Wipeout || OBX2

Everybody dies

What's something we all know but hate to admit?

Everybody dies. Everybody.

For us, we didn't think it would be our best friends. For me, I didn't think my whole world could shift so fast. It's only been one summer since I packed up my old bedroom in Australia, said goodbye to my car, my house, my pets, my friends and everything I ever knew and moved to the outer banks. I thought my world would end when I did that. I thought I'd be bored and annoyed. Everyone says the best beaches for surfing are in Australia, so I thought I was even losing one of my favourite things to do.

Everything didn't end. Like the classic teenage girl, I met a boy and fell in love. Hard, and fast. So, some might say that I'm stupid. Some might say your first love never lasts. I'm an idiot for thinking I'd marry this boy, for saying yes when he got down on one knee and asked me to. For the beautiful diamond ring on my finger I'm currently fiddling with.

But unlike the classic teenage girl, my ring was bought with money stolen from a drug dealer. A drug dealer who once held a gun to mine and my best friends heads. Two of those best friends are now gone. All because one of their dad's killed the other one's dad and then stole the gold that we spent weeks hunting down and trying to get because it was the dead dad's life mission and his son wanted to honour him. We found the gold. Real, tangible, solid bars of gold. And then it was taken from us and one of our friends accused of murder. That friend is one of the two who are now gone. He's the one who's memorial we go to and have a drink at, at least once a week to honour him and his girlfriend. John B and Sarah.

In losing them, I think the remaining four of us also lost a piece of ourselves. We haven't been the same since. I mean, how could we be.

JJ smokes even more weed and drinks more. Pope and Kiara have both gotten more distant and changed their once law-abiding behaviour. And me? Well, I do what I've always done. I sit up in my room and read. Escape. Escape everything. I find the worlds where nobody ever truly dies and I bury myself in them. Until JJ shows up with red-rimmed eyes and drags me back into our world. The real world. Since John B, it's not always as easy for me to read the emotions in JJ's eyes as it once was. Sometimes, it takes me a while to work out if the red around his eyes is from drugs or from crying. Usually, it's from a bit of both. Today, it's from crying.

"I lost my job," he sniffles as I close my book and sit up from my position in the bay window of my bedroom.

"Jayj," I say with a sigh, "what happened?"

He comes over and sits beside me, immediately leaning into me, "lost my shit at Topper and Kelce."

"They were talking about John B," it's not really a question, since I know the answer.

"Yep. About how it should have been expected coz he was a pogue," he responds, propping his leg up and running his fingers over the tattoo on his ankle.

He did it about a week ago. Got his hands on a tattoo gun and drew P4L on his ankle while he was high. It's shaky and inexperienced, but I know he doesn't care. It doesn't matter how it looks to him. It's about what it stands for. Who it's for.

I don't bother to chastise him about his job. Really, I can't blame him. After all, I'm the one who fractured her knuckle on Rafe Cameron's face a few weeks ago out of spite and hatred. And I don't regret it either.

I simply pull my fiance into a hug and we stay like that in the window for probably half an hour before my Mum comes up to tell us it's time for dinner.

It took her a week to say anything about the ring on my finger, but when I told her about the proposal she just said it's my life and my choice. She loves JJ like her own son so I guess she wants it to work out so she doesn't have to lose him. Kiara and Pope were shocked at first, but Pope was pretty quick to accept it. Kie, not so much. I know JJ is upset she doesn't approve but I was expecting that.

School starts tomorrow. As if the first day at a new school isn't bad enough. Now I'm at a new school in a new country, with a new curriculum and totally different school year. And I'm going back as one of John B's friends, who everyone thinks is a dead murderer.

I refuse to believe John B is dead if I'm honest. The pogues and I kind of avoid the topic of conversation most of the time because it's too painful, but I refuse to believe that he's really dead. It's too easy for Ward and Rafe. Plus, John B wouldn't believe it. He never truly believed his Dad was dead.

"He's not dead until I see a body," he once said, and now I find myself thinking the same thing.

I think my refusal comforts JJ a little, but at the same time there's nothing we can really do about it. What are we gonna do? Drain the ocean looking for the bodies? Not exactly possible. We just have to go about our lives and either wait for them to turn up or for... well for their bodies to.

So go about our lives is what we do. Just with a little extra weed and alcohol so the world doesn't seem so painful.

A little extra alcohol is exactly what JJ does. The two of us pick up Pope and Kiara and arrive at school in my jeep. JJ takes a huge swig out of the flask he filled up this morning before grabbing his bag as we get out, right as the bell is ringing. We thought by showing up right before the bell we might avoid some of the stares and attention that we will no doubt be getting. It doesn't work, obviously.

"Hey, chill out, okay?" Kiara tells JJ.

"If I black out just don't remind me," JJ responds.

"Not funny, J," I say, but don't bother to press him on the topic. We've already fought about the drugs and alcohol multiple times in the past couple weeks, mainly because I'm worried about him.

We walk up the path, drawn toward the memorial for John B that some of the other students have set up out the front. Everyone is talking about us, whispering about the fact that we were game enough to show up or conspiring about all the shit that went down and whether we had anything to do with it.

"I feel like people are staring at us," Kiara says.

"That's because they are," I point out, slipping my hand in JJ's.

His fingers brush across my ring finger, feeling for the ring that isn't there. Not to sound egotistical but I'm pretty sure I'm the only thing keeping him sane at the moment. Or from taking his surfboard out into the ocean and just not coming back.

"Guys I can't be late," Pope says, back to his original scholarly self, as he brushes off the stairs and heads for the school.

"Hey! Wait! We gotta stick together," Kie says, reaching for him. They lock hands, causing JJ and I to share a glance of surprise, even though we know there's something going on there. Nothing much has come of their kiss since that fated night, though. At least, not that we know of.

JJ and pick up the pace to catch up, JJ mumbling about sticking together and Kie loops her arm through his elbow and the four of us start the march into what is bound to be a truly awful day.

Welcome to the first chapter of my OBX2 book. Bianca and the pogues are back by popular demand (very thankful for how many people requested I continue. I do this for you).