"SPINNING OUT WAITING FOR YA
TO PULL ME IN."
- harry styles, satellite

ONE YEAR PRIOR.

"Yeah, dad, i'm on the right road." Avery groaned as she held her phone next to her mouth, her father on the line on speaker.

"I just want to make sure you find the house okay." Lennon exclaimed, Avery rolling her eyes.

"How many times have we been over this? You raised a woman who's independent, she's just not strong." Avery said bitterly, turning left onto the gravel road instructed by her gps. " Besides, Google Maps works."

"I know it does, babydoll, i just want to make sure there's no issues with getting to the house." Lennon told his daughter, making avery roll her eyes.

"It doesn't make a difference, it's not like you're living here." Avery snapped. "Really great parenting, sending your daughter to live in another state by herself when she's barely sixteen."

"I've heard." Lennon replied bitterly, no doubt his wife had ridiculed him endlessly since avery left her Texas home the previous day to drive halfway across the country to North Carolina.

"I'm sure that Gabriella is thrilled that I left." Avery replied in the same bitter tone her father had used, putting an extra amount of sourness on the name used.

"Avery-" Lennon started, but avery cut him off.

"I know, I know, she 'cornered you in the office' and 'forced herself onto you' and you 'didn't mean to' cheat on mom." The brunette said to her father, voice sharp as a dagger.

"You will not talk to me that way, I am still your father, I don't care where you're living."

"Watch me." Avery said, hanging up the phone and silencing it, tossing the device into the passenger seat and rolling her eyes again. Turning her full focus back to the road in time to slam on the brakes as a blonde boy ran into the middle of the road.

"Sorry!" He yelled. Avery parked her car, climbing out of the driver's seat to look at the boy with a concerned look on her face. He was absolutely covered in cuts and bruises.

"Are you okay?" She asked, the blonde nodding quickly, but looking back in the direction he ran from with wide eyes and a scared expression.

"Yeah, yeah- I'm good." He assured.

"Why the hell are you-"

"JJ!" Someone yelled in the distance, Avery and the blonde turning to the tree line he had run out of.

"Can you take me with you?" He practically pleaded, Avery nodding quickly at the blonde's scared tone, nodding for him to get in the car, which he scrambled to do, fumbling with the handle before practically throwing himself down on the black leather seats.

"Where do you want to go?" Avery asked.

"I don't care, literally anywhere other than here." He said, voice still panicky as he eyed the tree line, avery starting down the road again.

"Your name's JJ?" She asked, the boy in her passenger seat nodding as he exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding. "I'm Avery."

"Cool." JJ breathed, looking behind them.

"Who's chasing you, exactly?" Avery asked, rounding a corner so the treeline was out of sight, the brush clearing completely to give a view of the marshland where the tangerine sky painted the waters like liquid gold.

"Long story." JJ breathed.

"You're not chipped or anything, are you?" Avery asked jokingly. "Your assassin isn't gonna track me down and kill me for being acquainted with you?"

"No, no, nothing like that." JJ assured, giving the girl a small smile, which she returned as she turned left into the driveway of the house, the GPS on her dash telling her she had reached her destination.

"No shot, you live here?" JJ asked, looking up at the double-decker house nicer than any other house on the cut, it was clearly a recent construction.

"Yeah, my parents had it built. Then my dad had an affair with his secretary and got this house and sent me to live here. Alone." Avery explained, JJ looking at her with raised brows.

"Damn." He breathed. "Where'd you come from?"

"Texarkana, Texas." Avery explained, opening the trunk of her car and slinging her white duffel bags over her arms. "You mind carrying these?"

"Like, the place where they got all the beer at in 'Smokey and the Bandit'?" JJ asked eagerly, Avery nodding and laughing.

"I think it took me two days to get here? I stopped at a motel in Gatlinburg last night, though." She explained. "if I had chugged a red bull I probably could've made it to the Carolina border before three this morning."

"Damn." JJ repeated, taking two of Avery's bags while she took the other two, the two teens trudging their way up the staircase on the side of the house, Avery shoving open the door that her father had assured her would be unlocked.

The house had an aroma of fresh paint. The furniture was already set up, white plush couches and fluffy area rugs, a teenage girl's dream. Avery and JJ tossed the duffel bags down next to the front door.

"This place is bigger than it looks." JJ breathed.

"Tell me about it." Avery mumbled. There was a staircase next to the living area, which led downstairs to another living room and a kitchen next to a set of wide french doors, overlooking the dock where a boat was tied up.

"Okay, Moneybags, this is the nicest house I've ever legally been in." JJ admitted from behind Avery, who was gazing around the large room she was in. the house had to have been double the size of her parents home back in Texas, and to think that it was all hers. She wasn't paying a single bill, a dime of rent, was being sent money for food and shopping whenever she wanted.

The five bedroom waterfront mansion was entirely hers.

"What do you mean legally?" Avery questioned, turning to JJ, who smirked and shrugged.

"That remains to be seen, but I know you don't lock your doors now." He added, strolling past her into the kitchen and pulling the door of the refrigerator open, frowning at the lack of anything inside.

"You think the house came equipped with food?" Avery asked with a joking tone.

"I'm starving." JJ groaned, Avery pulling her phone out of her pocket and opening Google Maps, looking around the area for any restaurants that were open around them.

"We can go to this place called 'the wreck'. You ever been?" Avery asked, JJ perking up at the mention of what Avery had seen to be a seafood restaurant owned by the locals.

"Let me call my friends, I'll have them meet us there." He said happily.

"At least buy my dinner before you take me to the friend group." The brunette said sarcastically, JJ rolling his eyes as he pulled his phone out, tapping the screen rapidly.

"I'm broke, I'm kind of relying on Kie's parents to let me eat free right now. but she and I aren't talking right now, so I doubt it."

"Who's Kie? Is she your girlfriend?" Avery asked, JJ typing on his phone again and shaking his head.

"No, she was just a friend. she's a Kook, though." He said nonchalantly, nodding for Avery to follow him out the door, the Decker's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"A what?" She asked, JJ already climbing into the passenger seat of the girl's car.

"A Kook." He said simply. "Rich kids, the ones in fancy-ass boarding schools and dressed from head to toe in 'Versace' or whatever they care about these days."

"So me?" Avery asked.

"No, not you." JJ immediately corrected himself. "I mean, come on, you're living on the south side- in a nice ass house, by the way- and are about to start slumming with me and my friends. You're as Pogue as Pogue can be right now."

"Did you just call me a fish?" Avery asked offendedly, JJ shrugging as she turned back down the road they came from that would take her back to town.

"Kinda, sorta, not really, but in a way." He said. "We're like the bait fish, or the ones people throw back. No one cares about us, really. For example, my best friend John B, who you'll meet tonight, is working two jobs right now because his dad's never home."

"When my dad was never home he was sleeping with his secretary." Avery deadpanned, making JJ laugh. "I'm serious."

"Was she at least hot?" He asked jokingly.

"Gabriella? Absolutely not." Avery replied shortly, JJ laughing again. "She has so much plastic in her face Kim Kardashian is jealous- it's not even good Botox." The brunette ranted, making JJ laugh at her once more.

"I think Kim K is one sexy lady." JJ replied, Avery pretending to gag at the boy's response.

"By the way, your friends are okay with me going tonight, aren't they?" Avery confirmed as she turned onto the main road that went towards town, JJ nodding immediately.

"They're gonna love you." JJ assured. "John B and Pope, they're my best friends, they'll love you."

"What about this Kie chick? She's not gonna throw a glass at me and call me a whore is she?" Avery asked cautiously, JJ wrinkling his eyebrows at her in confusion.

"Has that happened before?" He asked skeptically.

"You'd be surprised." Avery deadpanned, flipping on her turn signal as she turned onto a side road that led to the outlet, which her GPS had told her to go to.

"Anywho, I can't promise Kiara won't be pissed when she sees you, but just ignore her." JJ told the girl bluntly. "She's decided she'd rather hang out with her new rich friends than us."

"Sounds like a backstabber." Avery deadpanned as she waited for a Volkswagen Bus to pull into the parking lot of the restaurant before her, following close behind it and parking next to it so JJ was closest to the driver's side door of the van.

"Hey, that's them." he told Avery, the girl unbuckling her seatbelt and untucking the pieces of hair that had been pushed behind her ears as a force of habit, shoving the brunette hair over her shoulders so it fell down just below her chest, a few small braids she had put in that morning prior to leaving her Tennessee hotel still visible with her hair that way.

"What's up?" A brunette called as he climbed out
of the van, JJ joining him in the parking lot. The two boys did some sort of a handshake before being joined by a third with short hair and an unbuttoned hawaiian shirt paired with a set of green shorts and sandals.

"I got to be a hitchhiker today." JJ exclaimed proudly, Avery finally climbing out of the car and leaning against the side of it as she kicked the door shut with her foot, her medium green Converse kicking up dust as she did so. The sound of the slamming door made the boys turn their attention to the girl in the 'Def Leppard' cutoff, the two boys from the van staring at her in shock.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Avery stated bluntly.

"Guys, this is Avery." JJ said in a polite tone, Avery noting how the brunette and the short haired boy gave him the weirdest look, probably because of his tone. "Avery, this is John B-" JJ continued, pointing at the brunette wearing a white t-shirt that had 'Bad Brains' spelled across the front- "and that's Pope." he finished, pointing at the dark haired boy.

"Nice to meet you guys." Avery said in the same polite tone as JJ, rounding her car so she could feel less distanced from the trio.

"So, are you a tourist or did you move here?" Pope asked.

"I moved here." Avery answered simply.

"Texas plates?" John B asked, examining the license plates on the Decker's black BMW, which, much to the girl's displeasure, had seen more dirt since arriving on the island than it did the entire time she had had it (it was a present for her fifteenth birthday, one she received before she even had her driver's permit).

"Yeah, I'm from Texarkana- don't mention 'Smokey and the Bandit', I've already gotten it once today." she added quickly, glancing at JJ, who smirked at her.

"So why'd you move here?" John B asked further, Pope motioning for the group to start heading into the restaurant.

"My dad had an affair." Avery answered simply. "So while he and mom are setting all of their divorce stuff and he's off marrying Gabriella, I was sent to his brand new beach house to live on my own."

"Why couldn't my dad have been rich and a cheater?" Pope mumbled angrily to himself, JJ knocking him on the shoulder.

"did JJ warn you about Kie?" John B asked, Avery noticing the blonde tense next to her as he tugged the door open in front of them, holding it open for his friends.

"He did, but he said she wouldn't be an issue." Avery added, John B only shrugging.

"How many- who is she?" A curly-haired waitress wearing a teal t-shirt and jean shorts asked John B, her chipped nail pointing at Avery.

"I'm-"

"I'm not asking you." She cut Avery off, turning back to John B. "So, who is she?"

"You must be Kiara." Avery muttered.

"Kie, this is Avery." JJ quickly interjected, noticing how Kiara's eyes had darkened at the fact that this girl knew her name and she didn't know hers.

"So a table for four?" She asked bitterly, not waiting for a response before picking up the menus and nodding for them to follow her to a table towards the back, her curly ponytail bouncing up and down with every step she took.

"Oh, yeah, she's definitely pissed that I'm here." Avery mumbles in JJ's ear, the boy nodding stiffly as Kiara sets the menus around the table, shooting a glare at Avery.

"I'll give you some time to look over your menus." She said bluntly before turning on her heel and riding back behind the bar like the restaurant was in the middle of some sort of rush, but when she looked around, Avery saw three tables with guests seated at them.

"So, Avery," Pope started, Avery looking up from the shrimp section of the menu. "How'd you and JJ... y'know?"

"I found him on the side of the road." She said bluntly, Kiara already trudging back to their table with disposable cups in her hands, setting them down around the table. "Sorry- can I get a 'Coke'?" Avery asked the girl, who begrudgingly pulled her ticket book out of her pocket and scratched something on it.

"It'll be out shortly." kiara replied flatly, turning back around and walking to the counter.

"Isn't she a little ray of sunshine?" Avery asked sarcastically, Pope returning the conversation back to his original topic.

"No, seriously." The boy deadpanned. "How did you meet JJ?"

"I found him on the side of the road." Avery repeated, eyebrows raised at the boy as he looked at her skeptically.

"You actually got picked up on the side of the road?" John B asked JJ, the blonde shrugging.

"More the middle of it, but still." He replied, footsteps behind Avery insinuated Kiara's approach with her drink. The girl turned to retrieve it, but Kiara was walking faster than Avery had anticipated, the Decker girl's elbow colliding with the girl's stomach.

Suddenly, Avery felt a stream of cold, sticky liquid running down her head. She gasped a little at the contact, turning to Kiara, who looked mortified.

"Kie- what did you do?" JJ demanded.

"She hit me!" Kiara snapped, pointing an accusing finger at Avery.

"I did, guys, it was my fault." Avery admitted.

"What the hell, Kiara?" someone yelled, Avery and Kie's heads both snapping up to an older man behind the restaurant's bar.

"It's my fault, sir, I turned and accidentally hit her." Avery admitted, but Kiara turned towards her.

"So you admit it was on purpose?" She asked in the same snappy tone.

"Kie, calm down, she's just taking responsibility." Pope told the curly-haired girl.

"No, you guys are replacing me with her, that's what's going on here, isn't it? You brought her here just to spite me, didn't you?" She fired, looking around the table at the three boys.

"It's my understanding that you replaced them first." Avery said, looking back up at Kiara with a look of pure confusion. "or did JJ lie to me? Did he make up some big elaborate story that you're this awful person just so I wouldn't be threatened by you?"

"Listen to yourself talk!" Kiara exclaimed, looking around the table with wide eyes. "You're seriously gonna let her say that to me?"

"Why don't you just go get Avery another drink." John B suggested. "And a different waitress."

Kiara's jaw fell slack, a look of betrayal flashing across her eyes as she just stared at John B for a few seconds, her eyes flicking between JJ and Pope.

"You heard him." JJ mumbled, still looking at Avery who was fiddling with the hem of her sticky shirt, her face painted over with guilt.

"Fine." Kiara said firmly, tearing their ticket off her notepad and storming towards the bar where the older man was still standing.

"Where's the bathroom at?" Avery asked, peeling her sticky hair away from her collarbone and looking down at the now sopping fabric of her t-shirt.

"Uh- it's just to the right of the bar." JJ said quickly, pointing at the sign hanging above the doorway next to the bar, Avery sliding her chair back and walking across the floor, unable to avoid the glare Kiara sent her as she walked past the bar.

When she got to the bathroom, she wet a few paper towels, using them to pull most of the syrupy sweetness out of her hair, a knock on the door pulling her from her tedious work.

"I found this in the van." John B mumbled, holding a blue t-shirt out to Avery, the girl smiling gently as she took the fabric from the brunette's hand.

"Thanks." She whispered, shutting the door again and stepping into a stall, changing her shirt and walking back to her table, her hair sopping at this point. Avery tugged a black hair tie off her wrist, pulling her hair into a ponytail and sitting back down at her chair, where a new Coke had been placed next to her water.

"Nice shirt." JJ commented sarcastically.

"Is it yours?" Avery questioned, looking over the menu Kiara had given her for the first time since she got there, deciding silently that she wanted an order of popcorn shrimp with mac and cheese.

"Did I forget to mention that?" John B asked, the new waitress, and blonde, coming over to take their meal orders and their menus.

"It'll be out soon." She assured, turning her gaze to Avery. "And the owner apologizes profusely for the actions of his daughter, your meal is on the house."

"That won't be necessary, ma'am." Avery stated politely. "I take the blame for the accident, I hit her with my elbow when I turned."

"He knows, it was her actions afterwards he apologizes for." The blonde said, keeping her perfect service-smile on her face as she turned away before avery could argue.

"Her dad owns the restaurant?" Avery whispered, glancing at the bar where Kiara was leaning on the counter, her facial expression one of disgust and anger.

"Yeah, why else would she be rich and working?" Pope asked, glancing up at Kiara himself. "How're we splitting the check tonight, I have... fifteen dollars."

"Don't worry about it, I've got it." Avery assured.

"They're not gonna give us all our food for free, Avery." John B said, Avery shaking her head and reaching down into the handbag on the floor next to her chair, retrieving her wallet.

"Just pay with this." She told the Routledge, passing a card across the table to John B.

"Did you just give him a black card?" JJ asked, eyebrows raised, Avery nodding slowly.

"Rich, remember?" she asked him, the blonde waitress approaching again and placing the four teens' plates on the table, as well as a check that had Avery's drink scratched out of it and her food missing.

Avery watched as the three in front of her tore into the food as though they hadn't eaten in a week, crushing into crab legs as though it was a sport, effortlessly peeling shrimp, and scarfing down grits like their lives depended on it.

"If you guys want more, I can buy you more." Avery told them, taking a bite of her mac and cheese, only to look up and see that John B had already peeled five of his cocktail shrimp.

"I just didn't have lunch today." The brunette said simply.

"Me either." JJ said, grabbing a piece of shrimp from his own plate and barely peeling it before shoving it in his mouth.

Avery hummed in response, popping a few pieces of shrimp into her mouth and occasionally glancing up to the bar where Kiara was still looking around disgustedly.

When the five finished their food, Avery took the check up to the counter, and since the blonde waitress was busy at another table, Kiara was the one to ring up her bill.

"Cash or card." She asked, voice monotone. Avery held up her card, Kiara punching the screen a couple times. "Whenever you're ready."

"I'm sorry for any trouble I got you in." Avery told the girl sincerely. "If I thought my friends back home were replacing me, I'd be upset too, but I promise, you've got it all wrong."

"Then what are you?" Kiara asked, voice laced fake interest in whatever Avery was going to see. "did you sleep with JJ? Is that why you're here?"

"What- no!" Avery exclaimed, pulling her card out of the machine and putting it back in her wallet, reaching back inside the bag to find the wad of twenty dollar bills her dad had sent her with in case places didn't take card. "No, he needed a ride today so I picked him up, he invited me out with him and John B and Pope."

"That's how it always starts." Kiara said, her voice gone from fake to sickly sweet. "He'll need a favor, then next thing you know you're just another one of his hookups, he's gonna treat you like you don't exist in a week."

"I think you're a liar." Avery whispered, pulling one of the bills out of her wallet and dropping it on the counter in front of Kiara. "Have a good life, Kiara."

Avery turned on her heel, shoving the door of the restaurant open and trudging across the parking lot to her car, unlocking the door. JJ, John B, and Pope were all standing outside the van, JJ and John B talking about something.

"Come on, man- I just need one night!" JJ exclaimed. "He just needs some time to cool down, I can go back tomorrow."

"I'm sorry, J, I can't." John B was telling his friend sympathetically. "Dad leaves tomorrow, he said no one over tonight."

"What's going on?" Avery asked, JJ's head snapping over to the brunette.

"Can I stay at your place tonight?" He asked, his voice in the same near pleading tone he had used earlier that day when Avery picked him up.

"Yeah, sure." she said, opening the back door of her car and tossing her bag in. "It was good meeting you guys." she said to John B and Pope, waving at them before climbing into the driver's side of her car, JJ following in a couple minutes. It was dark out now, Avery flipping her headlights on, John B and Pope pulling out of the lot before her.

"I'm sorry about Kiara tonight." JJ said, Avery rolling her eyes.

"Let's talk about literally anything else." She mumbled, putting her arm behind JJ's seat and looking over her shoulder to back out of her parking spot before pulling back onto the road. "To be fair, you did warn me."

"Yeah, but still." JJ replied, chewing on his bottom lip.

"Am I a replacement?" Avery asked suddenly, JJ immediately shaking his head.

"Of course you aren't." He said firmly. "I think you're really cool and you seem nice enough."

"Are you trying to sleep with me?" The Decker continued.

"Did Kiara tell you that?" JJ asked, Avery nodding slowly. "Avery, I have a reputation for doing that. I have slept around, I have had random hookups, I have taken tourists home from a party, but I don't try to do that with every girl I see." He said, his voice sincere, looking at Avery the whole time, despite her eyes being trained on the road. "I promise I'm not just trying to sleep with you."

"I told her I didn't believe her." Avery told him, JJ smiling at her.

"I'm glad." he mumbled, Avery turning around the corner where the tree line ended, the water now black and blue, the moon shining white off the surface.

"Does your face need cleaned up?" Avery asked, glancing at JJ's face where the cuts she had noticed earlier were redder than before, the blonde shrugging.

"Probably not, I'll be fine." He assured as Avery turned into her driveway.

"Are you sure? They're looking pretty bad." She added, reaching over and gently brushing the blonde hair out of JJ's face, feeling the boy tense a little under her touch. "Just let me clean them."

"Fine." He groaned. "Only because you're giving me a place to stay."

He followed Avery up the stairs and into the kitchen, the girl ordering him to stay while she went to the bathroom at the end of the hall, pulling the mirror open to reveal the medicine cabinet where a bottle of rubbing alcohol was sitting. She grabbed it, shutting the cabinet and walking back to the kitchen. Apparently, the house came with the proper disinfectant for wounds and paper towels, but no food.

"This is gonna hurt like a bitch, so brace yourself." Avery cautioned, folding a paper towel multiple times until she had a thick square that was about an inch and a half on both sides, pouring the clear liquid onto it.

"Trust me, I've been here before." JJ assured, gripping the edge of the counter and biting his lip as Avery dabbed the paper towel at the various small gashes across his face.

"What happened to you?" She asked, tossing the paper towel into the trash and grabbing other one, running water over it and wiping the excess alcohol off of JJ's face.

"Just a fight." He assured. "D'worry about it."

"Okay." Avery whispered. "You taking the couch? Or I have guest rooms, whatever you want."

"I'll take the couch." JJ assured, climbing off the counter. "You'd better go wash that hair."

Avery could feel it starting to get crunchy from the sugar concentrating on her hair, the soda only diluted by the water Avery had used at 'The Wreck'.

"Got it." She replied, giving the boy a small thumbs up. "Night, JJ."

"Night, Ave."

kens speaks 🪐

kens liking something she writes?? what is this?? also i promised mara i would show her this so

favorite card i've ever received from someone tbh