Sour Patch Kids || Outer Banks

1. Do A Flip!

The smell of weed and stale beer lingered throughout the air, a scent the group of five friends were oddly familiar with. All of their best worst decisions happened under these circumstances; hungover and looking for trouble. Devyn Keoka was sprawled across the deck, sluggishly watching the blue sky transform into soft pink and orange shades.

"That's what, a three-story fall to the deck?" Pope, one of her best friends asked, watching incredulously as John B attempted to balance on one foot on the roof of a house in the process of being built. "I give you about a one-in-three chance of survival."

"Hm," John B huffed, trying to decipher which way the wind was coming from. "Should I do it?" He asked, beer in hand, a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Yeah, jump," JJ egged him on, perched up high on some scaffolding.

"Do a flip," Devyn shouted to him, which caused chuckles amongst the group.

"I'll shoot you on the way down," Pope told him, using a power drill as a make-shift gun.

"You'll shoot me?" John B asked, creating finger guns and pretending to shoot at Pope. "Pow!"

"They're gonna have Japanese toilets with towel warmers," Kiara scoffed, her face etching into an expression of annoyance.

"The turtles," Devyn mumbled sadly to herself, forcing herself to sit up as she grinned at Kiara.

"This used to be a turtle habitat but who cares about the turtles, I guess," Kiara said disgustedly, smiling at her best friend who was sitting cross-legged on the deck.

"I can't have cold towels," JJ scoffed, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Can you please not kill yourself?" Kie questioned aloud, directed at John B in particular, still trying to balance on one foot on the roof.

"There's no fun in that," Devyn chuckled, grinning as John B pointed at her in agreement.

"Don't spill that beer. I'm not giving you another one," JJ told John pointedly, climbing down from the scaffolding and over to Devyn. He offered a hand to her, which she gladly accepted, as he pulled her to her feet.

"Whoa! Oh shit!" John B groaned as he dropped the beer almost immediately after JJ told him not to.

Devyn broke out in a fit of giggles, JJ just shaking his head to himself.

"Of course you did," JJ scoffed, feigning irritation at his friend. "Right when I told you not to."

"A plus."

"Smooth."

"Idiot."

The slur of insults aimed at John B had no effect as he reached his arms out, groaning loudly, somber eyes focused on the beverage he had now wasted.

"Hey, uh, security's here," Pope warned the group of five, watching as a small white car pulled into the driveway of the house being built.

"Boys are early today," Devyn and JJ said in unison, before they both whipped their heads around to look at the other. "Jinx!" The two yelled at the same time once more, causing laughter to erupt between them.

"Humpty Dumpty, let's roll," JJ exclaimed, watching as John B staggered off of the roof, exhibiting the grace of a toddler.

"Let's go, boys," Kiara grinned, secretly loving the thrill that she got when the group got into stupid situations.

"Oh, Gary," Devyn called to the security guard in a sing-song voice, taunting the man as he made his way out of the car.

Kiara let out a squeal as the group of five began to run through the house, laughter following them wherever they went. As they made it down the stairs, JJ turned face to face with Gary, causing him to pivot abruptly, only to end up in the arms of the second security guard.

"Not much of a hugger," JJ grunted as he squirmed out of the man's grip, sprinting towards his friends that were now slightly ahead of him.

The teens hopped the wooden fence so they could make it to the front of the property, where John B's beat-up Volkswagen van was parked.

"Come here, you little pricks!" Gary snarled, unable to make it over the fence in one smooth swoop.

"Bus is leaving!" John B yelled as he pulled the van up to meet his friends.

"God, I hate running," Devyn wheezed as she hopped in the back, both JJ and Pope landing directly on top of her.

"Fucking hell," the tan girl grumbled, shoving the two boys off of her. "I can't feel my legs."

Gary's incessant shouts could be heard as the poor man struggled to catch up with the van.

"Wait. Slow down," JJ pleaded, Devyn already knowing what the boy was thinking as she tossed him a beer.

"Guys, you're gonna give him a heart attack," Kiara warned, trying desperately to fight the smile attacking her cheeks.

"You're so close! You can do it! There you go," JJ teased the man as he leaned out of the van, holding a beer out for Gary, before tossing it to the older man, who surprisingly caught it.

"They don't pay you enough, bro," JJ groaned, causing Devyn and Kie to chuckle at his words.

"JJ, stop. Stop," Kiara scolded, Pope shaking his head in disbelief at the boy's antics.

"Oh, come on. That sort of imitative is begging to be punished," JJ laughed as Kiara climbed back into the front seat.

Devyn shook her head to herself, happiness surging throughout her. It was times like these that she loved the most; stupid shenanigans that the group of Pogues got themself into.

Welcome To The Outer Banks, Paradise on Earth, the sign read as they drove by it, heading back to the Cut, their home.

The Outer Banks was their safe haven, their everything, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

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