Paris, and Other European Destinations (JJ x Rafe x Reader) OBX

Forgive and Forget

When you get back, you find that Rafe hadn't moved since you left.

"How were the waves?" He asks.

"Awesome, you should have been there."

He just grunts, and for about half a second you consider asking him if he even knows how to surf, but chicken out before you get a chance to.

"There's this keggar that I think I'm going to go to later," you call out to him as you run the shower, "if you want to come too..."

"Aren't we a bit old for that?"

You laugh, "that's what I said at first, but figured I should at least give it a try."

"Well, I'm going to pass on that, but you have fun," Rafe says, almost sarcastically as he shut the TV off. "I'll be doing work in my room if you need me."

You think about it for the rest of the day, and wonder if you had somehow managed to offend him.

You bike to the boneyard later that night, wearing cutoffs and tight tank top that shows your midriff, your dark, oversized flannel flapping in the wind as you wore it open with the sleeves rolled. A grin twists your expression where you see that the guys have already made a fire and JJ had a guitar in his lap.

"I didn't know you could play," you chuckle when he sees you. 

"Oh, I'm a real prospect," he assures you, lazily strumming a few cords as a joke, despite them actually being correct. "A friend started to teach me, and then when she left, well when everyone left... I had a bit more time on my hands and so I kept it up."

"Is this the same friend who took you to midsummers?"

He chuckles, twisting to look at you fully. "You don't miss anything, do you Nancy Drew."

"Ou, that one was kinda creative," you laugh, looking up when Freddy comes by with a drink. God, you think to yourself, one of these days you're going to go to a proper get together and you're going to have something other than beer. But you thank Freddy anyways, turning back to JJ as he's taking one for himself. "So, should I prepare myself for the groupies?"

"Ah, nah. They were just some tourons that had run into us on the beach last time," JJ tells you. "We should be good."

"Wonderful."

A silence lulls our conversation, and just when you're about to speak up JJ beats you to it. "Kiara. That's the girl who took me to midsummers. She had gone to our school too."

"Oh yea, I remember her," you tell him, pretending as though you hadn't already talked about this with Rafe.

"Yea, we were meant to go on this big surf trip after the summer of grade 12, but she decided last minute that she wanted to get out and go to school. I hear she's travelling now though."

"Were you guys, like, together?"

JJ laughs humourlessly, "I don't know, it was complicated. She was complicated. I think it just made me realize that we wouldn't work, I think that summer was the closest we ever got."

"Before she left," you conclude.

"Hey, I still went on the trip, and I had a lot of fun," JJ tells you, "no hard feelings towards her. Or any of them," he adds in a lower tone, probably not intended for your ears.

But something about the tone of his voice told you that it had stung more than he was letting on.

The night continued on, and JJ eventually gets tipsy enough to play some music for everyone, which was then accompanied by everyone's slightly out-of-tune singing. You even join in, dancing in the sand with Freddy and a couple of the guys from the marina over in the next port.