✓ 𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐑, 𝘫. 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘬 ¹

EXTRA THREE.

extra chapter three
"the after"

———

brief summary: in sum of me being completely impatient for the new season to come out, i just want to write a chapter on (what i think could potentially happen) to the remaining pogues. (edit — this is NOT canon, just purely au)

"EVELYNN, WILL YOU GET THOSE damn salads out already!?"

Lynn let a loud sigh fall from her lips, clasping her eyes shut while she simply took a moment to herself. Days were blended together at this point, it had all bee so cloudy since the day she lost John B and Sarah Cameron. School went by in a drag, work shifts seemed even slower, and life as she knew it was even greyer. It had been almost three months since she lost two of her best friends due to the nasty storm that hit the Outer Banks.

Currently, she was working her part-time job at the restaurant JJ originally gotten her hired at, but work was bland and boring without the boy.

And it had been for quite awhile.

"Yeah, Benny, I'll get them out in a second, alright?" Lynn grunted out while adjusting the black waitress tray she once had pinched in between her arm and leg but was nw full of those salads that needed to get out to table four.

Lynn brushed a strand of her blonde hair while she sighed just the same as before, slowly forcing a smile onto her face as she guided her way with ease towards the table of a small family — father, mother, one little girl and then a boy who only looked slightly older than the girl. Once she passed out the food to each individual, greeted the children with the restaurants coloring pages and crayons, she made her way back to the kitchen.

"I'm taking a smoke break," Lynn stated with no absolute care in the world, glancing at Benny merely for a second before fishing out a pack of half crushed cigarettes that had been tucked in her jacket pocket.

"Those'll kill ya, y'know," Benny spoke up, and Lynn's eyes flickered over towards the man will a slightly annoyed glance, mostly because he seemed to be digging in her life.

"Does it look like I give a shit?"

Benny didn't say anything else, probably because he knew it would be no use. There was no talking to Lynn, no getting her to open up about her quite obvious problems. If people thought she had a brick wall built up to keep people out before, she now had the Great Wall of China surrounding her heart.

She refused to let anyone get close like she allowed John B or Sarah, she couldn't take another lost — she wasn't sure if she'd survive it.

So, that's why she told Kie that she was quitting The Wreck, that's why she told Pope she would no longer be his surfer buddy on Tuesday's, and that's why she told JJ that they weren't meant to be together.

It shattered her damn heart to see the glossy eyes and lip curling from JJ the moment she officially broke up with him, because she was utterly and completely consumed in love with the boy. He made her happy, even with all the darkness that had been clouding her, towering over her with rains of sadness and anxiety.

But she knew that there was some chance, some chance somehow and at some point, that she would lose JJ, and she wasn't going to risk that. So, if you take a piece off the board altogether, you don't have to worry about what could come.

Lynn pushed open the door to the back where the restaurant usually got their supplies, and took a seat on an old carton box of plastic while she hooked her fingers around her lighter. Swiftly, she pinked up a cigarette and light it up, placing it smoothly between her pink lips as she inhaled.