𝟎𝟎𝟑.                                  𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲'𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐠𝐮𝐧

hayloft ii             ────             mother mother

☀︎ 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐥𝐲𝐧'𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐯

𝖠𝖦𝖠𝖨𝖭， 𝖸𝖮𝖴'𝖫𝖫 𝖫𝖨𝖪𝖤𝖫𝖸 𝖧𝖤𝖠𝖱 𝖩𝖮𝖧𝖭 𝖡 𝖲𝖠𝖸𝖨𝖭𝖦 𝖳𝖧𝖨𝖲 𝖠𝖲 𝖨 𝖳𝖸𝖯𝖤 𝖨𝖳 𝖮𝖴𝖳， 𝖲𝖮 𝖤𝖭𝖩𝖮𝖸．

You can't understand the Outer Banks without understanding the Boneyard. Hear his voice?

It's kinda like a three-layered burrito. There's the south side and our friends, the working-class derelicts.

Then, there are the Kooks, the rich second-homers. They're mostly from poncey-ass boarding schools, just rich trustafarian posers── our natural enemies.

And then, there are the Tourons. Totally clueless. Here for a week on vacation with their families. Chum for the sharks.

Hi, I'm back. Let's move on.

So we're at the Boneyard because we decided to distract ourselves. We're trying to be in complete incognito── basically act invisible by hosting a keg party. Anyway, JJ stole money and the gun back in the motel, and we discovered that Scooter Grubbs was the one with the Grady-White after his body washed up. How he afforded that, well, we don't know, but until we can figure it out, we're deciding to end our day with a keg.

Pope and Kiara were far from happy to learn that JJ stole money and a gun from the motel when the police removed things from that room like it was a freaking crime scene. It was weird, for sure, but we're ignoring that right now.

We're being incognito as Pope keeps saying.

Right now, I'm about to kickstart this keg party by doing a little game that JJ and I always do whenever there's alcohol involved. "You ready?"

"Oh, it's on, Sunshine."

He bested me last time, but I won't let him this time. No, I'm going to win, I can promise you that.

We fill our red solo cups with beer from the keg, and step towards each other. We stare at one another, trying to keep an intimidating stance as we wrap our arms together, the cups against our lips.

We're counted down, and once we're told to drink, I begin downing the watery liquid in the cup as fast as I can, my arm still tightened around JJ's. My arm rubs against his, and I grip my cup tightly, tilting my head back as far as I can as I attempt to finish the entire drink before he does.

The last few drops trickle into my throat, and I throw my cup down, a wide smile overtaking my face once I realise I've beat him. "Yes!" I free my arm, grasping his cup and throwing it down despite the remaining liquid. I laugh, clapping my hands against JJ's. "I beat you, jackass."

He shakes his head, but a smile remains on his lips. "That you did." He squeezes my hands in his, and I continue to laugh, very pleased with myself. "But you won't next time, Sunshine."

I spin around, still overjoyed from my victory. I slap my hands on John B's shoulders, and I look to what he's watching.

Do you remember that girl I said we'd mention later on? Sarah Cameron? Yep, that's who my brother is looking at.

Sarah Cameron── Kook princess.

She was Kiara's best friend in the ninth grade, worst enemy in the tenth grade. John B works on her dad's boats, and I would always try and stop by whenever he's working, so, you know, we've seen her around. I haven't got any problems with her, but I'm on Kiara's side── if there are any sides to their fallout. After Kiara's fallout with Sarah, Kiara and I became closer, and now I'd consider her to be one of my closest friends.

Oh, also, let me introduce you to an unfriendly face── Topper Thornton. He's Sarah's not so pleasant boyfriend. Topper actually thinks Pogues were bred to mow lawns. He's an asshole, maybe the biggest one on the island, and I hate him.

Anyway, let's move on from the unpleasantries, and move back to the one we're all here for── JJ.

I step back over to him, and he pushes a cup into my hands. I peer down, finding beer. I move forward, choosing to sit alongside him on the tree branch that's sunken into the sand. "Hey, what do I get for beating you?"

"Nothing." He drinks his beer, finishing it off. "What did you get me for beating you all those times before?"

"My devoted love and attention," I quip, knocking my arm into his.

His arm lifts, falling around my shoulders casually. "I thought I always had that."

Yeah, he does. He annoyingly has my attention whenever he wants it. I think he'll always have my undivided attention.

I lean into his arm, my head resting against his shoulder. I sip my drink, scrunching my face up at the disgusting taste of beer. While I'll drink just about anything, I find most alcoholic drinks to be revolting, especially beer but it's the cheapest, and it's the only thing we can ever afford.

"Do we have anything else?" I ask, lifting my head and looking to the keg. A lot of people stand around us, drinking and laughing with each other while JJ and I sit silently.

He shakes his head, placing his cup down. "No."

"Wine?" JJ huffs out a laugh, and I smack my hand against his chest.

"Wine? Who the hell are you?"

"A girl who wants something that doesn't taste like..." I move the cup, watching the liquid slosh in the cup. "...feet."

"How do you know what feet taste like?"

"It's just a figure of speech," I emphasise.

"Strange figure of speech, Sunshine. You could've said it tastes like anything. Like, uh, shit or──"

"And you know what shit tastes like?"

JJ flashes me a smile── one that I'm very fond of. Over our eight years of friendship, I've come to learn that JJ has different smiles. Right now, his smile is fun, wide and mischievous── it's funny. Sometimes his smile is soft, knowing and gentle. It's usually like that when he's with us── his friends, his family. There's times when his smile has been sad but he tries to lift it and hide it from us, but I know him. I know his face, his tells, his needs, his smiles.

I know him better than anybody, I think.

JJ's fingers hooked into my bracelet── the one he gifted me years ago── and he spins it around. His thumb presses against the sun charm that dangles from it. "I can't believe this is still in tact."

"I take extra care of it." I'm not lying, I really do take expert care in this bracelet. It's tight on my wrist── I never take it off. I clean the silly charm on it weekly so it still has a little bit of a shine to it. I love this bracelet, and I love the boy who gave it to me six years ago.

I reach my fingers out hesitantly, and I touch the blue friendship bracelet that adorns his wrist── the one I gifted him two days after he gifted me this bracelet. "Yours is still in tact," I say, tugging at the blue material that's shockingly not fallen apart.

"Yeah, well, I take extra care of it," he replies, mimicking my answer.

"You know we should get something more..." I sigh, moving my fingers from his wrist because even a simple touch like that sends sparks running up my back. "permanent, don't you think?"

"Permanent?"

"In case we lose these or break them or──"

"We've had them for six years. Do you really think we'll lose them now?" He makes a good point, but he doesn't know. We could drop them. We could get them caught and lose them. We could throw them away accidentally. Anything could happen. "But what do you have in mind?"

I shrug, looking straight ahead, my eyes catching onto a blond girl. She bends over, picking up a seashell from the sand, and I catch sight of a tattoo on her back, just above the waistband of her jeans── above her ass, if you want to be more specific.

An idea comes to mind, and I turn to JJ with a grin. His brows furrow, obviously confused by my sweet smile. "What?"

"We should get tattoos."

His eyes widen. "Tattoos?"

"Yeah."

"Tattoos of what?"

"Well, you can get my name." I smack my hand against his arm. "And I will get your name. Then our friendship will be more permanent."

"Because it's not already pretty permanent?"

I roll my eyes, shaking my head. "Well, of course it is, but..." I shrug, sipping my beer. "I think it could be fun."

JJ nudges me, and I lift my head, looking to him with a soft smile on my face. "Okay, Sunshine. We'll get tattoos."

I think my face actually lights up at the idea of doing something like that. "Really?"

"You can draw, right?" I nod, raising a brow. "You could draw something on me, and I'll tattoo it."

"You'll tattoo it?"

He nods, smug grin lightening his face. "Yep, and I'll tattoo yours."

"I'll get ink poisoning."

He leans close to me, hand closing around mine. "Isn't that half the fun, Sunshine?"

I turn my head, and I find that our faces are much closer than they were before. I breathe out of a laugh, and JJ sighs, patting his hand against mine a few times, his eyes laser focused on mine. If I just leaned an inch closer, our lips would catch, and I don't think I'd mind whatsoever.

He could kiss me. I'd let him.

"John B would never let you get a tattoo," JJ says, clearing his throat.

"Well, he doesn't control what I do," I say, my eyes flitting down to his lips. His tongue darts out, wetting the bottom one, and I swallow.

"Will you draw me a tattoo then?" I nod, unable to form words, and JJ nods back at me, moving his head away. "Good. Where you gonna draw it?"

I pull back, my eyes moving up and down his body, wondering where I could draw a pattern on his skin for him to tattoo. "I don't know." My eyes catch onto his lips once again, and I tilt my head, bringing my bottom lip in between my teeth. "Where do you want one?"

He reaches forward, snatching my hand, and he moves it towards him, placing it directly over his thumping heart. I stare at my hand grasped in his, and then I flit my eyes back to his blue ones, a little surprised. "Right here," he says, eyes honed in on mine. "Or..." A grin overtakes his beautiful face, and he moves our hands down, down, further down to──

I snatch my hand back, and JJ laughs. "Pig."

"You can draw on me wherever you want. I am your canvas──" He holds his arms out, swinging his arm back over my shoulder. "──use me."

"I might just do that."

There have been many times where I've wanted to draw JJ── ask him to sit in front of me, doing something completely natural while I draw. My imagination can only take me so far, and when I'm trying to create art, it's hard to create something that isn't sitting right there in front of you, so I have wanted to ask him, but I've never dared. One day, maybe.

He'd be the perfect portrait to draw, the perfect portrait to paint. He has features that would be so interesting to put on paper, but I never ask if I can draw him. I never know if he'll agree── I'm not sure I want to anyway.

Anyway, enough about JJ's beauty.

I leave JJ's side, deciding to venture over to Pope who I find to be talking about death with a pretty girl. Two minutes later, she excuses herself, obviously not turned on by the death talk. I slap my hand on his shoulder, bending down to talk in his hear, "It's not the looks that keeps them away, Pope."

He sighs. "Then what is it?"

"Well, the talks about death might be the reason."

I sympathise with Pope in a way. I've had guys be interested in me, but I'm not the greatest at holding a conversation or finding the right topic in the first place. With JJ, words flow easily, but our back-and-forth flirting is easy for me── I know it too well. I've never been in a relationship because I'm waiting for him── the boy laughing with a blond girl seconds after I left the branch.

Pope turns to me, and I sit down alongside him. "It's too hard," he explains, looking away from me to look at the partygoers. "I mean, I'm smart, I should be able to talk to girls."

"Well, if you ask me..." I rest my chin on his shoulder affectionately. "...these girls are idiots. You're a catch Pope, death talks and all." I squeeze his shoulder, smiling. "The right one will come along one day."

"Yeah." He nods, clapping a hand over mine. "Same goes for you── you're a catch, Brooke."

Coming from Pope, that means a lot. If those words came from anybody else, I'd be disturbed. "Thank you."

Like I said before, Pope is, and will always be, my favourite.

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𝖭𝖨𝖦𝖧𝖳 𝖧𝖠𝖲 𝖥𝖠𝖫𝖫𝖤𝖭 𝖮𝖵𝖤𝖱 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖮𝖴𝖳𝖤𝖱 𝖡𝖠𝖭𝖪𝖲， 𝖠𝖭𝖣 𝖨'𝖬 𝖯𝖴𝖫𝖫𝖤𝖣 𝖨𝖭 𝖥𝖮𝖱 𝖠 𝖣𝖠𝖭𝖢𝖤 𝖡𝖸 𝖬𝖸 𝖡𝖤𝖲𝖳 𝖥𝖱𝖨𝖤𝖭𝖣. Well, I wouldn't call what we're doing dancing── it's more us shaking our arms and kicking our legs, laughing hysterically while we drink cheap, watered-down beer.

Our arms link, and we dance around in a circle, continuing to laugh like children. In fact, this spinning around reminds me of a time when we were younger. When we were nine, we were invited to a classmate's party, and I wanted to dance, but neither of us could dance, so we spun around in a circle, arms linked. The other children stared at us strangely, but we had the time of our lives, and we even roped John B into the circle── just like we're trying to do now, but he isn't snatching our hands this time.

John B shakes his head, muttering something under his breath as he walks away. JJ and I stop spinning, the beer catching up with me, and I fear I may throw up if I continue to circle him. I crash into JJ, hands reaching out to grasp his arms.

I hold his biceps, and I exhale, amazed by the muscles under my hands. I know he's built── that much is obvious when he's not wearing a shirt, but I've never just stood here, holding his arms like this.

I wonder if he could pin me down.

My head tilts, and a laugh ripples out of me. JJ's hands hold my hips, his red cup on the ground after finishing his drink.

"Y-You have..." I swallow, squeezing his biceps, and he exhales a laugh. "...muscles."

"Thanks for noticing."

"C-Could they..." His hands tighten on my hips, and my body jerks forward, a little surprised by the contact.

A slanted smile forms on his face. "Could they what, Sunshine?"

I peer up at him, no longer looking at the muscles in his arms. The second our eyes clash, the contact is dangerous, and I feel the air from my body rush out. The slanted grin remains on his face, and his pinkie finger slides across my bare skin, sending shivers down my spine.

JJ leans down slightly, eyes still on mine. "Could they──" He's silenced by the clap of hands, and we jerk our heads towards my dear, bastard brother.

"What are you two doing?"

"D-Dancing," I stutter out, still caught off guard by my brother's presence. "What are you doing?"

John B slaps JJ's hand away, and he moves his hands off my hips, stepping back. He nods his head to me, bending down to pick up the cup he dropped earlier. I peer to John B, smiling innocently like I wasn't just about to ask our best friend to pin me down with his arms.

I sidestep John B, moving to sit down on a tree branch embedded in the sand. Two minutes later, a cup of something from Milwaukee is being passed to me, and I'm drinking the disgusting liquid slowly, scrunching my face up at the horrifying taste. How can something taste as bad as beer does?

I push the cup back into JJ's hands. "No."

JJ sits down next to me, his arm brushing mine. "I brought you a different drink." He holds the cup up to his nose, immediately pulling it away.

"Where did you get that?"

"Off some guy." He shrugs, and my jaw gapes.

"What?" I reach for John B's water bottle, unscrewing the lid to drink the water to wash out the horrible taste of liquor.

JJ laughs. "I'm kidding, Sunshine." He places a hand on my shoulder, and I lower the bottle of water, realising I drank over half the water. "There was a bottle being passed around, I swiped some thinking it'd be good."

"So you did get it off some guy?"

"No, I got it off a big group of people," he corrects, a grin touching his lips. Bastard.

JJ looks away from me, and he finds Sarah Cameron and Topper in front of us. They're holding hands, about to step past us, and JJ shoots up off the branch, taking the disgusting drink with him.

"Hey. Hey, Sarah!" JJ stops in front of Sarah, holding the drink out. "Sarah, can I interest you in a tasty Milwaukee beverage?"

She shakes her head. "No, thanks."

"That's probably for the best," I mutter, standing up to join JJ's side.

JJ huffs out a laugh, his eyes darting to me quickly, and then back to Sarah and Topper. "Is it not fancy enough for you?"

"No." Sarah sighs. "We were just leaving."

"Hey, you know what?" Topper steps forward, holding his hand out. "I'll take it. I'll──" JJ pulls the drink back. "Thank you, man. I appreciate it." I lean against JJ's arm, my hand on his shoulder as I stare forward at Topper who tries to snatch the drink from JJ.

"That's nice, but I didn't ask you." JJ shakes his head, laughing at Topper's persistence. "If you said pretty please, maybe, but you didn't."

A smile touches my lips, especially when I hear Topper actually say, "Oh, pretty please."

JJ ignores Topper as he rightfully should, and he pushes the drink back towards Sarah. "Yeah. Sarah. You can have it."

"She doesn't want it, you──" Topper knocks the drink out of JJ's hand, and pushes him back. He stumbles, knocking into me, and I feel John B's hands on my arms before I can react.

JJ steps forward, running on fumes and ready to fight Topper, but John B grabs his shoulder. "No, no, no, no." John B pushes him back, moving him towards me.

Just when I think that immature interaction ended, Topper decides to worsen the situation by yelling, "Dirty Pogues!"

Upon those two words we've heard many, many times in the past, John B turns around, raises his fist and punches Topper in the face. A protective arm sticks out in front of me, and I'm pushed back into the crowd of partygoers as Topper regains his posture, charging forward to hit John B back.

John B is hit to the ground, and my protective instincts kick in, but I'm pushed back to Kiara and Pope. John B picks himself back up, and I fight against JJ's arm as John B charges forward, knocking into Topper and tackling him to the ground.

"John B!" The arm snakes around my waist, and Topper throws another punch into the side of John B's face. I gasp, clinging at JJ's arm as he holds me back, obviously not wanting me to get involved, but he's my brother, and he's being punched.

Topper gets a grip on John B's shirt, and he's knocked into the water. Topper kicks at his ribs, attempting to keep him down in the water. "Hey, John B, don't make me drown you like your old man, all right?"

"That bastard." How dare he say that.

I punch at JJ's arm, trying to free myself but he keeps a death grip on my body.

Topper begins to walk away, not anticipating John B's next move. He rises out of the water, stumbles over to Topper who turns around just in time to receive another punch. John B is then able to tackle him to the ground, and the crowd begin to chant, "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

I watch in horror as fists fly, legs kick, and harsh words speak. They're moving into the water, still squabbling with one another. In a flash, John B is flipped and his head is shoved under the water, Topper's hand on the back of his neck to keep him down.

Yeah, I'm not about to let that continue.

JJ's grip on me loosens, and I don't waste in second in dragging myself across the sand, storming right into the water.

"Brooke!" I can hear the cries of my friends, but I'm focused on grabbing the frosted-tip asshole that has my brother's head under the water.

However, just before I reach Topper, my hands outstretched and ready to fight him, my arm is pulled, and I stumbles backwards, falling on my ass and into the water. I open my mouth to argue, but no words form once I see who pulled me back and why.

Standing before me, gun in hand, is my best friend. The gun he stole from the motel is pressed against the back of Topper's head, safety off so Topper knows that JJ really isn't messing around. My body instinctively crawls backwards, but my eyes flit to John B who is still in the water.

I need to get to him.

My eyes look back to JJ who pushes the barrel of the gun against Topper's head. "Yeah, you know what that is. Your move, broski."

The crowd begins to rush off, descending into screams and panics. I guess a gun really is a party killer, huh? Sarah steps forward, holding her hand out, trying to reason with him. "JJ! Stop!"

A grin touches his face, and I think some part of him is actually enjoying this. "Did you say somethin', princess?"

"We're good. We're good." Topper raises his hands in the air with the fear that JJ will actually shoot him, and the second he stands and leaves John B, I scurry across the ground, knees digging into the sand as I rush to my brother.

"Kie! Can you check your psycho friend, please?" Sarah grabs onto her boyfriend's arm, and receives a respectable death glare from Kiara.

JJ steps away, I fall to John B's side, my hands on his face. "John B?" I move the hair from his face. "Hey, it's okay." He coughs up some water, his eyes still heavy and closed.

"Okay, everyone, listen up! Get the hell off our side of the island!" The gun sounds twice, and I flinch both times, never having heard a shot that close before. I don't pay much attention to JJ once John B begins to slip into unconsciousness again. Kiara and Pope can deal with him while I handle my brother.

I lift his head, and it falls against my shoulder. I peer over my shoulder, looking to my friends who, as suspected, are yelling at each other. Tears form in my eyes, my throat constricts, and my ears ring. I hold onto John B, rubbing a hand on his back to help him cough up any excess water.

I press my cheek against his hair. "It's okay."

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❀ soph speaks

ah rewriting is hard,, it's stressful tryna fix it

anyway, hope you enjoyed!!