Someone to stay || JJ Maybank

01

"Paradise on earth"

"We should go surfing."

"Right now?"

"No, not right now! We should go surfing some day. Or why not now? We haven't surfed like at all this summer."

"We have surfed like every day."

I close my eyes and let the boys' conversation fade into the backround. The sound of waves crashing on the shore filling my ears and the sun warmly caressing my skin as I lay on the scaffolding. It felt perfect. The place where we were hanging out was a house under construction, a fine mansion, just like every other house on Figure Eight. There are racks and loose planks all around so basically this is the perfect hangout spot.

Just as I was sinking deeper to my thoughts, something blocks the sun and prevents the warmth from reaching my skin. "Go away, JJ. You're blocking the view."

"How rude", the boy's voice mutters in front of me. "Besides, the view only changed for better. Which would've been obvious to you if you were actually admiring it."

I sigh and open my eyes turning to JJ with annoyed expression on my face only to find him doing some ridiculous poses between me and the sun.

"What do you want?" I ask pretending to be annoyed, fighting the laugh that's trying to escape my lips.

"Move your legs so I can sit too." He drops his hands down from behind his head.

"You can sit somewhere else."

"Or you could be kind and make some room for me", JJ says and pushes my legs towards the edge, making me almost fall from the scaffolding.

Reluctantly I sit up so JJ can sit next to me. He takes a long sip from his beer and looks up. A big grin grows to his face and I follow his gaze up to the roof to John B, who's balancing on one foot on the ridge.

"That's what, a three-story fall to the deck?" Pope asks from the terrace below us, his words directed to John B. "I give you about one-in-three change of survival."

"Hm." John B just mumbles from up there. "Should I do it?"

"Yeah you should jump, I'll shoot you on the way down." Pope points him with a drill he found from the toolbox on terrace.

"Please don't", I say at the same time. I watch as he pushes the foot even further away from the roof, testing his limits. "You can slip and fall and die all without jumping, you know."

"Wow, it almost sounds like you're worried about me, Kate", John B says while still looking down at Pope.

"Well if you're so eager to do it, you could at least do a flip or something on your way down", I mumble rolling my eyes.

"You'll shoot me?" John B asks Pope, ignoring my comment and going back to their conversation. He makes a gun with his fingers and points at Pope with it.. "Pew!"

"Yep."

"They're gonna have Japanese toilets with towel warmers", Kiara comes from inside the house, her voice filled with frustration.

"Of course they are, why wouldn't they?" JJ shrugs and takes a sip from the beer again.

"This used to be a turtle habitat but who cares about the turtles I guess", Kie continues.

"I can't have cold towels", JJ adds sarcastically.

Kie just rolls her eyes at the boy, turning her attention up to John B who's still on the roof. "Can you please not kill yourself?" She squints her eyes in the sun as she looks up.