The Bends - JJ x Kiara

The cuts that heal

TW!! self harm, physical abuse

*Flashback*

It was a Sunday afternoon. The boys took turns kicking the biggest pockets of sand they could kick. John b and JJ were not a day over 10, as the two juveniles chased each other across the beach, JJ stronger and John b being faster. They would rumble toward the ground, sand sticking to their wet, sea salted hair.

The moment JJ believed moments like these would last, they would be crushed into tiny pieces, little shards of glass. When JJ was younger, his shaggy blonde hair reached just a little below his shoulders, always in his face and pricking his eyes.

Little did he know, he had apparently forgotten to fix his Dad's boat motor, which he hadn't even remembered Luke asking him to do.

The sand was soon replaced with deep crimson, and now Luke was on the top of JJ, who had just been pulled apart from his safe space; his best friend. With every punch Luke delivered, another flinch from a catatonic John b followed. He knew every time this happened, he wasn't supposed to say anything. He had to keep his mouth shut, and he would never be allowed to even touch Luke while he watched his best friend get pummeled to that of almost a corpse.

JJ never screamed, or cried. He was never taught to. Whenever he did show a small string of emotion, it would immediately be shut down and he would have to hold it inside; the burning sensation teetering like a seesaw in the back of his lungs.

The moment Luke would get off of JJ, he would shoot John b another withering look; not the type of look saying "you're next"; rather, "you tell anyone, you'll never see my son again."

JJ had always been quiet after a beating from his father. John b would sit beside JJ, not saying a word, but letting him know he was there for him. He would do simple things, like retrieve wet towels for JJ's wounds. Or he'd bring him some shells he found near the beach. Anything to help him distract himself.

Some would think John b was a bad friend, because he would never mention anything regarding JJ and his father, the abuse, the blood, the memories imprinted in his brain of the dreading thought of possibly losing his best friend.

But JJ thought completely the opposite; this was the exact reaction he wanted. No reaction. He wanted John b to treat him exactly the same, as if the situation had never occurred. As if it washed away like the blood left on the sand, into the cyan sea, whisked into nothingness.

JJ would choose pain and the suffering from his father if it meant he could still see John b. And John b would never tell a soul anything if it meant he could still see JJ.

Their bond was unbreakable, like no other. It rose above the rest. And either boy would be eternally grateful for the other.

•

Somewhere during Kiara's kook academy experience; was where her emotions hit her lowest, at only 15. Rock bottom. She knew that she couldn't take back the things her and Sarah Cameron's brother had done; she had still despised Rafe at the time. She hated everything about him.

So when her best friend, Sarah Cameron, immediately cut her off like loose friendship bracelet string, Kiara resorted to the one thing she knew would make Sarah angry. To make up for all the horrible things Sarah had did.

Or all the things Sarah hadn't done. The times where she stood silently, arms crossed, while her new friends bullied Kiara so badly to the point of Kiara's wrists appearing like barcodes. Part of the reason why Kiara hated talking about how her obsession with those little bracelets stemmed.

Kiara remembers the day she got home. Just before then, the kooks she hated most had written awful things in red sharpie marker across her locker; all while Sarah had the nerve to laugh softly, almost on accident; setting Kiara to her last straw.