~PRESENT~
"You can't avoid him forever, Millie." Sarah spoke, sitting at her vanity, pulling her long hair up into a messy bun.
Deep down, Amelia knew that Sarah was right. Last night at the bonfire was close enough to being seen by JJ. She knew that eventually he would find out that she was back in the Outer Banks. And right now, she wouldn't be surprised if Kiara was the one that told him. But then again, she probably wouldn't want him to know for the sake of keeping him to herself and away from Amelia.
All she could think about was how JJ would react to finding out that she was here, and how he would react to her not coming to find him as soon as she got there. He would be devastated if he knew that she was avoiding him.
As much as she had missed JJ over the year, and as much as she really did want to see him, she knew that if she did they would end up right back where they left off last summer and then she would have to leave again. She didn't want to have to leave him again, and she didn't want him to be left heartbroken all over again. If he had forgotten about her and moved on, she didn't want to ruin that for him. The last thing she wanted to do was swirl up a tornado of drama.
Visions of him with Kiara flooded her mind, and she could feel her stomach turn upside down at the thought. How was she supposed to be okay with the love of her life and one of her best friends being together? How could either of them ever do that to her?
"I know I can't. But right now I think the best thing is that we don't see each other." Amelia spoke, rubbing her temples with her pointer fingers, laying sprawled out across Sarah's bed. "I mean... Kiara? Really?"
Sarah whipped herself around on the stool of her vanity to look at Amelia, and Amelia could see the shock spread across her face. "Seriously? John B told you?" She rolled her eyes and turned back around to dab some blush onto the apples of her cheeks. "That was one thing that I was kind of hoping that we could avoid this summer."
"You know that he wouldn't have kept that from me." Amelia said, sitting up in Sarah's bed to look at her. "Do you think that what they have between them is serious?"
Sarah sighed, sitting her makeup brush down on her vanity before rising to her feet and making her way over to her bed, sitting down next to Amelia. "Honestly, I don't know."
"John B swears it isn't." Amelia scanned over Sarah's face looking for any sign of uncertainty. "I don't understand how either one of them could do this to me."
"You left, Amelia. JJ was heartbroken. We were all so worried about him." She wrapped her arm around Amelia, pulling her into her.
She knew that he was heartbroken when she left. JJ standing outside, watching Amelia's dad drive the car away with tears streaming down his face replayed through her mind, and she quickly shook her head as if to erase the images so they couldn't haunt her mind anymore. But truthfully, that image of seeing JJ so sad was one she probably would never be able to forget.
Sarah bit her bottom lip. "JJ relied on Kiara the most out of all of us after you left. I don't think either of them really expected for anything to happen between them. Truthfully, I always saw the way that Kie looked at him. But I never thought anything of it because she always looked at John B and Pope that way too." She stood from the bed beside Amelia, making her way back over to her vanity to finish applying the rest of her makeup. "Kiara had told me when it happened. And she admitted to having feelings for JJ. They have had some kind of thing between them ever since. I mean, they hooked up a few more times and they always flirt, but I honestly can't say that it's serious. I think the second he sees you he will forget all about her."
