ɪɴ ᴍʏ ᴍɪɴᴅ ≫ 【ᴊᴊ ᴍᴀʏʙᴀɴᴋ】

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TW: mentions of death, and explosions. (Let me know if anything else was a trigger in this chapter and future chapters, and I will include them as warnings, so sorry if anything else triggered you)

~*~

'When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure'

『 My name is Layla Routledge, I was proud of my last name it had so much history with it and now I get the honour to have it. 』

It's winter in the Outer banks, meaning the moon stays past it's welcome. It was only 4:00pm, but the sky said otherwise. I was skipping home from having an exciting day at school with my cousin John B, and our best friends Pope, JJ, and Kiara.

I hopped up onto my front porch and knocked rapidly on my front door, thrilled to see my parents and tell them all the fun activities we did today. My mother opened the door with a wide smile plastered on her face, "Лейла, моя дорогая, ты дома!"
(Layla, my dear, you are home!),
my mother spoke in her thick Russian accent. I can understand Russian but can't speak it very well, it's a tough language to master fluently if you aren't actually from the country, so I responded in English.

"Mum! I had such a fun day at school, we did so much paintings today. The teacher said I did really well. She said she is going to put it on the wall in our classroom!", I jumped up and down in joy of how incredibly proud I was of my work.

~*~

It was now 6:00pm in the evening, the sky had gone a very dark shade of navy with the full moon out in all of its glory, contrasting perfectly with the dark abyss that was the sky. My mother had set down our food for dinner, homemade spaghetti with meatballs, my favourite!

My dad was supposed to be at home from work already, he was never normally late, since we usually always sit at the table for dinner together, "Mum, where is papa? He should be home now?"
"I don't know Layla, something probably came up at wo-", my mother's broken English was sadly cut short, that was the last time I heard my mother's softly spoken, and serene voice.

One of the last things I heard ever again.

I was blasted out from my chair, everything happening in slow motion, as I flew through the air landing face first on my living room floor. As I came back to my senses, my ears ringing, I saw the damage that had happened to the one and only place I found serenity in. Gone. The fire devouring the four walls of my home once tranquil, now full of chaos and despair.

"Layla!", I could read my mother's lips saying my name, but I couldn't yet understand why I was unable hear her. I shook it off and crawled over towards my mother, who was near our staircase going upstairs, and underneath an open window. She looked at me and gave me a small smile and an, "I love you Layla.", I think that's what she said, I couldn't be sure from only reading her lips.

She then swiftly lifted me up and slid me through the before mentioned open window we previously both were underneath. I landed on the grass outside my house, as I looked back towards the window, awaiting my mother to come crashing out, "Mama?!", I cried but I was instead greeted with yet another explosion, this time destroying the rest of what was left of my house.

Not long later, the shock still racing through my nerves, the police and ambulance were of course called as everyone in our town would have probably heard the loud explosions.

Red and blue flashes of light pulse through the reflection of the police car's window, loud sirens blare in my ears, barely being able for me to hear, consuming me, as my hearing quickly slipped away, plunging me into eternal silence. My head reeling with the nights events.

Through the police car's windows I could see JJ saying my name, "Layla, Layla!". This wasn't how this memory goes, JJ was not supposed to be here. "Layla!", he repeated, this time I could feel my body being lightly shaken, as I slowly open my eyes to the bright summer sun. I could see JJ shaking me slightly to wake me up, and I saw him saying my name.

I sat up from my previous state of lying down on the scaffolding of a newly built house just across the bridge from our small home of the Outer banks.

'Had another nightmare?', JJ signed to me covering up the worry on his face, he wasn't doing it very well because I could read his and anyone else's emotions thoroughly, a skill I picked up after becoming deaf when I was 10 years old.

'Yeah another one don't worry about me though I'm fine' I signed back giving him my signature goofy grin to convince him I was okay.

'What do you mean? I wasn't worried. Just making sure you weren't dead.' He signed to me, earning him a slap on the arm. "Ow!", he remarked in pain. I let out a small giggle from his over dramatic response.

Ever since I went deaf 6 years ago I couldn't speak very well, only slight remarks, like a laugh or a response to pain, like an 'ouch', but never any full sentences. That's where I had to use sign language to convey longer conversations. It was slightly difficult to pick up at first, but I'm a fast learner so it didn't take long for me to get the hang of the basics and teaching it to my friends and family, so they too could speak to me to help in the mean time whilst I was still getting used to lip reading.

After the day that I became deaf when my house was destroyed, my mother had died that night during the second explosion. My father was put in prison with his friends for being convicted of my mother's death, and fucking up my life. People say he was framed but I don't know what to believe, he was such a good dad but he was sometimes quite violent towards my mother, he just had some bad mood swings, anything could tick him off and he would get angry.

I had no one else who could look after me other than, my uncle John, otherwise known as Big John, and my cousin John B, they were the only family I had left.

『 My name was originally Layla Routledge, I love my family, but I am no longer proud of its history. I now bare my mother's name.
My name is Layla Belova. 』

a/n

Thank you guys so much for reading this chapter, I had just finished watching obx season 2, so I was I so inspired to create a JJ Maybank fan fiction.

Don't get me wrong I have the biggest crush on Rafe Cameron, but I couldn't think of a storyline for him. So if you have any ideas lmk.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!
Love you guys bye! 💗