duchess → outer banks

EPISODE XXII.

[stay with me]

While they were waiting for John B to finish his "business meeting" with Sarah, Duchess had noticed that JJ had been giving her weird looks and stares since Rixton's Cove. Kie and Pope had moved to the driver's side and passenger side, so it was just them in the back. Not that they wouldn't be able to hear them, Duchess just need to make sure it was her she was staring at, not any other Pogue

"What," she asked her blond friend when she caught him again.

"What do you mean what?"

"You keep like, giving me weird looks. Since we ran out of Midsummers. So what's up?"

JJ looked at Kie and Pope in the front, as if deciding what to say based on in they were listening. Pope was lecturing Kie on how she shouldn't keep her grudge with Sarah, so he decided they couldn't be paying that much attention to want was happening. "You look amazing, Duchess. Who wouldn't stare at you?"

Duchess blushed and gave him that same smile he knew was reserved for him. And for the first time that night, Duchess really looked at him. For the first time that night she noticed the cuts and bruises on the side of his face. She felt tears welling up in her eyes. She ran a hand over the side of his face, fingertips tracing every bruise and cut. "Oh, JJ, I'm so sorry. I should've-"

JJ stopped her by taking her hand and kissing her knuckles. "There's nothing you could have done, Lydia. I'm just sorry that you even had to interact with him at the station."

"Stay with me tonight."

JJ seemed floored by her request. Sure, he had stayed at her house a number of times since they had become close friends, but never because she had invited him. "I was going to stay at John B's-"

"No," she cut him off before he could say more, "Stay with me. I'll know you're safe. And then I'll be able to sleep."

JJ smiled at her, wondering what he had done to have someone care about him this much. "What I was going to say was, I was planning to stay at John B's, but how can I refuse the most comfortable couch in the OBX?"

She smiled then, and let out a small laugh. JJ realized he'd do anything to hear her laugh, to make her happy.

"Didn't know my couch had that title."

"Trust me, Duchess," JJ said," I'm the king of couch surfing. So my word is gospel."

"Wait," Kie said," Did you guys here that."

JJ and Duchess went quiet to listen. "Somebody please help!"

"Oh wait, I hear that," JJ said, and the four teenagers ran to wherever the sound was coming from.

"Shit," Pope said.

"What the fuck," Kie asked.

When they made it through the trees, they saw Sarah leaning over a body. John B's body.