CHAPTER ONE.
sweetest girl in town

    DAISY RIVER ABBOTT was best known for her sweetest.

With her warm smile that could light up a room and a heart as big as the ocean, Daisy was the kind of person who made everyone feel instantly at ease in her presence. Many people considered her as the person to turn to when they needed to cheer themselves up, have a drink of vodka, or just run on the sand without thinking about the people judging them from afar. Her parents had made her the way she was. Enthusiastic, full of good humor, see the positive in everything . . . But, they had also learned the Abbott girl that being too sweet on this island had some good aspects for the bad things. Many people also didn't know that she wasn't as perfect as she was.

    A good girl always has her crazy side. One of her greatest talents was knowing how to escape from trouble by playing the innocent little girl. Of course not, she wasn't a drug dealer or a crazy person who had dance competitions with people in the street ( she already did that once with Sarah Cameron, it was pretty cool, actually ). Nah, Daisy was more the type to run away from the police after being in a place where they weren't supposed to be present, or getting involved in fights on the beach between the Pogues and the Kooks, and then she found herself punching a police officer unintentionally because of alcohol. This is what everyone didn't know about her life. She was not a simple girl who did nothing wrong, she was chasing bad luck behind her.

Perhaps that was one of the reasons why she was so energetic and positive — she lived her life to the fullest without ever doubting tomorrow or even danger. She loved being able to make her mark where she was, having a story to tell.

    People overestimated her. Daisy liked to be overestimated, it allowed her to surprise them at the last move. They believed her to be weak and innocent for her character, but if one day she could, she would come out with all the stupid things she had done in her life. But she can't, she would probably end up in a jail with Kiara Carrera by her side. You're probably wondering how she can hang out with the Kook princess one day, and the next day with her enemy? Well, there weren't many reasons . . . Okay, there were none to be completely honest. Daisy's arrival in the heart of the Outer Banks years ago surprised everyone. The Abbott family found it too easy to create a wedge between the two tribes, and Daisy was left to choose between them. Which she never did.

If there was one person who thought this whole Cut versus Figure Eight rivalry thing was the most stupid and childish thing in the world, it was her and only her.

    This is why for years, Daisy has always played in the middle, trying to bring the two sides together so as to no longer have big fights that end up drowning each other in the sea, proving the strongest. Men will always be men. Yeah, Daisy was not shy about saying that it was pure toxicity coming from the egos of the men on this island. The women didn't care much, at least, on the Cut side. It's certain that the blows were harder to accept when it was the Kooks, it showed that they were not invincible. It touched their hearts of stone. Then they had rage against every single person on the Cut. It was stupid, uncontrollable and not worth it. Every day, she counted herself lucky not to be hated like the Pogues were by everyone.

    When they arrived eleven years ago in the Outer Banks, to come and get closer to the parents on Daisy's father's side, the Abbott family was truly supported by both sides. Lennon Abbott, Daisy's father, is one of the biggest fisherman on the island. Whatever you wanted, Lennon could guarantee it to you the same day. On Nadia Abbott's side, she was a teacher at Kildare County High School and she was considered the coolest teacher in the whole school. They could say whatever they wanted, the Abbott family was the most successful here. They had no problems with people, earned the maximum amount of money to live, and then they were happy.

    Well, until a week ago. They had moved to OBX to be closer to Daisy's grandparents, but a few days ago, Atlas Abbott died in his bed due to a heart attack. One of the easiest but stupidest deaths according to Daisy. It was the day that the young Abbott had to go visit her grandmother and Atlas, she had planned to make cookies with Marjorie, her beloved grandmother. It was their favorite occupation over both of them. But upon arriving at their cabin-like house in the woods, Daisy saw horror for the first time in her life. A lifeless person in front of her, lying on the ground, without a breath escaping between her lips. At the same time as Marjorie who was crying. Daisy had never seen her grandmother cry before that day. She was a ray of sunshine, too. We can say that it was in the family this thing of always being smiling.

    The death of Atlas Abbott created a void in the family, they were all unmotivated to do anything. The parents spent their day separately, keeping their pain to themselves, knowing that they should not see each other for a while because they would break up together and create a rift between the family like what happened a time ago. Meanwhile, Daisy found herself either at her grandmother's looking at souvenirs, at The Wreck working, or just at parties to get her mind off the idea of ​​Atlas lying dead on the floor. It gave her chills just to think about it.

    Today was the eleventh day since Atlas' death. The funeral had taken place and went well, the whole island now knew. Daisy found herself among lots of people wishing her their condolences. But she kept smiling to hide the sadness building up in her throat.

    With her hands full of plates of burgers and fries, she walked at a slightly faster pace than usual to place the lunches on the table. She smiled at each of them, placed them in their respective places, and left for another table. She met Kiara Carrera as she cleared a table, exchanging an eye roll and a smile about how boring they were being here as the sun beat down on the windows, calling them to go surfing.

    Daisy walked back behind the counter, taking the order from the customer sitting at the bar. At The Wreck, they didn't serve much alcohol. The choices were very strict. Beer, orange juice, coke and refreshing water. Oh, and some special Daisy-lemonade as she called it. She took care of the customer's order, serving him his simple beer, and she turned her body towards the other counter behind her. She resumed the drawing that she had left on pause to go serve the man, and began again to draw the figure of a woman sitting not far from the entrance to the restaurant.

    "I hope you're not going to give her that." A voice said behind her, making her laugh without looking up. Kiara had fun judging her friend's drawing, giggling in turn. "How disrespectful, Abbott."

    Daisy finally turned around, her mouth hanging open, shocked at Kiara Carrera's words. She demonstrated the sheet with the sketch on it, justifying herself. "I'm not a professional artist, I remind you. It's still pretty good, right?" The curly-haired girl tried to hide the smile forming on her lips, but Daisy had already anticipated it before even asking her opinion. "Got it! Come on, go do something before I decide to draw you."

"With pleasure." She responded the second Daisy pronounced those words, and she was already running away from her, grabbing two plates in her hands for a waiting table.

Daisy watched her do it, and planned to take another sheet of paper from her pocket before starting to draw her just for the fun of annoying her.

The two girls had a great friendship since the day they met on the beach. The two were part of a club to help pick up trash on the beaches of the Outer Banks, and one day Daisy walked past an eight-year-old girl trying hard to remove a plastic stuck intertwined with the turtle shell. Daisy crouched down and ran her pair of scissors between the plastic. Kiara was quick to thank her, and they put the little turtle back in the sea, wishing it a safe journey. They were young and friendly. Their souls came together to form a powerful and much too cute friendship. Even the boys in the crew we're jealous of them when they were doing some shit just the two of them.

    Yeah, they used to do stupid things when they were together. That wasn't really something to be proud of if they counted all the times they were banned from seeing each other. But it was worth it, they reminded themselves each time.

"Hey, I have a quick question." Kiara was behind her again, a smile growing on her lips as she raised her eyebrows upwards. Daisy placed her work on the counter, turning all her attention to her friend. "Are you free tonight? We could do something with the boys."

    "Will JJ be there?" She asked immediately after Kiara proposed her idea.

    Kiara knew like everyone else how Daisy and JJ couldn't stand each other. For unknown reasons. The crew all lived in denial. Neither of them ever opened their mouths about anything that was going on between them. Kiara just lied to have maybe a chance to convince her. "No. He went fishing with a girl."

    "Fishing? With a girl?" Daisy questioned, doubt echoing in her words as Kiara only nodded. "Uh. I'm not in." She sent her response suddenly, subsequently turning towards the wall, no longer having her friend in her eyes.

    "What! Why?" She protested. "He's not gonna be there, D. Trust me." Kiara added, doing her best to sound more convincing. The brunette rolled her eyes, then turned her head a little to have Kie in her vision again. "Please?" She said, giving her puppy dog ​​eyes as usual when Daisy was too hesitant.

She sighed. Daisy didn't exactly wanted to hang out with the Pogues. These past days, she preferred to join the Kooks' parties, where there was a little more good alcohol and weed. And the fact that JJ Maybank would be there didn't help matters. She didn't want to see him.

She declined the invitation, hiding what she really wanted to say. "No, it's fine. I have to go see my grandmother, she's not doing very well since . . . you know. She's having a really hard time." She said sincerely, not lying about anything about her grandmother.

    Kiara did not hesitate to nod her head, absolutely understanding Daisy's choice. She knew how close she was to her grandmother, Marjorie Spark, and she would never stop her from seeing her for alcohol. Especially not when her husband had just died. She passed to the other side of the counter, coming to take her friend in her arms, giving her compassion while Daisy returned her small smile.

"I understand. And it's okay. Marjorie needs your not-so-funny jokes with her." Kiara whispered, breaking away from the hug shared between them.

Daisy was shocked by her words, then placed her hand on her heart as if it had really touched a sensitive spot in her ego. "Are you serious? Let me remind you that I'm the one you call when you need a laugh. Just like that, you owe me ten dollars. It's not free to hear my jokes, Carrera." She said, shrugging her shoulders to annoy her a little in return.

Kiara made a face at her, then pushed her playfully. "You're gonna get your ten dollars the day I die." She denounced only to receive a hit from Daisy with a napkin coming from the counter. "Ow!"

    "Okay. Let's get back to work." Daisy declared, laughing in the middle of it. She clapped her hands together to bring them both back to real life. After all, they had to work.

    The two girls returned to their occupation, each taking a table, bringing the plates of food and doing this thing about twenty times each. The Wreck was a tourist cage, no wonder why there was so much people each summer. Everyone came here when they arrived to the Outer Banks. She wasn't complaining, this allowed Daisy to meet lots of people. Lots of handsome boys, especially. What, they were really too pretty boys. She wasn't ashamed of saying that. If she could scream it, she would. The boys off the island gave Daisy butterflies without even speaking to her. Particularly the French ones. Oh, they were so cute.

The day passed quickly, and every time she had a moment of rest, she went to stand on the edge of the window, admiring the rays of the sun falling perfectly on her soft dark cheeks. The scent of the sea spread to her nostrils, making her want to leave this job as quickly as possible to run to the waves. The sea was just below The Wreck. It was enough to go down ten steps to arrive on the hot and heart-warming sand. She dreamed of being able to dive into this gentle water with a boy behind her.

"Hi."

She jumped because of the person standing behind her, having spoken in a deeper voice, she was already considering that it wasn't Kiara. She brushed a lock of hair from her face, then turned her brown eyes to those staring at her from behind. She saw the guy from Figure Eight who had decided to try his luck with her a while ago. A brunette, Kook's clothes, a charming attitude, and he knew how to give her flowers when they happened to see each other by chance at a party. "By chance", my ass.

"Beau." She finally replied, letting out a sigh mixed with an awkward laugh. She got off the window sill, fixing her hair a little. "Hi. Wh—What are you doing here?"

He seemed lost for a moment, looking around as if wanting to be sure he was at the right place. He finally reminded her, "Well, we were supposed to have a date after your work day, remember?"

    No, she didn't.

    "Yes, of course I remember." She stated, grabbing his shoulder out of pure weird affection. Beau looked down at her, shrugged his shoulders as if to say he wasn't stupid and that he knew she had forgotten. "Let me go change myself, all right? Give me five minutes."

He moved his head so that he was nodding, approving that he was going to wait for her. "All right. Don't hurry yourself up, take all the time you need."

"I will. Thank you." She said before running to where her backpack was that she brought every work day. You know, just in case.

Here's the thing, Daisy had completely forgotten the date that Beau had asked for at the beginning of the week. She had done so many things that she didn't even remember when he asked her. And how she had accepted. She tried hard to remember the exact moment when she could have accepted a date with a guy she didn't completely know, but nothing came to mind.

She just put the thought out of her head, then hurried to the bathroom with her backpack in hand. She cursed as she blocked the door, wanting to make sure Beau didn't interrupt her while she was changing clothes. Luckily, Daisy had planned an outfit for after work to go to the beach. It would do for a little date.

She hurried to take out the short jeans which were quite little and cute, and forcefully grabbed the little top in soft fabric which was red in color with very small straps. Daisy sighed, trying to remind herself that it would pass quickly and that she could go see her friends another time. She quickly put back on her jewelry that she took off at the start of each day, and undid her ponytail to let her long brown hair fall down her back, swinging it from left to right to give it a good look. She put on bright lipstick, a little blush and mascara and . . . Done!

She looked at the time on her phone, finding that it was past six in the afternoon. The party at Camerons must have already started and Daisy found herself going on a date with a guy she didn't like very much. Well, it was true that Beau was a kind and endearing young man, but she didn't want any boys in her life right now. Not after the last chance she had with a boy on her sixteenth birthday.

She let out a long sigh, rolling her eyes before leaving the toilet. Daisy put her bag back where she took it and will pick it up another day. She showed a happy smile, then returned to Beau who was waiting for her while looking out the window. Still not moving his eyes from the view outside, Daisy decided to clear her throat so he would look at her instead. Which he did, and she got a lovely smile from him.

    "You look great." He breathed, looking her up and down as her cheeks reddened a little at these words. He approached her, taking precisely three steps, and she slowly raised her gaze, not really knowing what to say. She shouldn't even be here with him. "Look, I was thinking that for a first date, we could go to my place? I managed to make a pizza." Beau informed her, quite proud of himself by whispering that.

Daisy opened her eyes a little, keeping her words in her mouth instead of letting out her shock. She had agreed to go on a date with a guy she barely knew, and it would happen at his place? With his parents? Oh, anything but that, please.

    Daisy suddenly began to imagine lots of scenarios, each one worse than the other, but always linked to the boy posing in front of her. Her head was racing, she was trying to figure out how and when she agreed to go on this date with him. It disturbed her more than anything else. But when Beau took her hand in his, leading her out of The Wreck, she knew there was no turning back.

    They walked to his dark gray car, not even opening the door for her, and she sat next to him in a common discomfort of the two people in the vehicle. It was a dead silence, it was torture. Pure torment. Daisy wandered her eyes over the view of the Outer Banks with the still-awake sun pressing down on the bright, dark blue water, making her dream more than thinking about the boy sitting next to her.

    The night was going to be so long . . .

━━━━━━━━━━━

Nadia Abbott was not surprised to discover her daughter coming home late, trying to make as little noise as possible by slamming the door behind her. The Abbott mother has gotten used to seeing Daisy come home late or not at all since she was twelve years old. She always forgot to warn them, it was true, for real. She was never paying attention to her phone, then she always forgot them. But they never believed her so she stopped forgetting to warn them, and she just started not saying them at all when she was going to come back too late. It wasn't going to change anything anyway.

Daisy had therefore been due to a confrontation with her mother, the latter explaining to her that things were bad enough as they already were and that they did not need to be obliged to babysit her. The Abbott girl had absorbed the blows, understanding that her mother ( and her father ) had a lot on their shoulders at the moment with the sudden death of Atlas. She understood them, but they didn't understand her any better. She was going through the same thing as them, not as painful as Lennon Abbott must be feeling at the moment, but despite this, she too was destroyed by his death. But they didn't understand it.

Her grandfather and her had a strong and loving relationship. She used to go to his house, and he would talk about stories of pirates, of ships . . . He had started doing this when she was six, and she was still listening to him tell the same stories at sixteen. He was her place of comfort when parents argued, and their home was her favorite spot in the whole world.

When Nadia had finished arguing with her daughter who was still tired of her date with Beau, the two women each returned to their rooms without saying their I love you before each night. Daisy lay in bed after changing into her white pajamas with red hearts on them, making everything cute and comfortable. The evening had been really boring as hell, and she had to make up a story that her cat had just been run over and that she had to go home ( she doesn't even have a cat ), and the walk back was way too long for nothing. Even taking a detour, she just got even more lost in the dark night.

    But she was finally home, and she was fine. She was breathing again. When she set foot in Beau's rich house, a weird feeling settled over her. It wasn't surprising since she had literally never been in that house, she had only known the guy for a month, and she couldn't remember when she had agreed to this damn date. It really pissed her off not being able to remember that moment. Later, when Beau decided to make her taste his pizza, it was disgusting. And then after eating, they put on a movie. They kissed, she pushed him away because he was getting too insistent and she faked the story of the cat. End of the story.

Daisy didn't easily trust men from Figure Eight. Or even men in general, whether Cut or Figure Eight. So when she felt him try to put his hand under her t-shirt, she felt suffocated. When he reached down to unzip her jeans, she felt herself go white and scared. So she just left without thinking of the consequence. She didn't know him well enough, and he was too weird to let him try something with her.

    She put this last image of the evening out of her head, and turned in her bed to face her window where the only light that lit the room was the moon. She wandered her eyes over the envelope placed on her desk, waiting for her to open it. Daisy sighed in frustration, failing to find peace even in her own room. She turned over and over on the mattress, undoing the covers that were well placed, and finally gave up. She couldn't sleep.

    She took a hoodie from her desk chair, and walked towards her window. She opened it, sat on the edge of it and lit a cigarette. Every sweet girl had their little habit when thoughts are too heavy. For Daisy, she preferred to light a cigarette up and let her thoughts mingle with the smoke in the air. She started smoking last summer, when a certain blond offered her one. It was just for the fun of it, but it became a habit when she felt like she was losing her temper. When she felt sad.

    Daisy wasn't very proud of it. It wasn't something to be proud of, smoking, but it helped her so she allowed herself despite her mother's warnings that she often told her in her youth.

    "Be careful, Princess." Someone said, bringing out the mockery in his voice, giving Daisy a squeeze who literally had the cigarette between her lips. She looked around, still with the white thing between her fingers, trying to figure out who had just discovered her with it in front of her mouth. "Down here, Abbott."

She followed the instruction given by the unknown voice, and tilted her head while holding on to the window sill so as not to fall to the ground, being able to easily crack her skull on the rocks on the ground. Daisy squinted, seeing a figure but she couldn't tell who it was due to the lack of light. A cap, hands in pockets and basic shorts. That's all she could see. She got down of the window, opened the light in her room and returned to where she was.

Daisy rested her hands on the window, and poked her head out, finally seeing the person who had been speaking to her from the outside entrance. All the hope that had formed within her disappeared, giving way to discouragement. What the hell was he doing here? A pretty blond was standing below her window, his head raised in the air to meet the brown eyes of Daisy who was annoyed by the situation.

    "What are you doing here?" She railed in a rather unpleasant voice, rolling her eyes.

He justified himself by shrugging his shoulders, darting his eyes around him. "Just taking a walk." He spoke as if it were that obvious.

She scoffed. "Oh, really? At one in the morning? In my neighborhood?" She said in a sarcastic tone, not believing his bogus and too simple explanation.

"As far as I know, it's still a free town." He contradicted, raising his hands in the air to demonstrate the surroundings.

    "And as far as I know, you don't have the right to show up at people's houses in the middle of the night." She replied, clicking her tongue on the roof of her mouth.

The blond smirked, being able to sense Daisy's frustration with his surprising visit in the middle of the night. And he could also feel the anger building inside her, knowing that she didn't want to see him. No matter the situation, she preferred never to stay around him for too long.

    The Cut boy sneered, lowering his head to the ground only to raise it again, narrowing his eyes to try to see the expression set on her face in the night. "Let's not fight. I came here in peace."

"Let me ask my question again . . . What are you doing here, Maybank?" She asked for the second time, putting more force on her words, emphasizing each syllable to make him understand that she was not in the mood to be wasting her time. "What, don't you understand when I tell you to stay away from me?"

"Why are you so rude? We're friends, right?" He said to make her lose patience even more when she was already at her limit, finding the scene more then funny.

She gave him a fake smile, and whispered, "Good night, Maybank." Then closed the window, muffling the words he was saying, trying to convince her to listen to him.

Daisy closed her window tightly, went to close her bedroom light, took off her hoodie, then jumped into bed. She had no time to waste with JJ Maybank who was only there to annoy her like he had been since the beginning of the summer, trying to sort things out by pretending they were best friends. Which they weren't. Daisy didn't want to talk to him, she didn't want to waste her time with him anymore.

The high-pitched sound of things hitting her window caught her ears' attention, causing her to turn her head towards it, discovering small rocks landing on the window. She cursed under her breath, getting up again, making her seriously lose her patience. As she pulled the handle, allowing the night air to enter her room, a rock passed through the hole, almost hitting her head in the process. She jumped, causing a sound of shock.

    "You almost killed me with that rock, asshole!" She exclaimed, pointing at it.

    He held his hands up like a prisoner, already ready to apologize as he tried with all his soul not to laugh. "It wasn't planned. Listen, I just wanna tell you something, Daisy."

She huffed, shaking her head a few times before letting it go, knowing him well enough to know he wasn't going to let it go. He would even be able to come into her house to talk to her, so she might as well not tempt him and let him talk now. "Fine. Tell me."

"Yeah, uh, look . . ." His words linger along the way, giving way to the silence of his tongue losing its movement. His ocean blue eyes fell on the pajamas she was wearing, making him grin. "Cute. The t-shirt, I mean." He stammered, pointing his hand at her.

    Daisy felt a little embarrassed, looking down at her pajamas with red hearts scattered all over them. She pulled herself together, pointing out, "If you're here to talk about my looks, I suggest you to leave real quick, JJ."

A small smile of him ghosted across his lips, making her roll her eyes. "You're such a brat."

    "Excuse me?!" She exclaimed out loudly, raising her eyebrows upwards in affirmation of her surprise after hearing these words coming from the boy who had just appeared to her house without even warning her, knowing very well that she was not interested in seeing him at all. "Go fuck yourself, Maybank. You're the one coming at my house in the middle of night, almost killing me with a rock, and I'm the brat here?"

"Wait, wait, wait." He called out the girl, seeing her again starting to close the window once and for all, finally realizing his error in behavior towards her. "I'm sorry. Look, Kiara gave me a big talk about how she didn't want our . . . "Problems" towards each other distances you from the Pogues. She's the one who made me came here."

"It's not because of you." The girl said protesting his words, cutting him off. She was obviously lying, it was of course because of him that she was no longer as close to the Pogues, but he didn't need to know that. She continued, "Not everything is about you. I just don't want to go out these days. And I don't need to justify myself actually." She reminded herself, crossing her arms over her chest. "I do what I feel like."

    He nodded, running his tongue over his lips as he moved. "I know. I know I'm not the one who will tell you what to do. But . . . I just want you to know that you still have your place with us. You're not like those assholes of Kooks. Maybe it's because your sist—"

    "Are you my dad, Maybank?" She questioned him, but didn't wait for his response before sending, "No. So stop trying to let me know what else I can do with or without you."

    "I'm just trying to make things work since you don't talk to me anymore." He snapped, sending an angry blow to Daisy who took his words badly.

"If I don't talk to you anymore, it's because there's reasons why." She sent back, trying to keep calm in front of his confused-looking face. "Go home, JJ. Stop wasting your time here."

    It was their last words exchanged before she closed the window for good, no longer hearing him speak or throw rocks, proving that he too had gone his own way. She sighed gravely, growling into a pillow as her anger rose against Kiara for telling JJ that. No, against everyone.

    Sometimes the sweetest girls are the ones with the most problems.

authors note: FIRST CHAPTER for my new JJ Maybank book!! Starting a story is always a nightmare for me, so I hope it was still a little good. Summer is finally back and I'm so in the mood for them, you cannot understand!!

So, I let you guess what happened two months ago between these two at Daisy's sixteenth birthday party... You're gonna found out in the going of the story hihii!! ( I'm evil )

Anyway! Love you all and take care of yourself until next time . . . See you soon <3