Paradise

Chaper 1.

I sneak in my back door with my duffel bag hoping my father is passed out on the sofa after his shift, to my luck he was. I creep into my bedroom and grab some new clothes to take with me to JB's. With the supposed anniversary of my mother's departure approaching I did not want to be within in a 100 feet of my father.

I went to sneak out of the back door when I peaked to the sofa finding it empty. I jumped when I heard the fridge door slam shut, and the sound of a beer can being cracked open.

"There she is little miss perfect! What you think you can spend all your time runnin around the south side? You're suppose to be here cleanin this damn mess up." My father slurred towards me.

Might I add it wasn't my mess in the first place.

"I've been staying at a friends I figured you'd want you're space, you know some alone time with your drugs." I accidentally let that last part slip past, and now to nobody's surprise I knew what came next.

A hard fist hit my right cheek completely knocking me into the table. With that my dad all but shoved me out the door.

Ah home sweet home.

••••

I started my walk over to John B's hoping my cheek didn't swell fast so that I could sneak in the bathroom to apply some makeup.

I enter to find pope and John sitting at the table with a deck of cards playing some game. I set my bag down by the door and shouted a quick hello as I headed for the bathroom.

"Hey Ann, where ya been?" pope asked me as I came back out into the kitchen.

"Finished my shift at the Wreck and stopped at home for some more clothes" I answered.

We sat and chatted for a while. Kie came after she finished work, and we all decided to sleep over. John B made his way to bed and Pope ended up on the sofa that was on the porch. Just as I was about to make my way to the guest bedroom in walks JJ with some blonde he found at a party. Bye bye guest bedroom I guess, hello sofa with Kie. He gave me and Kie a half wave before getting down to business with his blonde. To know that you're 'ex' crush is you know doing it is one thing but to have to hear it is a whole other form of torture.

The next morning I'm woken up by John B saying good morning as he heads outside. As I get up to use the washroom I run into JJs guest leaving and him exiting the bathroom.

"Morning sunshine" he says in his morning voice.

"Morning, sounds like someone had lots of fun last night." I teased as his cheeks turned a little red. He laughed before his eyes fell on my cheek.

"You're cheek looks a little swollen." He commented.

I looked into the mirror acting fake shocked and confused before I just said I didn't know why. I then used the bathroom as an excuse to leave the conversation.

John B had an important meeting with DCS today and I had an early shift at the wreck so he dropped me off on the way.

Later that day it was announced that a hurricane was headed strait for the outerbanks. I was not being stuck at home with my dad for that so I left the wreck and headed straight to John B's that night only to find JJ there by himself drinking a beer at the table.

"Hey there J. What ya up to?" I asked coming in the door.

"Hey Banana. Having a beer ya want one?" He asked. Using my favourite nickname that makes my heart flutter. But I could tell something was off with him, he wasn't making his usual JJ jokes.

"Yeah please."

He tossed me a beer as I sat down across from him and opened it up. When I finally looked at him fully for the first time that night I noticed a cut above his eyebrow and a pit instantly grew in my stomach but I had no clue why.

"You stayin here tonight?" I asked.

"Yeah. Assuming you are too?"

"Yeah but since you and your little blonde friend stole the guest room from me last night I'm callin dibs on it tonight" I said as I picked up the deck of cards that pope and JB left on the table, and started dealing our cards to me and J.

"Fine I guess this one time I'll let it slide Banana." He said as he smiled down at his cards with that same shade of red finding his checks again.