𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝 {𝚓𝚓 𝚖𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚔}

𝚜.𝟸 𝚎𝚙.𝟽 -𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚠𝚘-

"seems that every time the weather's on our side, i turn it back to rain."

~

The bonfire was an Outer Banks tradition. It was the same weekend every year. Everyone went. Like- everyone. After finding a fortune and losing it, and everything that had happened before and after... it felt good to be back.

Tate jumped out of the van and JJ slung an arm around her as they walked towards the massive crowds around the fire. "Ahhhh, this is gonna be fun," he said, pulling her over to John B and tossing his other arm around him.

The minute they reached the crowd, all three of them saw at least four people they knew. John B led them over to a bleach-blonde girl named Eve and drunkenly took her arm. "Oh my god, I missed you so much."

"Hey!" said Eve. She gave John B a quick hug, then JJ and Tate. "Dude, I've been looking for you at Point Beach, where the hell have you been?"

"Oh, you know," said JJ. "The usual."

"Couple near-death experiences, a few adventures," Tate said in an offhand voice.

"I disappeared, like, three times," said John B.

Eve laughed. "Yeah, whatever. You better be there to catch the last good surfing days of the season."

They promised her they would be and moved on. Tate hadn't surfed in so long. She missed it.

Pretty soon, the conversation rotated to Sarah Cameron. "She was like, that's it," John B recounted the breakup for the millionth time.

"But, dude, her father blew up right in front of her," JJ argued. "Just give her a minute, alright? In the meantime, shotgun, right now- just like the old days-"

"Hey derelicts!" someone shouted from a nearby ledge, and JJ jumped.

Tate whirled around to see Josie, one of the Pogues' old friends from school who Tate had only spoken to a handful of times, sitting on the ledge and grinning over at them. JJ cracked a smile. "Hey, there she is." He turned to John B. "That's you. We're out of here."

He grabbed Tate's hand and pulled her back through the crowd before she could ask questions. "The hell was that?"

"She's trying to get into it with John B again," said JJ. "Slipped him a note in fourth period today, he showed me."

"Again?"

"They slept together last year after the homecoming dance. You were still in your own world."

Tate wrinkled her nose. "So he's doing that this soon after Sarah?"

"Hey, a man's gotta go through the phases," he said. "Let him have a rebound." He pulled a juul out of his pocket and held it to her lips. "Here, smoke."