stevie | outer banks | JJxOC

22- squat and go

"Do you want anything?" JJ asked the girl in his clothes after he rolled the sleeves of his jumper up so that her hands could resurface. "I rolled a J earlier if you wanna smoke?"

"A nap?" She asked with tired eyes. He saw the exhaustion in her eyes, making him smile softly and move away from his bed.

"Take my bed." He gestured. "I'll be in the lounge"

"Thank you." Stevie stopped him before he left the room with a hug. Burning in his chest, he knew what his heart wanted but he couldn't. He simply smiled saying no problem before shutting the door of his room. He had been told his whole life that he wasn't worth anything. Stevie never believed that.

JJ took the time to clean up. He knew it wouldn't last once his dad came home but at least it would look like he put some effort in. Seeing the mess created by his dad made his mouth taste sour and his lungs fill with resentment. In the back of his mind, he didn't want Stevie to think he was a slob.

Once the dishes were clean and the floor was visible and there weren't any empty bottles in sight, JJ checked on the Routledge girl. Buried under the duvet like a mouse, Stevie's face was snuggled up on his pillow. However, the duvet had fallen off the side of the bed leaving her legs uncovered. He carefully manipulated the duvet back over the girl, careful not to wake her. Her face was at peace. He gently stroked her face from her forehead down her nose before leaving back to the lounge.

***

"Morning sleeping beauty." JJ laughed as the girl came out of his room looking well-rested, "You good?"

"Yup," she smiled, walking over to the blonde boy, her body still consumed by his clothes, "Why is your gun on the table?" She sounded unimpressed.

"I was gonna practise but you were asleep." JJ played with the bullets.

"Well, I'm awake now." She followed JJ out of the house to the garden outside where JJ had set up a teddy on a tree stump. After being told to stand back and put the ear defenders on, JJ started shooting bullets through the fabric of the bear.

"you really think that's worth a 5% bump?" Stevie smiled. "what did the teddy do to you?"

"Talked shit about me." JJ smiled back.

"Aww JJ bless," Stevie pouted at him, "Did the big bad bear hurt your feelings?"

JJ turned to shoot the bear repeatedly and only stopped when Pope came running over. "Can I talk to you right now? Alone." He looked at Stevie.

"Love you too Pope," Stevie shouted back from the sofa in JJ's garden. The boys stepped aside and from the looks of it were talking about something serious. Pope looked more stressed than usual.

Kie had come down to JJ's less than an hour later reminding them that they agreed to go to the OBX movies with her- everyone else had forgotten. JJ assembled some beers from the fridge and Stevie put together some camping chairs from JJ's shed. They were all happy to humour Kie and go along with what she wanted to do, the teens had spent the last few weeks going over backwards for John B looking for gold and getting chased, finally, it was time for some normality. Although Stevie couldn't fully relax not knowing where John B had gotten to.

"I'm so glad they're still doing this," Kie said as they walked up to the green where the movies were being hosted. "Keep calm. Carry on. Back to OBX life. Aren't you guys glad I made you come"

"Ecstatic," Pope said with no excitement. Clearly, something was up. Pope really liked Kie and would be happy to do something like this for her. Whatever trouble Pope was in it was serious.

"My couch was pretty comfy. I'll be honest." JJ commented slyly.

"Shut up guys." Stevie had Kie's back. Stevie's chair was positioned between Kie and JJ but she was too far to hear what Pope and JJ were saying. She didn't like not knowing what was happening.