— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
"Please, just...don't walk out on me right now."
- JJ Maybank
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
[present day]
This day falls into JJ's top ten worst days ever.
After he left Barry's, he went home, which was his third mistake of the day. His first mistake was taking the money from Barry.
But he won't actually regret that one for another four days.
His second mistake was "breaking up" with Abigail. He didn't want to do it, it physically pained him to do it. He hated seeing her so upset, and he hated even more that he was causing it. But he got in his own head, he thought he had no other choice.
It was ridiculous, because they spent the morning on the hammock together, talking about how happy they were and how she didn't wanna jinx it. Less than six hours later, he destroyed all of that. Because he once again convinced himself that she was wrong about him, that he's going to drag her down, hurt her somehow. He knew his friends were right, stealing the money from Barry was basically guaranteeing retaliation, and he didn't want her caught in the crossfire.
[Too bad she will be anyway. ;)]
He knew exactly what to say to get her to back off, to get her to leave him alone. And he said all of it, because he needed to be sure she didn't follow him. That she didn't continue to fight for him. And it killed him when he got exactly what he wanted. When he walked away, and she didn't follow after him.
He knew he fucked up the second he walked away from her, but he had to do it. He cried most of the way to his house, struggling to calm down.
Even when he got home, he was greeted by his unpleasant father, until he told him about the money. For the first time in JJ's entire life, a look of pride crossed over Luke Maybank's face. And for a moment, JJ thought it was all worth it, just to see that reaction.
But, that moment lasted less than two minutes.
Luke wasn't planning on using the money to pay his restitution. He was gonna gamble it. So, JJ tried to steal the money back, which resulted in another beating.
This time, though, JJ hit him back. Hard.
And once his dad was lying on the grass, too stunned and weak to move, JJ got up, took the money and walked out of the house.
JJ started walking through the cut, his first idea was to go see Abby, because that was his safe place. That's where he went when these things happened. But, then he remembered he couldn't do that anymore. And, fuck, that hurt just as bad as walking away from her did.
YOU ARE READING
In the Dark ~ j.m¹
RomanceAfter being abandoned by his mother at a young age, left to deal with his abusive father, JJ Maybank feels like he was stranded out at sea during a terrible storm, fighting to make it through each day. Even though he meets the Pogues at a young age...
