JJ Maybank x reader | oneshots

I promise

The Outer Banks.

What I used to be told it was paradise on earth. Just like John B thought. And JJ. And Kiara. And Pope and Sarah and Rafe and everyone except me.

I thought after all this time, I would have grown to love it the same way everyone else does. But no. Even four years later, I still hate it. Every turn there's a memory and I don't know if it's just me holding a grudge at everyone for no reason, but I can't help but hate the place.

I'm a kook, but I got mixed in with the pogues when Kiara joined them. The two of us had been best friends throughout elementary school and middle school, but after she was bullied, she started to be friend with the pogues. JJ. John B. Pope. All of them. She ran away from the kook life and joined them. I followed her after, but it always seemed like I didn't belong there. I was too late. Kiara had already made friends with them and no one wanted me there. So I left them.

I went back to Sarah. She acted like she wasn't surprised, but I'm sure she knew I was going to go back to her. Her and I had always been good friends and I was just too much of a Kook to live the pogue life.

So we stayed friends for a while. First few years of high school at least. Then of course she left me as well to go with the Pogues. I talked to them for a while with Sarah, but in the end the only person who actually accepted me was JJ and since he was the only one, I left them.

I tried being friends with Rafe, but he was so much older than me and he was doing drugs and I didn't want to cope with that.

By the time I had left high school, I hated this place. I went to college out of state. I decided MIT was the right place for me and I never turned back. I finished college and I was on my way to become a marine biologist to help animals cope with climate change and help them to come out of endangerment.

I thought about the Outer Banks everyday, because no matter how much I tried to erase my childhood, it wouldn't go away. My parents were lovely and of course I had a super privileged upbringing, but the fact that I had no friends really affected me. Not to mention everything else that came with that. So, why I decided I should go back is an absolute mystery to everyone. Except me. I knew I had to go back before I started working because this was where my love for the ocean began. I had to see it one more time.

I drove down to the beach and I just sat on the shore. I just looked at the sea before I put on my swimsuit and jumped in. I didn't have my surfboard, I just wanted to stand in the sea. Admire it one more time from here. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't come back. I couldn't do it to myself again. The shit I went through here was unimaginable and money didn't help it. I was thirteen when I realised throwing money at things didn't get you very far if you had already fallen under.

When I stood in the sea, I realised how much I had missed this place. How much I missed watching the surfers cut through the waves - riding wave after wave after wave. Completely absorbed in the craft, not worried about anything other than the waves and the people in them. It was like watching a witch at work. The precision and accuracy of each movement. So exactly in sync with the ocean that it just happened.

The waves that lapped at my stomach were cold, refreshing.

Familiar.

Down to each tiny detail. The smell of the salt and the faint smell of the weed coming from behind me. It used to be JJ, but he had left before I went to college, so it was probably some teenagers. It always made me laugh that JJ smoked in the ocean. He would always lose his joint about five minutes into a surf.

"JJ not again, you're just wasting it," I call across the beach. I'm still getting my swimsuit on properly, but JJ's already in the water, finishing his joint.

He always does this and I don't understand why. It's like he doesn't even care about it before he drops it, then he does and all of a sudden he's upset. It's ridiculous. You could see what's going to happen before it even does.

"I literally don't care y/n it's nearly done," he calls back, and just as he does that, he drops his joint. His face drops as if he's actually surprised it happened. Of course it would. This time is no different from any other time he's tried to do it.

"I told you, you imbecile," I shout as I run across the beach with my board. It's the perfect day out. Big waves, lots of sun and not too windy, so I shouldn't get knocked off my board. I'm still learning, JJ's teaching me since I had never learned. Surfing was never really a Kook sport. We just played golf.

"Shut up, you know it was an accident. And besides, you're just jealous because you refuse to break that stupid promise you said to yourself. It's so stupid anyway," I don't think he realises he can stop shouting at me yet because I'm right in front of him.

"I am not stupid. Not smoking until I'm sixteen is fairly sensible to me, and can you please try not to shout? It's hurting my ears," I tell him. He doesn't know he's being loud when he does it, but I'm really sensitive to noise, so it's easiest just to ask with him. He always listens.

"Sorry, I can't help it. I just find it funny that your so strict with yourself about smoking yet you drink all weekend. Also, I swear it's your birthday soon,"

"I wouldn't say a month and a half is soon JJ, but if you say so," he really is ridiculous sometimes. I don't turn sixteen until September, so it really is a while.

"No way it's that long. Your birthday's like September and it's August," I didn't realise it was already August. Summer's gone so fast I swear. It felt like it would last forever in June, but now, I couldn't wish for it to carry on like this more.

If it's nearly my birthday then it means shit's going to get bad soon, and I don't think I can deal with that again.