Chasing Sunshine | JJ Maybank

13 // The Forbidden Zone

Bubbling laughs eventually turned into drawn-out yawns, and soon the last of our late night (technically, early morning) beverages disappeared so the five of us retired sleepily back to the storm-beaten walls of the Château. Our nighttime routine unfolded with a comforting amount of familiarity; John B split off towards the back bedroom unceremoniously while Pope and Kiara worked together to set up the pullout couch. I shuffled into the hallway closet where I knew the extra blankets were stashed, pulling out the fluffiest for Kie and I to share. I closed the door to reveal JJ moving out of the spare room, my green blanket in hand and sporting a mildly guilty grin.

"Thought you might want this," he explained, setting the clumsily-folded mass on top of the stack I was already holding. I rolled my eyes with a grin, tucking the pile under one arm with an amused shake of my head.

"If you're gonna keep stealing it, then I'll just take it home."

He tsked quietly, leaning against the wall casually and arms folded loosely over his chest. "Flawed plan. You only sleep there like what, two percent of the time?"

Damn. Realizing I had no remark clever enough to hit back with, I was resigned to the weakest comeback in my arsenal. "Shut up."

He smiled at the ground. "You know, you can't use that one any time someone's backed you into a corner."

I pretended to look around at the wide open space surrounding me, a false expression of confusion painted over my features. "A corner? Doesn't look like you've backed me up into anything."

"We can fix that," he replied almost too quickly, sending a flirty wink in my direction that succeeded in making my skin flush unwittingly, "if you want."

Over the years however, I'd learned the art of recovering quickly and it didn't long for me to gather myself enough to roll my eyes and sigh, "Goodnight JJ."

"Wait!"

I paused in my retreat at the sound of his random protest, sparing a glance to his hand that had raised slightly, only to fall awkwardly under my interested stare. A simple questioning raise of my brow was enough to prompt him to continue. "I mean, my door's always open," he offered, biceps visibly tensing from hard his hands were shoved into the front pockets of his shorts, "You know, if you don't want to bunk with the bed hog tonight."

He was teetering dangerously on the edge between casualness and sincerity, a line that I could feel we were both painfully aware of. I shrugged, also trying to play it cool but internally my heart began to pound. "Oh, I don't really mind that much," I replied, referring to Kiara's notoriety for disrespecting personal space during sleepovers. Gesturing at the window, which revealed a clear starry sky, I added, "Besides, there's no storm keeping me up tonight."

Once again, I was left clueless as to how my answer was received; JJ's face remained frustratingly impassive as he followed up with, "Well, just so you know, there doesn't need to be a hurricane for us to share the spare room."

Whoop. I felt the pure blush wash up my neck, traveling even to the tips of my ears but I relied on the minimal illumination from the moon outside to hide the extent of my disarmament. Surely he wasn't thinking the thoughts that I was trying so hard not to be thinking. "I'll uh, keep that in mind," I said, fighting to keep the squeak from my response, "Okay, well um...I'll see you in the morning."

I turned away quickly, and was already a few steps down the hall when he stopped me for the second time. "Oh, one more thing."

"Hm?"

"You weren't serious about taking away my surf shack were you?"

I glanced over my shoulder with a small smile. "Of course not," I answered quietly, smirking at the pleased-with-himself expression that grew over his darkened features. He threw up a quick peace sign as a means of goodnight, disappearing across the threshold of the bedroom door. I heard it shut behind him as I made a detour through the screened in porch to drape one of the blankets over Pope's lightly snoring form.