The Ocean Remembers | JJ Maybank

C H A P T E R 10

(tw: addiction to alcohol)

HONU

𝐈 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐃 in my room, extremely sad and disappointed. I knew it wasn't her fault and it was only because of her addiction, but sometimes she was hard to deal with. I was looking at the ceiling, thinking of how I could try and fix the situation when my phone started to ring.

JJ appeared on the screen and I wondered what could what could make him call me already. We had separated not even an hour ago."'sup JJ, miss me already?" I joked.

"Not at all," he immediately replied, and I could imagine him smirking. I laughed and shook my head.

"Why are you calling me then?" I asked

"I forgot something," he explained, calmly, almost as if he was embarrassed.

"What do you mean? what did you forget?"

He stayed quiet for a little while, and cleared his throat. What could make him so anxious?

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I am, what did you forget?" I asked again, not understanding the point of his question right now.

"I forgot to ask you if you were okay," he explained. "after you woke up, I didn't ask you how you felt"

"Oh my-"

He laughed awkwardly and I twirled my hair around my finger, catching myself smiling dumbly. "See? for once I'm not so mean," he explained.

"Well you're cute when you care JJ," I breathed not believing he meant his words.

"See that's your problem, you're always making fun of-"

"Sorry Jay, sorry, I shouldn't have made fun of you, it's very sweet thank you," I cut him off, because it had not been very nice of me to treat him like this.

"I like to hear the sound of your voice saying thank you and sorry," he confessed.

"Very funny," I breathed out rolling eyes, relieved to see he wasn't actually upset.

"I'm very funny, I'm a funny guy," he replied and I laughed. "I'm funny and brave, because I save girls from mean men"

"JJ just know that I don't need to be saved, I'm not weak," I justified, scared of what he could think of me.

"I never said you were weak but you clearly need me in your life," he explained and I bursted out in laugh.

We stayed quiet for a little while, and I started to realise maybe he started to hate me a little less. I knew he would have saved any girl, and I didn't take it as a proof of friendship at all, but him calling me just to know if I was okay meant a lot.

"You know I had a nightmare, before I woke up in your bed. He was abusing me and I wasn't reacting at all," I sighed, "it's kind of scary"

"Don't take it at face value, you don't know how you'd have reacted if he actually did," JJ said and I agreed.

"What did you do to him?" I asked him.

"What you should have done if you were conscious; I punched him in the face and where it hurts the most. I'll teach you how to treat men like him okay?" he told me through the phone.

"I know how to deal with him. I can cut his fingers off so they're never on my skin again, make him eat them and br-"

"No, no bad idea," he laughed out loud, "I can't have you in jail Honu, I can't have a Pogue in jail"