Basket Case ━━━━ JJ Maybank︱✓

𝟬𝟭𝟭 the art of letting go

Maybe it had something to do with JJ Maybank and his mission to get on every single one of her nerves. Because, look, she didn't want to admit it but the grudge she held against him had turned into nothing more than an afterthought, and she wondered if maybe there was hope for her. Maybe she wasn't only composed of lies and grudges. Maybe there was more to her than just the Windsor legacy.

It wasn't like how it sounded, though. Izzy just so happened to find JJ not so appalling as the rest of the people in the Outer Banks. She looked at him and his life and she realized hers was spiraling downhill, taking her with it. They were sort of friends she guessed (she wasn't too sure though). And maybe it was because they spent the other day together, burning her old cheer uniforms, but Izzy felt the weight on her shoulders be slowly lifted. She felt freer. She missed feeling like that and she realized she would have done anything to feel that real again.

But, anyway, she didn't let herself dwell on the details too much. She was still Izzy Windsor, and her father was still the vice sitting on her shoulder, reminding her she could never truly be free. It was proven to her just how trapped she still was when she received another text from her father that morning, reminding her that she had to go over to the Camerons' estate and apologize for her behavior at the Midsummers event. (She may have thrown the awards in the trash after JJ and his friends crashed the event. Emphasis on the may have.)

Don't get her wrong, Izzy wanted nothing more than to throw her phone in the ocean and cut all ties with her father, but if she did, William would surely take away her trust fund, and then she'd be fucked. Like so fucked. She wouldn't have any money or . . . well . . . actually, that might have been the only thing she did have, so yeah, she'd be screwed without her trust fund to fall back on. That left her with no choice other than to drive to the Cameron estate and apologize to Ward and Rose for apparently being a so-called disgrace. But if she was being honest, the only reason she decided to go there so early was to see if Sarah was doing all right with John B being in the hospital. She would never admit she cared that much though.

It turned out that Topper pushed John B off some kind of lookout where the Pogues hung out, and gave him a broken arm and a concussion. Izzy wasn't surprised, honestly. The Thornton boy had always been a major asshole, and now with Rafe fueling his every decision, there was no doubt that he'd do something as harmful as nearly killing someone. (Yeah . . . she definitely held a grudge against him and who could blame her?)

So around noon, Izzy pulled into the driveway of the Cameron estate and slid out of her car, walking to the front entrance with her Birkenstocks flopping on the ground. She wore a blue lettuce-edge single button cardigan paired with a blue mini skirt that sat high on her waist. Her signature Chanel sunglasses rested on top of her head to tie her look together. Obviously, she liked fashion. Sue her. She was so tired of people shitting on women for liking feminine things. Society would always find something wrong with her no matter what she did anyway. She was tired of it, so, so what? Fashion gave her a sense of confidence to go throughout her days. And she figured she'd need an extra push to face the Camerons that day. Plus, the color blue was said to have soothing properties, and for fuck's sake, Izzy Windsor needed all the help she could get to stop herself from setting the world on fire.

Izzy brushed off imaginary dirt from her skirt and rounded the corner onto the patio. She really wished she had poured herself some tea before she came (she despised coffee), but it was too late now. She glanced up from her skirt and was about to head for the front door when she caught sight of a figure sitting across the patio where the seating area was located. Her brows furrowed as she took a step forward and tried to make out who was lying on the ground. She blinked once more, her eyes adjusting enough for her to identify the figure as her boyfriend, Rafe Cameron.