ONLY ANGEL | JJ MAYBANK

CHAPTER THREE

•••

Agatha was a real piece of work.

It'd been a long restless night in the Jacobson household during her reign of terror, most of it was spent trying to keep themselves busy. It was hard to fall asleep to the constant shaking of the four walls surrounding them and the beating of the rain against their window pane. Collins and Charlie had also heard a couple of crashes from the trees losing their battle to Agatha's strong winds.

So to pass the time, Charlie had taken to their old guitar which was the nicest thing their dad had ever left them and had fixated on learning the chords to a new song, filling the room with something a little more light and melodic than just the storm. And since all of her books had been soaked through her bag from the rain, Collins had spent a good while slipping paper towels between the pages and sitting something heavy on each book before she let them dry. She hoped that they'd be fine in the morning, but until then, she had to find something else to keep her occupied. Therefore, Collins had resorted to drawing while she listened to Charlie play his little tunes.

They hadn't kept track of time, but Collins would say that it was around 7 pm when they lost power. The lamps sitting in the corners of the house flickered before it went completely black.

"Guess that's Agatha telling us to go the fuck to bed." Charlie sighed before Collins heard the switch of his lighter and the dim glow of its flame held in front of his face. He picked up the candles from under their side table and lit the wick of each one, handing a cup to Collins for her to take to her room.

"Goodnight, Charlie." Collins voiced as she carefully stepped through the house with her belongings in hand. Charlie relayed the same message back to her before she retreated to her room and closed the door behind her softly,

Setting her things on her nightstand, Collins used the candlelight to see, pulling the covers over her bed back so she could settle under them snuggly. Once she had gotten comfortable, Collins turned up to the candle still alight before she extinguished it with one quick blow, leaving her in nothing but darkness.

Collins didn't remember falling asleep; all she knew is that she'd been awake for a good while trying to block out the sound of the storm which made her restless, but before knew it, she'd fell into a deep slumber. Despite the raging winds and pounding rainfall against her window pane, she hadn't stirred one bit during the night. Her sleep had been peaceful, like her room was her own bubble and nothing could disrupt its calm. And when she woke, havoc had finally stopped wreaking over the Outer Banks.

There had already been a noticeable contrast in the weather that was blantant the moment Collins opened her eyes. She'd had to squint from the sunlight peeking through her curtains and onto her face, which was still groggy with sleep. It'd taken quite a bit of effort just to get out of bed, but after Collins had peeled off the sheets which were stuck to her skin with the perspiration that had ensued from the summer heat making its reappearance, only then was she able to take a glimpse out of her window.

Their yard had never been a pretty sight. The cut wasn't exactly the kind of place where people used their lawns to show off how much better they were to their neighbors, and Charlie and Collins had never really cared to fix it up anyways. That was the sort of thing they'd do if Charlie wasn't working 12 hours or more a day and it wouldn't just get trashed anyways from their neighborhood's psycho kids who terrorized whatever ground they walked upon.

The point was that their small yard had always looked rough and that was just how it was on its own, but after Agatha hit, they suddenly had an excuse as to why it didn't sparkle with lush greenery and as if it actually got watered every day. The storm had blown tree limbs askew and remnants of various plastics, that were now resting on the dirt patches on the lawn. It was going to be a job in itself to clear it all away.

As Collins left her room to join Charlie, she saw that he was already awake and out of bed, getting ready for the day. "Another day, another dollar." He saluted on his way out the door.

And so it went that Charlie got a head start on a long day of guaranteed work ahead of him which was all they could really ask for after being screwed over by a storm. What the Kooks couldn't be bothered to clean or fix themselves was what lower class citizens like Charlie practically lived for. And although he would never claim to be a Kook sympathizer, Charlie had to admit, he sometimes felt a little bad for how helpless some of them really were. There are some things a person just shouldn't need to hire someone for, but hey, who was Charlie to protest when he was getting paid without barely even having to lift a finger?

This meant that Collins was left to see for herself how the island was recovering after the long night, spending the most of her day passing by the docks where owners were cleaning salt and seaweed off their boats and small businesses rehung their signs which had fallen crookedly. There was something about a town picking up the pieces of itself that soothed Collins. It was sort of like getting a fresh start, and since they were in the very early days of summer break, Collins could get behind that.

She liked thinking about the endless possibilities being laid out in front of her on how these next three months could go. But the only thing was, that every time optimistic thoughts appeared in her mind, it was as though the Earth felt scorn for her even daring to think about doing anything even remotely enjoyable when she had other things to worry about. For example, how she was going to go to college to make something of herself when she had a severe funding issue.

Yet for some reason, as much as she worried about all of their money troubles, Charlie had never seemed to let it faze him one bit. Despite working so much to make up for what they lacked in capital, he'd never once demonstrated any kind of tension or anger over their situation. Sometimes Collins would, there were times when she'd experience a sudden outburst of "life isn't fair" syndrome and Charlie would have to talk her down. However, he didn't ever sit in a slump after working his ass off all day and just feel sorry for himself as if that would fix everything. He powered through it and kept up a placated exterior because crying never solved anyones problems.

That never stopped him from complaining about the Kooks though and how much he hated how they treated them. He understood that a lot of them had earned what they possessed which gave them a sort of right to flaunt their riches, hell, Charlie would too if he had a billion dollar yacht and a stupid marble water fountain shaped like a swan sitting in his front yard. It wasn't the bragging that Charlie truly despised about the Kooks, it was their attitudes towards people less fortunate than them. Just because they lived two completely different lives that didn't grant a Kook a free pass to act like the Pogues were scum beneath their shoe. And that's how Charlie felt a lot of the time when he was working on Figure 8.

And for his hard work, along with putting up with his snooty bosses, Collins tried her best to make his life as easy as possible when he came home. She cleaned up when it was messy, she ran errands for him whenever he needed, and she helped organize their bills so that they were never late for a payment. It was the least she could do and it felt good when Charlie made a comment about dreading going through all the paperwork, Collins could tell him that she'd already taken care of it and he needn't worry.

Her additional task that night was to make dinner for the two of them before Charlie came home. Since the power was out, Collins had been forced to provide the flame to the gas burners, taking one of Charlie's lighters lying around the house and flicking it on before it became alight. She'd boiled a pot of pasta and was in the midst of dumping a jar of red sauce over the noodles when her brother came barging in. He looked dirty from the sweat and literal dirt clinging to his skin after spending the day sawing down large fallen branches into manageable logs of wood and fixing damaged roofs of three 온라인카지노게임 Kook mansions.

He sniffed the air as soon as he stepped into the house and released a heavy sigh in relief. "Fuck yes, I'm starving."

Stomping through the short hallway, he disappeared into the bathroom and Collins could hear the shower running. She stirred the pot for a couple minutes before the sauce was finally cooked, then she scooped out a helping onto plates for herself and Charlie. It wasn't long after did he emerge from the bathroom, rubbing a towel against his hair to dry it off.

They sat down across from each other and began eating, Charlie too busy shoveling food into his mouth to engage in any conversation. And Collins just let him eat because she knew that he was probably just ingesting all of the calories he'd lost that day and she didn't want to interrupt him anyways. Although, that night, it appeared that Charlie wasn't eating so fast because his stomach had been growling for the past four hours, however it was part of the reason. The actual reason why Charlie was practically inhaling his food was because he had somewhere to be— or to be more specific, they had somewhere to be.

"There's a kegger down at the Boneyard tonight, and we're going."

Collins stopped mid-chew to look at her brother with a dubious gaze from across the table. The words 'kegger' and 'we' meaning Charlie and her, did not sound right together. Now with Charlie, it did make sense because he and his buddy, Ricky, liked to "chaperone" a lot of the high school parties (most of which were hosted by none other than Ricky's cousin, JJ Maybank and his mighty band of Pogues) and make some money selling weed to the stoners on the island. Don't get Collins wrong, she didn't really like the fact that her brother was a shady high school drug dealer, they'd already discussed her discontent before and clearly nothing had changed. She just sort of dealt with it because she couldn't stop him from smoking a joint himself and all of their supply came from a trustworthy source, which was verified by their rave reviews. The extra income didn't hurt either.

But that sort of thing was what Charlie was into, and Collins never really had an interest in getting involved with it. She figured that since she didn't even like the smell of marijuana there was no way that she'd like smoking it. And as for alcohol, there was no fascination with that either, especially when someone had to stay sober and remind Charlie to not try and drive himself before he crashed into a tree. Call her boring, but Collins didn't feel like she was really missing out on all that much anyways.

Except when she was missing out on the entire party all together by never going with Charlie, resulting in a severe deprivation of socializing with people her own age. And she wondered why she had no friends...

No point in starting now. "Look, Charlie, I know you're just trying to get me to have fun and all that, but seriously, I'm fine staying home."

Casting her a blank look, Charlie slumped in his chair due to his sister's complete and utter lack of desire to do anything that didn't involve a book or not breaking the rules. He supposed that it was just his incredible job of raising her that he should really blame, but in all seriousness, he had no clue how his misbehavior hadn't rubbed off on her at least a little bit.

"Come on, Collins. It's the first party of the season. There'll be Pogues, Tourons, unfortunately some Kooks, but that just goes to show how diverse this crowd will be. It'll be a total cash cow for Ricky and I."

"Then it sounds like you're in for a busy night. I, however, am going to pass. You know that's not my thing." She shook her head as she stabbed into a forkful of noodles absentmindedly.

"Just one night!" Charlie begged. "As your older brother, it's my responsibility to make sure I push you to make one shitty decision in your life and tonight's that night. I'll be there the whole time so you have nothing to worry about. You don't even have to drink or smoke, unless you want to of course."

He raised his brows expectantly at her, waiting for her response with suspense. And as Collins stared at his hopeful eyes, she could feel her grasp on her own rigid judgement slipping away. Maybe he was right, she'd always followed the rules, never tried anything that could get her into serious trouble. And it wasn't like she had to do anything she didn't want to do. Deep down, Collins knew she was just afraid of being surrounded by people she didn't feel like she had anything in common with, people she felt like were going to judge her for the way that she looked or acted. She didn't want to put herself through that and suffer from the misery of her own choices, especially when she could just stay in the comforting safety of her own home and just avoid it all in general.

But Collins should've known by now that perhaps the reason why she had struggled to make friends for so long was because she never seized the opportunity to make any. She'd passed on so many of these parties that Charlie went to, just because of her own fear of the same things she was afraid of now. And yet, she never did anything to fix it, only wallowing in her own loneliness like it was everyone's fault but hers. Acting like there wasn't anything wrong with the way she was or the way anyone else was, just simply no one like her that she'd clicked with yet.

Today was the day where that changed. Or, she could at least give it chance to.

Collins slowly released a long exhale in defeat as she glanced up from her plate to narrow her eyes at her brother, who's own expression reflected that of satisfaction for successfully convincing his sister to join him on his little excursion. "Fine, I'll go."

Jumping up from his seat, Charlie whooped in victory before immediately snatching away their plates and dumping them in the sink for them to clean up later. "Let's go then, the party's already started!"

Sharing matching grins on their faces, Collins and Charlie bounded down their front porch to Charlie's bike, though Collins was sure she had more nerves coursing through her than her brother did. Charlie started the engine and once it was running, they took off down the dirt path on their way to the Boneyard where mischief and careless fun brewed.

The Boneyard was always the kind of place that Collins would go to when the sun was out instead of setting over a bonfire and loud music. She'd lost count of how many days she'd spent clearing plastic red cups and grape flavored rolling paper wrappers, that were thoughtlessly discarded in the sands of the shoreline by reckless teenagers. That was one aspect of partying that she disliked; the mess it left afterwards.

But now that she was going to be there in the midst of all that so-called 'fun' that her brother and everyone else claimed to have when they came to functions like these, Collins had come to terms with the fact that she was going to be in the presence of that tornado of people who traipsed through the beach without a care in the world. And she was going to have to watch people drunkenly litter all around an entire ecosystem because she didn't have the courage to actually say something about it, just probably pick it up once their back was turned.

It was already dark when they left their house but as they approached the beach, light and life had seemed to have burst on a small section of the shore, since Collins could see a perfectly illuminated crowd of people dancing, chatting, and laughing like there was nothing bad to ever exist in the world. They were all happy and it was genuine happiness that they exhibited.

Charlie pulled over onto the end of a long line of cars which Collins hoped wouldn't be driven by a bunch of intoxicated partiers, and it was there that they saw Ricky and some of Charlie's other friends gathered in a bunch. When they had gotten off of the bike, Charlie immediately greeted everyone with high-fives and cheers while Collins trailed behind him like a lost puppy waiting for guidance.

"Hey, you brought your sister! What's up, CJ?" Ricky gave her a nod with his eyes nearly drawn to slits, resembling a lot like a person who had already gone through his share of the weed and was as high as a kite at the moment.

"Not much, Ricky. How about you?" Collins politely responded, fidgeting with her hands in front of her.

"I'm feeling great, right now, thank you for asking." Ricky threw his head back with a goofy smile on his face and just laughed to himself.

Exchanging glances with her brother, Collins couldn't deny that she was already entertained just watching Charlie's friends act like dopes. Charlie, however, had business to tend to. Holding out his hand, he requested a portion of the stash to take out to the beach and start distributing like they had originally intended. Ricky cooperatively obliged, slapping a handful of little individual plastic baggies onto Charlie's palm. "See you later, partner." Charlie tipped his head at his friend then nudged Collins for her to follow him.

She casually waved to his friends as they departed and headed towards the large gathering dispersed around a huge fire. From the looks of it, Agatha had stirred things up on the beach, as to be expected. There were a lot more pieces of tree branches big enough to serve as seating and the lifeguard tower had been tipped over and partly sunken in the sand, but for some it was like a little playground to climb around on.

Charlie and Collins were lucky enough to find a spot in the middle of it all. They sat perched next to each other on a piece of driftwood as thick as a 30 year old tree trunk. It was there that Collins people watched and shared short conversations with Charlie in between his deals, which he was doing quite well with. He'd already gotten rid of about half of his product and things were going steady.

"Having fun yet?" Charlie questioned her with his brows raised. "Not as bad as you thought, huh? Maybe even a little fun?"

Rolling her eyes, Collins smiled half-heartedly before she finally nodded her head. "Definitely hasn't killed me yet just being here."

"I told you you'd have nothing to worry about. And see, you didn't even have to drink or smoke even a little bit."

"Peer pressure was the least of my concerns." She told him. She was okay as long as she was with him. Charlie's presence kept her from feeling so alone and out of place. When he was there, it felt like she had at least somewhat of a belonging.

Suddenly, Ricky came scrambling up to them, kicking up sand as he did so and earning himself a couple of annoyed gripes. He didn't pay them any mind though as he was too preoccupied with whatever news he had been so eager to share. "I've got some Kooks who are asking for more than our limit per person, but I think they'd be willing to drop some more cash as an exception. I told them I couldn't make any deals without consulting my partner first."

Charlie got up to his feet and glanced over at Collins with a shiny grin. "Let's start milking then. I'll be right back, Colls, stay right here. This is what we came here for." He and Ricky clapped each other on the backs before they left Collins to scam a bunch of Kooks out of their money, leaving her to her own devices. She wished she hadn't thought about how comfortable she was to be there when her brother was around to keep her occupied, because the earth had seemed to decide that her comfort should be tested; Collins felt Charlie's absence immediately.

As the girl looked around her, she felt like she'd somehow ended up in eye of the hurricane. She was the calm and the uneventful, while a storm raged around her, full of energy and joy. Everyone had their person, their people, their belonging. And Collins, well, she had herself. She thought it'd be easier once she got there to talk to people, but it was like the moment she stepped foot in the sand, she'd become clueless as to how she was supposed to do that. No one was interested in her, and how embarrassing would it be for her to just walk up to a group of people and join in on their conversation like she was one of them? It was like everything she did was annoying or humiliating and Collins didn't know which was worse; trying to talk to people who have no desire to get to know you or sitting alone by yourself like the total loser you really are.

Acceptance was the first step and Collins had to be honest; she was the most loser person of all losers. No point in denying it when it was already blatantly obvious to everyone else.

The grains of sand on the ground suddenly became incredibly fascinating as she directed her focus on counting each shell scattered within it instead of the world around her. It was the easiest way for her to pass the time while she waited for Charlie to come back; Charlie, her first and only best friend. He was the only person she trusted with her secrets and to confide in for any of her problems. But she'd been born into that friendship, so did it really even count?

Whilst Collins was distracting herself, from where he stood manning the keg stand next to John B, JJ was in the midst of filling his fourth cup of beer when his eyes landed on the girl sitting by her lonesome next to the bonfire. Elbowing John B in the ribs which earned him an annoyed grunt from the boy, JJ nodded over to the girl with a curious expression on his face. "Yo, you ever seen her before?"

Trying to follow his gaze, John B furrowed his brows in concentration. "Who? The girl spilling her guts out or the one holding her hair who looks like she's pulling trig next?"

JJ cringed at the sight before shaking his head dismissively. "No, I'm talking about the one sitting on the log by herself in front of the puking girls. Touron?"

John B scanned his eyes over the crowd and spotted the girl in question, who he quickly recognized after examining her face for only a split second. "You mean CJ?" JJ didn't appear to be fazed by any sense of familiarity with the girl. "Collins Jacobson? Her brother's Charlie?"

Blinking as the information flew straight over his head, JJ blew out a heavy breath. "Bro, I can't process what you're saying to me right now, because it's like her hotness, is interfering with the sounds waves of your voice trying to get through to me. But all I know is that there is a very attractive, and very lonely girl in need of a drink. And I, JJ, must do something about it." As he saluted goodbye to his friend, JJ began to stroll away from the keg and towards the fire where Collins awaited.

"You're dr-unk." John B called after him, knowing fairly well that JJ's usual tricks wouldn't hit the same on a girl like Collins. And the fact that he was intoxicated was all it was going to take to turn whatever crap he pulled on her, into a complete and total shit show.

"Fuck off." JJ yelled back before flashing his middle finger at John B without even bothering to look back because his eyes were locked onto his target, unbudging. 

Collins had been minding her business while Charlie was away. She wondered if the Kooks had caught on to their little trick and were causing trouble. So when too much time had passed, Collins was just about to get up and go find Charlie herself when a plastic cup of beer was suddenly being pushed in front of her face. The smell of malt flooded her nostrils.

She jerked back in astonishment, then followed the hand holding the cup, which was attached to the arm, which led to shoulder, which then carried up to the face of a certain JJ Maybank. His lips were turned up at the sides as he looked at her, and he cocked his head at her inquisitively. "Feeling a bit parched?"

She was so struck with surprise that she almost didn't answer right away, too taken aback that she was even being addressed. "I'm okay, actually, but thanks." She managed to reply, then she smiled before looking down at the ground because the eye contact he was making with her was making her flustered all of a sudden. And maybe she was scared she sounded too much like a bore for rejecting a free drink and probably being the only remaining sober person there.

She expected JJ to leave after that, to disappear and go off to talk to John B, or Pope, or Kie- basically, anyone that he'd probably rather be talking to besides her. So she hadn't expected it when he sat down next to her instead, the fiery glow flooding across his skin and blond hair so that it looked orange-ish red in the light. And at first, she thought that he was just sitting there to talk to the person on the other side of him, but when his eyes fell on her for a second time, she realized that he had stayed for her.

"I don't think I've ever seen you around the Boneyard before." He commented before he brought the cup of beer up to his lips. His Adam's apple bobbed with each swallow, and when he pulled the cup away, his lips were shiny from the liquid coating them.

Collins nodded sheepishly, and she continued to fidget with her hands as a sort of subconscious coping mechanism to keep her face looking as cool and collected as she wished she naturally could be while her hands expressed every anxiety ridden sentiment that was actually overwhelming her. "Parties aren't usually my thing, my brother kind of dragged me to this one. He's got a bit of a fixation to get me out of the house."

"And how are you liking it?" His blue eyes peered at her like strobe lights, and Collins had always felt uncomfortable being the center of attention. Not that it happened often, but you know, any time she felt like her existence was acknowledged by someone other than her brother, it was a lot for her to handle.

"It's not as bad as I thought. Is this how you spend every summer?" JJ had a reputation for being reckless and always in search of a thrill. Ever since they were in preschool he'd been that way. Collins had never wondered what he was like because he'd always been the most authentic version of himself 24/7. And like John B had said, he was the best surfer on the island, so he apparently was also known as that, too.

And speaking of surfing, "This and catching a wave every once in a while. You hit the water?"

Collins shook her head vigorously. "Definitely not. I wouldn't even know how. I've never done it before."

JJ sat up after her response with an incredulous look on his face. "You're kidding me. You're telling me that you're on an island and you've never surfed before? It's like the law that you have to ride a wave at least once in your life and here, baby, I enforce it."

Collins just smiled softly and hid the blush on her cheeks behind her curtain of hair. "Putting me on a board would be like putting a penguin on a piece of floating ice and just letting it drift out to open sea. You'd need the coast guard at the ready."

"Well, lucky for you, you're talking to the best surfer on the island."

"Is that so?" She quirked her brow at him as she questioned his title, which even though he had John B to back him up, Collins didn't need feed into JJ's already bulging ego any more.

Nodding his head, JJ looked her up and down with a sort of charming glint in those baby blues of his, and he said, "Yeah, and I'm sort of having a special deal where I give a really pretty girl free lessons from the expert himself. Interested?"

As Collins processed the words he had spoken to her, she found herself unable to find any to say herself. No one had ever called her pretty before, especially not a boy. She'd always just sort of hoped that she had the kind of face that people deemed acceptable as her way of preventing her self-esteem from plummeting. In other words, she'd always just considered herself as average and definitely not anywhere close to being the kind of girl that a guy like JJ Maybank would hit on at a party she didn't even belong at. It was an odd feeling to receive a compliment like that. How were you usually supposed to respond?

"I think that you're just drunk." She chuckled lightly, shaking her head at him. It was the only logical explanation she had for why he'd say something like that.

"Or maybe, hear me out, you're just beautiful."

Collins took a moment to regain her composure. Change the subject. Her brain told her. You can't take anymore compliments. "So, um— what kind of tips would you give me?" She asked him coyly, hiding the bottom half of her face behind her shoulder while she hugged her knees against her chest. After the mentioning of her- Collins Jacobson— being pretty, she'd felt even more shy than she did before. It was like the longer he looked at her face, the quicker she was sure he would realize that there was nothing really special about the way she looked, it was like she was prolonging inevitable.

"As a professional, I'm gonna have to refrain from spilling any of my top secret moves while I'm under the influence, which I kind of am." As if he did it for further emphasis, JJ took another swig of the drink in his hand until it was gone in a matter of seconds. "Are you sure you don't want some of this?"

"I don't-uh, really drink." She stammered embarrassedly. Before JJ could say anything more, Collins looked up and saw that Charlie was making his way back and was observing her interaction with JJ inquisitively. "Sorry, I gotta check with my brother on something." She hopped up and waved apologetically back to him as she jogged over to her brother with an apprehensive smile.

As she approached Charlie, his eyes followed something behind her, which Collins could only assume was JJ, and he furrowed his brows before nodding his head towards him. "Was that JJ Maybank you were just talking to?"

Tucking her hands in her back pockets, Collins just shrugged nonchalantly and glanced back to see that JJ had retreated back over to the keg and was helping himself to another cup of beer which he probably didn't really need. "Uhh, yeah, that was JJ. We were just chatting for a bit."

"I didn't know you guys were friends." Charlie commented, to which Collins grimaced at since she didn't really know how her brother was feeling at the moment. She'd never had any problems with boys when it came to Charlie's overprotectiveness, but also, she'd never really been hit on by a boy in the first place. It was strange territory that they were in.

"I mean, I wouldn't necessarily call us friends either. I think he just saw that I was alone and thought that he should just be nice to me." Collins excused. That logic made perfect sense to her. It explained all of the confusions she had about why on earth JJ would come up to her in the first place when he'd sat behind her all semester in Economics and probably only spoken three words to her: got a pencil?

"More like he saw that you were alone and thought that you were the perfect prey for the night. He's kind of wild, Colls. I don't really think you two would get along."

A small frown fell upon Collins's face at Charlie's statement. "But you're friends with Ricky? If I can recall correctly, he's pretty wild, too, but we get along fine?"

"There's no need to get defensive about it, Collins, I'm just saying that I know you better than anyone else and I also know how JJ is and I just don't think you two would have a lot in common." Charlie declared. "It's different with Ricky."

"Honestly, Charlie. It was a five minute conversation, he was drunk, it probably won't even happen again so let's just drop it." She muttered the last part with a shake of her head, and just as she was about to head back to the parking lot, the sound of commotion redirected her attention back behind her.

JJ and Topper Thornton had their hands clenched into fists and it looked as if JJ had murder in his eyes which had spilled beer dripping over them. Collins watched intently as John B pulled his friend away and Sarah Cameron attempted to coax her boyfriend to leave, too. Both boys had harsh glares on their faces.

"Dirty Pogues!" Topper spat, sparking a reaction from John B, who despite trying to keep his best friend out of trouble, couldn't stop himself from spinning back and shoving Topper back by his shoulders.

It looked like JJ was about to team up against Topper, but Pope managed to block his path and talk him down. He probably knew that the two of his friends against the one Kook would be more trouble than they needed. Unfortunately, one vs. one was enough to stir things up and out of their control. Topper had started towards John B and swung his fist, landing a punch directly across the other boy's face. One hit was enough to knock John B off of his feet, he was on his hands and knees trying to recover when Topper kicked him over into the water.

JJ fought to get past Pope, but the boy was persistent to keep the blond boy out of the line of fire.

Looking over at Charlie, Collins felt uneasy about the whole situation. "Should someone do something before things get worse?" She asked him uncertainly, but Charlie just pursed his lips, unmoving.

And as though her words had flipped some sort of switch, things did get much, much worse. Topper had his back turned on John B like he had won already, but the boy scrambled up from behind him and threw his body to the ground and into the water. Blows were exchanged between both boys and things had gotten exceedingly violent.

A whole ring had formed around the fight and people were egging them on from both Pogues and Kooks alike. Collins couldn't see much from behind the crowd, but she winced each time she saw between the bodies that someone had the wind knocked out of them or took a swing to the face. John B's band of Pogues looked worried for him, with the exception of JJ, who cheered for his friend; he didn't cheer in a happy sort of way, more of like a spectator at a gladiator fight kind of manner. Sarah looked exasperated, like she was completely and totally powerless to stop everything going on, which she kind of was.

Collins nervously held the tip of her thumb between her teeth and bit down a little harder each time she watched John B take another one of Topper's hits. She wasn't sure how things would end; neither boy would sacrifice their pride to stop fighting so that only left one option: someone was going to have to be hurt badly enough to be physically incapable of fighting any more. The question was who would that be?

John B's odds weren't looking so good after Topper threw him into the water again, and when John B was laid out on his stomach, Topper began to hold his head down into the water, only permitting him air when John B was strong enough to resist against him.

"Charlie, he's drowning him!" Collins exclaimed in horror, grasping her brother by the arm tightly. She looked at him with wide eyes because she was too scared to watch the fight any longer, fearing that if she looked back, John B wouldn't be moving anymore.

"Oh, shit, JJ." Charlie muttered, and Collins's curiosity was too strong for her to not look and see what her brother was looking at in regards to the blond haired boy.

She immediately gasped and her hand flew over her mouth as she spotted JJ standing behind Topper with a gun held against the Kook's head. A gun. An actual gun. Other partiers began to flee the scene, scared of the derailed Pogue holding a firearm and what he may do with it. But Collins didn't think that JJ could ever do such a thing; he wouldn't actually kill someone, even if it was Topper, who had a big mouth and an arrogant attitude. However, that didn't mean that Collins wasn't scared of the possibility that JJ very well may actually pull the trigger and end the life of another human being.

"JJ, don't be an idiot." Charlie spoke, stepping forward cautiously, but his words were lost in Sarah's panicked pleas to get JJ to stop and Topper's fearful surrender as he held his hands up with shaky breaths.

"Okay, everyone, listen up! Get the hell off our side of the island!" JJ stormed away from Topper and Collins could feel an inkling of relief as the gun was pointed away from his head.

But her relief was short lived as JJ pointed the gun up at the sky and released two shots in warning.

Collins clamped her hands over her ears and immediately dropped down onto her knees in the sand into a curled up ball with her eyes squeezed shut, while Charlie instantly ran towards JJ with an angered look on his face.

"Are you fucking crazy, JJ?" He yelled with a fire in his green eyes that Collins never saw too often, because very rarely did Charlie ever get really mad; not even when it was warranted. But in that moment, it was pretty clear that he was not happy. He was angry at JJ for being so completely and utterly idiotic, for endangering people by wielding a gun around that he had no business having in the first place.

Kie and Pope weren't very pleased with their friend either as they simultaneously pushed JJ while badgering him with infuriated shouts saying, "Are you crazy?" and "You idiot!", along with, "Why would you do that?"

"I was saving his life, okay?" JJ snapped back, pointing back at John B.

And that's when Collins sees the aforementioned boy barely able to even hold himself to sit up without swaying in place like he were about to topple over any minute. His eyes struggled to stay open and they fluttered closed a couple times, eyelids heavy. All the trauma that his body had undergone was taking its toll on him. Collins pushed herself up to stand and slowly began to make her way over to him while his friends continue to bicker back and forth with Charlie adding a couple of scolding remarks in the mix. They didn't even realize that the state of their friend needed more attention than their arguing.

But once Collins realizes that John B is about to completely lose consciousness, she picks up the pace and dashes over into the water to grab him from behind, collapsing under the dead weight as John B fell back into the water on top of Collins' lap, unconscious.

•••

the meeting of collins and jj is in the books ✔️ I love these two with all my hearttt