The looks didn't stop. Everywhere they would go people would stop and stare. Stevie felt like she was wearing a huge fluorescent costume and holding a sign with an arrow pointing at her. Never before did she want the ground to swallow her up more.
The four walked on their way to their first lesson, History, trying as much as possible to ignore the sea of people who stopped and stared at them.
"Miss Routledge," Mr Sunny, their history teacher whom the girl had quite liked, stopped her from going to her seat with a soft voice. "I'm extremely sorry for everything that happened to you the last few months. I think you're extremely brave for coming into school today." He offered his heartfelt sympathies which was a nicer touch than all the people staring but the girl just wanted to sit down and get out of the spotlight.
"Thank you, sir" Stevie offered a small sad smile.
"If you need anything, or ever want to take a break and leave the class, you are welcome to do so," he offered her a safety net, "now go and sit down"
The lesson felt long and the intricacies of history that Stevie normally liked flew straight over her head. The only person with a pen in hand and putting effort in was Pope who was sitting just in front of her.
"... into four separate kingdoms," Mr Sunny's lesson was interrupted by four separate text noises. A hugely awkward moment as the class had been so quiet previously and Mr Sunny was very disapproving when it came to phones in class. Pope quickly removed his phone from the table to save himself whilst the others, JJ, Kie and Stevie, went to check the message, "whose phone was that?" Mr Sunny asked although it was obvious he wasn't going to get a response, "Nobody? You will be tested. Now, to recap, who was Diocletian?" He continued with the lesson.
Stevie quickly put her phone in her lap so that it wasn't visible to her teacher anymore and stared in confusion as she saw a text notification for an unknown number. Is this a scam text or something?
Her confusion grew when she realised the three of her friends had received a text at the exact same time. "Did you get it?" Kie whispered over to the girl, holding her phone in the same way Stevie was. She nodded lightly before looking over to JJ who wore the same expression, seemingly with the same unknown text on his phone.
Not very discreetly, JJ left his seat whilst Mr Sunny was facing to the board to move closer to the other teens, crouching in the aisle between desks. Together with their phones so that each of the pogues could see they opened the message.
Stevie wasn't sure what she was expecting but it wasn't that.
Her heart skipped and her breath felt lost in her lungs. She had never been quite as speechless as she was then. Her big brother, his highlighted hair and his hazel eyes was smiling at her through the phone. The two of them, smiling together. Seemingly alive.
The second she let herself get happy for the first time in months a huge weight brought her down. What is this isn't real? Or it's an old photo. What if it's just some random guy sending them a picture of their dead friends? What if it's a joke?
Fueled with questions, Stevie ploughed out of the classroom, taking Mr Sunny up on the breaks he offered at the start of the lesson. She kept walking, still staring at her phone, barely noticing the three that followed her out. She just couldn't draw her eyes away from their smiles and what it meant.
"Is that even possible?" Kie was asking the same questions as Stevie. "I mean, Shoupe said that they didn't make it. He said that."
A couple seconds after the Routledge girl the other pogues had made their way to the courtyard, all of them excited, exasperated and confused. "I think we're overreacting, 'cause we can't rule out the possibility that this could all be some kind of weird, cruel hoax," Pope thought.
Still, Stevie didn't talk. She didn't do anything but stare at the picture. Her brother. She had seen his face many times over the last month. In pictures by memorials, on the news calling him a murderer, islander's Instagram posts telling him to rest in peace, even in her own mind she kept seeing him, but this was so different. It felt, for once, different.
Noticing her intense stare, JJ took his hand off his heat, which he had been holding, and placed it on her back as she sat on one of the picnic tables. He gently rubbed her back comforting her with his warmth and presence.
"Do you think he's alive?" Stevie asked, barely whispering the world almost like she was too afraid to say them out loud. Like putting the world out into the world would ruin them. She looked up with innocence and sadness in her eyes but JJ couldn't promise her anything. He wasn't to say yes, he wanted to see her happy but he had no idea, and he couldn't build her up again just for it to be fake and have her smash back down to square one.
So instead he kissed her on the forehead and kept rubbing her back.
"I'm just gonna ask," Kie said bluntly, putting her bag down and sitting next to Stevie on the table.
Kiara
WTF is this you???
Kiara texted the group that the pogues had found themselves in. She wasn't really interested in ambiguous messages and decided to go for it bluntly. Whilst she waited for the dot dot dots to appear she took Stevies hand in hers, hoping for the same thing.
Unknown
Is JJ there?
Stevie looked up from her phone still with a look of confusion plastered on her face. She turned to glance at JJ who was already crafting his message back whilst his chest moved up and down quickly, showing his increased heart rate.
JJ
I'm here Bree
Unknown
Did you pimp my shortboard?
All the tension in Stevie's body dissipated with a single snort that then burst into laughter. She looked up and made happy eye contact with JJ, both of them with relieved smiles as they realised the same thing, "it's him" JJ laughed.
Pope and JJ wrapped their arms around each other whilst Kie and Stevie did the same on the bench. The cloud of depression that had been hanging over their group finally had spots of sunlight. The loneliness in Stevie's heart dissipated as she let happy tears come to her eyes.
Unknown
Steve?
Stevie
Yeah
Unknown
I'm really sorry for leaving you.
Stevie
I doesn't matter now
Unknown
Sorry. It will never happen again
*Voice note*
John B had attached a short voice note with the two-toned whistle the siblings held so close to their hearts. Stevie couldn't hold it back anymore. She had been trying to look calm and happy but the sound of her brother restored so many memories and suddenly made it real again. He was alive. She burst into sobs, happy sobs, but she still cried over and over from the happiness that her brother hadn't really left her.
Stevie
*voice note*
a/n I'm very sorry this chapter is kinda short, and I'm also sorry I've been infrequent with updates I'm just a bit busy at the moment, however, I will try and keep on top of it cos I've got so many stories to write.
Please vote and comment and I will try an finish the next one shortly :)
YOU ARE READING
stevie | outer banks | JJxOC
RomanceSEASON ONE FINISHED, UPDATING SEASON TWO Stevie Routledge, her brother and his best friend had been the trio since the 3rd grade. since they met there had not been a day where JJ wasn't in her life in some way. that all would have been fine had the...
