saltwater | outer banks

6| a knife to a gun fight

VENUS OPENED THE CHATEAU door and made her way inside, quickly gathering her backpack from the living room couch John B must've left it on.

It was well past nine o'clock when she'd finally gotten back to the Cut after spending the day with Rafe. The two had talked more about the Barry interaction and Venus' past, which only led to them awkwardly trying to talk about their feelings with one another (neither of them were the best at verbally expressing themselves). They'd spent the majority of the day at Tannyhill and visited the mainland to get dinner at a place the boy had wanted to show her. The night turned out to be more fun than Venus would admit, and that left the girl trying her best to hide a small hickey that the Cameron boy marked on her neck after they'd left the mainland.

"John!" she yelled, walking into the kitchen then back down into the hallway. "John B!"

Before she could reach his bedroom door, it opened and the brunet emerged.

"Venus?" He gaped at the girl before a somewhat angry expression took over his features. "Where the fuck have you been? It's been a whole day and no one could find your ass! We thought you got arrested."

"I didn't get arrested. I meant to make it back sooner, I'm sorry. I just got caught up with some stuff." She opened her bag and grabbed her bike keys from one of the pockets. "What happened?"

"I'd just like to point out that we spend all morning looking for you. JJ even tried to call your mom's work to ask if she'd seen you and Pope had to stop him," he rambled, poking the girl on her sternum. "You couldn't have called or left a note or something?"

A blank look coated her face as she held up her backpack that stored her phone, which was most likely dead by now. "Do I need to remind you that half of the towers went down and my phone was left here? What did you want, smoke signals?" she sighed and adjusted the strap on her shoulder. "I thought the plan was to lay low, so I did. I stayed at a friend's house. They found me when I was leaving the beach," she excused.

"Well, you missed a lot."

She threw her hands up at her sides. "Okay, that's what I'm here for. Fill me in."

John walked past her to the kitchen and took a water bottle from the fridge. She followed quietly and leaned against the counter, waiting for a run-down of what occurred during her absence.

His stared at the Beck girl for a moment, his eyes focusing on her features. His brows furrowed and he stomped closer to her without a word, setting the bottle down on the counter before grabbing her face with his hands and tilting her head to the side.

"No way," he laughed, "who gave you a hickey?"

She pushed the boy away as he began to make fun of her and adjusted her hair to cover the mark better.

"Stop," she demanded, rolling her eyes at him. "It was from the kegger, some tourist. It's not a big deal," she lied.

"Hey, I'm allowed to tease you if that is what you were doing when everything was going down at the beach." He took a gulp of water. "What happened to you not wanting to hook up with Tourons?"

"None of your business, that's what," she shot back. "Fill me in on what happened, I'm tired."

"I'm sure you are," he muttered smartly, earning a smack on his arm from the girl. "Sorry, sorry." He raised his hands in a truce and sighed. "Sheriff Peterkin stopped by in the morning. She was talking about what happened at the Boneyard—and I covered, don't worry. She was asking about the boat and telling me to stay out of the marsh."