Kind Of Infinite (Outer Banks)

Chapter 4

5 days into teaching Ava how to surf and spending endless hours of talking and playing catch on the beach, JJ started to feel like himself again. Without all of the pain, disappointment and anger he had felt in the last months. On their 6th surfing lesson at sunrise, JJ suddenly got a text from Pope. Deciding to ignore it, JJ set his phone on silent mode for the rest of the day.

"Well, see who's decided to bless us with his presence!", John B mocked JJ, when he got off his motorbike and walked up to the Chateau later that day.

"When I send you a S.O.S, I expect you to show up right away. Not 6 hours later, bro.", Pope complained and JJ just rolled his eyes at his friends. Kiara and Sarah sat on the couch, while Pope sat on the brown armchair, that JJ would usually sit in. John B sat across from Kiara and Sarah and made some space for JJ, who decided it would be better for his nerves to keep standing.

"Bro, where were you? We called you like a hundred times.", Kiara asked and JJ sighed.

"I had to work. Now is this an interrogation or will someone tell me what's so important?", JJ replied annoyed and tried to change the topic.

"Shit, bro, why you're lying? I looked for you, you weren't at work. What kind of stupid shit did you do again?", John B said and JJ suddenly felt all pairs of eyes on him. He wasn't the one to lie to his friends, he never had anything to lie about. Why did he feel the need to lie now? Not knowing what to say, JJ stayed quiet and covered up his silence by lightning a joint he had pulled out of his pocket.

"I didn't do anything, calm down.", JJ said, after taking a hit and blowing out the smoke again.

"Then what?", Kiara asked again and JJ glared at her.

"I don't wanna talk about it. Can we talk about whatever you called me here for?"

"Oh shit, it's a girl, isn't it?", Sarah stated with a laugh and covered her mouth with her hand. The pogues looked at her with raised eyebrows and looked back at JJ, when he didn't say anything. Sarah pressed her hand against her mouth to stop herself from laughing, while the rest of the pogues stared at JJ.

"Seriously? You stood us up for some girl?", Kiara asked and didn't care to hide the disappointed in her voice. John B and Pope waited for JJ to answer, not knowing where this conversation was going.

"It's not like that.", JJ mumbled and heard Kiara scoff.

"Oh, so it's not that you fucked some random girl while we were waiting for you?"

"No, I did not, Kie. And you, out of everyone, don't get to judge me for who I'm with and what I'm doing with them. Someone who plays with others feelings, doesn't get the fucking right to judge others for theirs.", JJ spat and saw how Kiara raised her eyebrows at him in disbelief. Maybe JJ didn't have the right to go on her like that, but it made him furious to think that Kiara kept playing with Popes feelings and still acted like she was the one in control. JJ loved Kie, not a question, but she did need to be shut down sometimes.

"What?", JJ asked, when he noticed how everyone looked at him with a smirk.

"You're being protective, dude.", John B chuckled and JJ rolled his eyes again as heard the rest of the pogues laugh.

"Come on now, tell us who she is.", Sarah pleaded and JJ shook his head before taking a hit again and blowing the smoke into John Bs face.

"Fine, we'll give you a few weeks to keep her to yourself. At least tell us about her. What she's like?", Sarah tried again and rolled her eyes, when the blonde boy shook his head again.

"Come on, why not? It's not like we will stalk her or something."

"If I start talking about her now, I don't think I'll ever be able to stop again.", JJ answered with a big smile and let himself fall next to John B. John B immediately pulled his best friend into his side happily and ruffled his blonde hair, while the girls squeaked in excitement. Jokes were made, whistles were heard and for what felt like hours, the pogues mocked their friend for his crush. Just when the sun was about to set, JJ made it to change the topic to the original point of why they had met in the first place.

"Well and then I found this.", Pope finished his story of how he found the key and held it up for JJ to see.

"We're back in the game, bro.", John B said with a promising expression and looked at JJ.

"What you mean?", JJ asked, even though he knew exactly what John B had meant. JJ tried to cover up the fact, that he didn't feel excited about that at all and he knew, that his friends wouldn't understand it.

"I mean that maybe we lost the gold, but we have the chance to find more. And this time, we will get whatever belongs to us.", John B explained and JJ noticed how everyone stared at him. He knew, that his friends expected him to freak out about this, to be excited. And to be honest, if JJ would have known about this five days ago, he probably would have had reacted the exact same way his friends had expected him to. JJ had never had anything to lose, that's why he had been after the gold in the first place. None of them had anything to lose, or at least, that's what they had all thought. But this time, it was different. John B and Sarah nearly died. Twice. Sarah had lost pretty much all of her family. Her father was dead, her brother a psychopath. Kiara was close to get send to boarding school and Pope had lost his scholarship. They all already lost so much and even though JJ had felt, that he after all, didn't have anything to lose, suddenly feared exactly that. He had enjoyed spending time with Ava. He had felt excited and nervous around her in positive ways, something he didn't even know was possible. And at the same time, he felt happy and carefree and above all, he felt safe with her. Sure, she was just a girl. A girl he had met just a week ago. But JJ liked the way she made him feel and he didn't know if he was ready to lose it again just yet.

While all of those thoughts ran through his mind in less than a second, JJ knew, that no matter how much he liked Ava and the feelings he had around her, he would not let his friends down. So, all he did was to jump off his seat, faked a smile and said "Fucking hell. I'm in."