ONLY ANGEL | JJ MAYBANK

ONE... meet the jacobsons

CHAPTER ONE

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Collins had always been too good for a girl who lived on Pogue territory. And by good, one would mean in the way that she never really broke the rules or did anything bad for that matter. She'd never smoked, never drank, and never stepped a toe out of line, ever. Teachers praised her as a straight-A student and parents would wish their kids were more like her, other people would just call her quiet. And of course, she was an overall nice person to everyone she talked to, never had a malicious word to say or an evil bone in her body.

In an area where crime was persistent and poverty led people to try and cut corners at every chance they got, it would be a surprise to anyone that Collins could wake up in her little one bedroom one bathroom house everyday untainted by the crookedness surrounding her. But she walked about her day with her head down and her eyes on the prize, hoping that one day, all of those good choices that she made would pull her and her older brother, Charlie, out of the cut. Even if it was the only place they'd ever called home.

Now Charlie, he wasn't as innocent as his younger sister, he had a lot more dirt on his hands— literally and metaphorically.

He had to work hard to support the both of them in the absence of their mom and dad. Long story short, dad left when they were kids and they lost their mom to drugs a couple years back. Thankfully, since Charlie was old enough at the time, the state had permitted him with guardianship over Collins so they never had to deal with all that foster system nonsense. Collins supposed that it was probably thanks to the fact that the state would rather keep a girl and her brother together than try and place her somewhere else when no one was looking to foster/adopt a thirteen year old girl. In order to keep things the way they were, Charlie had been forced to do a lot of shit. He'd taken every job that he could get, from construction work to country club bartending, and maybe a couple extra shady side gigs that took place when he thought Collins was too busy to notice. But she did of course.

They were family after all, if one ever lost the other, insanity would take place. Collins didn't like even thinking about it. Charlie had to work hard to keep them afloat and she had to stay out of trouble so she could take over for him someday.

And Charlie was basically her only friend, she didn't really have any to begin with. It's kind of hard to make any in the neighborhood that they grew up in when you don't exactly like to party like all the other kids and few to none like any of the things that you do. But Collins was sort of okay with that, until it came to social functions, and that's when she really felt the claws of solitude sinking in. She solved this by just avoiding social gatherings all together.

The last day of school before summer break was everyone's favorite day of the year. Especially in Outer Banks, because that meant sunny days spent on the beach riding a wave, late nights getting up to no good with friends, and a steady cash flow from the influx of Tourons wandering into their businesses. Collins quite enjoyed the summertime too, just not exactly in the same way as her fellow peers. A good book and the sound of the ocean's rushing waves was more of her style.

She'd started a new one in fact, she planned on reading as many as she could that summer, which was about as exciting as it got for her. Everyone else was buzzing about their own plans, none of which remotely involved anything that required reading. They couldn't seem to focus for the last few minutes before school ended from how full of energy they were. And they were all sweating in the AC deprived classroom they sat in, so no one wanted to listen to their teacher's final words before they departed when the heat was boiling their brains of all thoughts on fun. Eventually, she'd given up on even trying and just let the students go about with their own side conversations.