Troubled Water » Outer Banks [JJ Maybank] BOOK TWO

III: Afloat

afloat
adj. of a vessel that is floating freely.

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August 21, 2020

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Not Delivered

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Lee harrumphed as she flopped into the passenger seat of Danny's car after his swim practice was done. Her own overthinking had exhausted her.

"Thinking about something?" Danny asked, pushing the button to start his car. Danny's car was older than Lee had expected it to be, given his wealth—a 2014, she thought, and just a Toyota RAV4. Nothing super fancy, but nice enough. Nicer than her mom's old Camry.

Leaning so that her head was pressed against the glass of the passenger-side window, Lee muttered, "What gave it away?"

Danny laughed. "What about?"

"Nothing, really," Lee said, perhaps too quickly, but Danny was too distracted by trying to back out of his parking spot to notice. "I don't get your mom's fascination with shipwrecks," she stated, trying to stay casual. She opened her phone, pretending to be only half-interested in the response by looking at Instagram. She'd created a new account after the move, naming herself only Lena and making the profile picture a single, monotone color, so that she would be hard to identify. Since moving to Charleston, she'd gained 142 followers. Pretty impressive, if she had to say so herself.

Danny sighed as he pondered Lee's question. "We have some ancestor that was captain of a boat that went down somewhere in the Atlantic. I can never remember the name of the boat, you'd have to ask my mom, but I think she's obsessed with learning about it. They never found the ship or something, and I think there was, like, treasure on board when the ship went down." He chuckled as he finished the explanation. "It sounds crazy when I say that. Treasures, shipwrecks. My mom totally believes it though."

Lee forced a laugh, as though she found the notion of treasures and shipwrecks just as absurd as Danny did. "Weird."

"Yeah," Danny agreed, "I'm surprised she didn't ask you more about that friend of yours that was obsessed with that shipwreck. What was his name? Johnny?"

"John B," Lee corrected, setting her phone in her lap and beginning to inspect her fingernails. "I'll count myself lucky that I haven't faced her interrogation on the matter thus far."

Danny nodded, tapping his fingers to the beat of the Mac Miller song playing softly over the radio. "You should. In other news, how are you feeling about swim tryouts next week?"

Lee let out a loud groan and pretended to slide down in the seat—as far as her seat belt would allow, at least. "I'm nervous. I've never been nervous about swimming before. I don't know why I'm so nervous."

"Don't be nervous, it'll be totally chill," Danny said, reaching out and placing a comforting hand on Lee's thigh. She froze at his touch, though he didn't seem to notice as he squeezed her thigh once before moving his hand to ruffle her hair.

Impulsively, Lee batted Danny's hand away from her hair—that was JJ's move. JJ was the only one allowed to ruffle her hair (even though she always pushed him away and told him to quit).

Danny let out a surprised laugh as Lee straightened her hair. "You good, Lena?"

Lee nodded quickly. "Yeah, yeah, sorry," she apologized. "Just... instinct."

They left it at that and returned to Danny asking questions about swim tryouts and Lee giving half-assed answers.

Everything seemed to be just a little too much for Lee these days. When she had moved to Charleston, she'd drawn a firm line between her past and her present. In the past few weeks, however, that line had been revealed to be nothing more than a drawing in the sand. It was washed away by the tide, as it came in and out each day. Every question about her past blurred it farther, every lie seemed to only dirty the waters.