OUTERBANKS SEASON4

Additional Part 8: The Dinner

Hey guys! New part! I know it's not writing well, but I can't write for a while and thought I would add what I had? I may have to look over it again and fix things up. Anyway, what Ki's feeling here has to do with the Additional Part 1: Five Weeks Later... I don't know if I got that out well, but I will go through it again. Hope this just passes... wish I had more time to write but has been so hard to get anything written these days. Sending you all hugs
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"So, how's Sarah?" Ki questions, stretching her arm out to reach into the pizza box that lay open at the center of the heavy wooden dining table in the middle of the dining room. They had opted for pizza that night, after the evening hadn't turned out quite as she'd expected. Now JJ sits across from her, trying to enjoy the takeway pizza they would present as dinner, at their dinning table, with a soda by his side.

Her eyes roam over JJ curiously, her mouth curves into a smile. Though... she can't quite describe to you that something else had been happening inside her... she can't describe the unease pooling into her gut... maybe it had been partly due to the 'situation'... the one she's in, sitting across from JJ, Rafe pacing the kitchen, refusing to join them... the 'situation' she may have put upon herself, but either way she'd have to deal with. JJ was here. That was good. That was it, and she needs to be greatful.

She feigns the soundness of the situation, her placidness of having JJ over... because she's aware the atmosphere hadn't felt like that at all.

The way Rafe glances over, and stares JJ down with hardened looks, was one of the things that was setting her off... but the other- kind of baffling to her at this moment- was her stomach... how it had been reacting...?

Rafe had been pacing the kitchen, almost seemingly pretending to be unaware of Ki's disapproving looks from across the room. He rolls his shoulders, cocking his head a little to the side, assessing JJ with scathing sideway glimpses. The tension between the two was palpable, she couldn't lie... she couldn't see past the energy the two gave off being in the same room... particularly, from Rafe. JJ, she could tell, at least was trying to put on a veneer to get through.

JJ's lips roll into a curl, and he nods. His eyes travel to Rafe quickly, who is still pacing the kitchen, rubbing his hand over his mouth, almost like he'd been prepping for things incase they were to go down. When their eyes cross, Rafe trains his eyes on JJ, heaving in a deep frustrated breath, and squaring up his shoulders. He lets his breath out and shoulders come dropping down, slowly going back to pacing, digging his hands deep into his pockets. He holds JJ's gaze for a short while longer, before Rafe can feel Ki's eyes move onto him, and he lets his back turn to the pair, easily escaping her glare, finding his back to lean up against the counter, and listen in.

"Good. She's good." JJ pauses, paying attention to how Rafe listens in. "You ahhh... received her message?"

Rafe peers over his shoulders, shooting a hand up to bite his nail, other hand clasped firmly under his other arm.

Ki's smile breaks into a sure grin. She sits back in her chair, relaxing her shoulders down into the chair, releasing a sigh. "Yeah..." she says sweetly. "About Cleo? Arriving tonight, right?" she adds. Her tone is sweet like honey, and it pulls JJ's attention back to her from Rafe... eyes transfixed for a moment, studying her face intently. He nods, pulling his gaze away and back on his food... ignoring what her voice did to him... or how it ignited something in his chest... just a little, anyway... his chest tightens. He picks up another slice, engulfing it practically in a go, and sculls some soda down with it to help bring it down- pushing himself on- his mind needs to let go- move on. "She invited me to grab food with them... at some restaurant... Surfside, I think?" she continues. She pauses, pink spills her cheeks as she thinks on it. "I can't wait, you know, to see them again. I can't tell you how much I miss them." Her expression painted with joy, radiated her cheeks with color for a short while.