CHAPTER FOUR , 004 Aftermath
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       Her hair was the color of blackberries beneath the cool moon. Lined in violet madness, her hair fell in disarray as she silently stepped around the dim kitchen. She held her thumb between her teeth as she tried to avoid the floorboards that creaked. Anxious feelings bubbled in her throat and she could practically hear the trees outside falling from wind.

        JJ had fallen asleep about an hour ago. She lay there beside him, wide awake, while he slept like a baby.

        What the actual fuck did they just do.

      In the moment, it didn't seem like a big deal, but right now? Nailea was losing her mind. They kissed—scratch that, they didn't just kiss. They full-fledged made out. Like only a few missing dance steps from the horizontal tango made out.

        They were stupid. She was stupid. Everything is fucking stupid. She needed to talk to someone. She needed Kie. She needed someone else to break down her own mind for her and Kiara was that someone. Nai took out her phone and dialed a number, only to be met with the dead tone. Lines were out already.

        "Fuckin' shit-bitch."

        She would have to work through this on her own tonight. Nailea downed a glass of water and tried to level her breathing. She felt the lonely panic begin to bloom in her chest again. Her hand clawed at her sternum from desperation.

        Waves. She pictured the waves and tried to match her lungs' function to be ebb and flow of the tide. The water was simple. It was full of wrath and mercy, death and life, attachment and repulsion—it held memories, like when Nailea would be watching the boys surf, or when she would pretend to be a mermaid as the boys took on the roles of unruly pirates. Bottom line, the ocean was rooted in her indefinitely, and she circled back to its comfort with a sense of reliability in the action.

        When she steadied herself, the metal exhaustion took over. She glanced at the couch. Sleep was calling her again, but could she bring herself to go a night alone? Her feet moved of their own volition as she reached a creaking door and pushed it open. This room was dark and messy messy. John B lay sprawled out on his quilted  bed. She grabbed an elbow and leg and flipped the boy over to clear room.

        A few moments later a tried grunt hit her ears, "....mhm'Nai?"

        "Yeah"

        "M'kay."

        She knew JJ would wake up and just assume she had gotten up early. She knew he wouldn't be thinking twice about what they did. She knew.

        The boy of gold and salt-stricken eyes stared at the ceiling as his hand ran over the empty space beside him.

        Her heart's rhythm was pattering like a strange ballet inside of her chest. All of the lights made her irises burn and sudden motions induced nausea. Nailea Westwood was hungover. On the breakfast shift at the Wreck, for that matter. John B had been up cleaning the yard, and JJ was no doubt still fast asleep in her bed, hugging a half-empty bottle of vodka.

        Due to the hurricane that had brutally wrecked livelihoods the night before, it was a slow morning full of wanderers and cheap tips. Nailea was fanning herself  with a colorful paper fan as she cleaned the counter and chewed on her watermelon-flavored gum.

        Kiara sat on the bar next to Nai, plucking tortilla chips from a bowl as she spared a sneaky grin to her dark-haired counterpart who was explaining the gossip.

        "...and then, it just kind of happened..."

        "Oh please, it's been 'just kinda happening' for years."

        "But this is different, though. I mean we kissed, Kie, like, kissed kissed. Does that mean we're not allowed to kiss other people? Is it a relationship or is it just kissing?"

        "We are talking about the same person, right? You know the one whose been head over heals for you since like forever, who also happens to have the emotional IQ of a walnut?"

        "...Hey now," she tried to sound at least a little offended for her boy, but it was hard to argue with Kiara's point.

        "Either way," Kie popped another chip in her mouth, "He's a boy, Nai. You're gonna have to lay it out for him and then ask him questions."

        She anxiously brought her nail to her teeth, "What if this changed this, and not in a good way. What if this goes to shit and I can't get what we had back?"

        Kiara's expression changed into one of sympathy as she placed a hand on Nailea's arm, "Again, this is JJ we are talking about here. Just talk to him."

        Her response died in her mouth as new customers came in. Or rather, stormed in. A groups of vacationing teens' voices carried as they sat themselves in a booth. It was a mix of about half a dozen boys and girls who obviously had no shame to their lack of volume control.

        "Did you see that guy's boat?"

"I saw a lot more than his boat."

"Yeah, yeah, but what about the boys at that Heyward's place?"

"The grungy ones always get the job done better than the rich ones. I'm just saying."

"You guys are so gross."

"I would so let the blond one have me right there on that boat."

"Gosh, I could melt just thinking about those hands."

"Okay, we get it."

         Nailea snapped her fan shut, "For fucks sake."

        One of the girls turned around in her seat and snapped her fingers. "Hey girlies, can we get some service over here?"

        "Sure!" Kie cheekily answered over her shoulder before dropping her expression into an eye roll.

"Finish your break, I'll do it." Nailea groaned and moved around the counter.

"Good luck, babe."

She begrudgingly took the group's orders without really paying attention to their faces, but her head snapped up at the sound of a certain accent in the air. Sure enough, it was the boy from the market.

"You." Nailea clicked her pen and tilted her head in the morning sun rays.

"Me." the polo-shirt boy tilted his head in a matching manner.

"You know her, Ronnie?" the blonde beside him smacked her gum and spoke in a heavy valley accent.

"No." "Yes." both parties answered at the same time.

"Whatever." the blonde said, "just make sure our foods out fast, please."

"This is the Outerbanks, not the Bahamas, girlie."

      She didn't say anything to the kitchen considering the pace of their chef work. They were the only real customers there for the rest of her shift and she made it through without having to speak to polo-shirt boy again.

When they left, she went to clean off the table and stopped in her tracks. There was a two hundred dollar tip on the table. Welp. She picked up the money and speed-walked to Kie back at the counter. "One for you, and one for me."

The pair cleaned their tables and began stocking a cooler. They finished just as the boys' boat came into view. Before they headed for the door, Kie grabbed Nai by the shoulders, "You can do this, deep breaths. He's just a boy and it's a beautiful day."

She nodded with a grin before grabbing a cooler handle. Nailea couldn't hear the background dialogue happening between her friends. The sun was beating down on her back as they walked across the Wreck's dock, but she felt a cool chill run over her skin when she saw JJ. He was standing near the steps of the boat with his arms crossed, bare-chested in his shark tooth necklace. Oh fuck, he did not look happy.

Kie took the cooler once she was in the boat and JJ wordlessly held his hand out for Nai to maneuver on the steps and not fall. She landed on the boat with a hop and right into JJ's chest.

        "Easy there, Rosy." Steadying hands on her frame casually roamed as if he were following the familiar path of channels in the marsh. As quickly as the divine rhythm found them, JJ dropped his hands.

She felt his body move past her to where the rest of their friends were laughing around the cooler. She felt her eyes well up because she had fucked the one thing she had. She forced the golden corner in her heart to rust. Or was it truly rust, or rather was the alchemy she felt merely a delusion of her panicked mind? Nailea was feeling the desperation take her like a mind-controlling drug. Before JJ could reach them, she grabbed his hand and yanked the boy into a hug.

"We don't do this distance moody shit anymore, Nai." the boy pulled back and tilted his expression with an assurance underlined with a taunt.

"I know." an uncommon and self-conscious feeling bloomed in her mind. She felt stupid for feeling stupid. Kie was right, this was JJ.

"Hey," he focussed her head in his hands. "I know you get these feelings. Just relax and," JJ pressed a hand to her sternum, "respirar breathe. The day is fresh, girl. Plus, we got some fuckin' Drum to catch."

When the boy saw that she cracked a smile up at him, he patted the top of her head once then resumed his beeline for the cooler. Soon enough, the boat was flying through the Outer Banks. Kie had sent Nailea a reassuring wink when JJ repositioned himself by her side. He tipped his beer up to her, offering her a sip (to which she obliged, naturally.)

"You looked pissed when you rolled up."

"Not pissed," JJ sighed, "Just tired. Didn't sleep good last night. It was kinda uncomfortable, y'know, with the lack of AC and a smokin' girl to hold. Messes with a man's senses." he pointed his accusatory sarcasm towards her.

"Can't relate. I slept in John B's bed last night. Very cozy."

" Woah, incest alert. You do remember us claiming John B as our son, right? And you cheated on me with him?"

      She could feel the salt and sand clinging to her skin as the sun's kiss swept over her face. Mother dead. Aunt gone. Father missing. JJ was still there though. Her mind was hellbent on convincing her that he was simply a smoke ring around her finger. Poof, gone—but at least he was there for now. For the moment, her boy of gold was sitting pretty in the palm of her hand again. She felt good. She watched him laugh, and she felt better than good.

      Pope had the wheel and was gunning it as if he knew the waters like the back of his hand (newsflash, he didn't.) JJ was on the bow, showing off the same beer party trick he does every single time when the boat came to a violent stop. JJ was thrown into the channel in, what looked like, a spine-shattering somersault. The rest of the crew either ended up on the floor or face first into something. Nailea couldn't think when her gut was slammed into the boat's edge.

JJ.

"JJ?" she groaned and rushed to the front of the boat. He floated to the top of the water, looking like he was hit by a semi truck.

      "You okay, JJ?" John B had joined Nailea's concern and had elbowed her to the side so he could get a look at his blonde counterpart. "I think my heels touched the back of my head." JJ just moaned and sat there like a dead bug.

      "Hold on, you big baby." Nailea stripped herself of her shorts and sunglasses before gently lowering herself into the water. She hissed when a sore muscle on her side pulled the wrong way. JJ seemed to forget about his own ailments the moment his eyes clocked her pain.

"Pope what did you do?"

"Sandbar. The channel changed."

      When she was fully in, he swam to her side and put a supporting arm around her waist. "Hey now, Superman, I'm the one saving you." JJ almost sunk to the bottom of the channel when one of her legs instinctively hooked around him. His skin, wet and pained against hers, gently strained at the motion of keeping the both of them afloat. Her mind, which had a permanent lodging in the gutter, ran rampant when JJ's rough breaths of effort hit her ears.

"Guys...I think there's a boat down there. For real." Pope's words made everyone's rambling die down. Words of disbelief were thrown into the air at the junction. A boat? No way.

"No, no, guys, I'm serious. There's a boat down there."

"Guys...is this..."John B stood over the edge of the bow, "It's a boat!"

"Holy shit, he's right, let's go." Kiara undressed herself to her bikini before promptly splashing in the water. Soon enough, all of the Pogues were swimming in the channel, dunking their bodies to hover above a spiffy, white boat—that, sure enough, was sunken into the the channel.

"You guys saw that right?" JJ gasped when they resurfaced. "That's a Grady White." Nailea began to swim back to the boat with her statement.

"A new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy." JJ followed in her motions as he pulled himself into the boat beside her. "That's a primo rig."

      "That's the type of boat to fall out of a Cameron's ass." Nai leaned her shoulder against JJ's and untimely began checking her nails.

      "Yeah, that's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge." John B looked down at the boat again as if it were a ghost from his dreams. "You surfed the surge?" Kie's exclamation fell in deaf ears.

"Thats my boy, Pogues style." John B and JJ reveled in the gold star recklessness. "Wait, do you know whose boat it is?" Pope started asking the logical questions.

"No, but we're about to find out."

"It's way too deep, dude."  Nailea countered the boy, but John B was already holding the boat's anchor to his chest. "For the weak and feeble, Nai."

      "Well I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front." JJ threw the words out there casually, but they all knew he would be the one going the most berserk if something happened to John B.

      "John B." Kiara's concern for the boy, once again, fell on deaf ears. "Diver down, fool." Pope quipped.

     "Diver down." John B positioned himself on the boat's ledge before JJ shoved him in with a schoolboy movement. "Yeah he is."

Nailea playfully shoved JJ over the edge previous to yanking him back by his waist. "Oh shit." the boy laughed as he stumbled back into her giggling frame. "That was not very nice, Rosy." She placed a singular kiss to his spine. "You'll get over it, hun."

After a few moments too long of John B being submerged. The crew began to grow anxious. "Should we go get him?" as soon as Pope pondered the thought, John B graced them with his presence again. He resurfaced in a spluttering motion.

      "That took forever." Kiara's unamused yet concerned attitude flew towards the boy. He took a moment or two to gather his breathing.

       "Any dead bodies?" Pope, who has future dreams of being a coroner, asked a little too eagerly. Nailea's face scrunched in mild disgust. "Looting potential?" her boy asked.

      "No, no, I found this motel key." John B's fingertips displayed the small, yellow-tagged object.

🎬   Author's Note.   help this chapter is so messy and feels like a filler