𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐅𝐓𝐎𝐏
[JJ Maybank x fem!oc]
"how badly is this gonna hurt?"
he looked up at her, his hair blowing in
the breeze, hesitating for only a second.
"how badly do you care?"
- or in which jj always won...
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Another smoldering hot day in OBX. Temperatures were already in the high 90s and it was just barely reaching noon. It was a hot and sticky, humid and disgusting day. The past few had been dangerously dry, but the humidity was now hands down, off the charts. Athena's hair was so frizzy she felt like a clown. Kiara expressed that she felt the same way and Athena felt a little better.
The friend group had nothing planned for today except that they were going to help out at Pope's Dad's seafood store all afternoon. They were planning on heading back to John B's at night to chill, but he was off the grid basically all day yesterday. Kiara said he left the island for a while, but none of them knew why yet. So for now, they only had plans to work. Athena was still excited. Actually, they were all still excited. As long as they were together, nothing was ever boring. Even work.
Athena was on the back of JJ's bike and Kiara was on the back of Pope's. They started off at JJ's house that morning. Kiara and Athena had walked over from Figure Eight together around nine AM. They spent a few hours there and started to head to Pope's at noon. His dad requested they arrive at twelve-thirty, sharp. Emphasis on the sharp. Usually, they showed up anywhere from five to thirty minutes late. Not today though. The Heywards were getting a huge shipment of locally sourced fish. There was a ton of work to do.
The night before, right after their Royal Merchant visit, (and when John B was busy doing whatever), Pope, JJ, and Kiara went to the local park. Athena apologized but declined the invitation. She said she needed to eat dinner with the grandmother, but could meet up after. She suggested night surfing, and JJ insisted they go. At the park, they had a huge screen and projector set up and were serving popcorn, soda, and candy. They did it every summer, usually every other weekend. This movie showing was the first of the summer. The kickoff, if you will.
When the gang first got there, Kiara got up to get all of them Pepsis. When she paid, Rafe threatened Pope and JJ through her. Kiara told Athena that he said, "tell your boy we know what he did." Kiara confessed that she was just confused, but passed the message along anyway. Athena knew exactly what he was referring to, but kept her mouth shut. The rest of the conversation with Kie just consisted of her thinking "deny, deny, deny," in JJ's voice over and over and over again. So she did.
Kiara gave Athena all the details, but most of them were pretty hazy when she tried to recall them. Even directly after Kiara had relayed the night. When Athena met with them after the movie, she noticed extra bruising on JJ's face and she wanted nothing more than to hold him. He just gave her a sad smile and asked about her dinner. Athena was grateful that she got to spend dinner with her grandma, but now she was sort of resenting her for choosing that night especially. Deep down, Athena knew it was for the best though. She wouldn't have been useful at all. She wasn't useful when JJ pulled the gun, or when they stole the drone to send off the deep end. She knew she probably would've just caused more problems in the end.
