stevie | outer banks | JJxOC

55- good night Stevie

Not much was able to soothe her. The last thing she wanted was to hurt JJ, she had promised she wouldn't, she kept trying to remind herself that this was for the better. It would keep both of them from hurting each other too much. But it didn't help soothe her. JJ had made her happiest. But she knew he could take that away and leave her cold. So she took the chance away from him.

Stevie stayed on the floor of her room till the pain subsided, till her cheeks lost their redness and her tears dried.

She got up to go outside and tell them she was going off to bed, no longer in the mood to toast marshmallows by their small fire, but as she neared the group she noticed them all stood on edge.

Part of her worried that they had heard her argument, but it was made apparent it was something else when she heard the same rustling from the bush that had gotten them nervous.

"Is someone there?" She asked the Pogues, trying not to look at JJ but she was unsuccessful. His eyes were magnetic.

His head snapped around the second he heard her voice, unable to keep himself away from her. Despite everything she had said and the way he argued back at her, his heart still wanted her. She could hate him, she did hate him, and he would still love her.

To him, she was like a spec of fairy dust, a small drop of sunlight, she was something special that most people couldn't see. But he saw it and was mesmerised. He hated that he couldn't write her poetry or draw her beautiful portraits and most of the time his words failed him. But his eyes would always tell her how much he loved her. And she could see it when they got stuck in eye contact.

It was probably a few seconds, but she stayed looking at his eyes from a distance. It wasn't awkward at all, just left a dull ache.

"How are y'all doing?" Renfield, the man that followed Limbrey emerged from the bushes with his hands as if he was surrendering as Stevie made it to the rest of the group, positioning herself alongside Kie.

"This piece of shit," Pope sighed.

"Lovely evening we're having." He continued to walk closer and closer to the group, "Look I don't hold a grudge with any of y'all, all right?" He continued to walk as he lifted his jacket and spun around to show his absence of weapons, "This can go hard, or this can go easy. You know what I'm here for," but no one replied, leaving a gap for Renfield to continue talking in, "Let me give you a demonstration, you see that swing. I got the best bow hunters in the Army Rangers with me."

"Hmmm," JJ hummed unconvinced of the threat before Renfield whistled and an arrow cut through one of the ropes of the swing before embedding into the tree.

"Now, they're out there. They'll stick you just as soon as I say so." the man threatened, getting closer and closer to Pope. JJ tried to act protectively but was reminded of the threat when Renfield whistled and an arrow lodged itself into the ground a centimetre or few away from JJ's foot. "Now, I'm not gonna give you a countdown or any bullshit like that. I'm just gonna whistle," He told Pope.

After a deep sigh, he slowly brought the key out of his pocket but he just couldn't bring himself to let go, not when so much had already been taken, "No. this key belongs to my family,"

"I'm losing my patience with you, Pope," Renfield went to whistle again but Pope gave in. There was not much else he could do. "Did the right thing, kid. Knowing when you don't have a choice is an underappreciated talent."

"I'm so sick of this shit," Pope said with sad anger, before storming off to the house. It seemed like they could never win.

When Stevie was getting ready for bed her attention was drawn to all the small things JJ had left in her room. A necklace of his sat on her chest of draws, pictures she had taken of him were stuck on her mirror, a small P4L that JJ had painted on her ceiling next to the vines she had painted. And it smelt like him, his side of their bed smelt like him. It always smelt like the sea, and weed and warm wood. Even wrapped up in her covers, it felt cold.