Impact Zone (JJ Outerbanks)

11. Moving Along

After me and Jamie's fight at the beach, Luke and I went home without a word being said. I'm not proud of what happened. More so not proud that I didn't even get a good punch in. I went to the kitchen to grab something to drink. 

"Hey kid, what's going on?" Dad asks. 

"Guess who's in town," I say, grabbing a coke from the fridge. 

"Um... Justin Beiber?" He says. I try to hide my smile. 

"Jamie Reed." 

"You're kidding! Here?" Dad says. Giving me his full attention. I nod. 

"I'm sorry you have to deal with that, honey," Dad says, pulling me in for a hug. I spot Luke popping his head in from around the corner. 

"Dogpile?" He says. Oh no. Luke runs up and tackles us onto the ground as we all laugh. 

After our hug fest, I went out on the deck to hang in the hammock trying to gather my thoughts. 

"Hey, I need to talk to you about something." Luke comes in, sitting next to me in the hammock. 

"Let me guess, you're going back to Australia," I say, I wasn't being serious. Luke stayed silent. "Wait, are you really?" I sat up facing him. 

"I'm gonna go back in three days. Calum has an apartment for us to both crash at." He says. "I'm sorry, Kodi." 

"No no, don't be. You deserve to go back and live your life. Get crazy famous with the band." I smile. "But for the next few days, you better spend every moment with me." 

"That was the plan." Luke smiled, messing up my hair. "You're so clingy, you know that? Like a koala bear." I just laughed as he grabbed onto me like a koala bear. I am not clingy. 

I want to cry. My brother and dad were the only ones I really had. I've always had Luke in my life. Always. I feel selfish for wanting him to stay. If I were him to I would go back. 

After a while, Luke left to go finish his song. I needed to go somewhere else. Who could I go to right now? I know.

So I ran. I ran as fast as I could. All the way to the wreck where Kie stood whipping down the counter. 

"Kodi? What are you doing here?" Kie says as she saw me. I ran up and hugged her as hard as I could. She was taken aback but soon returned the hug. 

I waited in one of the booths with a hot chocolate Kie made, 'with love', until she got off work. I didn't have to wait long but it was nice to have some time to process everything that happened. Once Kie was off she came over to get me. She grabbed my hand and began to pull me towards her car. 

"Where are we going?" I asked. 

"It's a surprise." Kie turned to me smiling. Turns out that surprise was JJ's house. Kie told me to stay in the car as she got out to meet JJ who was mowing the lawn. I had the window slightly cracked so I could eavesdrop. Damn, I'm sneaky. 

"JJ, can I have some weed?" Kie asked. 

"Oh yeah, as long as I can smoke it with you. Where we goin'?" As he headed towards the car. Kie pulled him back. 

"It's a mandatory girl thing. Sorry JJ." She said. JJ looked as if he was about to fight with her about it but gave up. Kie then came back to the car with a handful of joints in her hand and a grin on her face. Next destination, she took me to the chateau. 

"That's weird. John B's not here. Come on, we have the whole place to ourselves." Kie smiled as we found a comfy spot on the couch. Lighting up our first joint, we sat waiting for the first few hits to sink in. 

"What happened?" Kie asked. 

"Luke ... he is moving back to home to live with our friends." I released a breathe I was holding. The tears coming on as I started crying. "I just feel disgusted with myself for wanting him to stay. Selfish. Of course, I told him he should go. I just don't want to lose another family member." I whispered the last part.  

"Kodi, I know it must to be hard having another member of your family leave. But he's still gonna be there. Always a phone call away. He's not going away for life. And you always have us. I may not have liked you that much at first but... Kodi... your part of our family now, and we aren't going anywhere. I promise." Kie smiled. She handed me the joint. I chuckled and continued to get high while my tears lessened. 

"Thanks, Kie... for everything." 

"No problem. By the way, you totally kicked that girl's ass." She laughed. At least someone thought it was cool. 

"If Luke and John B hadn't held me back... I would've done some damage, let me tell ya," We both laughed, wheezing from the smoke in our lungs. 

"I'm gonna spend the next two days with my brother before he leaves... so I might go quiet for a bit." I started. 

"I'll watch the boys while your gone, honey, don't worry," Kie said acting like my wife. I chuckled. 

"Thanks, darling, make sure to clean the house up while I'm gone why don't you?" I played along. We both laughed our asses off. I'm glad me and Kie turned out to be friends.