A LITTLE LUXURY // Outer Banks // JJ

Easy Pickings

"She sits on the shoreline sand,

blissful and free,

yet wishes for more."

-me

----

"An where in the fuck have you been?" I was greeted by the charming voice of my brother as I walked in the door. He was in our quaint little kitchen shuffling around the cupboards, not even giving me half a glance as I came in through the door.

"At work".

"Whatever" he shrugged.

I shook my head, immediately deciding to book it to my room. He wasn't in a good mood.

"Hey Ti!"

I paused in front of my room door. "What".

"There's some guys comin over in a little. Be out of here by then".

"Where the hell am I supposed to go".

"I don't fucking care".

"You can't just kick me out, whenever you have one of your little drug deals! I live here too!"

"Look they're bad men, I don't wan't you around them, just fuckin go stay at a friend's or something tonight".

"Fine. Whatever. I'm sick of your shit anyw-" I yelped as  Barry punched the cabinet behind him in a show of force.

"Don't fuckin sass me when I'm just doin what I gotta do to make rent! You think its easy, takin care of you?"

"No one asked you to!"

"Oh yeah, what am I supposed to do, leave you up to child protective services? Like your fucking little friend John B? Who the fuck is gonna take care of you if I-" He jabbed a finger into his chest dramatically, "If I don't, huh?". 

I gulped, looking away. For a moment I didn't break the tense silence because he wasn't really wrong. 

One look into his red-rimmed eyes though, and I knew why he was being so edgy. I may have smoked a tiny bit with JJ, but my brother had partaken in a different form of addiction- a much more serious one, unfortunately.

"You're high" I whispered, turning away and finally making it to my room.

Best believe I would be out of here by the time his "friends" made it. I'd just come back to change before going back out for the kegger Kie and the boys had planned in our effort to "lay low and act normal".

I slipped off my work uniform since I was still wearing it and threw on jean cutoffs and an oversized white tee, tying it in knot. I was already wearing my usual jewelry, a gold cowrie shell necklace and a few stacked bracelets, but I put on some gold hoop earrings to complete my look and was off before my brother could say another word.

"Well who is that", JJ was walking out of his house at the same time I was, dramatically giving me an up and down appraisal, "lovely ladyyy". 

I laughed. Trust JJ to cheer me up when I was in a questionable mood.

--

Before we knew it the party was in full swing. Even some of the kooks had started to arrive, which is how you know its a good pogue party, because even they wanted in.

I'd lost JJ to a cute tourist with long blonde hair after he'd said something about "easy pickings", and I was having a few beers with Kie. We'd been having fun laughing at some of the kooks, playing our favorite drinking game.

"Alright, alright, Kie, focus. Remember, drink whenever you see a kook do something kooky", I giggled, taking a generous swig.

"What? What'd you see?" She looked behind her, looking for the kook I'd taken a drink for.

"Oops! That was just me drinking!" 

We both burst into a fit of laughter.

"Some kook probably did a kooky thing somewhere", I added, still laughing.

"Well that hurts" a deeper voice made us face the two boys approaching. They were clearly kooks, their attire and general demeanor immediately gave them away.

"Hey Josh" Kie clearly knew him, and although she didn't seem like she hated his guts it didn't seem like she particularly liked him either. "Hello Kiara", he looked at me, no doubt waiting for my name but went on unfazed when neither of us offered it. "This is my cousin Cam, he's visiting and staying with my family for the summer".

"Hi Cam!", I'm not sure if she meant it, but Kie's tone came off majorly sarcastic. I think she found it hard to hide the fact that she didn't care one bit.

The cousin was kind of cute though. 

"Nice to meet you, Josh and Cam", I decided to save Kie from her misery a bit. "Where you visiting from, then?"

"California? You been?"

Huh. He had the  golden skin, surfer boy look you'd expect from someone visiting from California.

"Can't say I have, no".

In JJ's own words,

easy pickings.

--

It wasn't long before somehow I'd had a bit too much to drink. I'd ended up draped over Josh's cousin's shoulder, and honestly I'd been having good time.

"So, you were making fun of us before with your friend, huh?"

I let go of his arm, spinning around in the sand. "Nothing against you personally" I drawled, lifting a finger to his chest. "You just look very... kooky".

He smiled, but before he could respond, there was another arm around my shoulder, pulling me away. "Ti, what the fuck are you doing, let's go".

"JJ, leave me alone, I'm having fuuuun".

"With him? Seriously?"

"I can have fun with whoever I want to" I avoided his eye contact, swaying a bit. "You do! Why can't I?"

"What are you talking about Ti? He's a kook!"

"Oh yeah? Wheres Sadie?"

"Sadie?" He was exasperated with me at this point, trying to pull me away. 

"You don't even know her name" I giggled. "That's baaaad JJ" I pushed him away. "Your little tourist girl, go find her and leave me alone, I was having fun with... Cam".

"Fine". He sounded a bit hurt and for a moment I regretted it. 

Maybe I shouldn't have been hanging out with kooks anyways.

But before I could change my mind, he was gone.