you figured you didn’t have much of a choice. You went to your room for a few hours, fell asleep, and woke up to a quiet house.
It had been a couple days since you’d left the house, and with the sun starting to set outside you thought a walk would be nice. You grabbed your sliders and made your way outside, not bumping into anyone as you left. The first half of your venture was calming, but once you spotted John B sprinting down the road you couldn’t help but call after him.
“Hey! You probably shouldn’t be doing that much exercise after nearly drowning!” You yelled. He stopped in his tracks, turning to face you. His eye was black and bruised, a distant look in them. “Jesus, not lookin’ too hot.”
“Appreciate it,” he muttered. “Uh, you’re the one that dragged me out of the water?”
“That would be me,” you nodded, coming up to stand in front of him.
“Thanks, for that. Guess my friends were a little preoccupied,” he said.
“With the gun situation? Yeah, I’d say so.”
He let out a laugh, eyes crinkling at the corners. “Sorry about that. JJ can get a little intense, but he means no harm… most of the time. He wasn’t really going to shoot Topper.”
“I’m sure,” you murmured. Even the mention of his name had your cheeks heating up. “Uh, so, where are you going? Seems like you need to get there quickly.”
“I just— I had a pretty awful day,” he admitted, sitting down on a wall beside you.
You hesitantly sat down next to him, crossing your legs. “Yeah? Even worse than yesterday?” You nodded to his black eye, making him chuckle.
“I got arrested a few hours ago, and then fired, and then chased by some men that want something I have… had,” he briefly explained, making your eyes widen.
“Yeah. Shitty day,” you agreed. “You got fired? By Ward?”
“You know him?” John B asked. You just nodded, deciding not to divulge the information that he’s pretty much your second father. “I did something stupid and his daughter snitched on me.”
“Sarah?” He nodded. “I— really? Are you sure?” From what Sarah had been telling you earlier, it sounded like she was set on keeping the information to herself.
“She’s the only one that knew,” he shrugged.
“What did these men want, then?” You asked, deciding to change the subject before you had to fight these stranger in your best friend’s honour.
John B sighed, looking as if he was debating if he should open up to you or not. “Somethin’ of my dad’s. He, uh, he went missing nine months ago and I guess I’m trying to look for signs that he’s still out there.”
In a way you understood where he was coming from. You knew your mom was dead, you knew she wasn’t coming back, but what you didn’t understand was why.
“It’s okay to wonder,” you said softly. “Can’t let yourself go crazy about it, though.”
“You sound like my friends,” he laughed.
“Sounds like you have smart friends,” you shrugged, leg jumping beneath you. “I’m sorry about your dad.”
“Thanks, Juliet,” he mumbled.
You looked at him in confusion. “My name isn’t Juliet.”
“What?” He questioned. “Uh, sorry, that’s what JJ’s been calling you since the other night. Continuously.”
The thought of JJ talking about you made your heart stutter. He hadn’t forgotten about you? You let out a soft giggle, shaking your head. “I didn’t tell him my name. It’s Y/N.”
“Y/N,” John B repeated. “Well, it’s nice to officially meet the girl that saved my life.”
“I just saved you from your swim, JJ did the rest,” you replied, waving him off.
He shrugged. “I should get going. Got some stuff to do. I, uh, thanks for listenin’ to me go on. I was close to a breakdown.”
“No worries,” you smiled, standing up from your seat on the wall. “See you around.” You expected you’d see him maybe two more times the whole summer.
“See you,” he grinned, before turning around to walk towards the Cut.
For your walk back to Tannyhill you thought about JJ. You sort of hoped John B wouldn’t tell him your name, the mystery of it all was exciting. Kie could have already told him, but she didn’t seem like she’d want to spend even a second talking about you.
Sarah was in your room when you got back. “I’ve been looking for you. John B is such an ass—”
“I kissed JJ!” You blurted out. It had been eating you up inside, not telling her. If you’d been able to stop thinking about him maybe you wouldn’t have cared so much.
“You… what?” She looked at you in confusion.
“At the kegger, before the whole…” you demonstrated holding a gun.
Sarah burst into a fit of giggles, covering her mouth with her hands. “Sorry— sorry, I just… I can’t believe I didn’t think of him. Of course you’d like him, he’s your type to a T.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” You asked, brows furrowing.
“Well… he’s got that whole ‘bad boy’ vibe, but from what I’ve seen he’s pretty funny and not a huge dick,” Sarah explained, smiling up at you.
“That is so not my type,” you argued, scowling as she carried on giggling. “It was just a kiss. I doubt I’ll see him again.”
“Whatever you say,” Sarah sang.
Before you knew it she was rambling on about John B, and then Topper, and you let your mind drift away to the blonde Pogue who had been talking about you to his friends.
summary of series: mistakes aren’t Ottoline Windrich’s forte. In fact, she would tell you that she actively tries to stay away from them. How fitting it is then, that she makes a split second decision to board the boat with Sarah and John B the day of the tropical depression. All she can say is, “oops.
gif credit ∞ maequil
episodes;
1. Lonely Bird
summary of series part; arriving in Nassau, Ottoline finds herself facing her decision to join Sarah and John B.
