SMOKE SIGNALS / OUTERBANKS
ੈ✩‧₊˚ written by catie . . . © vqnillascented
chapter two ━━  ' a gun in the boneyard '

THE REST of the day went by fairly smoothly,  not much else exciting happening. Sarah made Alex help her finish swatting away the birds until she was satasfied, then the two girls went back upstairs to Sarah's room and gave each other manicures and talked about boys that they thought were cute.

Despite having so much fun reconnecting with Sarah, every so often Lana's face would flash across Alex's mind ━━ she was just not quite able to tear her mind from the thought of the poor woman's teary eyes and nervous fidgeting.  Something was very wrong, she could tell.

At some point in the late afternoon, Sarah's boyfriend, Topper, called and informed the girls that he heard somebody had brought a beer keg down to the Boneyard, a small stretch of beach between The Cut and Figure Eight.

The two girls eagerly agreed to the party and rushed to get ready. After clearing it with her Dad that she would be staying out a bit later, Topper picked the girls up in his truck. Alex had to sit in the backseat and listen to the young couple flirt in the front seat, fighting the urge to jump out of the window.

After about a ten minute drive, they arrived at the beach. A crowd had already formed, the sillouettes of many people spread out across the sand, the orange sunset lighting up behind them.

"First party back in the OBX!" Sarah grabbed Alex's hand, giving it a squeeze. "Are you ready?"

Alex scoffed, considering it a dumb question. "I was born ready. I wanna get drunk and have some fun!"

Sarah cheered obnoxiously, throwing their intertwined hands up in the air, skipping down a short length of the beach. Being dragged along, Alex threw her head back and laughed out loud. She hadn't felt this happy, this free, in a long time, not since she had moved anyway. She hoped that the feeling wouldn't fade any time soon.

Dropping Alex's hand, Sarah jumped up onto a stranded, red buoy, climbing up to the very top. She brought her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun, looking over the crowd from the high ground. All of this only made Alex smile bigger and laugh even harder.

"Sarah, be careful." Topper said, moving over to the other side of the buoy, holding out his hand for her to get down, but she refused to budge.

"Let her have some fun, Topper." Alex rolled her eyes at him.

"Yeah, Topper." Sarah teased her concerned boyfriend, who had started to climb up with her, on a mission to get her down. "Let me have some fun."

"I just don't want you to hurt yourself." Topper kept his hand held out, not giving up. With a dramatic sigh, Sarah placed her hands on his shoulders, using the leverage to get down, letting him spin her around lazily, giggling as she clung onto him.

Alex watched the two with a smile teasing at her lips. She could act like she were sick of them all she wanted, but all that she really wanted was her best friend to be happy, and from what she had seen and heard about Topper so far, he seemed to make her just that. She couldn't complain much.

The couple hung back, swinging their intertwined hands as they walked. Alex decided that she had admired them for long enough and was starting to feel sick from their public displays of affection. She quickened her pace, pushing her way through the crowd to get ahead of them.

Her throat was starting to get dry, and she was really craving a drink. She pushed her way to the center of the crowd, finally seeing the prized keg that everyone had been talking about.

Approaching the barrel, she crossed her arms, glaring down at the boy with messy blonde hair who was currently hogging the nozzle, spraying the alcohol straight into his mouth.

She cleared her throat, narrowing her eyes at him. "Excuse me."

His blue eyes darted up to see who dared to interrupt his fun, but when he didn't recognize the dark gaze that was staring back at him, he straightened his back.

"Are you on vacation or something?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. His shaggy hair continued to stick up like his head was still turned upside down, and his voice had a slight drawl to it.

"Well, hi, nice to meet you too." Alex scoffed, her own voice oozing with sarcasm. "And no, I live here."

He only grew more confused. "Then, why haven't I seen you before?"

"Maybe you just weren't looking hard enough." Alex let her voice take on a bit of gravel, knowing that the technique always worked on boys.

"Well, I'd have looked a lot harder if I knew that there was a pretty girl like you wandering around." The corner of his mouth lifted up into a smirk, his eyes darting down to take in Alex's entire figure.

"Save it." She rolled her eyes at his attempt to flirt with her. Spotting the bag of unused solo cups on the ground, Alex started to reach for it. Before she could, the boy held out his hand, motioning for her to stop.

"I'll get that for you." He said, grabbing one of the red cups, bringing it up to fill it.

"How sweet of you." Alex spoke with sarcasm, watching the boy's muscles move as he bent down.

"I try." He sighed heavily, returning her energy. He stood up and held out the freshly filled cup to her, which she took gracefully, bringing the drink up to her lips.

He watched her chug the drink, his eyes glued to her like he never wanted to look at anything else. Alex swallowed the large gulp of the lukewarm beer, smiling when she realized that the boy was still staring at her.

"What's your name, mystery girl?" He spoke again, shaking himself out of his earlier trance.

"What makes you think you deserve to know?" Alex stared up at him through her eyelashes.

His breath hitched and all he could do was continue to stare at her. Alex bit down on her lip to stop herself from laughing, enjoying the control that she had over him.

She finished off the drink, tossing the empty plastic cup down at the boy's feet, her whole aura dripping with confidence. "See you around." she told him, before she slipped back into the crowd, disappearing from his sight.

Over the next hour, Alex danced with many strangers and got what one might consider 'too many' refills of her drink, until finally, once the sun had started to go down, Sarah found her again.

"I wanna dance with you." She said, taking both of Alex's hands in hers.

"Took you long enough." Alex commented as she was dragged to a less crowded area on the sand.

"Sorry." Sarah let her friend's hands go once she was satasfied with the privacy of the new location. "Topper didn't want me to leave his side."

Alex frowned, looking into her Sarah's clouded brown eyes. "Is he like that a lot?"

"Mostly in crowds, like this." Sarah shrugged.

Alex was about to open her mouth to say something else, but before she could, the same blonde boy from earlier stumbled up to the two girls. He had a drink in his hand, and by the way that he was wobbling, it was clear that he was drunk.

"Mystery girl!" He exclaimed, holding the cup out to her. "I got you another drink."

"Thanks." Alex took the beer from him, eyeing him cautiously.

"Sarah!" He turned to the blond girl, giving her a warm, intoxicated smile. "I'm so glad you could make it. Do you want a drink too?"

Without waiting for a response, he reached back into the crowd, grabbing an unsuspecting teen's beverage from their grasp and holding it out to Sarah. "Who am I kidding? Of course you want a drink. That's what we're all here for, right? To have fun and get ━━ "

"Hey, man." Topper appeared seemingly out of nowhere, stepping in front of the two girls. "What's going on here?"

"I was just offering these two lovely ladies some drinks." The blonde said, his words coming out a bit clearer than earlier as he straightened his posture. "Is that a problem?"

Both boys were standing stiffly, staring at one another like they were trying to intimidate the other. Alex shifted on her feet, watching and waiting anxiously to see what would happen next.

"No," Topper laughed and waved him off, but Alex could still sense his hostility. "It's not a problem. I'm just gonna take that though ━━ "

He reached for the beer that was still in the blonde's hand. Before he could grab it, it was pulled away from his reach. The drunken boy scoffed. "Well, that's funny, cause I didn't ask you. Now, if you said pretty please, then, maybe, but you didn't."

"Oh," Topper mocked him. "Pretty please."

"Sarah, I want you to have it." He went back to trying to give the drink to her, but she shook her head.

"I'm good, JJ. Thank you." She held up her hand, smiling uncomfortably. He continued to hold it out to her. "What? Is it not fancy enough for you?"

"She said she doesn't want it man." Topper slapped the red colo cup out of Sarah's face, the dark liquid splashing right into JJ's eyes.

This triggered him to shove Topper back, but he got an equally rough shove in return, and the next thing Alex and Sarah knew, the two boys were full on wrestling right in the middle of the beach.

Another boy that Alex didn't recognize came pushing his way out of the crowd, grabbing JJ by the shirt, holding him back. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down buddy." He tried to diffuse his aggressive friend.

Topper brushed some dirt off of his shirt, scoffing angrily. "Dirty pogues."

At this comment, the boy in the backwards baseball cap, who had once been trying to de-esculate, lunged forwards and pushed Topper roughly, causing the taller boy to stumble back.

"Whoa!" Sarah exclaimed, grabbing onto Alex's wrist for support as they watched the chaos play out before them.

The scuffle had gotten the attention of the crowd, and many more people were watching the fight play out. Another boy stepped up, worry stitched into his expression. "John B!" He cried. "We're supposed to be incognito, remember?"

Topper huffed angrily, lowering his dark gaze. Sarah hurried to call to him, desperate to stop him, "Babe, babe, babe, babe ━━ "

But it was no use, Topper had already reered back and swung his fist down on the dark haired boy's face, hard.

John B collasped into the sand, landing awfully close to the lapping waves of salt water.

"Oh, shit." Alex covered her mouth with her free hand, feeling Sarah's fingernails digging into her other arm as she yelled for the violence to stop.

Topper stood over John B and delivered kick after kick to the fallen boy's sides, wounding him even more. "Hey, John B!" Topper yelled down at him. "Don't make me drown you like your old man, alright?"

This particularly harsh comment seemed to light a fire under John B, and he scrambled to his feet to get a good swing back at Topper. Alex ran her hands through her hair, feeling anxious just watching them. Admist the chaos that was seeping through her mind from the outside, she was able to ponder on Topper's comment, wondering what the story behind it might be.

The violent boys had put some distance between themselves, shouting threats back and forth but neither of them making the first move for a good few minutes.

Then, John B got an arm around Topper's shoulder and was able to flip him onto his back, the taller, sandy haired boy landing in the water.

"Come on Topper!" John B roared. "Come on!"

He took a confident step towards Topper, bringing his arm up in the air, preparing to swing down. But, before he could, Topper grabbed his forearm and forced him down to the ground, pushing his face closer and closer to the water until his head was completely submerged.

"Oh my God." Alex yelped. "He's gonna drown him."

Sarah dropped her death grip on her arm so that she could pace nervously. "Topper, stop it!" She pleaded. "No!"

From the corner of her eye, Alex caught a swift movement, and next thing she knew, JJ had joined the other two boys in the lapping waves. He had his arm up, elbow bent, pressing something against the back of Topper's head.

Just then, Alex realized. He had a gun.

"He's got a gun!" Someone in the crowd yelled, confirming Alex's fears. The teens began to disperse, everyone shielding their faces and hurrying away, scared for their safety.

Alex stayed on the beach, standing behind Sarah, who had her hands in the air, yelling at the trio. "JJ! Stop!"

"Did you say something princess?" The blonde pushed the weapon against Topper's head even further.

Finding it hard to breathe, hard to move, hard to see what was even happening in the thick darkness, Alex remained completely still, not knowing what to say or do.

Topper slowly raised to his feet, letting go of John B to hold his hands up in the air. His fingers trembled as water droplets fell from the tips. "We're good! We're good! Put the gun down man, alright?"

JJ removed the weapon from Topper, turning to face the any bit of the terrified crowd that was still left. "Okay, everyone, listen up!" He shouted. "Get the hell off our side of the island!"

He pointed the gun at the sky and fired two rounds off, earning even more screams from the entire beach.

Topper hurried away from the water, approaching Sarah and Alex. "What the hell is wrong with you?" His girlfriend gave him a rough punch to the arm.

As the young couple began to argue, Alex turned back towards the waves, watching John B struggle to sit up ━━ just before he went thudding back into the water.

catie speaks!

first two chapters done! i hope you enjoyed reading! i'm excited to start/continue this story, and i can't wait to share how it all unfolds.

make sure you follow me to be notified when i update. votes & comments are also highly appreciated! 🫶

virtual hugs,
catie!