different state of mind <<< outer banks

10. muted emotion

He was in yellow patagonia shorts and a white vineyard vines shirt, a pink hat placed backwards on his sandy hair. She remembered how he told her at the kegger this was his second summer interning at Chapel Hill, where he said they were very generous with money, obviously resulting in him looking parallel to a kook. He looked surprised to see her, but in a good way. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in quite aggressively but in a friendly manner, and she nervously laughed at his sudden actions.

"Hey finn, i saw you on my way home and just wanted to stop by and say hi." she shrugged as she pulled away from his hug, he kept a hand on her shoulder, gently kneading it like he was giving her a quick massage.

"Well I'm glad you did." he winked subtly before pulling his hand away and turning to scan the water, "I never got to see you yesterday." he pointed out and harlyns mouth nearly dropped. She forgot about him asking to hang out the day after the kegger, which just so happened to be yesterday, and she felt instantly guilty for not reaching out to him. Her life had already gotten so hectic and jam packed she forgot about all the other little things going on. Side effect to pouge life.

"Oh, yeah, yesterday was really busy and I had like no service all day." she lied, trying to play it cool, "sorry about that." her voice went slightly higher than usual, trying not to sound like she was fibbing but also still trying to sound friendly.

He rolled his eyes playfully at her, chuckling lightly, "it's all good, you're here now. I was just about to take my old man's boat out on the water, if you'd want to join me?" he offered, holding his arms out awaiting her answer. She looked back to her car, recalling jjs warning of his new 'weird' personality, but she also recalled the horrible conversation she had with jj not even an hour ago, and she hasn't received a single text from any of the pogues telling her john b or kie had made it home safely, so she decided a few hours out on the water shouldnt hurt anyone, shouldn't hurt jj at least.

"Yeah, that sounds fun." she nodded her head and he took her much smaller hand in his, helping her into the medium sized black boat, him taking a seat behind the wheel and she took a seat across from him. He pulled out a white claw, handing it to her. She looked at it for a second, knowing that she absolutely resented the taste, but a little alcohol in the system could help her forget the tense day she had so far.

Finn pulled out onto the water, getting a good distance away before turning down the music he had been playing to make conversation. "So what have you been up to?" he asked her, taking a sip from his own can of white claw.

She thought for a second, not wanting to expose the crazy things she and her friends have gotten themselves into, knowing if she did, she would get a smack across her face by john b for discussing pogue matters to outsiders. "Oh, just hanging out, you know? John b is still recovering from the kegger and shit, he was messed up pretty bad." she lied again, hoping he would buy it.

He laughed, "i tried to push that night as far from my memory as i could. Jj has only gotten more psychotic, I swear." he smiled as if it was all one big joke and harlyn tried her best not to get angry at his insult to jj, even though she did it all the time.