𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐒; JJ Maybank

eight

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During most of my time in Outer Banks I either went out with Kie or my mom but for the first time since I got here I was getting out of the house for a long period of time without either of them. I felt nervous or terrified, I can't make out which one fits better with how I'm feeling right now.

Topper didn't wait long to text me and that same night we started talking. He was cool I guess, didn't seem as psychotic as that day during the party so that's good. Sometime during our conversation he invited me to some kook's party and I accepted. Two minutes after accepting his invitation, I regretted it. I mean, what was I thinking? I'm going to a party full of people I don't know with a guy that I barely knew. I tried to convince Kie to come with me but she refused to go to a kook party.

And that's where we are now... I'm sitting in Topper's car and there's an awkward silence between us.

"So.. who's party is it?" I asked trying to break the silence. I'm shy but if there's something that bothers me more than social interaction is awkward silence moments like the one we were on.

"Kelce's. You met him at the party two weeks ago." He answered looking at me for a few seconds.

"I remember him. Is it a big party or..?" I asked looking out of the window and seeing the modern houses that we were passing by. Nothing like the houses in the cut.
"I think it's just mainly a few people from our class. Shouldn't be more than fifty people." He said like it was nothing. For them it might be nothing but for my socially awkward self it was a lot.

"Cool" I said looking at him with a half smile.

We entered the party and immediately I was met with the smell of weed. I had tried weed but only did it in party environments with people that I trusted so I wasn't about to smoke with these guys.

Topper introduced me to some of his friends and handed me a cup filled with tequilla. I sipped it slowly not wanting to get wasted with people whose names I didn't even know. We sat down in a more chill area where not a lot of people walked through and talked for hours. He seemed to be a good person with some unresolved issues.

"I don't know if they told you about what happened last summer but it really made me change my prespective in life." He started. He was already pretty drunk and I was starting to worry as to how we were going to get home. " I thought Sarah was the love of my life and even when she got together with John B I thought that one day she would realize that I was the one for her and now... now she might be dead and I didn't even have time to say that I loved her one last time." He said and I saw a tear fall off of his face.

I hated to see people cry so I just grabbed his hand and squeezed it to give him some comfort. He put his head on my shoulder and after a few minutes in silence, I noticed that he had fallen asleep.

I didn't know what to do and I wasn't about to sleep in this house so I called Kie to come and pick me up. Unfortunately, she was caught up in something so she had to ask Pope or JJ to do it instead of her.
After around half an hour of waiting with Topper's head still on my shoulder, I got a call from an unsaved number.

"Hey" I said as soon as I answered.

"Hey it's JJ. I'm outside" He replied.

"I have a little problem... Topper is with me and he fell asleep on my shoulder." I stated afraid of his reaction.

"For fuck's sake. Where exactly are you?" He asked while I heard him opening the car door.

"We are sitting in a couch in the room next to the kitchen. There's no one else here. I think it's easy to find it." I replied while I tried to shake Topper and wake him up.

"Alright, stay there. I'll be there in a second." He responded right before hanging up.

I was able to wake up Topper but he was so drunk that he could barely stand up.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." JJ said once he got to us. He put one of Topper's arms around him and dragged him out of the house. "what were you doing hanging out with these guys?" He asked with a visible frown.

"Topper asked me out and I said yes." I said like it wasn't a big deal.

"So now you hang out with kooks." He said seeming mad. "Thought you were better than that."

I didn't understand his reaction. I mean, I knew about the whole Pogues versus Kooks thing but I thought it wasn't that serious after their little moment in the restaurant. I was mad at JJ for speaking to me the way he did so I just gave him the silence treatment. He looked at me a few times during our ride to Topper's house and seemed to understand that his words and his tone weren't the nicest.

After struggling to take Topper to his bedroom because he couldn't even remember where he left his keys. Me and JJ got back in the car so that he could take me home.

"I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you. I understand that you want to make friends but just not him." He said with the most serious tone that I had ever seen him talk.

" Well he's basically the only person who isn't scared to interact with me so I'm out of options." I said rolling my eyes at him.

"What do you mean?" He asked seeming genuinely confused.

"Everybody is scared to approach me. No one has spoken to me since I got here. I mean, two girls talked to me this week but I turned my back on them because they started talking about last summer's events like it was the juiciest gossip." I replied finally looking at him.

"They did?"

"Yes and I know that if you haven't told me it's for a good reason and I don't want to pry on any of your businesses so I shut them off." I looked at him and he was already looking at me. He smiled and mumbled a quick thanks. "Look I don't know what the deal with Topper is but he was the only person to actually talk to me besides you guys. I enjoy hanging out with you but sometimes I feel like a burden because you have so much history together and I'm just the new girl." I stated adverting my eyes from his.

"You don't have to feel like that. Our friend group was falling apart after John B disappeared." He said and quickly looked at me. " I'm sure you caught up on that part at least." He said and focused back on the road. " Since you started hanging out with us and trying to cheer us up whenever you can... we started being more open with each other. I don't know... we hadn't even been to his house since the accident and now we are able to meet up there and talk about him without breaking down. We are warming up to you and it's hard because we lost two of our friends a few months ago but you already made a big difference in our lives without even noticing." He told me and I got a little speechless.

"I.. uh.. You guys also made a big difference in my life." I confessed smiling at him.

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