CHAPTER THREE , 003 Sobriety
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Bronzed fingertips, acting like extensions of Summertime herself, plucked different constellations of vibrant fruits. The Season's euphuistic love smiled upon Nailea Westwood in every way possible. From her tristful smile to her island walk. The tides changed with her step as the stars rested in her eyes.

A denim skirt clung to her waist as she wandered around the baskets on the outside of the Corner Market. Her self-brought shopping bag hung lazily in the crook of her elbow. She was hoping to stock up on her favorites before the hurricane hit. Hurricanes packed a real punch to the lower class of the island. No power, wifi, air conditioning, it was rough, but The Cut wasn't used to most luxuries anyway.

In nothing else but converse and a green halter top (as she often was), Nailea stopped short when she saw a gilded boy in a polo shirt wandering a few feet ahead of her. She's never seen him before and she's seen everyone before.

His appearance screamed Kook or Touron. His watch was silver in the most dazzling way due to the sun's reflection and his white shirt was spotless. He turned her direction, but she couldn't read his eyes through the Ray Bans. The boy ran a hand though his dark hair and took a step towards her.

"Excuse me, I'm new in town and here for the summer. You wouldn't know if this is a reputable store or not?" his Australian accent hung in the air as a school boy grin spread over his lips. "Would you?"

She almost laughed in his face. Instead, she pushed her sunglasses up her head, the plastic sides acting like a headband.

"This place is...amazing. They stock from the locals and always give a nice middle finger to the gentrifying assholes who try to buy out the place." she eyed him accusingly.

"You think I'm a gentrifying asshole?"

"Are you?"

He laughed and shook his head. "No."

Sudden screams of panic from down the street pulled their attention. A woman pulled her child away from falling crates and a man was yelling at the boy on a dirt bike who took the turn too fast.

Nailea smiled.

"Now that's an asshole. Can you believe that douche?"

"Mmhm" Nailea simply hummed as the bike approached.

The blonde boy driving the bike eyed the pair with confusion. But then she grinned at him and any speck of uncertainty on his face washed away.

"Hey, J." she sauntered to her boy, leaving the irrelevant one behind her on the sidewalk. Her eyes memorized his face beneath the sun as her  fingers twirled a piece of his hair behind his ear.

"Are you..." his eyes wondered to the guy in the polo shirt watching from behind. JJ quickly cleared his throat, "...are you, um, ready?"

Nailea looked down at him with a strange look. Normally JJ would not hesitate to throw some snarky comment to someone like the boy behind her. Hell, she was surprised he hadn't tried to run him over yet.

Then it dawned upon her. JJ Maybank was selfless. So selfless to the point that if he saw her smiling with a stranger on the sidewalk, he would restrain himself, for her. It was unbeknownst to JJ though that she wasn't smiling with a stranger, but she was smiling at him.

Nailea turned and took a few bills out of her pocket. She walked back to the polo shirt boy and placed the bills on his chest. "You can give these to the cashier, can't ya?"

"Yeah,—"

"Thanks!"

She walked back to JJ and got on the back of his bike. She placed her arms around him (her bag still dangling in the crook of her elbow) and rested her chin on his shoulder. JJ could feel her cool hands on his heated body, even through the barrier of his blue shirt.

"You wanna say something?"

"You know I do." JJ ticked his jaw before pulling out.

JJ brought her to the social service office. He had parked his bike and promised to wait before he squeezed her hand and watched her walk in. A few minutes after Nailea went in John B came out. The Routledge boy leaned against the wall, across from JJ and his bike.

"So?" JJ asked.

"She'll be fine. As a matter of fact she might eat Ms. Brown alive in there."

Relief flooded JJ's body. He would never tell Nai this, but social workers could be brutal sometimes.

"But, they are sending DCS for me tomorrow. No doubt they'll do the same for her."

"Shit, really?" JJ had taken his hands out of his pockets and started to spin the rings on his fingers nervously.

"Turns our adults can't handle when random kids know how to take care of themselves." John B nodded awkwardly when two grinning Tourons passes through their conversation.

"You know what we're gonna have to do if they come for you guys, right?" JJ looked up from his hands only to find John B already looking at him.

This was the brother bond consuming the air. Just the total reassurance that each other's backs were covered for life.

"Me, you and Nai gotta go. Like, South America, Pacific Island kind of go. And maybe, just maybe we'll invite Pope and Kie, but they got parents to worry about so that's not likely."

The next day was a doozy. John B and Nai had caught a break. Hurricane Agatha was coming in on the same day DCS was supposed to do their assessments. It was so lucky. Nailea had paled when the woman said they were sending someone for her.

Nailea now stood in front of the bathroom mirror, lightly running her fingers over her jaw. Eventually they made their way to her hoop earring, then down her neck straight to her collarbone.

She was feeling the goosebumps.

She couldn't help it. She had a feeling whatever ship they were cruising on was about to go down.

Nailea closed her eyes and titled her head back and just felt. Every single breath she took something flashed in the darkness behind her eyelids.

Her dad.

Her mom.

Big John.

Him.

Her body shuddered at the thought of Him. In panic, her eyes flew open only for them to land on the picture she stuck on her mirror two months ago. Her fright immediately melted as did the tension in her shoulders.

The picture was one Kie had snapped of Nailea and JJ. It was a warm photo. The kitchen lights were on, but the windows were black and JJ was in the middle of spinning her when the photo was taken. It was Pope's birthday party and some funny love song was on, hence the big smiles shared between the pair's faces.

She loved that picture.

        Outside the rain was pouring down like cats and dogs, but JJ and Nai weren't the type to let a good hurricane go to waste. She had on a purple bikini covered by an oversized tee (which probably belonged to JJ, she couldn't tell at this point) as she walked into the kitchen of the Château. She reached into the top cabinet and pulled out a bottle of whiskey.

        "Whacha got there, Rosy?" Nailea turned to see JJ leaning against the counter.

        "Our best friend for the evening." she tossed him a playful wink as she walked by.

        "Where we going?" he asked with a twinge of amusement in his voice.

        "Don't know yet." Nai grinned over her shoulder on her way out.

        They had wound up driving her father's old truck to the island of Kildare's abandoned lighthouse that was no longer in use since the Redfield one was built. Was this stupid? Yes, absolutely. Nai liked to think she did things for the plot of her story.

        They were in the top room and Nai had set the bottle of whiskey down on a table. When she turned JJ was watching her. He was always watching her.

        The rain was beating against the outside, creating this sound of anxious fulfillment with every uneven echo. She distracted herself with this for a moment. If she tried hard enough she could see the faint lines of water through the windows and the dark of the night.

The only current light was a heavy duty flashlight JJ had brought and sat up straight. Not even the moon was out tonight, shame. Nailea hopped on the table and rolled her lips in and out of her mouth.

      "You know, I don't know why I brought this," she tapped the top of the whiskey bottle, "one of us has to drive back and drinking alone is no fun."

      JJ picked up the bottle. "One sip won't hurt."

      JJ took a swig then passed it to Nai. When she finished her sip and brought the bottle down from her lips, she found that JJ had that look again.

      All of a sudden she was hyper aware of everything. Her wet curls dripping water on her shirt, the rough wood beneath her practically bare legs, the slick plastic of flip flops hanging of her feet from where they were dangling, and the mere fact that JJ had this certain intensity on his face that made her terrified of what would happen if she looked too long.

      The wind was crashing loudly as JJ took another step closer. His front was touching her knees. The shadows had given his features a sharp edge and his eyes a new depth.

      "How long we gonna do this, Nai?"

      "The last time..." Nailea looked down when the harsh memories came flooding in.

      "The last time," JJ stepped between her legs and pulled her her chin up, forcing her to meet his eyes. "you were drunk off your ass. You know I don't fuck around with this stuff when someone is drunk."

      "JJ," her voice was barely above a whisper and there was a slight crack in it. His face was so close she was almost certain he could feel the heat from her blush.

      "Prove to me that what you said that day was was real."

The thunder and lightning were nonstop at this point.  Flickering lights lit up the room as JJ rested his forehead against her's. Nailea screwed her eyes shut and inhaled deeply.

      "It's always been real, J."

      JJ has always known what Nailea Westwood meant to him. Everything. Everything was the answer. She meant everything to him. He felt her place a hand on his chest. His eyes were trained on every feature of her bronzed porcelain face.

      "I'm gonna need you to look at me, Rosy."

      So she did. She locked eyes with him, matching his intensity. Melted, love-burned chocolate on cascading waves of salted blue. She placed her other hand on his chest and slid them to his neck. JJ barely brushed his mouth against her's, making a gasp sink from her lungs. It was a push-pull moment between their lips like the receding of water before the crashing of waves. Her back arched slightly into him, molding them together perfectly like soft gold.

      "You can't go back on me." she mumbled the words against his lips.

      JJ grabbed her jaw and angled it slightly to the side "Go back? Once we start this I don't think I'll be able to stop moving forward, baby."

      Then he did it. He kissed her. His thieving lips stole the youth from her mouth with one deep motion. The moment came in a rush—lips, teeth, tongue, capturing her own and revelling in the flavor. Most people say they're flying when kissed, but not Nai. No, she was sinking, deep. She was sinking into the depths of Jensen July Maybank, filling every broken crack and letting the entirety of him consume the entirety of her. They've always been close enough to see the dark, smoky parts of each other, but never close enough to reach into the abyss and actually touch. And now, she was touching every single part of him, vice versa.

      "Mierde. Shit." A sound leaked from her mouth when JJ barely pulled back. Something in the back of her mind talked to her—no, screamed to her that this would only end in devastation. But, was there really any going back? Her lips already tasted like him and her limbs were entangled around his body.

      Then she felt the lighthouse shake with crashing thunder rumbling in the distance. JJ braced her with a hand on her back and himself with a hand on the table.

      "Shit, we need to go." JJ looked around, clocking anything in the room that could harm them.

      She watched him for three seconds. Three seconds and three seconds only. She watched the way his eyes assertively jumped from her to the light, questioning which one he should grab first. His tousled hair, thanks to her hands, marked him with that unmistakable bed-head desire. His lips were swollen and slightly pink from her gloss and he parted them with the release of a pondering breath. The mischievous, sculpting moonlight carved the ridges of his body with such diligence that one might've thought he was a creation from the Renaissance.

      "I don't think we do." the statement left her mouth before she could even think about it.

      JJ's eyes shot towards hers. Those simple words, coming from her mouth, made him weak in the knees. If JJ could have built an altar in that moment he would have. He would have sunk to the floor beneath her and begged for a single touch.

      "No?" his voice came out barely above a whisper.

      "Mm mm." she shook her head and pulled him closer by the waistband of his shorts. That was all JJ needed to kiss her once more. The air changed around them; the ballad of teenage obsession was swirling in their heads as if a love potion from Heaven had fallen from the sky instead of rain or stars.

      They stayed like that for a while, just busying their lips with each other's. Not a single coherent thought passed between the pair as the time went by. JJ, as desperate as he was, didn't push her for more, not even once. Nailea was grateful, not that she wouldn't with him, but if he wasn't gonna push it, then neither would she.

      Nailea was in a daze when JJ eventually suggested that they head back. Hours had passed and her entire body felt electric and numb at the same time. Someway, somehow, JJ had managed to guide her down the spiral staircase and back to the truck. The roads were dark and rough, not to mention the combined roars of the wind and rain. She watched as JJ maneuvered the wheel with little to no effort.

      Damn.

      The loud creak of the Château's door made her giggle like a typical girl as JJ rushed her through the entrance. They really did try to have a quiet journey from the living room to her bedroom, but every time JJ  grabbed her waist from behind she would squirm with ticklish shivers, causing the pair to stumble against each other and make an exceptional amount of noise for two in the morning. There might not be parents home to bust them like a bunch of reckless teens, but there was a John B.

      Once they were safe and the door to her room was shut Nailea immediately had her boy up against it. She looked up at him with cheshire cat lips as the dim lighting of her bedroom gently caressed their faces. She took a moment to soak it in. The reality, that is. His body was against hers finally, and nothing (and she meant absolutely nothing) could pry this new dynamic of theirs from her rosy, dead hand.

      He was warm and rigid and way too complacent with being thrown up against a door. His eyes look down at her as if he was a starved man and she was the last drop of salvation on the planet. JJ's breaths turned heavy and deep as Nailea reach up on her tippy toes and placed a singular languid and open-mouthed kiss upon his neck. She doesn't even know how dangerous of a line she was dancing along.

      "I think it would be...smart... for us to go to bed now." JJ half groaned while speaking those words and fixating his eyes to the ceiling.

      "You hate doing the smart thing." she murmured against his neck. Before he could respond, she pushed away from him. "But you're right."

      Nailea pulled the oversized shirt over her head and walked to her dresser. Before she slipped the straps of her bathing suit off, she turned to JJ who was watching her expectantly. She arched an eyebrow and made a circle motion with her finger.

      JJ faced the door with a sigh.