stevie | outer banks | JJxOC

19- slit-my-throat in love with her

Once the sun had come out and flooded John B's room with light, he started to stir and wake up. He looked over with a smile to still see his sister fast asleep after her emotional night. He didn't want to wake her up so he carefully put some board shorts on and snuck out of his room.

The rest of the pogues had made themselves at home, eating breakfast and drinking coffee. Unsurprisingly JJ had a joint in his hand already. They had their plans to practise using the drone, or ROV as Pope corrected them, just to figure it out before they took it out into the open water.

"Where's your sister?" Kie noticed Stevie hadn't come out yet and wasn't in her room like normal.

"Sleeping," He replied, trying to leave out all the other details. John B grabbed two slices of bread that weren't mouldy, learning from JJ's mistake, and made himself some toast.

"Lazy arse," JJ muttered looking out the window at the morning marsh.

"Just leave it please," John B defended his sister. The four, without Stevie, took the drone out to the jetty that led into the marsh to test it. John B and Kie got in the water and Pope controlled the ROV whilst JJ laughed at the camera. It was too stormy to use at the coordinates of the Merchant, but at least now they had a solid plan.

Just as Pope was explaining Maritime Salvage Law, Stevie got up and out of bed feeling better after a good rest. She noticed no one in the house and saw JJ and Pope on the jetty, realising they were using the drone. She slowly walked out of the house in her pyjamas and noticed John B and Kie in the water. 

"Steve," Pope smiled seeing the girl out of the corner of his eye. JJ, however, was not so happy.

"Look what the cat dragged in," JJ muttered bitterly, giving her the same look he gave outside the salvage yard.

"That's a stupid phrase," Stevie scoffed at the idiom, "What do you mean?" She asked for more clarity on why he was pissed.

"You're not pulling your weight," JJ started and all the other Pogues felt tense. Like they were watching a car crash, "All of us got up and are hard at work and you've only just appeared- after we've figured it out. Looks like someone's avoiding getting involved."

Stevie had had enough. She couldn't do it any more. Years of bickering and she finally snapped, "What is your problem?" she spat.

"What?" JJ seemed too calm.

"You are rude to me, you insult me and you don't appreciate anything I do," she started going off on him, "I got the drone for your plan. You wouldn't have it without me and you haven't thanked me once. In fact, you thought I was too useless to even help. You're always pushing me around or pushing me away." She felt slightly embarrassed that she said everything in front of both JJ and the rest of the Pogues but she was past caring. She had grown so frustrated she had to let it out.

"Why do you stay then?" JJ asked. He had never really learnt how to deal with other people's emotions and resorted to defending himself rather than trying to sort it out. Which didn't work when arguing with Stevie.

"We're supposed to be friends!" She shouted at him, standing further down the jetty. "Actually we were friends, we were really good friends. Until you decided to hate me. What did I do?" She was getting exasperated.

"Evie." JJ interrupted trying to calm her down after seeing how heated she got but she wasn't having any of it.

"Don't." She cut him off, "What did I fucking do? You're always there. Always around. Being at home feels shit cos it reminds me of Dad and Uncle T, and on top of it, you're always here to rub salt in the wound. It's funny that you call me stupid, cos I pretend to be fine and you believe me." you took a deep breath and looked down, away from the boy. When she looked back up all she could feel was anger, "I think you're one of the shittiest people I've ever met."