Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
HOPELESSLY DEVOTED
an outer banks story
by -spacecadet
CHAPTER ONE: FRIEND ZONE
No one tells you how hard it is to be in love with your best friend. Especially when your best friend is JJ Maybank.
Campbell remembered the day they met like the back of her hand: she was new to the island, an orphan sent to live with her grandparents in the Outer Banks. Her first day at Kildare County Elementary School, dropped plum in the middle of fourth grade. Her new teacher sat her next to a blond-haired boy with eyes like the ocean, eyes that always were focused out of the window, worlds away from the multiplication problems written on the whiteboard.
"Hi," she said, smiling. "I'm Campbell. I'm new."
If they were going to be table partners, it was imperative that they were on good terms. That much Campbell knew.
His eyes trailed over slowly, widening slightly, as if just registering the girl beside him. His eyes locked on her brown curls, her green eyes, the confident tilt of her grin.
"I'm JJ."
"Cam, are you even listening to me?"
The irritated tenor of JJ's voice brought Campbell out of her daydream, and her eyes locked on JJ as he paced back and forth on his front porch. Campbell was sitting in the rickety old porch swing, listening to him rant about something. He'd gone off course so long ago that she wasn't even sure what he was mad about anymore.
"Of course I am," she replied, forcing a quick smile.
He chuckled and shook his head, kicking an empty beer can off of the porch. "No you're not."
