The next morning Nathan was woken up by his blanket being pulled off the bed. He opens his eyes to see his very angry mom.

"Oh good. You're finally awake. It's not like I've been calling you for the past 30 minutes to come down and eat breakfast." She says sarcastically.

Nathan just sits up and rubs his eyes. "What time did you go to sleep?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe around 4?" It was more a question than an answer.

"What?!" Her voice raises a few octaves. "You know the rules, Nathaniel. No sleeping passed midnight!"

'Oh boy.' Nathan thinks. 'She called me Nathaniel. That's never a good sign.'

"Yeah yeah, I know. Sorry, mom. It won't happen again."

"It better not." She gives him a pointed look. "Now get dressed and eat your cold breakfast. I have to meet up with a few people about the upcoming election. So I won't be home for a few hours."

"Okay." He says already getting up.

"Oh and Kate is coming with me, so you'll have the house to yourself. Behave." She says before walking out of Nathan's room.

A few minutes later Nathan finishes his morning routine and heads down stairs. He looks in the refrigerator to find a plate with pancakes and puts it into the microwave.

Taking the food out, Nathan makes his way to the breakfast bar and sits down in front of his food. He takes his phone out from his pocket and mindlessly scrolls through Instagram. He didn't follow many people except for a few people from school and some meme pages.

Nathan was halfway through his pancakes when the sound of his doorbell breaks the silence. Confused, he makes his way to the front door and opens it to reveal a smiling JJ leaning against the door frame.

"JJ? What's up?" Nathan asks, eyebrows raised.

"Do you surf?" JJ asks, ignoring Nathan's question and moving past him to enter the house. "Wow this place is big." He says to himself.

"Umm yeah, I haven't in a few years though." Nathan says and closes the door behind him.

"Good. Get yourself ready, you're gonna surf with me. John B and I were supposed to, but he had a meeting he had to go to." JJ says rolling his eyes. He makes his way to the living room and sits down. Nathan just sort of looks at him in awe that he could make himself so comfortable in someone else's home. JJ gives him a look. "Are you busy, or..."

"No. No. Let me go change." Nathan shakes his head and makes his way to his room, quickly changing into his board shorts. He goes back down stairs two minutes later to JJ. "I just need to get my gear from the garage." And so he did and the two left for the beach.

There wasn't many people at the beach, but Nathan was still nervous. He didn't really understand why. He just didn't want to go out into the water only to fall off like it was his first time surfing. Especially not in front of JJ who he's only hung out with like once before today.

He did anyway, and he did fall off a few times; However, it wasn't as embarrassing as Nathan thought it was gonna be. JJ would laugh and Nathan would just laugh along with him. JJ had a way of making Nathan feel comfortable.

"You know, you're not bad. With a little bit of practice you might give me a run for my money." JJ said as they made their way out of the water.

"I highly doubt that." Nathan laughs and takes a seat on the sand, JJ sitting next to him.

JJ nudges him and smiles. " You never know." Nathan just smiles in return.

"Where did you learn to surf like that, anyway? You looked amazing out there."

"I know. You couldn't keep your eyes off of me." JJ nudges him again and laughs. Nathan just shakes his head and looks down, trying to hide his blush. "When I was younger, my mom and dad would take me surfing. Although I didn't get good at it until after my mom left. I hated being at home and John B couldn't always hang out with me, so I'd just spend my time surfing. I'd be out there for hours. Really helped clear my mind."

"Wow. I'm sorry." Nathan says, putting a hand on JJ's shoulder, giving a comforting squeeze.

"Don't be. It's all in the past." JJ pauses, looking out into the horizon and sucking in a breath of air. "So who taught you how to surf?"

"My mom, actually."

"Mayor Hayes?" JJ asks in disbelief.

"Yeah!" Nathan laughs. "She taught the whole family how to surf. She actually won a few championships back in her day, could have made it big, but then she had my sister and she gave that life up."

"Wow, that's crazy. I would have never thought that Mayor Hayes was a surfer. Dude, your mom is hot!" JJ laughs.

"Eww noo! Don't say that." Nathan scrunches his nose and laughs.

JJ shrugs. "It's the truth." He chuckles. When the two calm down, JJ asks, "So why did you stop surfing?"

"Well after my dad died, none of us really had the heart to do it anymore. It was a family thing. It just wasn't the same."

"Yeah I get you."

They both stare at the waves for a few minutes in a comfortable silence, glancing at each other when the other wasn't looking.

Nathan was surprised at how easy it was to talk to JJ. A week ago he would have never thought that he could ever hang out with JJ Maybank. It was all a bit crazy for Nathan.

JJ, on the other hand, was thinking about how comfortable he felt around Nathan. Around the group, he was the one that would be cracking jokes, making everyone laugh. He just couldn't talk about the hard stuff. The only time's he could was when he was drunk off his ass and it was just John B and him. But with Nathan, everything just kind of flowed. It felt so... easy.

"You ready to head back? I could really use a shower?" JJ asked, turning to Nathan next to him.

"Yeah, me too." Nathan chuckles.

———————-

When the boys make it back to Nathan's house, Nathan finds himself feeling a bit nervous about letting JJ hang out in his house. Nathan didn't know what his mom would do if she found out he had someone over. And that that someone was JJ Maybank. He let him in anyway, thinking it would be pretty rude if he just told JJ to go home out of nowhere.

"Damn." JJ says in awe, looking at Nathan's house for the second time today. "I don't think I could ever get used to seeing this."

"Yeah, It took awhile when we first moved here."

JJ stops to stare at the chandelier in the dining room.

Nathan just laughs and pulls JJ up the stairs.

"You could take a shower first. I'll lay some clothes you could borrow out for you." Nathan says walking into his bedroom, JJ following behind. "And the towels are in the cabinet to your right." He calls as JJ opens the door to the bathroom.

Nathan couldn't believe that he was breaking yet another rule his mother was strict about. The first being that he was hanging out with pogues, the second was that he was having someone over. Honestly, Nathan was having too much fun to care about what his mom would say.

JJ came out from the bathroom, with just a towel wrapped around his waist. Nathan couldn't take his eyes off him.

He pointed to the bed, where a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt was folded. "Hope it fits."

"Thanks." JJ smiles and walks back into the bathroom, leaving Nathan quite confused.

'What the hell is going on with me?' He asks himself.

He doesn't  know if he wants to know the answer.

This was so much fun to write! Oh and if y'all couldn't tell, I literally know nothing about surfing whatsoever, which is why I just fast forwarded past that part. I didn't want to sound like a dumbass lol. Well anyways, hope you guys enjoyed. Byeeee!!!

P.S. the chapter title most definitely has a double meaning😂