what now? | outerbanks

• twenty-one •

Sarah

    I curl my final chunk of hair and release it from the hot barrel, the strands falling to my shoulder with a bounce. Cleo stands next to me, gently swiping a cherry-colored lipstick onto her lips.
    "Fifteen minutes, and then we're leaving!" Pope calls through the house. We were supposed to leave ten minutes ago so that we could get there with plenty of time to spare, and Pope is not happy at how long we're taking.
    "Ugh, I can't get it!" Kie has been in her room for those past ten minutes trying to get her dress on, and she's obviously having a hard time.
    "Here, let me-" I start my way down the hallway and to her room, but before I can get there to help, JJ steps in.
    "I got this." He winks at me and I hold my hands up in defense.
    "No problem," I say, walking back to the bathroom to see if Cleo needs anything else. "So discreet," I say through a fabricated cough. Cleo raises her eyebrows at me and we giggle at the couple.
"Almost ready?" She asks me, knowing very well what my answer is.
"I need to get my shoes on." I walk to my bedroom and sit on the edge of my bed, pulling my skirt down as I do so. I grab a heel from the floor and slide my foot in it, closing the clasp at my ankle. When I go to grab the matching one, it's not there. "Shit, where did it go?"
I hobble out of the room and look for John B., hopping on one foot and securing an earring on my ear with my hands.
"John B! Have you seen my other shoe?" I shout throughout the house before I see him, knowing he'll hear me anyway if I yell loud enough. "I can't find it!"
"Did you look in the closet, baby?" He's combing the front of his hair in a small mirror we have for customers to try on sunglasses. I realize we girls may have taken up too much time in the bathroom.
"Yeah, and under the bed." I frown and slump my arms around his shoulders, melting in his embrace. He gives me a light kiss on the lips, and I smile through it.
"Don't worry, we'll find it. Come on," he says, grabbing my hand a leading me down the hallway to our room. He immediately starts throwing stuff around, looking through every pile of clothing. "We're not going to stop until we find it."
It really isn't too big of a deal; I have other shoes, but I love how invested he is for me.
"Aha!" He holds the heel high above his head, having found it in a pile of laundry. "Do I win a prize?" He asks me, helping to secure the shoe as I sit on our bed.
"Not yet, you don't. But I'll think about it later." I'm about to kiss him when Pope's shout echoes through the walls.
"Okay, love birds! It's 5:30; time to go." I rush to the bathroom, spraying a bit of extra hairspray into my curls before applying deodorant and grabbing a bag of miscellaneous jewelry.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming." I walk down the stairs, being extra careful that I don't slip in my heels, and the six of us, all dolled up, file into the Twinkie. Pope and Cleo call dibs on the front, leaving Kie, JJ, John B., and me to the back.
    "So, this is gonna be super Kook-y, right?" JJ asks, running his hands through his unfixed hair. Kie runs hers back over it, smoothing it to the side to make it more presentable.
    "My parents are going, so, yeah." Kie purses her lips and nods her head back and forth. "Pretty Kook-y."
    "Hey, my folks will be there too. That's at least two people on our side." Pope turns the radio down as he talks, but over the rattling of the old Twinkie, he's still hard to hear.
    "I mean, isn't it kind of weird that we had no say in who was invited? Like, it's our own ceremony, they could've invited more people we actually like," Cleo complains from the front seat. I try to clasp a bracelet onto my wrist, but I can't get it and hold my arm out to Kie instead.
"And who would that be?" John B. asks the girl, leaving her at a loss for words. She throws something at him from the front seat and he ducks, screaming in the process.
"Guy, let's please try to get there in one piece, and looking nice too." Pope fathers us, and I roll my eyes at his ability to ruin the fun. He's lucky we love him.
I lay my head softly on John B.'s shoulder, trying my best not to mess up my hair. He laces his hand with mine and rubs the thumb of the other against my thigh.
"Ready?" He asks me
"As I'll ever be."