BAD HABITS || OUTER BANKS

04: Milwaukee beverage ✩

From the other side of the beach the pogues stood in a group with the tourons all of them laughing and playing various drinking games. John B was the first to notice when JJ's attention moved off the game they'd been playing, and it took him about 10 seconds to figure out why.

"Bro seriously?" John B asked, finally getting JJ's attention. JJ looked at him with a clueless expression only making John B smack him in the back of the head. "You're staring at Emerson... again."

JJ forced out a laugh, "No I wasn't," he claimed.

"You totally were," Pope laughed, moving to stand in between JJ and John B.

"No I..." JJ started to say as he turned his head back in Emerson's direction. It was clear the girl already had a couple drinks in her since Kelce had to grab her hand to keep her from falling as she laughed at something. JJ noticed the way her eyes lit up and how the smile on her face somehow made him smile too even from the other side of the beach. "...wasn't," he finished making John B and Pope laugh. JJ looked back at his friends, immediately realizing the mistake he'd made. "Oh shut up."

"Funny how you can get any girl but the one you actually want," Pope laughed, giving John B a quick high five. "I guess karma really is a bitch."

"Hey, if I wanted her she'd already be mine," JJ said in his usual cocky tone.

"Please. We all know she only hooks up with kooks," Pope said.

"That and she's on the path to marry Rafe Cameron," John B added smiling when JJ rolled his eyes.

"She may end up with a kook but I know for a fact she doesn't only hook up with kooks," JJ claimed.

"Oh right, we can't forget the time you guys almost hooked up, if that actually happened," John B remembered.

"It did almost happen," JJ claimed, even though John B and Pope didn't believe him, despite the fact that JJ would bring up his and Emerson's almost hook up whenever he could.

"Then prove it," John B suggested. "If she likes you as much as you say she does then prove it. Prove she likes you."

"All right," JJ told them.

"Now's your chance," Pope said as he pointed over to Emerson who had moved away from the group of kooks to get another drink.

"All right. I'm going in," he said before walking over to the keg. "Hey," JJ said as he moved to stand directly behind Emerson. She let out a quiet sigh but didn't say anything back to him, she just continued to fill up her cup. "You're ignoring me," JJ observed.

"I'm trying to," Emerson told him, still keeping her back to him.

"Don't ignore me princess," JJ said with a smirk on his face, not that Emerson could see it since she still had her back to him. 

Emerson knew she was being stupid. She couldn't keep doing this. She can't be the girl that does random hookups anymore. She can't be the girl that does random hookups anymore.

"Or what?" she asked him, still not turning around. Emerson could feel those drinks and she knew they were in control right now. She immediately regretted walking away from Topper and Kelce because she knew they'd never let her talk to JJ for this long.

Emerson and JJ often found themselves in conversations similar to these ones. It originally out with a few flirty glances but slowly it grew into more and now it was almost like a game between the two of them to see who would break first. Emerson had no intention of taking their flirting any further but the world had other plans for her.

She hadn't planned on feeling JJ's lips against her own and she definitely hadn't planned on liking it. In the end she chalked it up to a combination of too much alcohol and a lack of good judgement. Of course she never told anyone about the incident, knowing it would be detrimental to her families' reputation and her own image. Emerson Rhodes was not the kind of girl who would actually hook up with a pogue, especially not JJ Maybank. But the alcohol had other plans for her.