{ LIVING THE POGUE LIFE }

{51}

Two weeks.

It had been two weeks since John B and Sarah went down on that boat on the day of the storm. Two weeks now that the Pogues had been grieving, and two weeks of them trying to keep Brie from being seen.

It had been hard for her to stay hidden at first, what with all of the cops still hanging around. She had to hide out at the garage for days at a time, letting the whole of the Outer Banks belive that she had died that day the boat went down.

As the feds slowly trailed out of town, Brie allowed herself the freedom of staying back at John B's, where JJ stayed with her almost all of the time.

He liked that they had been able to spend all of that time alone with each other, practically living together. It felt like they could really be there for each other, because they both knew exactly what the other was going through.

For the first few days, Brie had held up pretty well. They all had. The Pogues spent days on end together with Brie at the garage, supporting each other and growing closer than ever. The night that they carved out a remembrance for John B on a tree beside the Chateu was the happiest and most heartbroken that JJ had ever felt since that night.

But not for Brie. In the first week after they lost their friends, she had smiled and laughed with them, acting like an anchor for all of them. She was what was keeping them all together, always there to offer words of comfort whenever they needed it.

JJ wondered when that changed, and why she changed. When did she suddenly stop being what they all needed?

She had been so...okay. When she was hiding out at the garage, she had spent the nights she couldn't sleep working on repairing John B's house from the damage from the fire. Maybe it was when she had finished the work that she had started to go downhill. Maybe it just hit her all at once. He didn't know.

JJ just wished that he had noticed in time to help her. He wished that he could have even there for her.

When they were living together at John B's, JJ was convinced that they were both healing. Sure, they would never get over losing their friends like that. How could they? But they were happy. They would spend hours just laying together; talking, laughing, crying. It felt so right when they could be like that.

And then one day she just disappeared.

One moment he was falling asleep with Brie against his chest, and the next he was waking up to cold sheets and an empty bed. Panic had set in almost immediately, with so many questions flooding his mind.

He checked the garage, and he looked everywhere that he could possibly think of, but she was gone. Pope and Kiara were just as equally worried as he was, especially when the darkness crept in, still with no sign of Brie anywhere.

Those few hours were like torture for JJ, not knowing where she was or if she was okay. She couldn't be okay, right? Something had happened to her. She wouldn't just leave again, especially without saying goodbye. That was what JJ had thought.

He thought wrong.

JJ heard a crash coming from the porch late in the evening as he sat on the edge of the bed that they both shared, waiting for her to come back.

Brie stumbled through the door, drunk out of her mind and only half conscious. JJ froze in shock at the sight of her.

Her shorts were ripped and shredded and her black tshirt was torn open, revealing her bra underneath. Her hair was a matted mess, twisted and tangled in knots. She had a half empty bottle of vodka in her hand, tears and makeup running down her face.