Incognito
The next morning, John B woke up feeling well rested and oddly optimistic. He looked at the girl still sleeping peacefully in his arms and decided not to wake her just yet. She looked so innocent and delicate, a small smile on her lips. Maybe she was dreaming of sunny beaches and surfing too, their favorite thing.
He would never tell her because competition is their thing, but she's the best surfer he knows. When JJ surfs, it's like nothing else in the world exists around her. She's in her element and the waves follow her demands as she shreds them perfectly and is always testing out new tricks. Her face breaks out into the most genuine smile and her blue eyes sparkle in pure happiness. His heart always warms with adoration and awe when he is blessed enough to witness her let her guard down and just enjoy the moment, life's brutality forgotten. For him surfing is just his favorite hobby, but for JJ surfing is something else entirely. It's unfortunate they were handed the cards they were. The right hand and JJ could've had a sponsor and he's sure she could make it big in the surfing world if given the chance. They aren't that lucky though.
He was broken out of his thoughts of JJ surfing when she sighed in her sleep and mumbled something incoherently into his chest, holding onto him like a teddy bear.
He felt his cheeks grow warm as one of her legs brushed against his hard member as she further entangled herself around his body.
He tried to carefully extract her so he could take a cold shower before she woke up as was his habit, but as he tried to unhitch her thigh from across his hip, she mumbled again and he freezes. He swears he heard his name and he feels his body hum with the pleasure that swept through him when he heard his name murmured from her lips while she dreamt.
It's just JJ, he lectures himself, and she could've been dreaming about anything for Christ sake. Still, he can't control his arms from wrapping around her more firmly or his lips from placing a kiss into her hair.
It doesn't mean anything, he convinced himself. He tries again to extract himself from her and is more successful this time. He goes straight to the bathroom and takes a cold shower.
JJ woke only minutes later, stretching her arms out. She'd slept good and she remembers having a good dream, but it evades her memory when she tries to recall what it was. She sees the bathroom door shut and can hear the shower running within. She decides to make her way to the kitchen and see what she could find for breakfast.
The pantry was mostly empty, they'd have to go shopping soon, but she finds two granola bars and unwraps one for herself to eat. The other she set aside for John B.
She decided to do some dishes while she waited for the shower to open up. She was about three quarters of the way through, humming the chorus of Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry, when she felt eyes on her.
She turned slightly to look behind her and leant against the entryway in just his swim trunks was John B, his hair still wet, droplets falling from a few strands framed around his face and running down his chest. Damn, she breathed trying to get a grip on herself and keep her eyes from drifting lower to where the droplets disappeared in his shorts. It's not that she'd never seen him shirtless or in his trunks before but there was an intensity in his eyes as he looked at her just now and his tanned, lean but muscular figure had its arms crossed casually like he had nothing else to do but that. How long had he been standing there?
She realized neither one of them had said anything yet and the air felt charged for some reason.
She heard her own voice break the silence, "good morning."
"Hey," he greeted back, voice a little husky and eyes burning in a way that makes her insides heat up.
"Shower free?" She asks dumbly, though it obviously is. He nods and she moves to walk past him, her arm brushing against his when he doesn't move. She felt herself shiver and picked up her pace to the bedroom to grab her towel and swim suit, before going into the bathroom and shutting the door.
What was that?! She whacks herself. Why was she being so weird? She tried to shake it off as she stripped and entered the shower, not even bothering to heat up the water.
She can feel long time buried feelings claw their way to the surface and tries hard to rebury them but his eyes still burn in her mind's eye and she feels herself moan as her finger twitch, wanting to help her body find some release from the building tension. The cold water cools her down though and she mentally puts herself in check before her imagination could wander to banned territory.
She finished up quickly and got ready for the day, letting her mind forget about the morning's events. Once she was ready she rejoined John B who had thrown a tank on at some point and they left in the Twinkie to pickup the keggers from her cousin, chatting bout this or that like normal. Her backpack rested by her leg where she secretly stashed her gun, knowing the other pogues wouldn't approve. It's presence made her feel safer, so she couldn't find it in herself to leave it behind.
That afternoon they found themselves with Kie and Pope setting up the boneyard for the kegger.
They cracked one of the keggers open early once they'd finished and blasted a radio, letting themselves just enjoy themselves in anticipation for the night.
People started arriving quickly and the pogues found themselves dancing together. JJ could feel her hips burn from where John B's hands held them when they danced a few songs together. The boneyard raged around them with pogues, kooks, and tourons and they decided to help Kie hand out beer when the line started to get overwhelming.
JJ was already feeling pretty buzzed only two hours in and was letting herself party it up with some of the other girls around her. She felt herself down her current drink in one swig and throw the cup down when she noticed John B talking to a blonde girl a few yards away. She bit down her jealousy and grabbed another beer, planning to get wasted.
At some point she noticed Sarah Cameron and Topper arrive, and snorted unladylike into her drink knowing Kie wouldn't like that. JJ didn't really care. In fact she sort of itches for a fight tonight and Topper's presence pretty much guarantees that.
A couple hours later, after the sun went down and an unknown amount of beers later, JJ finds herself drunk and happy.
She spies John B and whistles for his attention. "Yo JB!"
Little did she know he'd been keeping an eye on her all night, worried when she kept downing beers and watching her descend into a drunken state, so he was by her side in no time. "What're you doing? What's up?"
"I got this for you," she says sweetly, slurring her words as she hands him the cup of beer in her hands. "Want it?"
"For me? Yeah, I'll take a sip," okay so maybe he's a little drunk too and he thinks his voice definitely sounds a bit flirty, mind buzzing and skin electric at her closeness. She smiles at him.
Just then Sarah Cameron and Topper walk by them and JJ can't resist herself when she calls for Sarah's attention. "Hey! Hey Sarah!"
Once she has her attention, "Sarah, can I interest you in a tasty Milwaukee beverage?" And surprisingly she actually meant it as a friendly gesture. Sarah always seemed kind of lost in JJ's opinion and she didn't seem like she agreed with her friends when they made nasty remarks at them.
"No thanks," Sarah replies in a snooty tone. Topper stands next to her like a lost puppy.
"Is it not fancy enough for you?" JJ asks offended.
"No, we were just leaving," Sarah said. Good riddance, JJ thinks. Last time I try to be nice to a fucking kook. They're all the same after all. Should've known the princess was no different. Kie told her so.
"Hey, you know what? I'll take it. Thank you, I appreciate it," Topper says and he sounds condescending. Not like JJ would ever hand a beer to a bully like him, anyway.
"That's nice, but I didn't ask you," she told him coldly. John B looks ready to intervene and JJ knows she should stop but she's drunk and she's tired of kooks coming to their party and treating them like shit. "If you said pretty please maybe. But you didn't."
"Oh pretty please," Topper adds sarcastically.
"Yeah.." she ignores him, " So Sarah you can have it." She's just playing now to irritate Topper. She didn't expect Topper to knock her drink into her face.
"She doesn't want it you-"
"Okay." Sarah interrupts ever the peacemaker, but JJ is drunk and angry so she starts to throw herself at Topper only John B was ready and catches her, his arms locking her to his chest. "No no no no-" he whispers in her ear trying to calm her down, but she's not quite ready to calm down.
"You're so funny man!" She calls out to Topper.
"Hey!" John B says more sternly in her ear and without letting go he grabs her face to look at him. His eyes are stressed, and she feels herself soften and her body starts to relax in his arms. Her eyes glanced down at his lips, unable to help herself.
But then they hear Topper throw out a "Get your dirty Pogue whore in check," and she feels John B go rigid.
Before she could stop him, John B had already turned around and threw a fist into Topper's face.
JJ is frozen. This is her fault. At some point Pope and Kie and a whole crowd had made their way over.
"John B, we're supposed to be incognito remember?" Pope tries to reason with him, as John B faces off with Topper. But then Topper throws a heavy punch and John B hits the sand close to the water.
JJ can vaguely hear Sarah yelling, but it's hard to hear past the ringing in her ears. She thinks she's close to a panic attack as flashes of Luke Maybank attack her. This isn't the time though and she sinks her nails into her skin to try to break herself out of the fear taking over her body.
"Hey John B, don't make me drown you like your old man alright," she can hear Topper say, and her blood boils. At him for being so low and herself for causing the situation and being so useless she can't even move while she fights off her panic.
Topper kicks John B before he can get up, and JJ wants to help so badly but her breaths are coming in shallow. Nobody notices as they are all engrossed in the fight.
John B finally is able to get up and he tackles Topper, both soaked from the sea water. The fight continues. JJ is finally starting to break herself out of her panic and sees John B put in a good hit on Topper and she thinks he looks like he needs this release so she cheers him on, hoping he would end the fight quickly, but JJ can see that Topper's comment about his dad got to him and Topper's health far surpasses any of theirs having never missed a meal in his life probably so he slowly wears John B down and to JJ's horror he holds John B's head under the water. It doesn't look like he's going to let up and Kie is screaming. She makes a split decision then and runs toward her backpack.
She pulls out the gun and shoves her way through the crowd, coming to stand behind Topper where she shoves the gun into the back of his head, clicking the safety off.
Topper freezes.
"Yeah, you know what that is," she says, eyes wild, breath held as she waited for Topper to let go of John B. "Your move broski."
All the noise of the crowd is lost to her as all she can hear is her own blood pumping through her veins. Topper let's go of John B and raises his hands placatingly. She can hear John B spluttering and coughing up water, but her eyes don't leave Topper's form and her finger remains on the trigger.
She thinks she hears Sarah say something, JJ has a knot in her throat so she can't speak.
"Alright come on man," Topper stands up slowly, backing away towards Sarah. She lets him go but doesn't put the gun down.
Instead she finds her voice and yells loud enough for everyone to hear, "Okay, everyone listen up! Get the hell off our side of the island!" She points the gun up and fires two shots into the air. Screams fill the air as people scrambled to get off the beach, away from wild-eyed screaming girl with a gun.
"Are you crazy?!" Pope yells at her and Kie shoves her a bit, but JJ feels like she's floating outside her body, unable to get the picture of John B's head being held under the water drowning. She doesn't really hear anything else they are screaming at her, as the gun is still gripped tightly in her hand and she's staring blankly ahead at nothing in particular.
At some point they must have given up on yelling at her and went to help their friend out of the water who had passed out with a splash. JJ still couldn't move as her eyes opened even wider and her heart stopped as she watched John B lay there unmoving.
It's been a few seconds or has it been minutes? She's not sure, only that she hasn't breathed and her vision is starting to darken around the edges. Her eyes glaze over as fear courses through her.
She doesn't remember when John B had came to and stood up, making his way over to her, eyes panicked when she didn't respond to his voice calling her name questionably which she couldn't hear.
She doesn't remember when he grabbed her hand and placed it over his heart on his chest trying to remind her to breath.
She doesn't remember when after she still hadn't breathed, he placed one hand on her neck and one on her cheek, thumb brushing over her bottom lip begging her to please breathe for him.
A breath of air finally makes its way into her lungs, soothing the burning that had overtaken her lungs.
She remembers the flood of relief in his eyes when she finally listens and he coaches her to match her breaths to his.
She remembers one of his hands sliding slowly down her neck, over her shoulder, and down her arm to the hand that still gripped the gun tightly and gently extracted it, handing it to Kie who stood wide-eyed nearby, smacking herself for not seeing that JJ was in such rough shape sooner.
She remembers he grabbed the now empty hand and wrapped it around his neck as he bent to pick her up bridal style and carry her back to the chateau.
She remembers grasping onto him like he was air itself and hiding her face in his neck, hiding the tears that were leaking from her eyes before Pope or Kie could see and breathing in his scent, and letting it lull her to sleep.
After John B felt her breaths even out as he carried her towards the Twinkie, he let out a sigh of relief. He'd never seen JJ that far gone and he hopes he never does again. He had feared for a moment he wouldn't get her back and the lost look in her eyes broke his heart.
"Is she gonna be okay?" Kie asked as he maneuvered himself and JJ into the back of the Twinkie so that he could still hold onto her in his lap. She was latched onto him so tightly, one hand bunched into the front of his shirt and her knuckles were slightly pale. Her breaths tickled his neck, but he was glad because it was a reminder that she was breathing again. That had really freaked him out.
He nodded at Kie. He would take care of her. Always.
Pope drove the Twinkie back to the chateau and they said their goodbyes before he carried JJ to his room and laid her in the bed.
When he tried to move away to turn off the light, her grasp tightened on his shirt and her eyes opened in a panic. "John B?"
"I'm here, shh," he assured her in a low tone, trying to be soothing. Deciding the lights weren't important, he crawled in beside her and wrapped her back into his arms. He felt something warm bloom through his chest at the unconditional and seemingly endless amount of trust this girl was openly displaying for him right now. He felt her snuggle even closer into him if that was possible, as if she was afraid he would disappear. He was beginning to suspect he wasn't alone in the foreign feelings that have steadily been growing stronger and were growing harder and harder to deny. He fell asleep wondering what that could mean for them.