Outer Banks | JJ Maybank | Rafe Cameron | Kookish Pogue / Pogueish Kook?

Ch17 | Surfing at Dusk

Staring at herself in the mirror, she couldn't help but trace the red bruises that littered her neck from where Rafe's hands were.

The tears always managed to brim at her eyes when she looked back at them.

Deciding that she would just drive herself insane constantly checking the marks, she got up to see how Pope was doing.

~~~

Stepping onto John B's property, she heard them talking, but they weren't inside or on the patio.

Peering around, she saw them loading their surf boards onto John B's van.

"Sup guys." She made herself present.

"Hey Mal, wanna come for a surf with us?" Kie greeted her.

"I left my board at home, but if you've got a spare that I can use..."

"We can swing past yours, it's not too far." John B nodded.

"Sweet then I'm in." She smiled, hopping into the van to head to the beach.

~~~

While they were there she couldn't remember the last time she was at the beach surfing when it was dusk.

The beautiful red of the sky casting a golden hue over everything.

Pulling her shirt of, she had completely forgotten about the mild bruising on her neck.

"Woah, what happened to you?" John B's face turned into a frown as he motioned to Mal's neck.

"Oh, um..." She didn't know whether to tell the truth and looked over to Pope for help, flicking her gaze between him and JJ as they were the ones who knew what happened to Pope.

Unfortunately however, Mal hadn't told JJ about her own encounter with Rafe and too found herself with his strong gaze on her.

"It happened at the country club golf course, Rafe jumped me when I was delivering groceries with JJ and I had a run by myself. He attacked me with his club." Pope spoke up first, showing them his bruise from Rafe's attack.

When he finished talking, and they stopped looking at his wounds, their gazes directed to you.

"Rafe invited me to play golf with him and Topper, he wanted to apologise for the other night at the party. Stupid me thought nothing much of it and you guys were all busy so I had nothing to do, so I accepted." She began, fliddling with her fingers as she spoke.

"Topper then pointed out Pope walking past and Rafe had to make a scene, which is all of what Pope described. I tried to stop him bit Topper held me back. Finally when he stopped and I got away from Topper I called him a psychopath and it didn't go down well." She felt the tears brimming yet again as she took a deep breath in.

"He pushed me into a tree and started to choke me. I thought he was going to kill me and Pope." She let out a sob as JJ wrapped his arm around her in comfort. "He had this look in his eyes, it was literally psychotic, I can't even describe it. He wouldn't have stopped either, both times I told him to stop, but he didn't. It wasn't until I hit back and that Topper grabbed the club that Rafe stopped." She let the tears fall at this stage, just needing to get it all out.

"Don't worry now though, it was just terrifying, but I'm fine now." She wiped her tears away, not wanting to drag down her first dusk surf sesh with them.

"Come on, I wanna surf." She smiled, holding her hand out for JJ to take and follow her to the water.

She couldn't help but lose herself in the water. All of her problems seemed to vanish at those times, and she could tell the same for Pope as he seemed completely relaxed and back to his usual self.

After surfing by herself for a while, she paddled up to JJ.

"Wanna try something fun?" She asked him.

"What might this something fun be?" He asked back.

"Goes something a little like sharing a board, hit some waves like that." She raised her brow, eager for JJ's response.

Seeing him grinning back, she clapped her hands, taking her board back to the sand.

"This is gonna be good." Kie said folding her arms as she watched form her board in the water along side Pope and John B who were also watching.

"Wait wait wait, shit I'm going down." JJ said as they tried to hold onto each other for balance, but both fell together.

It took them many attempts, but they finally succeeded.

Paddling together, they found that the best method would be her going on his shoulders.

"Okay jump." He said as he lifted her into his shoulders before the wave came.

Holding onto his arms, she stabilised herself as best as she could as he controlled the board.

After successfully getting up and staying on for majority of the wave, she felt herself falling, dragging him down with her.

Rising back up, she couldn't help but let out an excited scream, hearing the others cheering as well.

"We did it baby." JJ high fived her as they swam towards each other and his board.

"Damn straight we did." She laughed.

"I didn't think you could pull it off." Kie honestly commented as they all headed back to the shore.

"Ugh, that was so good but draining." Mal sighed as she flopped onto the sand.

"I can't believe you actually did it." Pope grinned.

"Only what, a thousand times or so." John B chuckled, earning a light punch from Mal.

"You know we did better than that." She laughed.

"Yeah, whatever floats your boat." He stuck his tongue out.

They sat on the beach for a while, just enjoying the warm night and the sound of the waves crashing against each other.