There was a bummed look on JJ's face at the mentioning of the only other loud thing besides him that roamed the Chateau. "I'll miss the ol' drumstick but if I had to choose my friends over him, I'm sure he'd appreciate the sacrifice. If I hadn't done what I did, who knows what could've happened to us."
Collins didn't say anything right away. She just took in JJ's response with acceptance and maybe a little bit of gratitude because she was sure that she wouldn't have had the guts to do what he did. She always tried to appreciate things that people did when others couldn't, it's what made someone like JJ a pretty special person, because she was pretty sure he'd do anything for the people he cared about.
"It's cool that you care so much about your friends. To have someone willing to do hard things for you is rare, you don't get as real of a friendship as that a whole lot nowadays. Charlie is probably the only person in my life that I could say the same thing about. He's the best person I know."
"I pissed him off pretty good that night at the Boneyard, too." JJ stated with tight lips. Way to make a good impression on the brother of the girl you might like, JJ.
"Charlie doesn't really stay mad at anyone for too long, if he ever is, he says that life's too short to hold grudges. He probably just thinks that you're a safety hazard now."
"And what did you think of me when we talked?" He questioned curiously, resulting in Collins immediately cowering back bashfully. If her face wasn't blushing red already, then it definitely was now. She wasn't one to express attraction when there was any, and that night, Collins couldn't help the magnetic force she felt pulling her towards JJ. 
If there was one thing that would never complicate matters between them, it was the fact that even though Collins's boy crush radar was deficient, JJ was an expert at boosting his signal and making it clear that there was something about her that he liked. He was never one to play coy, he didn't get the things he wanted playing hard to get. Little would become lost in translation between them when JJ was around.
"The alcohol in your system impaired your judgement." Collins explained matter-of-factly, as if she was letting JJ know that it wasn't actually him that was interested in her, just the beer goggles. But what she failed to realize, was that drunk actions were also sober thoughts, and JJ really did mean what he said to her. He may not have exactly remembered it as clearly, but he stood by every compliment.
A small frown was apparent on the blond boy's face as he watched Collins walk up to her house, where he followed a couple of feet behind her before she stopped at her door to turn to him. "I'm sober now. Can I come in?"
She didn't answer him right away. Glancing back behind her, Collins knew that Charlie wasn't home. She wasn't so much as afraid of him coming back from work and seeing her and JJ there all alone and jump to conclusions, but she was also somewhat uneasy about JJ coming in and seeing how they lived. No one had ever really been to their house. They didn't jump to invite people over and they didn't exactly take pride in where they took housing in either. The worst part was how cramped everything was, they didn't live in filth or have heroine littered around the place like they used to when their mom was still around, but the space was small. It was just enough to fit her and Charlie, but any more than that was a squeeze.
Collins had always figured that's what drove her dad away. A part of her believed that he didn't just wake up one day and decide he didn't love or care about them anymore, he had been driven away over time from living like a caged animal in a crowded kennel. The heavy air and choking feeling like claustrophobia compacting around him made him go crazy, and he'd decided that he had two choices: a loving family struggling to survive in a suffocating house, or an open world outside of the island that granted him freedom from confinement.