The Pogue Life || JJ Maybank

Wipeout

"ZAC! Shut it," I yell at my brother, who is still roaring with laughter from watching me Wipeout.

Conveniently, the ocean takes care of that problem and a wave knocks my brother of his seat on his board. He surfaces coughing and spitting out water, which causes it to switch to me being the one laughing. Grumpy, he gets back on his board and makes his way back to shore, probably to get a drink from the car. I roll my eyes at his short temper.

I lay down on my board and start to paddle back out to find a new wave. The blonde from the shore paddles up beside me.

"You were looking pretty good out here until that wipeout," he says with a smirk.

I roll my eyes, "I got distracted."

"By the view?"

"Maybe," I respond, glancing at him sideways.

He laughs, "I'm JJ"

"Bianca," I respond

"Vacationing here for the summer?"

"No, I just moved here," I respond, "from Australia."

"In that case Outer Banks just got ten times hotter," he smirks.

Shocked, I laugh. He's certainly very openly flirtatious. Almost too outright, yet for some reason, it's alluring.

"Whatever," I laugh, "The surfing competition probably just got a hell of a lot tougher though."

"Oh really? Is that a challenge? You're so on," he says when I nod.

We both laugh and start paddling. At first we get distracted watching one another and fall off our boards multiple times. We are both laughing and enjoying ourselves, when the need to prove that I actually can surf kicks in. Suddenly I'm out on a wave and refusing to get distracted by JJ. I refuse to look at his messy, wet blonde hair or his pristine, tanned abs, or his veiny biceps which make it look like he could lift me above his head with one hand. I focus on the waves and zone out of everything else. JJ realises that the challenge is a little more serious now, and out of the corner of my eye I see him surfing with ease. I carve the wave and JJ wipes out, hitting the water with a large splash. I focus on keeping myself upright and by the time I decide I've proved myself I turn and find JJ sitting on his board, watching me with wide eyes and a quirked eyebrow. And just like that, I'm distracted again. This time I rise from the water and have to spit out the water I swallowed when I hit the surface. JJ laughs as he paddles toward me.

"I think you might be right, wipeout. I do have some competition for best surfer on the island," he says.

"Blame the Aussie beaches," I say with a wink.

"I'm certainly thanking Australia right now," he says quietly, not intending for me to hear.

I laugh and start to make my way back to shore. JJ follows with a, "hey, where are you going wipeout?"

I make my way up the beach, knowing JJ is slowly following behind me, not entirely sure whether he was supposed to. I stab my board into the ground beside Zac's and lean down to grab his bottle of water out of the sand. He is sound asleep on his towel, and was kind enough to lay one out on the sand for me as well. I take a sip of water and stretch to crack my back, before spinning around and offering the bottle to a wide-eyed JJ.

"Thanks," he says, taking the bottle. He takes a drink without touching the lid of the bottle, trying to be polite probably. His eyes don't leave mine as he hands the bottle back. I lean down to Zac and I's bag and pull out my phone, 'forgetting' to bend my knees to give JJ a bit of a tease with my ass. When I turn around he tries to pretend he wasn't looking but his cheeks are slightly red and he has a slight smirk he can't seem to get rid of. I laugh and hand him the unlocked phone.

"I suppose I'll need friends out here," I say, "maybe you'd like to be the first."

He grabs the phone eagerly, "definitely, wipeout"

I roll my eyes at the nickname and watch as he adds his snapchat on my phone and then puts his number into my phone under 'hottie from the beach.'

"Pretty sure I already have a contact with that name," I joke

"Well I'll just have to take his place then," he laughs.

"Will you now?" I ask

"Unless I'm stepping on someone's toes," JJ replies, glancing at Zac.

I laugh abruptly, realising he is questioning whether Zac is my boyfriend. Either I wasn't flirting obviously enough or he's oblivious and just thinks I was being friendly.

"That, is my douchebag twin, Zac," I say

"I heard that," Zac says, raising his head and grinning at us mischievously, "so who's your new boyfriend B?"

"Zac, this is JJ. JJ, this is Zac," I say, ignoring his comment.

The pair say hi and Zac sits up on his towel.

"Well nice to meet you bro, but B, we should probably get home, considering we don't currently have beds to sleep in," Zac says, looking to the sun which is approaching the sunset.

"Yeah whatever, you could have gone home and came back and got me but whatever," I say

"Mum would have shot me if I left you here with some strange kid. Plus you're sense of direction means you would definitely take a wrong turn if you tried to walk home or something," Zac states, starting to pack up.

I turn back to JJ. "God has spoken," I joke.

"We should catch up and surf sometime," I say, lightly touching his arm before grabbing my towel and board.

"For sure," JJ says.

Zac and I make our way back up to the convertible and I pull the roof back so we can put our boards on the back seat, like we did on the way here. Mum didn't seem to think about the sand when she lent us the car, which means we are definitely going to have to clean it before Dad gets here and gets in his precious car and loses his shit.

My phone buzzes and I smile at the snapchat notification. 'JJ added you back, say hi.'

"You good there smiley?" Zac asks, getting into the passenger seat.

I tuck my hair behind my ear and smile as he sends me a snap. I open the picture and am faced with a picture of my back as I am pulling my dress back on beside the bright red car.

'you forgot to mention you're a kook,' the snap says

'what's a kook?' I put on a picture of the steering wheel.

I drop my phone in the cup holder and put my seatbelt on, prepared to listen to Zac tease me about JJ the whole way home.

By the time we reach the house and put our surfboards in the garage the sun is setting. I walk back inside behind Zac and go to the first floor loungeroom to find Mum. She's sitting on the couch on her phone while the TV plays the news. I toss her the keys to the convertible.

"Perhaps not the best idea to let us take that surfing," I say, "we kept it as clean as possible but it definitely needs a vacuum before Dad gets here so he doesn't see all the sand."

"I didn't think of that," she cringes, "Oh well, you pair can fix it up later, there's no point doing it until your car's get here."

"Fair point. Did you want to go out for dinner?" I ask, knowing we only have food for sandwiches.

"Sure," she says, "I was thinking you and Zac could sleep in the spare rooms tonight so you can work out how you want your rooms set up before you go putting it all together."

"Yeah, good idea. I'm beat anyway," I say

"Yeah," Zac agrees, entering the loungeroom, "what's for dinner coz we can't live off ham and cheese sandwiches for much longer since we are already finished half the loaf of bread."

Mum shakes her head and stands up, "get dressed, we can go find a nice restaurant. We will do some grocery shopping tomorrow."

A/N

Did I mention JJ and Bianca is probably gonna be a very flirty, slightly agonizing slow burn before they get together? Sorry lol.
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