Alone Together • JJ Maybank

Seven.

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The sun was hanging low in the sky as I stepped over another fallen tree on the ground. John B and JJ were carrying the keg, while I had a pack of solo cups in my hand. Kiara grabbed my arm, pulling me a little further behind the boys as they carried on walking to place the keg in the middle of the Boneyard.

"All I'm saying is, why not?" Kiara asked. She had been bugging me all afternoon since she noticed JJ staring at me.

I sighed at her questioning. "What about your no Pogue-on-Pogue macking rule?" I tried to get her to back off. Truthfully, I knew I was starting to like JJ, but I wasn't planning on acting on it. I didn't even know what I was feeling, and I had only known him a couple of weeks. My head was jumbled from moving back to the OBX, secretly trying to get to the bottom of mom's death and now somehow getting wrapped up in this sunken boat that may or may not have drug money on board.

"You don't like John B, do you?" She questioned, ignoring my comment.

I quickly turned my head to look at the girl with wide eyes. "What? No! He's like family." I said, a little too loud as I noticed the boys turn to look at us, before carrying on. She held her hands up in defeat as we both laughed it off. "Besides, you do." I nudged her, deciding to get her back at her own game.

"What? No, no. Not at all. No." She stuttered out making me laugh even more.

"Say no one more time and I might believe you." I whispered as we reached the boys. Kiara threw the tap to JJ as he narrowed his eyes at our laughing.

"Definitely talking about us." He mumbled under his breath.

It didn't take long for word of the party to spread as people actually started to show up. John B had his arm over my shoulder, introducing me to his different friends when I realized I had run out of beer. I looked towards the keg and saw JJ look away quickly, filling up the cup of a brunette girl and her friends. Looking back down at my empty cup, I thought over Kiara's words from earlier. Why not?

Almost as quickly as the confidence had come, it went again, and I found myself regretting walking over to JJ. He looked up at me as I got nearer, no escape now. A smile lit up on his face as he stood up, passing the drink to the girl without even looking at her. "Refill?" He asked, pointing towards my cup.

"Mmhmm." Was all I could say. I had spoken to JJ loads before, but with Kiara's jokes whirring through my mind I suddenly found myself nervous. "You on keg duty now?" I tried to force my brain to make a normal conversation.

"Yup." He stood up again, passing me the cup. "Had to let Pope loose on those tourons." He nodded in Pope's direction. The boy was sitting on a log talking to a girl who was not-so-subtly looking around for an escape route.

"Jeez, I think he was doing better when he was on keg duty. Poor girl looks ready to run." I laughed, watching the awkward conversation.

"He's probably talking about dead bodies and autopsies." JJ said as he looked back at me. I chuckled, looking around at the party growing by the minute. "How you finding your first Boneyard party then?"