"Get on the bike." JJ Maybank approached June, the girls head quickly turning to look at him. He was soaking wet, a heated angry look on his face as he walked towards the bike. She was immediately alarmed, not quite sure what had happened between the time he had went inside to now. She had been waiting against the side of the marina for about 20 minutes, and seeing him to angry and unexplainably soaked was quite confusing. She pushed off the wall, following after him as he stood to the side of the bike.
"What's wrong? What happened?" She asked with concern in her voice, JJ shaking his head as he grabbed the helmet, pushing it into her chest. He angrily got his stuff together, June watching him with heavy breaths and trying to get his attention before speaking again. "JJ! Talk to me."
"Rafe was there. On his boat." Her heart dropped and her mouth immediately closed, her throat going dry at the mention of Rafe out of JJs mouth. "He melted down the cross. It's gone. It's really gone."
June knew this fact, but she still managed to look overtly surprised, her eyes widening and her mouth dropping open. The realization of what he said instantly struck her, June feeling paranoid that he knew about what she had done. JJ was about the last person she wanted to know about her endeavors with Rafe. If he wasn't so angry he could possibly see through the facade but he wasn't even looking at her anymore, the girl shaking her head.
"What do you mean he melted it?"
"He melted the gold down, separated the gems, and he's using Barry's fucking aunt to sell the pieces for cash. We lost. We seriously lost." He felt so angry he could cry, the boy looking at her in pure defeat. She wanted to pull him to her, hug him and comfort him but she knew she couldn't, it would complicate things. However her heart skipped a beat when tears actually gathered in his eyes, and she couldn't keep herself from comforting him, especially when the guilt of already knowing was biting so hard into her. Her jaw clenched and tightened as she tried to fight the instinctual urge to be there for him, but for a moment the look in his eyes reminded her of the helpless one from the night at the hot tub, and the day that his dad left. She couldn't resist him.
June reached out, pulling the boy into her arms. It was a breath of fresh air to be holding him again, JJ taking a moment before burying his face into her neck and wrapping his arms around her waist. She held him in front of the marina, her heart swelling and pounding and her mind blurring and racing. She missed him. His arms around her felt like the antidote to all of her ails, the answer to all of her problems, and the cure to everything wrong. She wanted to stay here forever. JJ felt his heart rate spike in her arms, the familiar old smell of her shampoo flooding his nose and making him want to grab and kiss her right there. Her embrace momentarily clouded his mind, thoughts of the cross disappearing as he buried his face into her neck tightened his grip on her waist. He wanted to pull her away and take her somewhere right now, because he yearned and aches desperately to be intimate with her, something he hadn't had in so long. But then he wanted to slap himself for forgetting everything he had gone to keep that from happening, considering his rash decision making had cost him his entire relationship.
June felt a bolt of fear run through her that just being embraced by him could make her take back all the things she had said to him about waiting, and she searched her brain for any way to backtrack on the progress she was sure he thought he was making. She settled on an answer, sucking in a breath of courage before speaking.
"It's okay. Whatever happens we'll all get through it together. We're a team. We're friends." JJ felt like he had been stabbed when she said it, his eyes squeezing closed as she pushed him into a place he was deeply terrified of. He wished it was easier, that he could just fix things but he knew it wouldn't be that way, she continued to prove that to him. He let out a sigh, pulling back from her arms and waiting a moment before dropping his hands from her waist. He wanted to kiss her, to wipe all the friend shit away and prove to her that it was not what they were. But she took a step back, running a hand over her hair as JJ blinked away the hurt of being reduced to just her friend.
