Kind Of Infinite (Outer Banks)

Chapter 3

Climbing down the hill with the surfboard under his arm, JJ jumped off the last rock and landed on the soft sand. The sun had just begun to rise and the sky looked like someone had painted it with pink and blue. Not expecting to see someone on the beach, JJ suddenly stopped in his tracks. He watched the silhouette walking down the beach in the distance and broke into a smile, when he saw how the person bent down to pick something up.

"Do elves not sleep or are you just an early bird?", JJ greeted the girl, when he had caught up to her. Ava winced and let out an awkward noise, before she swiftly turned around to face whoever had frightened her. JJ chuckled and put the surfboard down to the ground. Ava wore white sneakers and black shorts that were ripped on her thighs. A black bikini top covered her chest and JJ hoped, that she wouldn't mistake him to stare at her chest, when he had looked at her neck to see the shell still hanging around it.

"Shit, don't scare me like that.", Ava breathed out and lightly smacked his bare chest.

"You scared me first. I'm usually the first one here.", JJ replied and felt like his heart grew wings and wanted to fly away, when he watched how Ava blushed and shyly smiled down to the ground.

"Are you good?", she asked and carefully touched the surfboard he still held up with one hand. JJ looked at it and shrugged his shoulders.

"Pretty good.", he smirked and Ava nodded with a knowing smile.

"Would you teach me?", she asked and looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

"To surf? Yeah, sure. You can't live in the cut and not know how to surf."

"I'm serious. I want to learn.", Ava stated and JJ could have sworn, that her eyes had grown a little bigger. She tilted her head and her dark blonde curls waved nicely in the wind, as the pinkish light fell onto her face perfectly.

"Are you giving me puppy eyes?"

"Does it work?" JJ was taken aback by her sudden confidence and liked the fact, that she could totally pull off being cute and being tough without even faking it. She was just being herself, living in her own world.

"Fuck, yeah.", JJ admitted and Ava laughed out loud.

"Great, let's start then?", Ava asked and grabbed the surfboard, slowly pulling it towards her. JJ just let her take it and watched her walk away with it for a moment, before he slowly followed her. Once finding the perfect spot, Ava put the surfboard down in the sand and took off her black shorts and shoes. With her hands in her hips, she waited for JJ to finally catch up with her.

"You have a very good body tension. It'll be easy for you to stand on the board.", JJ remarked, after he had watched her paddle on the sand and getting up on his command for about 30 minutes.

"Great, does that mean we can go inside the water and try?", Ava asked hopefully and grinned at him. JJ chuckled and shrugged his shoulders, knowing well how her first tries would end. The both of them went inside the water anyway and started with the basics all over again. JJ let her paddle over and over again, until he thought that she would make it. After the 7th time of paddling, he shouted at her to stand up. Quickly placing her hands in front of her, Ava wanted to get up, but already lost her balance before she could even move the first foot onto the board. She fell off the board and quickly came back to the surface again. Coughing, she went to grab the board and went back inside the water to where JJ stood.

"Don't place your hands so far away from you. Try to place them here.", he explained and showed her where to place her hands. Ava nodded and got back onto the board.

"Alright, paddle." Ava did so and waited for JJ to tell her when to stand up. When she heard him shout, she placed her hands right in front of her and pushed herself up a little, moving her feet onto the board. She made it, but fell off again, before she could straighten her back.

"You're doing good.", JJ complimented her and Ava smiled at him thankfully, before she repeated the same thing over and over again. Out of 7 waves, she managed to stand up once, but couldn't hold herself longer than three seconds.

"I'm tired.", she whined, as she came back after the 9th time she had fell into the ocean. She got onto the board anyway, but crossed her arms on it to rest her head on them.

"Alright, let's take a break.", JJ agreed and held onto the surfboard, as he went further into the water. Once the water around them got deeper and calmer, he swam around the board and rested his arms on it, right in front of Ava. For a while, they just floated in the water and watched how the sun finally rose above the water.

"That's so relaxing.", Ava suddenly mumbled and JJ turned his head to face her.

"Yeah.", he agreed and rested his chin on his arms, just to notice how close her face suddenly was to his. He noticed the two little moles right between her upper lip and her nose and a bigger one underneath her left eye. JJ wanted to reach up and trace the line they build, but forced himself not to.

"Did you feel homesick yesterday?", he asked instead and hoped that he wouldn't take her by surprise with his sudden curiosity. Ava shook her head lightly and placed it on her arm again to look at him.

"Kind of. I missed my mum.", she answered honestly, like she didn't mind his question at all.

"Is she still in Iceland? Are your parents divorced?"

"No, she passed away 2 years ago.", Ava answered quietly and feared his reaction. Usually when she got to tell that part about her family, conversations quickly turned into an awkward and tensed moment and she absolutely hated it.

"I'm sorry about that, Ava. What was she like? Would she like to see you on a surfboard?", JJ asked and his heart flattered, when Ava broke into a smile and her eyes lit up. JJ knew how it felt to speak about parents who aren't there anymore. Or parents who don't care about you. He knew how conversations suddenly turn awkwardly or how the person in front of you suddenly looks at you with nothing but pity in their eyes. But JJ knew better, he knew that this was not something Ava wanted.

"She would have loved it. My family always had this dream, that we would move back to the Outer Banks once I finished school or college. My mum loved it here, she talked about it nearly every day.", Ava answered with excitement in her voice and lifted her head. She told him the whole story of how their parents had met on the island and how they wanted to have her a good education in Iceland. She told him about making flower crowns with her mother on every midsummer and she told him the story of how she got sick.

"It was hard after she died. Because all we had was each other and the dream to leave Iceland together one day. My dad wanted us to stay, because my mum would have wanted me to get my graduation in Iceland, but you know... Education doesn't mean everything. And I think my dad's health and our both happiness were more important than my education. So, I told him I wanted to move. To move on and to heal and I knew the Outer Banks would be the only place for us to do so.", Ava ended her story and placed her head back onto her arm. Still processing the things Ava had trusted JJ with and thinking very carefully about what to say next, JJ stayed quiet for a moment.

"Funny how you think I am the elf, when for me, the Outer Banks are the magical place. Who knows, maybe you are the elf.", Ava joked and winked at JJ. JJ chuckled and shook his head a little. After everything he had seen and went through in the last few months, it was absurd for JJ to think that anyone would call this island magical. The paradise on earth it once was, had been gone and JJ had accepted it a long time ago. So, what was it? Destiny? Magic? What kind of girl was Ava that she brought all the magic back? What kind of girl was she, that she made JJ forget all the bad things that he had went through?

"I can guarantee you, that I'm not an elf and that the only magical part on this island, is you."