Mama's mad! Outer Banks imagines and preferences

JJ - Strawberries and Cigarettes

Your POV:

First I pushed my board back up onto the deck, then I hauled myself back onto the boat, immediately the hot wind dried me off and i put my shorts and oversized shirt back on.

Carefully I stepped around the numerous fish John B had caught earlier and sat next to Pope on the hot deck. He was watching Kiara swimming toward the boat. We had been swimming, lazing on our surfboards and fishing in the marsh all day and only now, at 6:00pm had we all clambered back on to head home.

It was summer, no school, no homework, long days and nights lit with fire pits and the late setting sun, just the way we liked it.

"Stop staring weirdo." I said to Pope, grabbing the end of my surfboard and pulling it over, rubbing some old wax onto it.

Pretty soon Kiara, John B and JJ climbed back onto the boat. The boys went straight inside, starting the boat back up and steering back towards Outer Banks, or more specifically, the cut.

Kiara sat down opposite us and grabbed another chunk of wax, helping me with my board. I grinned and chucked a towel over to her, she smiled and shook her head.

"I'm just gonna dry in the sun."

I shook my head back at her. "Trust me" I said. "You're gonna need it."

Kiara gave me a weird look and I just nodded my head to the side. "Peeping tom." I whispered, receiving a jab in the side from Pope, I just laughed and Kiara blushed, walking to the other side of the deck to get her shirt.

"You're the one to talk." Pope said to me quietly. "JJ topless is all you need to stare."

I gasped at him dramatically.

"Me, a Pogue, macking on another Pogue? Never!" I said with a sarcastic air that made Pope laugh.

I walked over to my backpack and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, I offered one to Pope but he shooed my hand away. He's such a pussy.

"Shit!" I said to myself.

"What's up?" Kiara called.

I had lost my lighter, and god knows my Dad will yell at me if he finds it laying around in my room, my folks don't know I smoke, but hell! I do a lot of shit they don't know about.

"I'm stuffed." I breathed. "My lighters lost, it's not in my bag."

"Sounds like a you problem." Pope sneered, I just glared at him and headed inside to find JJ and John B.

"Yo guys have you seen my lighter?"

John B shook his head and went back to steering the boat.

"Is the blue one yours?" JJ asked, holding up a navy lighter.

"Thank god!" I exclaimed and snatched it from his hands. I lit a cigarette for myself and took a drag.

"Want a puff?" I asked the boys, JJ nodded and I handed him the smoke. John B shook his head. "I'm not fucking with those cancer sticks for a while."

JJ handed me back the cigarette and hugged me from behind. John B gagged.

"Aye! No Pogue-on-Pogue macking!"

JJ shoved him. "No Pogue-on-Pogue macking!" he mimicked. "No macking to be seen here sir." JJ saluted and I laughed.

"Fuck that." I said.

John B steered the boat close to the pier and we all started packing up our stuff. I grabbed my earphones, phone, cigarettes and lighter and shoved them in my backpack. I also put my board under my arm and jumped from the boat onto the jetty.

JJ slung his arm over my shoulder and we all headed back to John B's.

JJ and I had a thing for each other, and everyone knew it, it wasn't like a proper girlfriend boyfriend thing, but i liked what we had.

"Can I have another puff?" JJ asked and I put the smoke up to his mouth, he took a long drag and breathed it out into John B's living room.

"Hey! Smoke that shit outside." John B said, grabbing some firewood and walking out to the front yard, JJ and I followed him and lay down on a hammock together.

We all lay around the fire, snacking on strawberries while Kiara played her ukulele and sung a sweet tune. I rested my head on JJ's chest and he ran his hands through my hair, I could feel him humming along to Kiara's song while he did it.

"What do you guys think you'll be doing in the future?" Pope asked, he was in one of his existential moods, where he wouldn't shut up about college applications and jobs.

"Probably still smoking weed." JJ replied and we all laughed. "But seriously, i'll probably be with  this girl." He smiled and kissed my head.

"You really think so?" I whispered to him, he hummed in response.

It was moments like these that all Pogues really appreciated, you couldn't be stuck on a phone all day and have moments like this. We were talking about our unlikely happy futures next to a fire in the cut, but we were still probably  the happiest couple of kids in Outer Banks.