CHAPTER ONE , 001 Darlin'
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         Kites flew above their coastal town and seagulls' giggling, as normalized as children's shiny glee, glided through the sky. And his motor bike tracks tattooed the Earth like the touch of him on her (gold). Gilded life had them like criminals in cuffs, but if this is captivity? Let them die here (they just might).

         Her head was resting on JJ's lap. They were currently lounging on top of a seemingly unstable scaffold.

         Nai held her left hand in front of her face to examine her decorated digits. Out of habit and purely because she could, she started to rearrange the silver rings that littered her fingers.

         Her black hair was splayed across JJ's knees in a waterfall of darkness. The only place her hair wasn't residing at was her face, only because JJ had secured those locks behind her ear. His scent—salt, warm liquor and sweet vanilla swarmed Nailea's brain with every delicate breath.

         Her gentle, wind kissed face did not go unnoticed by JJ. The pressure of her cheek on his thigh burnt a craving into his body in the same manner that cowboys brand their cattle. The isolated impression soon spread like a fever throughout him and trickled down the veins in his arm that was draped over Nai's side. Sparks crackled in his fingertips as they barely brushed over her exposed midriff.

JJ was convinced the same stars that poured through her eyes wrote poems about her cosmic body.

          Nailea had begun to draw dainty patterns on JJ's knee with her finger. In an attempt to distract himself from her doodling, JJ lightly maneuvered his rough fingers back and forth along her stomach in a feathery manner.

         The sun was out and it felt amazing; it was a nice day. Scratch that, it was a perfect day.

         Their group of five was kicking up trouble around an undeveloped house, hence why they were sitting on scaffolding and John B was about to commit accidental suicide by falling off the roof that he was currently standing on with one foot.

         "That's what, a three-story fall to the deck? I give you a one-in-three chances of survival." Pope remarked from the deck below whilst fiddling with a power drill.

         "Hm," John B licked his finger and stuck it in the air as if he was checking the wind. "Should I do it?" he looked to the pair on the scaffolds.

         "Yeah, you should jump, I'll shoot you on the way down. " Pope said, pointing the power drill at John B like a gun.

         "You're gonna shoot me?" John B returned Pope's favor with finger guns.

"Would definitely make my life easier." Nailea sighed wishfully.

"For Nai's satisfaction, yep." Pope answered and in return John B shot a fake shot at him emitting a pew sound from his mouth.

Kiara, Nai's best friend—well, everyone's best friend, but especially Nai's (they bonded a lot over beads in hair and end of the world crisis situations), emerged from the house. "They're gonna have Japanese toilets with towel warmers."

"Of course they would, why wouldn't they?" Nailea said sitting up.

"This used to be a turtle habitat, but who cares about the turtles, I guess?" Kie turned her attention to John B on the roof.

"I can't have cold towels." JJ snipped. Nai hummed contently as she rested her cheek on JJ's shoulder and locked her arms around his bicep. He didn't mind.

Never did.

"Can you please not kill yourself?" Kie asked.

"Don't spill that beer, I'm not giving you another one." JJ said, taking a swig of his own before carefully holding the can up to Nai's lips for her to take a sip.

         Two seconds later John B lost balance and his beer tumbled down to the deck.

         "Of course." Nai shook her head and laughed. "Ladies and gentlemen, the local dumbass." she announced grand gesturally.

         "Shut the fuck up." John B snipped back. In return, Nai sluggishly stuck her tongue out and flipped him the bird.

         "A-plus." Pope graded John B's situation.

         John B was groaning at his discarded beer can like he just lost a child.

         Nailea's head whipped to the side as she heard a distant Hey! from a car that just pulled up. She unwrapped herself from JJ and stood to take a look.

         "Hey, uh, security's here. Let's wrap it up." Pope suggested.

         "Howdy, pals!" Nai greeted the guards loudly with an excited big wave. "A little late to the party! We were actually just leaving, but imma leave you some beer so that you'll feel welcome, 'kay?"

        One of the guards very obviously mumbled something of a curse word string towards Nai as he hustled to the house.

"Hey now," JJ loudly condescended down to the man, rising to Nailea's side. "Wouldn't want your momma getting a taste of that mouth, now would we?"

         "Punks!"

"You two! Let's go!" Pope earnestly shouted.

         "Screw it, she'll taste it on mine anyways." JJ always got high off people's anger, boy was it fun."—and mine!" Nai declared before laughing into JJ's chest. The pair often gets bubbly when goofing off together.

         "When you guys get arrested I'm letting you rot." John B squinted up at them, using his hand to shield the sun.

         "Shit, we really do have to go now, guys." Pope expressed anxiously.

"Well," JJ turned with a sigh, "ready, Rosy?" JJ started down the scaffold, utilizing the nickname he'd used since third grade.

         "Yeah, you?" she hopped down after him with ease. She was wearing that crooked smirk.

         "Hell yea," JJ answered before cupping his hands around his mouth, preparing for a last shout. "Gary, that you? No way man, long time no see!"

         Pope was about to blow a gasket.

         "You're just asking for it, J." Nai sang in a warning tone as she skipped to Kie and laced their arms.

         Nai was certain that no Kook ever would get the exhilarating rush she was experiencing  from being pulled through an undeveloped house by Kiara, all while being a few seconds from being arrested. If excitement was drug,  they were always high on it. The girlish laughs and shrieks dangled in the air like wind chimes and caused small smiles to quirk up as they bled into the sprinting boys' ears.

        Her, Kie and John B were the first to arrive at The Twinkie. The two girls haphazardly piled in the back of the van and John B started to pull out.

         Nai stuck her head out the open van door and waved Pope and JJ in. "C'mon boys," She welcomed.

         "Check out Gary gunning for a raise," Pope said about the guard currently chasing the van.

         "C'mon, Gary" JJ encouraged before reaching around for a beer, to which Nai supplied. "Wait, slow down, slow down." JJ stuck his head out of the van and continued attempting to toss Gary a beer.

"Awwe, they don't pay you enough, bro." JJ said after Gary dropped the beer.

JJ would have continued to hassle the poor man if the empty seat next to his Nai wasn't practically calling his name.

         With a giddy grin, he plopped down and slung an arm around the back of her seat.

         "You're gonna kill him someday, J."

         "The day Gary dies is the day that you'll go blonde." JJ scoffed mindlessly.

         The lack of response made him whip his head towards her in horror. "No."

         Her lips were settled and her eyebrows held a tilt that told him she might consider the monstrous thought.

         "No, no, no, Nai, please. Why? Just why would you get rid of your black hair? I mean you could totally rock blonde. But, you as a..." JJ trailed off, not seeming to recall a word for someone with black hair.

         "Noirette." Pope filled in for him.

         "Right," he began again, "you as a noirette—can't compare."

         His hand that had previously been resting near her shoulder, was now playing through her hair as if the dark locks were to disappear at any given moment

         "I don't know, I'm pretty sure her skin tone could pull it off nicely." Kie said as she cracked a beer open.

         "Were you saying that I couldn't pull it off?" Nai tipped her head down accusingly towards the frazzled boy.

         "No, never. It's just—"

         "I would stop now, JJ." John B advised from the wheel.

         "Okay, first of all: I would never ever ever go blonde, just because the amount of bleach it would take. My hair would be fried. Second of all: if I did want to go blonde," a deathly grin danced on her lips as she reached up to cradle the left side of his face in her palm, "you would shut your pretty little mouth up about it, yeah?"

         "Aye aye, captain."

By night, they were all shacked up at The Château—Kie on the pull out, Pope on the porch couch, John B in his room, and Nai with JJ in her regularly shared bed. And yes, ever since her father's disappearance she's had her own room. Because, well frankly, her aunt's house is a shit hole and said aunt has been out of town for the past couple months, visiting her boyfriend on the mainland. She was flighty like that.

Her room at The Château was adopted permanently into her life as the bank seized her house when they declared her and John B's fathers dead. Her salt dusted room had a lingering scent of island margaritas and rusted boys. Hardwood floors, knitted throw blankets, basket woven headboard, seashells on strings, baby's breath bouquet, white walls and 80s band posters: nothing special. But special didn't matter when she was safe. Not a night went by where she had to sleep alone. Someone was either in a room near by, or preferably in the bed with her.

         John B skipped out on God knows how many random late night rendezvous to come home at a decent hour and let her know she wasn't alone.

         Because, anything for their Nai.

         As of right now, the room was dim, except for the low glow of her bedside lamp and the presence of a candle she lit a little over an hour ago, which enveloped the room in its soft glow. It was silent too. The ambiance of the room should've bundled her up in a warm blanket, but soon the chills came and the sudden absence of people began to seep in her gut. The sudden obsession that someone had left her caused her head to spin. Her breathing picked up drastically and her hands had started to tingle and tremble. Her erotic eyes scanned the room, no one's here. That only made her head spin more. The thin air crippled her skin and made her feel like a decaying corpse from the inside out. She roughly braced herself on her white vintage vanity.

Her brain was abruptly kicked out of panic-mode the moment JJ entered the room. Her breathing regulated and her mind's balance was no longer mayhem. She blinked her eyes dry and turned around with a smile.

He set the glass of water he had brought for her on the nightstand coaster before collapsing on the white comforter bed. His longing, tired eyes asked for her in an unspoken manner. Nai held his blue-salt irises as she shimmied out of her denim bottoms, then turned to her drawers for new pants. His eyes heated her back and drew puffed breaths from her lungs.

         White, lace trimmed pj shorts now adorned her lovely hips and JJ's bicep tensed from behind his head.

Without words, Nai silently joined him as if understanding his expressions was second nature. She crawled over his bare torso and laid on his side. Her bronze leg was draped over his lower body and her head rested on his hard chest. JJ's hands immediately went to hold the underside of her draped thigh and move along her resting back. His fingers, ever so often, moved up the blue tank to make her bare back his canvas.

         JJ's love language was obviously physical touch. The contact of skin on skin made his fingers flush. Although, John B and Nai are the only people he's hugged since he was eight. And not like the "hey, how are you?" type hug, an actual eyes squeezed tight, face buried in shoulder hug.

         Touch was his safe haven. She was his safe haven.

         This was the part where the lines blurred and the world around them evaporated. It was just them and the natural actions that came with one another's company. Nevertheless, she craved his soothing touch immensely. It made her blood rush to every area of her body, every area it shouldn't. He shouldn't make her feel anything at all other than warm, fuzzy love. But Jensen July Maybank had this poor girl teetering between what the absolute hell they were and what she wanted them to be.

         He drove her half insane, really. JJ looked to admire her pondering face. She smiled when their eyes met and she ran her hand up to his cheek to caress his face. His blonde locks were in a disarray and his tired eyes zeroed in on her dark ones. JJ loved her eyes. Even when she's spitfire angry with him, because he would rather burn in her blaze than look away.

         "What's on your mind?" JJ said more to himself than to the lady in front of him.

"Oh, I don't know," Nai hummed, "Money, sex, which one of you three boys' baby I would rather have." she sat up on one elbow and used her pointer finger along with her eyes to trace the ridges in his chest.

JJ watch intently when she bit her lower lip after saying that sentence. He also took notice when he had the sudden urge to make her gasp someway, somehow, and drag his tongue along the tender grooves her teeth would've left.

"You do realize you just gave me a very hefty visual image including you, money, and sex, right?" he responded with a playful twinkle, running his index finger up her spine.

"That's my daily goal, J. You should know that by now." her seemingly innocuous eyes peeked up at him before getting distracted by her hands tinkering with his shark tooth necklace.

JJ, ever so lightly, retrained her wrists with his hand. "Stop doing that"

"Doing what?"

"Fiddling with things. Tell me what's really happening up there" he had poked her in the forehead with his index finger before allowing it to fall and trace the structure of her cheekbone.

"I have a meeting with a social worker tomorrow." she was concerned and her voice told him maybe even a little bit scared.

"Look, nothing s'gonna-"

"Yes. Everything is gonna happen, J! They're gonna stick me in some home on the mainland." she expressed while pushing up on her palms, hovering over him.

"Your aunts been out, what? Four months? That's not long enough for them to legally snatch you into foster care." he brought his hands to bring her dangling hair behind her ears. "It's just a check-up. No one's taking you anywhere." he assured.

"And even if they did come to take you away, do you really think I'd let them?" his expression was expectant for an answer as he sat up on one elbow, making her slouch to the side of him a little bit.

He washed her anxiety away with ease, allowing her to crack a stupid side grin. "Naww, you couldn't live without me."

"Dang straight, darlin'." JJ shot her a wink that erupted a blush from her nose to her cheeks.

         He was elated to paint her a marsh in the morning type of pink because in truth, her peached bruises were such a heartbreaking palette.