𝕟𝕖𝕘𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕕 • 𝕁𝕁 𝕄𝕒𝕪𝕓𝕒𝕟𝕜 • 𝕠𝕦𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕓𝕒𝕟𝕜𝕤

5

After an hour of drinking games, John B went to bed.
JJ and Cassie sat in comfortable silence until the girl plucked up the courage to say something.
"JJ?"
"Mhm?"
"Does your dad hurt you?"
The boy went rigid. "Wha-"
"Do the others know?"
JJ shrugged, "I told them he hasn't done it in a while."
"Oh."
Cassie thought for a moment.
"Do you need help- with your injury."
"How do you know I have one?"
He smiled; nobody ever took the time to notice these things.
"You're holding yourself different than usual- I notice you do it a lot after you have a fight with your dad." JJ always told her about the arguments, but omits the part where he hurts him. "I wanted to ask you for a while now but I didn't want you to freak out and not talk to me."
"I wouldn't," he laughed, "hey Cass? We never finished our game."
She giggled. "Okay, never have I ever- kissed a boy."
They both took a sip from their drinks.
"Rafe."
"Pope and John B."
"Naturally." They both chuckled.
"Never have I ever kissed a girl."
Cassie shoved him playfully, "thats piggybacking off of my one."
They both drank.
"Kie."
"Rose, Ashley, Kaitlyn, Ella-"
"Yeah we'll be here all night, never have I ever had sex with Rose Cameron while working at a posh people place."
JJ drank, "how did you know?"
"I'm not as dumb as I look, JJ Maybank. Also you seem to forget I work at the exact same place."
"Yeah that makes sense."
Cassie started to get tired; JJ noticed that and pulled her closer so she could rest her head on his shoulder.
"Why are you being all nice to me all of a sudden?"
"I always have been-"
"Not like this, it's different."
They sat in silence for a while.
"I'm gonna go to bed," JJ stood up and lay down on the pullout.
"Your bed is down the hall-"
The boy shook his head, "I don't live here permanently, you do. And anyway, what sort of a gentleman would I be making you sleep on a crappy pullout."
"If it's crappy then I should definitely sleep on it- it's literally your room."
"Cass, no offence but you literally just got kicked out of a home where everyone was horrible to you, and then sat in a hurricane freezing yourself, I think you need a good sleep."
Cassie yawned and put more of her weight on JJ.
"Why don't we just compromise like last night?"
JJ nodded and picked the half asleep girl up, before putting her into his bed. He kissed her forehead, "goodnight beautiful."
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
"I have polio- I can't walk."
JJ gently shook Cassie's shoulder, "come on Cass, wake up."
She sat up with a weird expression on her face.
"Did you bring any clothes with you?"
The girl nodded and checked her phone.
"Are you okay?"
"They haven't called, or messaged, or checked in anyway that I'm okay, or tried to get me to go back. I'm their daughter and they let me go out into a hurricane- I could have died."
He put his arm around her, "why don't we get you breakfast?"
Shaking her head, Cassie wriggled under his touch until he let go, before pulling her knees to her chest, "not hungry."
"You have to eat."
She shrugged.
"Can you at least sit with me while I eat?"
This was a trick Kie taught JJ; it gets Cassie out of bed and it puts her near food so she has a bigger temptation.
He put his hand out and helped her out of bed.
She leaned against him as they walked down the hall to the kitchen.
"Hey John B? Do you mind putting some eggs on for me and Cass?"
The girl rapidly shook her head, "I'm not hungry."
John B came through the door, and noticed how Cassie was completely depending on him to keep her up, "one of those days, huh? Let's get you some eggs."
"I'm not h-"
"I know but we still need you to have an egg or two."
JJ wrapped his arm around her.
"Why are you doing this?"
"What?"
"What do you gain from this?"
John B and JJ exchanged a look.
"You being okay?"
Cassie shook her head and moved away from JJ.
"Cass just talk to us."
"My parents used to get angry at me whenever I woke up like this, they used to shout a lot. Used to."
She placed her head in her hands upon realisation.
"What am I doing here? I'm bothering you, stealing your bed and food, they're right-"
John B tried to calm her down by wrapping his arms around her, but she started violently thrashing her body. With tears running down her cheeks, Cassie started to shake, and she brought a hand to her chest and clenched her top in her hands.
"I can't breathe- help me. I'm gonna die, fuck-"
JJ started to panic, but John B remained calm.
"Can I touch you Cass?" She nodded.
He placed Cassie on the pull out and climbed in next to her, letting her hold onto him for support. JJ sat next to her, rubbing her back while John B whispered to her.
Slowly she started to calm down before finally feeling like she could breath.
"There we go, you did great."
"I need some air," she got up and started walking.
"That's good cause we're going fishing."
Cassie sat on the steps, taking short sips from her water when JJ sat down next to her.
"You okay?"
She nodded.
"Why do you have them?"
The girl shrugged before saying, "my parents were so strict growing up that I used to obsess over doing everything right so they wouldn't be angry. Soon it turned unhealthy and then I started having the panic attacks and worrying about everything."
"Oh."
"Why are you here?"
JJ looked at the girl. "Are you thinking of going back to Rafe?"
She shook her head,"he was just to make my parents happy. But also, I was- I am kinda scared of him."
He nodded.
"Why?"
"I was, um, I was kinda hoping, that maybe- maybe you'd give me a chance?"
Cassie looked at him.
"You said it yourself you don't do relationships, I don't know what your doing but stop messing me around."

If you cannot tell I'm making this up as I go along 😌