Catching Sunshine | JJ Maybank

9 // Homecoming

"Stupid things have good outcomes all the time."

Should I be at home right now, making up some elaborate story for Rosie to explain my unprompted absence the past few days? Probably. Was I a couple beers deep right now, sitting on the edge of the famed hot tub in the backyard of the Château and watching Pope and JJ wrestle each other into the dirt? Most definitely.

Like John B had so delicately put it earlier, when Pope, Kie, and I were lamenting about our parental woes, shit could hit the fan tomorrow. So we had found the Pogue right where we left her almost three months ago, pilfered a few cases of beer, and set up shop back at home base. The Château was almost just as it was; the police tape surrounding the perimeter had all but floated away by now and the patrol cars had long since stopped being stationed outside the front door. So we were free to settle right back into familiar routine.

"Ah, good, good, good," JJ encouraged when Pope managed to drag him into a headlock, "Get on the leg-oh!"

I couldn't help but wince involuntarily when Pope sneakily hooked a leg around JJ's, successfully bringing the other boy thudding harshly into the dirt. "Oh, with the single-leg sweep!" John B narrated.

"You got new technique now..." JJ muttered, almost impressed as Pope threw his arms up in victory. He always got a little more rowdy while under the influence.

I shifted in my lawn chair, the cold can of beer in my hands and the evening breeze still making me chilly despite the bonfire and whichever of the boys' hoodies that I had stolen to slip on over my bikini top. "When did you start wrestling?" John B inquired of Pope as JJ hauled himself to his feet.

"I dunno."

"Well maybe stop," I interjected with a roll of my eyes, "before one of you gets hurt."

"That's half the fun Meggers."

"Yeah," I responded to John B, "until they come crying to me when they crack their head open on the ground."

"What, you wouldn't kiss it and make it better?" JJ taunted with a sly grin, the string lights hanging from the tree branches dancing in the blues of his eyes. I smirked; my ban on drinking had evaporated long ago and the alcohol buzzing through my veins was giving me a special, flirty kind of courage.

"Maybe if you ask nicely."

Luckily for me, no one else was paying too much attention but JJ's stare fixated on my curled up form and I watched with bated breath as he took a long, lingering look up the length of my bare legs tucked against my body. His mouth crooked and he huffed a small laugh but conceded the interaction to me without saying anything. I refocused back on everyone else in time to hear Pope announce, "I'm done. I'm out of here."

JJ called after him in a poor accent, "Did you have too many beers?"

I tuned the boys out again, instead catching Kiara cast a contemplative gaze towards where Pope was marching off towards the dock. She casually stood up and silently followed after him, which wasn't lost on the rest of us. "Really?" Sarah laughed incredulously.

"Way to be discreet!" JJ hollered after their retreating figures.

"I leave and this is what happens," John B mused, "First you two, and now them?"

"Oh please," I retorted, "We were never that nauseatingly obvious."

"Right," John B drawled, "You two most definitely never took my boat out at dawn for a secret hookup. I must be thinking of somebody else."

I choked on the sip of beer I was taking and Sarah's face crinkled with disgusted laughter. "Ew, you didn't! On the Pogue?"

JJ grinned smugly down at the blunt perched between his fingers before taking a hefty pull. "Right there on the bow deck..." he said quietly.