❝Oh, Oakley. . . What have you done?❞
Well, they say it's best to start at the beginning, but when the story gets so twisted and out of hand, who really knows where the beginning starts?
The Outer Banks is not the paradise Earth talks about. It's n...
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NANO'S HOLDS A VERY SPECIAL PLACE in the Pogues' hearts. The rusting ice cream shop with the delightful smoothies and the mouth watering chocolate ice cream will always have something that will make the Pogues tender to the sound. It's where they first celebrated a birthday together— JJ's, to be precise, organized by Beatrice, who refused to let the six year old child go without a birthday party because of neglect. It's also where the Raggedy-Ann originates, a thoroughly developed technique to earn themselves free ice cream all while messing a bit around with Nano himself.
Oakley loves the place, how it's pink and yellow pastel walls hold so many memories with her best friends. How the tiled black and white floors remind her of the many times they all had to pretend to collapse on to get their way. The kitchen they would sneak into, the smell of cold sugar and the loud sound of the blender molding delicious smoothies into a thick mixture that then gets poured into a tall glass. She adores the place, and she wouldn't expect to ever find one like it. Old Man Nano adds the touch to the place, the decaying fella with the hunched back and the pleasant smile has known the kids for as long as they can remember.
It's a second home, but of course, it would be much better if she was with her best friends.
Oakley is freshly— or not anymore— showered. Her hair is in a braid and her face dotted with concealer over the two healing pimple scars above her brow and on her chin. She wears a soft yellow bikini underneath her threaded white, cropped long-sleeve shirt, jean shorts and pastel flowered sandals to add life to it. The many bracelets and necklaces on her don't completely match the soft colors on her body, but the girl would never betray her jewels.
Highlighter faintly lines her cheekbones and her lips are red from slurping the nearly empty smoothie held between her hands. Her lashes are dark and curled with a thin layer of vaseline, looking up from holing her head up with her hands, eyes watching the door like a hawk in hopes of catching three familiar figures entering the sweet-smelling ice cream shop she's starting to feel blue in.
She's been waiting for a little over an hour. It's now eight-sixteen and neither JJ, Pope or Kie have given any signs of life. Perhaps she's the dumb one for showing up before even getting a reply, but it has always been tradition not to wait for a reply when it came to hangouts. She truly, wholeheartedly expected them to appear and let her talk to them, but as she sits in the emptying shop with a melting chocolate smoothie between her tired hands, four empty paper sheets ready to be put a plate over and a booth fully to herself, she begins to wonder if they're actually gonna show up.
She sighs, playing with the straw of her drink as her cheek melts into the palm of her hand. Her eyes are sad and small, watching the brown goo move around the cup in an almost disturbing way. Her misery seeps through the floors of the shop, and Nano has grown too closely to the kids to fail at identifying where the sad floors are guiding him.
