Waves

t h i r t y - n i n e

~PRESENT~

"I can't believe you're actually leaving."

Sarah sat on the couch in Amelia and JJ's apartment, which now sat empty as JJ hadn't come back yet and Amelia was packing her things to head back to Massachusetts. Pope sat in one of the white chairs at the table. "What time does your flight leave?" He asked her.

"An hour."

Amelia didn't expect to go back home yet. Just like last summer, her summer in Outer Banks was being cut short. She could stay and she wanted to stay, but after everything that happened with JJ, she didn't know if that was the best thing. She assumed that since JJ took off on Luke's boat, and the fact that he left with Kiara, that their relationship was basically over. After four days of not hearing from him or seeing him, she figured what the best thing for her to do was to go back home with her family.

She really wanted things to work with JJ this time. She truly believed that he was her soulmate. But being that this was the way things were between them now, maybe she was mistaken.

"I wish you would just stay." Sarah said, playing anxiously with the necklace hanging around her neck as she watched Amelia put the last of her things into her suitcase.

"Sar, I want to. But I can't be here knowing that things are basically over with JJ." She slammed her suitcase shut, tugging the zipper around it. "And I hate that he's with Kiara."

"But maybe he'll come back. What if you leave today and he comes back tomorrow?"

Amelia sighed before sitting down on the couch next to Sarah. "Even if he does, I think he's decided where he's at with me."

"But you don't know that for sure." Pope stated, raising his eyebrows at Amelia.

"No, I don't know that for sure. But it's pretty easy to say that things are over between us."

He stood from the chair, wrapping Amelia into a hug, her tucked tightly into his body. His breathing was heavy against her forehead, leaving a small kiss where his mouth rested against her skin. "He fought so hard for you. It can't be over just like that."

Amelia knew that Pope was right. Last summer, JJ fought for her as hard as he could so that he could win her from Rafe. After she left Outer Banks last summer, he still tried to fight for her, reaching out to her every day for weeks until he finally realized that he wasn't hearing back from her and decided to try to move on. And now this summer back in Outer Banks, he fought to win her back again. She knew that fate tried as hard as it could to bring them together, and as much as she knew that it was for a reason, she couldn't yet figure out what that reason was if it wasn't that he was her soulmate.

"I never wanted things to end this way." Amelia said, wiping away the tears that had formed in her eyes. "But if he chooses Kiara over me, then that's who he chooses. I can't make him pick me."

"Millie..."

"If it's not meant to be, then it's not meant to be."

She grabbed her suitcase, sitting it on the floor next to her and pulling out the handle so that she could pull it behind her. She took a deep breath, her eyes shifting around the small apartment one last time. One of JJ's shirts was still draped over the stool at the kitchen island, and she smiled to herself at his half full mug of coffee that she knew was now cold. She didn't get to live here with JJ for very long, but the short amount of time that she had with him here, she would be forever grateful for.

She checked the time on her phone before sliding it into the pocket of her jean shorts. "I should probably go. I don't want to miss my flight."

"We wouldn't complain if you did." Pope said, shooting her a frown.