BETRAYAL | JJ Maybank Fanfic [outer banks]

FIFTEEN

*2 years ago*

"Dad relax, I'll be home by lunchtime." it was the first day we were officially living on the Outer Banks. I wanted to explore the area where I was going to live for the rest of my life but being in the morning and school hours my dad wasn't happy about going without John B around. "Besides I'm already 15 years old."

"Almost 15." he corrected me with an amused look. "Can't you wait until John B gets out of high school you little pumpkin?"

"And stay cooped up at home all day? No way."

"You'd be helping your dad finish with the move." he lifted one of the ten boxes we had left to open onto the kitchen counter.

"Please dad, I start school tomorrow and I was up until the wee hours yesterday helping you, let me at least be gone for a couple of hours." I tried to put on the most convincing puppy dog face one could have. My dad rolled his eyes, ran his hand through his beard and sighed resignedly.

"Okay." I rushed forward to hug him tightly and started jumping up and down with joy. "But I want you here at twelve noon, okay?"

"That's done!" and I walked out the door as fast as I could.

It was a nice day and I was quite energetic. Actually moving to this place was one of the best ideas my father could have had. Being close to my best friend John B was great, he was really the only friend I had because my people in North Carolina didn't usually make me feel integrated so it wasn't a shame to leave them behind when I moved.

Although I had been to the island other times, we had never stayed on the island in its entirety. We would take Big John's boat and go on fishing trails or spend hours around South Side looking for valuable items with our metal detectors. In short, the place was familiar to me but not quite at the same time.

The truth is that our neighborhood was poor. You could see it in the facade of the neighboring houses and the leaning electric poles. But that was the charm of South Side, a homey atmosphere or so I wanted to think. John B had always told me about Figure Eight and how that area had nothing to do with ours. You practically walked in smelling like money. "Someday we'll be them Ginny." He would finish whenever we talked about it.

I walked around for a while looking at the surroundings until I came to the beach. It was beautiful, the water was crystal clear and you could see the little fish coming ashore. There was a nice breeze and the sun was encouraging you to get in the water. I cursed to myself for not wearing my bathing suit.

I looked around. There was almost no one around, the few people that were there, were quite a few meters away from me. Maybe... I could go in the water with my underwear, I mean... there was hardly any difference, was there?

Without further ado, I began to undress until I was in the bathing suit. The contact of the sand with my feet made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It was a unique and incomparable sensation. I left my clothes to one side of the shore avoiding that they could get wet and I ran without thinking about it.

I swam a couple of meters and dived several times. This was life. This was freedom. Connecting with the sea was something else for me. After a while of being in the water I could see how a guy came out to the shore with a surfboard in the area where my clothes were. Maybe he didn't realize it or he wasn't in his right mind but he took my t-shirt and wiped his face with it. What the fuck?

"Hey!" I shouted approaching the shore swimming as best I could. "Hey, asshole!" the boy turned to look at me. His slicked back wet blond hair caught my attention.

"How aggressive." he merely replied when I was already at his height blowing smoke out of my ears.

"How can I not be? You just used my shirt as a towel!" he merely let out a small, rather adorable smile.