"Mom, please, I hate listening to these men." Bali begged her mother in a whisper, "Just to take the edge off?"

"Bali, hush." Cassandra scolded her, "You are not drinking infront of all these business people."

"They won't know." Bali tried. A vodka tonic was set down infront of Cassandra, her conversation with her daughter had too much of her attention to thank him.

"Absolutely not, maybe after." Cassandra said, giving her a stern look before smiling around the table. Appetizers were around them, the round table sat up in the hotel lobby was filled with buisness men and women from near by, discussion the Pandaros Hotels for the night. The sunset was going down, shining through the perfectly clean windows, causing an orange glow to illuminate the lobby. Usually, Bali loved it, but it was harsh in her eyes this evening.

"A pink lemonade, for you, Miss Pandaros." a new voice cut in. The sunset was suddenly out of Bali's eyes when a figure stood before it, a pink lemonade in his hands. Bali looked up, the sunset outlining his figure and made him look orange. Bali had seen him a few times, causing trouble with a few Kooks, she'd usually stay out of it. He had a busted lip and a bow tie, clearly trying to seem professional for the occasion.

"Oh." Bali said back, she smiled even though she was well aware she didn't order a pink lemonade, "Thank you."

He gave her a subtle wink and headed back to the kitchen. Bali brought the lemonade to her lips and took a large gulp, suddenly feeling rather thirsty. A harsh cough came from her mouth when the burning sensation hit her throat, feeling like she swallowed a shot of acid. All eyes on the table turned to look at her in worry, the nearly dead teen trying to wave them off and get the attention off of her.

"Honey?" Dante asked his daughter.

"Sorry." she said, voice scratchy from the coughing fit, "Wrong pipe."

Cassandra rubbed her back as they slowly all fell back into conversation. Bali looked over her shoulder and found the blonde from earlier attempting not to laugh from where he stood outside of the kitchen, avoiding eye contact. Bali grinned to herself as she nudged her mom, "Who's he?"

Cassandra followed her gaze with a sigh, "A new kid from the cut. You stay away from him, nothing but trouble."

"Yeah, of course." Bali agreed, looking back at him one more time, "I'll stay away."

one year later.

Cassandra heard a large crash from upstairs, stopping her yoga with a odd look, "Bali, honey, are you okay?"

Silence stood for a second before the teens voice traveled down the stairs, "I'm okay! Fell over my book stack."

"Be carful, honey!" Cassandra called back before starting her calming music and following her trainers positions.

Up the large staircase and down the long hallway, the last door on the right had been were the crash came from. The door was shut, unusual for her. Bali's bedroom had stacks of books all over and pictures from her camera on the wall. Her laptop was on her desk, the seventy thousand words of her first novel types in a word document within the screen. There was a small radio, broken on the floor and the faint music they'd been listening to stopped.

Bali's arms were wrapped around JJs shoulders, her lips on his as they rolled over. Her hand pressed into the middle of his chest to lay him flat on her bed, "She's gonna come up here if she hears anything again."

JJ hummed when she pulled her lips away from his, kissing her nose in the mean time, "How many times do you expect me to knock your radio on the floor?"

"I don't know, half my shit is broken because of you." Bali explained with a crazy look. JJ laughed at her, scooping her up so they'd rolled over on the light blue bedsheets once again. When he did so, his foot collided with a stake of books at the end of her bed, knocking them off on the floor. They pulled their lips off each other's again with a wide eyed look, both looked over at the fallen books.

"Bali!" Cassandra shouted as her feet began thumping toward the stairs.

"You gotta go." Bali said quickly, untangling their legs as he crawled off of her and grabbed his shoes

"Pleasure doing business with you, ma'am." JJ said with a tip of his fake hat, leaning down to kiss her on the lips quickly, "See you tonight?"

"That hurricane is coming through." Bali said as she followed him toward the window, hearing her mom down the hall, "You'll be okay?"

"Yup, just a little rain." JJ said back, crawling out of her window, he turned back around and grabbed the sides of her head to kiss her forehead, "See ya later, pretty lady."

"Peace out, beach bum." Bali said with a salute and flushed smile, "Be safe out there."

"I'll call you tonight." JJ said back as he climbed down the small latter, that she'd put on her balcony a year ago. The door swung open just as Bali lost sight of JJ. Turning around, she saw her mother give a odd look.

"You broke your radio?" Cassandra asked her in disbelief, seeing the broken pieces on the floor.

"Butterfingers." Bali said back, holding up her hands. "So.... how was yoga?"

"You just gonna wave at him forever?" the hotel clerk asked as he gave Bali a knowing look when she waved at JJ for the six day, "You know he's not deaf, don't you?"

Bali gave him a look of disbelief, "Who are you?"

"Someone that doesn't just wave at someone everyday." he said back to her with a emotionless face.

Bali gave a scoff and removed herself from the chair in the lobby, shutting her book after marking her page. She walked slowly toward the door that lead to the kitchen, hearing talking and dishes hitting from the other side. She stood outside of it a moment, outreaching her hand to push the door open just as it flew open. The blonde stood there, stopping when he'd realized she was in the way.

"Hi!" Bali yelled, not meaning to. Her voice echoed off the hotel lobby walls, eyes as wide as silver dollars and face as red as the shades on the pillows her mother picked out for the chairs.

He sensed her embarrassment, "Hi!"

His tone mimicked her exact one, just as loud and sudden.

"Hi." Bali said back, much quieter this time. She realized she'd already said it and blink fast, "I'm Bali."

"Yeah, I know." he cracked a half smile at her, "The alcoholic."

Bali gave an embarrassment snort, "That's me."

"I'm JJ." he said back, eyeing her a moment with a confident grin. Bali gave a tight lipped smile back.

"Agatha is such a bitch." Bali said as she looked at their backyard the next morning, their porch furniture all over the place from the hurricane last night.

"Bali." Cassandra scolded her with a knowing look.

"What? She is." Bali defended herself, looking over as her dad walked in, "How is she?"

"Fighting the birds." Dante informed Bali about Sarah after returning from the Cameron's house. He groaned when he opened his laptop and attempted to look for his lost documents, "I can't believe I didn't back it up."

"Well we didn't expect to loose power with the generator." Cassandra said, getting him a drink and a rub to the shoulders, "We'll find them, i'm sure there's a copy laying around here somewhere."

"I could have sworn Word documents save on their own." Dante said back. His words made Bali's heart sink from where she stared out the window. She couldn't move a seconds, but her coffee mug was pushed onto the counter and she was sprinting up the stairs. Her mother called for her but was ignored. Bali threw her bedroom door opened and grabbed hold of her laptop, rushing to put her password in.

She got it wrong because she was rushing so bad, trying to slow down and getting it right. It was JJ's last name. She changed it after her mom got snoopy and found articles on how to give good blow jobs and then gave her a huge lecture on safe sex. Out of humiliation, Bali made sure to pick a password her mother would never guess.

Once she got her laptop logged in, Bali hit her word documents were she'd been writing her book for the last year. Seventy thousand words she'd written, a story and characters she'd fallen in love with.

"No!"

Empty. Nothing was in her word documents. Bali stared at it in disbelief, rubbing her hands through her hair and groaning loudly. She stood up and paced, checking again as her eyes watered, "No, no, no."

"Bali!" Cassandra called as she walked into her room, "Whats the matter?"

Bali turned around to face her with glossy eyes, "My book didn't save."

Sarah laid on top of Bali's back, "Maybe we can get it back."

Bali only groaned in response with her head down in the pillow.

"Your memory is scary accurate, maybe you'll remember it all when you start writing again." the blonde tried again with her friend, frowning when a muffled groan came through again, "How do I make this better?"

"Suffocate me." Bali informed her, pulling her head off the pillow, "That bitch Agatha, I hate her."

"Yeah, I can't believe her." Sarah cracked a grin, "Look, we'll figure it out."

"All the web stores are shut down because of the storm." Bali said in disbelief as she began hitting her head on her pillow over and over, "I want to cut my hair off."

"Oh, no, don't do that." Sarah said, patting her curls that smelt of vanilla and a hint of sea salt, "Let's get your mind off it."

"Sarah, I don't want to go golfing righf now." Bali said, rolling over on her back when Sarah got off of her. Last time Bali went through a bad issue like this, Sarah though it would be a good idea to take her on a family golfing trip. It ended with a golf club 'accidentally' flying from Bali's hand and hitting Rafe in the back of the head and the golf cart flipped over.

"Not golfing, there's a little party on the beach." Sarah said, getting a look of disbelief, "It'll be fun, you love drinking."

"I don't wanna be around people ever again. They'll just remind me of who all i've lost today." Bali said dramatically as she looked over at her laptop, "Rest easy Jayden Radcliffe, you truly were the love of my life and i'm sorry you'll never get to ride your sexy motorcycle ever again."

"Oh god, yup, let's go." Sarah said quickly, leaning over and pulling Bali out of the bed.

"I don't wanna see your stupid brother." Bali said with a groan as Sarah lifted her out of the bed, "I smell horrible."

"You smell fine, and Rafe isn't going." Sarah said back and took a smell of her, "Your breath though... what is that?"

"Garlic dip, it's my comfort food." Bali said as she rocked on her heel with a embarrassed look, "Where at on the beach?"

"Halfway point." Sarah said back, "Topper is gonna pick us up, okay?"

Bali didn't mind going now that she knew where it was going to be
and who she had a good feeling would be there.

•

kylie speaks

i've been wanting
to get a awkward oc in and
this is the perfect
time. i adore miss
bali. her back story
is gonna be so good
too!

also, idk if any of
you read about lila
and layla but if you
have, have y'all noticed
both of them AND bali
have had insane golfing
experiences with rafe
lmao? i didn't realize it
under i started editing
this chapters but bali
hit him with her golf
club, layla ran him over
with the golf cart, and lila
nearly took his head off
when he attempted to
teach her. love that for
them, iconic golfing
murders.