ONLY ANGEL | JJ MAYBANK

CHAPTER TWO

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Collins was usually the first to wake in the Jacobson household after one of Charlie's late shifts. The routine of it all had persisted for as long as she could remember- seeing Charlie briefly before he headed out for his night shift, spending the evening home alone and going to bed with the lamp light in his room still on, then waking up to the sunlight in her eyes when it rose at dawn and Charlie sound asleep like he'd always been there. It was such a simple life they lived, simple, but charming. She had very few complaints.

It was humid in the small house. It usually tended to be in the mornings. No use in keeping the A/C on when the nights were so cool. Collins could feel the soles of her feet stick to the floor with each step. She crept out of her room to see her brother face down on the futon with a pillow over his head, no doubt soon to be nursing a hangover from the back to back bachelorette parties he'd bartended/entertained.

Collins made sure she was quiet as she went about the house, tidying up after the mess that had been left the day before. She picked up the clothes Charlie had discarded on the floor and dug through the pockets of his work pants to fish out a thick wad of cash. Her eyes widened and she smiled at Charlie's snoozing figure in impress after counting it and stashing it in their trusty tin can. She'd picked out a couple of phone numbers that had gotten lost in the mix and examined them one by one.

Call me ;) 804-555-0125

Had a good time with you tonight, text me if you wanna have another 225-555-4609

Ur cute 904-555-7509

She scoffed under her breath and placed them in a pile on the table next to Charlie. Each one had been more messily scrawled than the last, indicating that the women must've been too intoxicated to write more legibly or even come up with something more clever to write. And of course they'd all be from different area codes, Charlie wouldn't bother calling them purely based on that alone.

Collins moved to the fridge which she'd stocked with their new supply of groceries and stuck her hand in to feel the temperature inside. It wasn't as hot as it was yesterday, but Collins was paranoid now. So she grabbed a mixing bowl from their drawer and began filling it with cold water from their sink's faucet.

Once it was full, she stuck it in the fridge next to the other bowls of water she'd used to keep it cool inside. They'd have to eat what was inside more quickly before it went bad.

The sound of Charlie grumbling as he slowly awoke from his slumber made Collins turn to look back at him. "Puke bucket?" She asked, half-joking but also kind of seriously. Charlie was good at keeping drinks down as he drank them, but it was the day after where he struggled.

"Just a Tylenol, please." He mumbled groggily, barely able to keep his eyes open long enough to look at her as he said it.

Collins began to fish through their medicine box then filled up a glass of water for Charlie to drink with it. She padded over to him and held out the two items. "Here, ibuprofen is better. Wouldn't wanna damage your liver more than you already have."

Charlie took the two little pills and chugged the glass of water in mere seconds. Once he had finished, he groaned and slumped back onto his pillow with an ill expression on his face. "I swear on my life that I didn't even drink, all their yelling and screaming has just inflicted a headache on me that has carried over for the last ten hours. Them bachelorette's are insane."

Sitting on the edge of the futon next to him, Collins raised her brows. "The fear of celibacy is real, Charlie. You sure made an impression though." Collins picked up his pile of phone numbers for further emphasis and waved it at him.

Smiling smugly, Charlie nodded. "It's a proper epidemic, that's what it is. My memory's a little fuzzy, but if I can recall correctly, the owner's of those phone numbers were very generous with their tips."

"Yeah, I saw that. You sure you're only bartending there? There were quite a few one dollar bills in that stack..."

Collins laughed as Charlie kicked her playfully from under his blanket. "It's basic economics, Collins. I'm the supply and I am in high demand. You know what that means? It means that the price for my attention goes up in value."

"How is it that you're half asleep and still capable of spewing nothing but crap?" Collins shook her head before pushing herself up to stand.

"It's all inherent at this point, I'm not even sure if I'm awake right now. I've dreamt of more mundane things than having a conversation with my sister." Charlie threw his arms behind his head and closed his eyes, but remained awake to keep talking. "I wasn't totally out of it last night, though, I still managed to grab you a club sandwich and fries. It's in the fridge if you want it."

Collins snagged the white take-out box out and inspected the food. Usually when Charlie got leftovers, there was something wrong with it. Last time, one side of the cut of salmon Charlie had grabbed had been burnt to a crisp while the other side was cooked to perfection. The sandwich looked to be in perfect condition.

"Thanks, Charlie." Collins told him. She used a knife to cut it in half, walking over to split it with her brother.

Sitting up, Charlie took his half and the two tapped sandwiches before taking a bite. "I heard a storm's coming today." Charlie stated through a mouthful. "Better not make any plans."

"Shoot, you think you could take me to the library before it hits? I'm in need of an exchange." Collins picked at the piece of turkey hanging off the side of her sandwich and popped it into her mouth.

"Yeah, sure." Charlie agreed, finishing the last bite before moving onto the fries. "Is it okay if I just drop you off though? I'm working a shift with Heyward to prep for Hurricane Agatha." He bellowed the name like he was the narrator announcing the titled monster of a film from the 1930s. Dun-dun-dunnnn. And a crash of thunder to top it off; perfect mood for an oncoming storm.

Collins just chuckled, "Sure, no problem. I'll stay near town and we'll meet up after you're done." Once they'd finished their meal, she started clearing the mess away before she started getting ready. As she was brushing the plethora of knots out of her hair, a thought occurred to Collins; without breaking from her current task, she started to speak to Charlie in the most casual approach possible. "You know, Heyward's probably gonna need a lot of help with the storm when it comes and goes. Maybe I could help out?"

She knew it was bold of her to ask, but she had to try at least. She felt useless when Charlie was spending so many hours making money for the two of them. Now that she had more time on her hands, it would be beneficial for her to actually use them.

"Not a chance with this job. We're gonna be sandbagging, it's hard work." Charlie refuted, squeezing past her to splash some water on his face. "Besides, didn't I already tell you that you're supposed to be doing ACT, SAT, or whatever the T- prep?"

"That's not gonna take all day, Charlie. Let me help out. If I can't work for Heyward then I'll find somewhere else that's more of my speed. Just think about it."

And even though all she'd asked of him was to consider her proposal, Collins knew deep down that even if Charlie agreed to do just that, his answer would still be the same. "Let's go or I'll be late."

Collins stood in defeat while Charlie left the house. She really needed to find a way to make some money. She didn't understand why Charlie was so adamant. She wasn't doing it because she didn't think he could provide for her, she wanted to do it because it would be in both of their best interests. Charlie's mentioning of her upcoming tests had only reminded her of all the expenses that were inevitably coming up. It hung over her like a 200 pound weight on her shoulders.

The ACT was already $60, $85 if she took the essay, which she was probably going to have to do if she wanted to apply to the schools that she wanted to get into.

온라인카지노주소 college applications were about $40-$50. And now it wasn't the worst thing for Collins to go to one to complete her general credits and save a least a little bit of money, it just wasn't ideal. If she went to a community college, Collins knew that deep down, there was a chance that she would end up settling. She would take whatever job she could get in the 2-3 years of education, just to start making money instead of pursuing her original goal and then she'd spend the rest of her life trying to convince herself that she made the right decision to suppress the regret.

So of course, she needed options if she intended on attending a four-year university. Preferably, a place that she wouldn't hate her life at. There was only one school that had been on Collins's mind since she started looking into her future. Duke University was her top pick; it was fairly close to home, they had a great medical program, and she would be way up there on the road to success if she were to be accepted.

The application fee was $85, but the tuition was the real kicker. Not to mention room and board? The costs racked up in debts that it was almost laughable from how out of depth it was from Collins's finances. Maybe if Charlie knew about it he would be more understanding. Even with scholarships, they were out of their league.

Until Charlie came to terms with that notion, Collins was just going to have to keep up with their routine. While Charlie went to work to handle fishing hooks and crab traps, Collins was left to the books. That was the way things were so that was how it would continue to be-- at least until she convinced him otherwise. Due diligence, that was Collins's approach to things.

It was a quiet ride on the way to the library for Collins and Charlie. And it usually was since the wind always made it hard to hear each other, especially when Collins had a helmet on, but the silence was particularly loud that day. The fact that she knew it was because Charlie was in no mood for conversation made her feel a bit more uneasy. When Charlie was in a bad mood, it was like the world turned grayer, laughter went quiet, and spirits fell harder. It just wasn't the same when he wasn't his usual upbeat self.

As Charlie slowed his motorcycle down to a halt in front of the library steps, Collins slid off and handed him the helmet. "See you in a couple hours, try to work quick in case Agatha decides to visit early."

She never liked to leave things tense between them, it gave her an uncomfortable feeling that didn't go away until it was resolved and she knew that Charlie probably wasn't going to work as well either with weighing matters on his mind. Charlie nodded with his lips pressed tightly, before the engine rumbled and he was riding off down to the fishing docks. Collins watched him until he disappeared into nothing but a speck in the far distance, before she turned to walk up the row of steps into Kildare's public library.

There were very few places where Collins felt safe. Life on the cut wasn't always very assuring of her safety, like seriously, they had a neighbor on one side that had been convicted of several violent crimes that had put his victims in wheelchairs, and on another side, they had a registered sex offender who claimed that he'd only been caught in a car with his girlfriend by a night watchman but he had children's toys on his porch with no kids. Needless to say, that even at home, Collins didn't feel like those thin walls protected her from the dangers lurking outside.

However, for a place that smelled like mildew and could use some serious renovations to update their facilities that'd been established in the near 1920s, Kildare's library was pretty up there in places where she felt out of harm's way. She liked sitting in between the book stacks and spending the day studying a good book. She'd read some of her favorites in just one day during those times, and she'd been content. The building acted as a sort of escape for Collins because one of her favorite things about it was the quiet.

No disturbances, no distractions, just the quiet hum of an overworked generator and the sound of pages brushing against each other with every turn. She liked it that way, though she knew it didn't last forever; she'd always have to return back to her world sooner or later. But the reminder that such a serene place existed always calmed her mind.

Like Narnia, for the Pevensie children. They had a magical world hiding in the back of a wardrobe where they lived as royalty, given everything they could ever have hoped and imagined. It was an upgrade from their real life which was plagued with war.

Collins liked to think that this place was her wardrobe, except she could go anywhere she wanted. She could find herself in the 1800s caught in a tragic love affair or maybe in a wonderland having tea parties with well-dressed rabbits. What could she say? Collins was an escapist. She liked pretending that she lived in a world separate from her own.

After much searching through the library's well-stocked, but still quite limited selection, Collins had decided to try something new that day. She had a few other options but the book which sat on top of the stack was the one which stood out from the rest of her usual, whimsical, romantic, and sometimes mythical genre.

She placed the books on the counter for the librarian to check out. The old man greeted her politely, then began to scan her books. He picked the one on top and briefly examined the cover. "Treasure Island, huh? Ever read it before?"

Collins shook her head with a timid smile. "First time."

"Did you know that this is the book that set the premise for what we call the old-fashioned 'treasure hunt'? The pirates, the 'X' marks the spot, the whole shebang?"

"No, I didn't, but that's very interesting to hear." She chuckled and watched as the man began moving on to the rest of her selections.

"Kildare has its own tale of a lost treasure. A ship called the Royal Merchant, which was said to have been hoarding millions of dollars worth of pure gold. It sunk off the coast of the Outer Banks and countless men have spent their whole lives chasing after it. It still has yet to be discovered." He finished up with the rest of her books before he slid the stack back over to her.

"Maybe this book will give me some ideas on where to start." Collins joked, but the man just shook his head.

"While there may not be your typical peg-legged, parrot holding, eye-patch wearing pirates sailing around anymore, they are still very much extant even in today's modern society. Any one who plans on searching for the Royal Merchant's treasure might find it best to take that into consideration first."

Taking her things into her own hands, Collins felt an eerie tension in the air as she stared back at the old librarian. His warning had sent chills up her spine, even in the summer heat. She gave him a wary nod before she slowly started to walk away, picking up her pace once she'd neared the exit.

Once she'd finally felt the humidity in the air and the sun on her skin, Collins felt for the first time that she was happy to be out of the library. The old man's words had shocked her; just in the way he'd said them and the context they were in. It was like he actually thought she was planning her own treasure hunt and was threatening her of the dangers that came with undertaking such a challenge. He was just a crazy old man who probably gets his kicks off of scaring youths is what she tried telling herself. People could resort to the most disturbing things in order to entertain themselves.

She tried to brush it off as she walked along the sidewalk. She didn't need the additional nerves on her mind when there was a hurricane approaching, except she wasn't really worried about that deep down. It wasn't uncommon for them to have storms and they knew how to prepare. She just didn't really like the whole thunder, lightning, and 70 mile per hour winds. The encounter in itself just shook her up a bit and the aura in the air wasn't helping to calm her.

Her feet carried her down the pavement until she reached the beach. It was pretty up there on the list of her favorite places to be. Just like the library, it was place she could come to for solace. There was a certain noisy silence to it that calmed her. The rolling ocean waves were a more natural alternative, along with the distant squawks of the hovering seagulls.

It was also pretty secluded thanks to Agatha's impending appearance. The beach was probably the last place anyone would want to be if they weren't doing safety preparations, but as far as the weather in Kildare county, Collins would have to say that it was still pretty nice out for a little break next to shore. The sun was still shining and there was a nice cool breeze blowing, although it had definitely picked up since that morning, but overall Collins had no complaints.

She claimed a spot a decent ways away from the incoming tide, dropping her tote bag full of books onto the sand and taking a seat right next to it. Pulling out the book that the librarian had given her the creeps over, Collins ran her fingers over the gold lettering embossed on the cover with a gentle touch. She didn't know why she had picked it; maybe because it was in the classic book section and out of all the the other books around it that had visible tears in the seams and wear on the pages, this was the only one that had looked the most pristine. It had to be a classic for a reason, and for that reason alone, Collins knew that it needed to be read with the same consideration as any of the greats.

Opening the book, Collins dove into the 온라인카지노게임 as it began to unravel before her. She drank in the words that were written so far out of her time, that she had to re-read a lot of the lines, but she was glad that she did so because once she'd gained an understanding of the tale being told, she became immersed in it. Suddenly, she was following sailors on the high seas and trekking through a tropical island.

She couldn't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to read such a book. Everything that made Pirates of the Caribbean and The Goonies what it was, came from this 온라인카지노게임.

Collins had been so enraptured in the book that she'd nearly gone through the entire thing; granted, it was pretty short at 300 pages, but she'd been reading it long enough to have completely lost track of time.

It wasn't until she felt a couple drops fall on top of her head and onto the paper did she break out of her trance and look up. The sky above her had become cloudy with hues of dark grey mixed together, and rain had begun to come down. Like a switch, a light sprinkle had become a heavy rainfall, resulting in Collins having to scramble up onto her feet and shove her book into her bag before it got completely soaked, and then she'd have to deal with the damage fee, which she didn't really need added to her plate.

Collins wiped the water dripping over her eyes as she ran up the hill, away from the beach where the waves had grown more aggressive with the strong winds pushing towards the island. The swells crashed into each other and were building up into huge surges. Collins knew that if she didn't get back to Charlie soon, he was going to kill her before Agatha did.

Suddenly, Collins crossed paths with two figures holding surfboards in their arms. She shielded her eyes from the rain and furrowed her brows as they approached each other. Once they'd come close enough to see each other's faces, Collins recognized them to be Pope Heyward and John B Routledge.

"'Sup, Collins!" John B greeted first.

"Are you seriously going out there, right now?" Collins asked them incredulously, forced to raise her voice above the sound of the rain, then she glanced back at the ocean which looked like they would swallow anyone who dared test their waters.

Looking past her to examine the level of danger they were about to put themselves in, Pope turned over to John B with a bit of hesitancy. "Yeah, those aren't looking like surf-able waves, bro."

Nudging him playfully on the arm, John B just laughed with an excited grin on his face. "Says who?"

Pope shook his head and turned his gaze back to Collins. "Saw Charlie back with my dad, he's looking for you."

Collins nodded and began to move past the two to leave, but made sure to look at them as she said, "Thanks, Pope. And be careful out there, John B, for real." She felt a kind of churning in her stomach as she watched John B prepare himself to advance towards the waves. He was crazy to go out in conditions like these, but it wasn't totally out of character for him. He had always been a bit of an adrenaline junkie, always searching for his next big thrill. But what if something bad happened to him?

Smiling back at her, John B held his arms out and gave her a small shrug. "CJ, you're looking at the second best surfer on the island, right here." The use of the nickname was pretty John B specific, not a lot of people used it as frequently as he did. Usually getting a nickname felt like something special, like you're worthy of someone if they curate a special name for you, but Collins was pretty sure he did it because he couldn't remember her actual name, and that's what he called Charlie.

She never dwelled on things like that though, so Collins never bothered correcting him on it. Walking backwards, Collins narrowed her eyes at him in confusion. "Who's the first best?"

"JJ Maybank, of course. But don't tell him I said that!" He wrinkled his nose, sticking his tongue out at her, then spun around to take off in a sprint towards the ocean with his trusty surfboard in hand. Collins just shook her head and exchanged exasperated glances with Pope before they finally parted ways.

Luckily, Heyward's wasn't too far away from the beach, so Collins was able to sprint there in no time. As her shoes pounded against the puddles that had already begun to form along the sidewalk, all Collins could think about was how bad the storm could really get. Was their house even going to survive it or could the wind pick it up off its foundation and sweep it away with them still inside?

She worried about things like that the whole way over to Heyward's. As she approached the shack, she could see Charlie run out of the building to meet her outside. "Come on, Collins, we gotta get home." His curly hair was drenched in a matter of seconds, no longer holding its volume like it normally did with the weight of the water plastering it to his forehead.

Nodding breathlessly, Collins obliged and climbed onto the back of his bike without any protest. Charlie kickstarted the engine until it came to life, then hit the gas. The roads had begun to flood with water, but not enough to prevent them from being able to drive on it as they made their way back to their house. Collins was grateful for that.

Collins' held onto her brother's torso tightly, watching as the trees shook violently in the wind and the downpour came crashing onto them with unbelievable force. She didn't like this, storms were always used to foreshadow something bad happening and Collins didn't ever want to test out that theory.

She thought about John B and what could be happening out there if things were this bad on land. She began to feel even more guilty for letting him do it, because if anything happened to him, she would feel partly responsible. Why couldn't she just speak up? Why couldn't she conjure up the courage to act on her feelings instead of hiding behind them? She didn't want to be a bystander.

The way that John B's father had disappeared crossed Collins's mind. Everyone believed that he'd gotten lost at sea and was presumed dead for almost a year now. His disappearance was one of the biggest mysteries that the island had ever come against, now it was a cold case. The possibility of John B dying of the same fate as his father made Collins think there was something sickly poetic about it, since John B had always refused to admit that his father was gone. It was like he was testing the world to reap him like they supposedly did his father, daring them to take him if they were as ruthless as people on the island claimed for them to be. He was crazy enough to make a challenge like that.

John B had always been nice to her. He seemed to make an effort to be friendly whenever they did encounter each other, and she'd always appreciated that about him. He'd say "hi" when they'd cross paths and even though she had her suspicions that he only called her CJ because he didn't know her name, it was still nice of him to reserve it for her. And like she said, little things like that made people feel special and happy that they were important enough to be given nicknames. Collins couldn't deny that deep down, she was one of them. The little things in life was pretty much all she had and John B had contributed to that. She wasn't in any position to be passing them up.

Collins hoped that for his sake, that a guardian angel was watching over him. Maybe even his dad if his presumed fate was his actual one, but it felt a bit morbid for Collins to think of it that way.

As they rolled up to their house, Collins jumped off and helped Charlie push his bike up the couple of steps so they could bring it inside. If Agatha was as much of a pain as she was turning out to be, they didn't want to lose their only source of transportation to her.

Once they were finally under the covering of their roof and out from the rain, Collins immediately shivered since the only clothing she'd had on was a tank top and shorts. She was dripping with water all over their wood floors, and as she looked over at Charlie, he was in a similar state.

"I'm sorry, I lost track of time" Collins apologized with a shaky stutter from her chattering teeth, and she wasn't sure what else to say after that. There were no excuses, she could've put them in serious danger, that was that.

But Charlie just shook his head and waved her off. "It's fine. We're back now and that's all that matters." He released a heavy sigh, and Collins watched as he moved to walk past her. "You go ahead and shower first, I'll make sure everything's all good in here."

Deciding that it was probably best if she didn't argue or just put up any fight at all, Collins listened the first time and did as she was told. She went to her room to grab a change of warm clothes from her dresser then as she was just about to head into the bathroom, she stopped and peered over at Charlie.

He was crouched next to his motorbike with a rag in hand and was drying off what he could. He should've been more angry with her, he should've snapped at her just once to make her feel bad for almost letting them get caught in a hurricane. But he didn't; he was calm and he was cool when he really shouldn't have been. One thing about Charlie was that he was incredibly good about not losing his head, at least with her. He was extremely patient with Collins despite there being times when she really wouldn't have blamed him for being mad at her.

Pressing her lips together as she gazed at him from across the room, Collins said, "Thanks for being a good big brother, Charlie."

He stopped what his was doing for a brief moment to glance up at her, meeting her eyes where they exchanged unspoken endearing sentiments. Then with a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth, Charlie shrugged. "Don't mention it, kid."

•••

and that is chapter two! just some more introductory and set up for what's to comeee. JJ will be in the next chapter so stay tuned for that !