Sea You Soon // An Outer Banks Fanfiction

2- Black Eyes & Beer Bottles

I woke up, looking around my pitch-black room. I picked up my phone and checked the time. 4 AM. Damn, I really just slept for 12 hours. I walked out into the living room and saw JJ sitting on the couch, staring blankly at my laptop. "JJ, why are you still awake?" As I walked closer to him, in the blue light of the computer, I could see that he had a bruise forming over his right eye and his lip was busted open and bleeding slowly. "Woah, what the hell happened?" I said, crossing the room to turn on the light and sit down next to him. I lightly grabbed his chin and turned his face toward me. As I examined his face up close, I realized that it looked a lot worse than it had from across the room.

JJ pulled away and moved to the other side of the couch, "You and I both know that you already know the answer to that question." He looked down at his lap, refusing to make eye contact with me.

"Why did you go back to your dad's house? There's a reason that you're staying here with me," I said, giving him a concerned look.

"I was going to go get us food because I knew you'd be starving when you woke up, but I couldn't find any money, so I went home to get some. I know where my dad keeps his, but he wasn't sleeping like I thought he was, and he caught me. And then this happened," JJ said, waving his hand over his face.

"What the hell, JJ? I told you not to go back home, especially if you don't tell me about it first. Also, you know where I keep my money. It's in the little drawer in my jewelry box."

JJ sighed, "Yeah, I know, but you were sleeping and I didn't want to wake you."

I rolled my eyes and laughed dryly as I stood up to go into the kitchen. "You need to put some ice on that eye and clean up your lip," I said matter-of-factly.

"I don't need you to take care of me, Paisley. I'm a big boy, I can handle myself. There's some pizza on the counter if you want some."

"Clearly you can't handle yourself," I said, peeking around the wall to give him a stern look.

"Haha very funny," JJ said sarcastically, a slight smirk crossing his face.

In the kitchen, I grabbed some ice and put it in a plastic bag. Then I grabbed a roll of paper towels and a glass of water and walked back into the living room. I set everything down on a side table next to three empty beer cans and walked into the bathroom to grab the bottle of hydrogen peroxide from the cabinet under the sink. When I came back into the living room, JJ took one look at me, jumped up from the couch, and shouted, "There's no way in hell I'm letting you come near me with that shit. It burns."

"Get over yourself, asshole. I'm assuming you don't want to get an infection," I threatened, grabbing JJ's wrist and forcing him to sit back down. I took the bag of ice and wrapped it in a couple of paper towels, handing it to JJ. "Here, hold this on your eye. We need to try to get that swelling down."

"Sure thing, doc," JJ replied, glaring at me.

I wet another paper towel with water and turned toward him. "We need to clean all that blood off your face, do you want to do it, or do you want me to?" I questioned.

"You can do it, just hurry up," JJ said, annoyed.

I started cleaning his face, and JJ swatted at my hand. "Shit Paisley, that hurts. Why don't you try being a little more gentle, huh?"

"How much more gentle do you need me to be? I'm barely touching your face," I snapped.

After I had cleaned all the blood off of his face, JJ quickly pleaded, "Please none of that hydrochloric acid carbon monoxide shit. My face already hurts like hell, and that's going to make it worse."

I sighed, standing up to throw away the bloody paper towels and said, "Whatever, just don't come complaining to me when your dumb ass gets an infection." I guess you can't argue with stupid.

"Hey, would you grab me a beer while you're in there?" JJ asked.

I rolled my eyes. Let me guess, his 12th one today? I got a couple slices of pizza, grabbed two beers from the fridge, and plopped down on the couch next to JJ. I handed him both of the beers and said, "Can you open this for me?"

He wrinkled his forehead, "Pais, you can't drink that shit. John B would kill me if I let you."

I looked around the living room dramatically and replied, "I don't know if I missed something, but I'm pretty sure John B isn't here, buddy."

"Paisley, I'm serious. I'm just trying to look out for you, okay? I don't want you going down the same road as me." He got up and went into the kitchen. He came back holding a can of root beer. "Here, this is the only kind of beer you can have," JJ laughed, handing me the can. He snatched the can back and said, "Sorry, you probably need me to open this for you too, right?" He smiled.

"I literally can't stand you," I hissed, ripping the can out of his hands. He opened his beer and picked my laptop up off the floor.

"Have I shown you this yet, Pais?" JJ asked.

"Shown me what?" I replied, sliding closer to him. I craned my neck to see the screen, my chin almost resting on his bare shoulder. He gave me a weird look and pushed the computer over to my lap.

"Look at this," JJ commanded.

"Okay, what exactly am I supposed to be looking at?" I said mockingly.

"It's a bunch of news feeds from the Bahamas. Look, right here is where they report about shipwrecks." JJ pointed to the top right corner of the screen.

"JJ, how long have you been looking at all of this stuff?"

"Since John B and Sarah went missing."

"Oh wow. Well, let me know if you ever see anything that could help us," I said, patting his leg firmly.

I looked to the bottom right corner of the laptop screen and saw that is was 6:07. I have to be at work in 6 hours. "JJ, I'm going to go back to bed, okay?"

"Damn girl, how much sleep do you need?" he joked.

"Mind your own business," I said, flipping him off and turning around. "If I'm not up by 11, will you please come get me? I have the be at The Wreck at 12 for my shift."

"Why don't you just say in here so I don't forget to wake you up," JJ suggested, grabbing a blanket and throwing it at me.

"Okay," I said, moving the laptop down onto the floor. I laid down on the couch with my head in JJ's lap.

"You're lucky I like you, Paisley Jo," he said, warning in his voice. JJ reached for the TV remote. "Is it okay if I watch something?"

"That's fine," I muttered, already falling back asleep.