╭ ╮
━━━━ " 📂 "
𝙏 𝙃 𝙀 𝙎 𝙀 𝘼 𝙍 𝙀 𝙏 𝙃 𝙀 𝘿 𝘼 𝙔 𝙎
╰ ╯
HOW JOHN B HAD COAXED Evie into joining him as he stood, balancing precariously, upon the ridge of the roof belonging to the half-built house, she would never know. Actually, she certainly did, because it always happened and in terms of anything remotely exhilarating it would take her a complimentary refusal followed by an insistence from another party to pull her up onto her feet to join them.
It happened far too often for her to care much about it anymore. Kie and Pope didn't seem to have a daring bone in their bodies in comparison, usually way more concerned with the safety precautions that neither John B, JJ, or Evie had simultaneously decided not to take each and every time. And that was exactly how she liked it because there was something so addictive about doing something she knew for a fact that no parent of hers would agree with.
JB had a beer can in one hand and the other was holding hers, lifting the drink for her to take a sip before tilting his head back to take one himself. Music playing faintly from the deck below ensured he took it as a chance for them to mess about even further, a dance coming into their step with John B, forever daring, spun his best friend on the spot, the two of them laughing as her foot slipped beneath her on the return.
"You're gonna kill me one day." Evie shook her head, fingers closing around his shirt as he held her close for just a moment, reeling from the almost fall. She held on tight and leant back, meeting his eyes. "And then one of those three will kill you." She used one of her fingers to jab his chest so as to enunciate her final word.
JJ held his hands to his lips, muffled noise replicating a walkie-talkie. "Affirmative." He said, in that easily replicable, mechanical voice of a robot. His hand fell, giving them all a clear view of his face. "Come down 'n sit with me, E." He added afterwards, holding up another, new can of beer for them to share from where he was sat on the scaffolding.
Evie glanced to Pope, who shook his head; he knew she would accept before she actually did; before her gaze landed on John B once again, who had his hands on her waist to stable her and was taking another sip of his beer. "But what if I climb down and John B falls because I'm not here to help." She questioned, head turned towards him. JJ scoffed. "Kie, what do you think?"
"I think that these people don't need another bathroom - does nobody else think about the freakin' climate crisis we're in?" Kiara's voice carried through from within the shell of a house. "The ice caps are melting, the turtles are being strangled, but no, they need to have a fifth bathroom on the second floor."
There was a pause as her grumblings continued. Evelyn shrugged. "Sure, that makes sense." She said.
"I think that's a vote for me." JJ hummed. "Come on, Ev, come join me."
"Help me down, John B?" Atlas asked, his hand still skimming above the surface of her shorts. He nodded, blindly, hand finding her's and skipping down in front of her, balancing on the tile of the roof as he helped her down to the scafolding, waiting until she had slipped into position besides JJ to return to his previous position. "That make you happy, Maybank?" She questioned.
"Oh I feel like royalty, babe." He pressed a kiss to his shoulder as Pope murmured unapprovingly below. "Like a king."
"Oh yeah?" She hummed, tapping her nails against the can of beer he was holding and grinning as she tilted her chin back and let him tip beer into her mouth. He splashed her slightly and she swallowed, laughing. "And you feel like royalty?"
She used to feel like she was surrounded by bubble wrap. Taped up all nice and tight. And then suddenly she was free from the trappings and could move however she pleased. Because she had people who cared if she was upset and uncomfortable and could guide her out of her problems like a lighthouse in the fog. She was far happier there than any moment spent within her family home. And now, she didn't have to worry about being fragile and breakable because she had people to glue her back together. It didn't happen all too often, and more often than not-
"That's what, a three-story fall to the deck?" Pope called up and both JJ and Evelyn twisted around to see John B stood on the very edge of the ridge where the two sides met. He was balancing on one foot, arms held out to the side to try and even himself out. "I give you about a... one-in-three chance of survival." He continued, as his second leg reached out and dangled over the drop.
Evie knew he would never fall, but even then, wiping up his brains off the brand-new wooden deck would be instantly more enjoyable then her spending the evening with her parents at the dinner table.
"Hm." John B caught her eye and grinned, knowing exactly what she was thinking. Slowly, she shook her head but it didn't stop him from considering it anyway. Nothing could stop him, really. He licked the end of his finger so as to wet it and held it up, finding the way the wind was blowing as if it could ever help him. "Should I do it?" He asked.
"Yeah, you should jump." Pope seized the drill upon the abandoned workers' table beside him and pointed it towards him. "I'll shoot you on the way down."
"You'll shoot me?" John B repeated. His fingers formed a gun too, aiming it towards his best friend and at the affirmative from Pope, he began to make the adjoining noises. Still, somehow, Evie was yet to regret her choice in entertainment for the evening.
"They're gonna have Japanese toilets with towel warmers." Kie's voice grew steadily louder as she approached the group and exited onto the deck.
"Of course, why wouldn't they?" Pope hummed; they were all more than used to Kiara's indignation on behalf of the environment, and in a place like this it was more than a given.
Kie ignored him. "This place used to be a turtle habitat." She said, looking around. "But who cares about the turtles, I guess."
"Kie, darling." Evelyn paused, shifting in her seat and gently easing JJ back from the side so she could lay down, head resting on his lap. His eyebrows raised as his thighs became her pillow. She, too, ignored him. "The entire island used to be a turtle habitat."
"And I can't have cold towels." JJ pointed out. "Getting comfortable there, babe?"
"I've been in worse positions." Above her head, JJ and John B shared a knowing look and she threatened to throw the empty beer can to her left at the latter, who only feigned terror to her falsities. "Shut up." She added, somewhat defensive.
"Can you please not kill yourself?" Kiara asked, question directed upwards as John B lifted his foot again.
"No brains on the floor, please." Evie added.
"And don't spill that beer," JJ warned as he polished off the one he was supposed to be sharing with the girl on his lap, "'Cos I'm not giving you another one."
As if on cue, when John B stretched out his arms again, the beer can fell out of his hands and fell to the floor, amber liquid spilling all over the brand new deck. He swore, Evelyn letting out a laugh at his misfortune.
"Smooth."
"Of course you did." JJ shook his head. "You know I was being serious - Evie can have one, Pope can have one, Kie can have one but you - you can't have one."
"Hey!"
Evelyn sat up at the sound of the gruff yell, very nearly banging her head on the green metal of the scafolding should JJ not already have his hand resting there, ready just in case.
"Hey, uh, security's here." Pope warned, a note of instantaneous worry coming to his tone as he peered over the railing. "Let's wrap it up."
"Boys are early today." John B commented, still not moving even as JJ did. A well-placed can throw from Evie changed this and all of a sudden, they were on the move.
Her hand gripped the side of the structure as she swung down, feet hitting the deck a little roughly for her liking, Pope quick to steady her as JJ followed, shouting taunts to the all-too-familiar security guards they had run from on multiple occasions in the past few months alone. John B managed to scramble down in record time without breaking his neck and after a choice few shouts to the security guards, whose own noises of discontent were growing louder and louder, the rush began.
They ran through the open sliding glass door, very almost falling down the stairs as they rushed, laughter echoing behind them. One wrong turn from JJ and Gary (the security guard that Evie had known since coming to the island and her own personal narc who constantly ratted her out to her father) almost caught him, causing them to scramble in the other direction.
Somehow they got separated, JJ, Pope and Evelyn making their way through the maze of concrete pillars before emerging out onto the somehow already neatly-trimmed lawn, running towards the picket fence. They scrambled over, Pope stumbling as he landed and with a laugh, JJ pulled him up.
"Get up, Pope, fatso's coming." He jeered, glancing back behind them as he felt a punch on his shoulder in the pause. "Hey!"
"Gary is a very nice man, J." Evie huffed, frowning before he came just a little too close. "Oh shit - Pope, go, go, go!"
"Hey!" The guard shouted after them as they continued to run forward. "Come here, you little pricks."
"Well now, that's not very nice Gary - my father really wouldn't want to hear about this language." She called over her shoulder, twisting to laugh as the sound of honking could be heard in front of them. "Kie, I love you." She exclaimed to the girl as the three of them piled into the awaiting open door, landing aimlessly on the floor of the Twinkie with varying grunts of pain. "JB," she added, eyes turned to the driver, "you too!"
"Hey!" Gary shouted, having managed his way over the fence and continuing to chase after them. John B and Kie, in whatever direction they had run off when they got separated, seemed to have managed to lose his partner. "Hey! Hey! Hey!" He continued, face turned into a scowl. "Get back here, you little pricks."
"Is that your favourite word, Gar?" The teasing nickname slipped through Evie's lips as she hung out the side of the still-open door, fingers clutching onto some sort of groove on the inside surface. "Hey - there you go, almost got us."
"Check it out, Gary's gunnin' for a raise." Pope laughed, breathless.
"I think he really wants that Christmas bonus." Evie added.
"Come on, Gary!" JJ's fingers closed around her wrist before he even really thought about it; they weren't going particularly fast but the thought of his best friend falling through the open door was bad enough to think about. "Hey - slow down, slow down." He instructed John B, who did as he was asked, only minutely.
"Guys, you're gonna give him a heart attack." Kie protested, although she was laughing as she said it.
JJ took her place leaning out of the door as she ducked under his arm, fingers dancing over his waist as she took his place on the old red seats in the back. "You're so close!" He taunted. "You can do it - come on." His arm swung back, throwing the last empty can to the security guard. "There you go. They don't pay you enough, bro." He added.
"JJ, stop. Stop." Kie instructed, finding her limit with the teasing and sticking too it, pulling him by the back of his shirt into the van.
"Oh come on," JJ grinned, glancing to Pope for support. "That sort of initiative is just begging to be punished."
With another laugh that signalled her disapproval didn't run that, Kie pulled the door closed and JJ swung back to reclaim his seat, and upon finding it taken, promptly sat on Evie's lap despite complaints.
And as the old van left the construction site and met the main road, Kie leaned forward to turn up the radio and that, was that.
⎈
Just because they had been kicked out of their former meeting place didn't mean their evening was over. Their return to the Cut was punctuated by even more beers, lukewarm from sitting in the van, and the promise of a couple joints being rolled when they returned to the Chateau. They would, no doubt, all crash there that night and wake up in the morning with another headache, but it was a small sacrifice that was made often.
"I got more wood for the fire." Atlas hummed as she made her way over to the group, watching as Pope's head popped up from the hammock, John B moving instantly to take the bundle off her. "I think I got a splinter, though." She hummed, nursing her thumb in the amber light of the fire and scanning the area for a seat.
Kie and John B had taken up the log, JJ in the old chair dragged out of the house and Pope had stretched out over the fabric of the hammock, ensuring nobody else would get in there without a struggle. She needn't have looked; JJ beckoned her to him with a flick of his fingers and she didn't bother to wait and consider before she was slipping down into his lap, curled up into his elbow with her knees to her chest.
An unlit joint hung from his lips, in his hand a beer can and an expression of slightly tipsy worry covering his features. They were all at least a little drunk now; they had watched the sunset as Kie stoked the fire to life, eaten the chips Pope had brought with him and smoked a little between them too, beers in hand almost always. It brought inhibitions down, something which had led to the... alternate closeness between JJ and Evie anyway, and let them get away with a little more than usual rules let them.
Nobody even really looked their way, not even when Evie stole his cap and pulled it down backwards over her dark hair, smiling half-heartedly as he slipped the joint and lighter into the bag that carried all the necessities needed for that particular activity, tucking it into the gap between her chest and knees.
"Lemme have a look." He hummed, watching as she held out her arm, the faded remnants of a stick n poke on her wrist catching his eye before she pointed out what she was talking about. "C'mon, you expect me to see anything? It's tiny." He complained.
"You wanted to look at it." Evie shook her head. "I'll just ask-"
"No, I got it." JJ wouldn't even hear of it, stopping her sentence before she could finish. Instead, he held her finger up to the light and scanned it. "Oh yeah, I see the son of a bitch. Stay still."
Evie nodded, head lolling to rest against his shoulder as she watched him, wincing as he managed to squeeze her finger enough that the tiny wood chip stuck out a little more, and with some careful manoeuvring he managed to get it out, pressing a kiss to the affected area before meeting her eyes, smiling like a dope.
"Dr JJ at your service." He joked, taking a sip of his beer to celebrate the success. "I'd been an incredible doctor."
"You'd abuse the shit out of the ability to prescribe pills."
"That I would." He nodded sagely. His eyes were alight with something extremely similar to thrill as he smiled at her. "No one's paying us any attention." JJ added, eyes darting over her shoulder. "The house is free, if you catch my drift.. you smelling what I'm selling, you picking up what I'm laying down-"
Evie shook her head, slowly, smiling at the numerous phrases. "They're not totally oblivious, J."
"Oh, but I think they are." He grinned. "You wanna smoke first?" JJ suggested, reaching for the bag on her lap. She nodded, watching as the joint was returned to sight. He always lit it for her, knowing she hated starting it off, and after watching the leftover twist of paper burn, he placed it between his lips once more, flickering the light.
"Got another joint going?" John B said, turning from the fire to make sure he was correct. His eyes scanned the scene in front of him, from the way she was sat on his lap to his arm curled over her knees, her head in the crook of his neck. His eyebrows rose and fell suggestively, watching as Evie stuck her middle finger up at him before stealing the can of beer off of her friend. "Pass it around." He added.
"Yeah, don't keep it all to yourselves," Kie added in a hum, not looking up from the drawings she was making with a stick in the dirt. Pope didn't say anything; he didn't smoke that shit, only drinking a beer or two every so often. He said it was because someone needed to look after everyone else, and they tended to believe him, but they all kinda knew it was so he didn't fuck up his scholarship and stuck with it.
Evie adjusted her position, eyes on the fire. "We won't." she told them in a promise. "I wanna surf." She turned her attention back to JJ as he took the first proper inhale, lighter stashed away again.
"Now?" He exhaled, a cloud created in front of him.
He had that glint of light in her eyes, the same one as when he asked her to go inside with him. It meant the same thing every time; that he was absolutely for doing the thing previously suggested, no matter how stupid it was. When she shook her head the light glimmered and disappeared.
"Maybe tomorrow." She replied. "Get lost at sea or wipeout and not go to that stupid dinner tomorrow."
"E - darling, angel, beautiful," JJ hummed, words punctuated with another toke. "Forget about the dinner, babe. Don't go. Stay here, with me. I've got at least five million excuses you could use, and we could get Pope to tell us one of those illnesses that need a quarantine- that would get you out for at least two weeks."
"Pass, please." Evie gestures, watching as he slipped the joint right in between her fingers, watching intently as she took a drag, head tilting back as she exhaled. "I'll try my best. To skip it, that is. But you gotta remember, J," she smiled, in that teasing way that made him feel far too hot under the collar, "no pogue on pogue macking."
"Fuck that." He hummed, pressing pretty little kisses to her exposed neck, teeth catching the tiny beaded necklace and pulling it taught. "Wanna kiss you so bad."
"You can get really fucking needy, can't you." Her hand found the back of his neck, fingers slipping below the hem of his t-shirt before curling into the slightly overgrown blond hair above. The music playing softly around them seemed to deafen their conversation from their onlookers, who seemed wrapped up in whatever they were talking about. She took another drag, and then another before passing it back to him.
But, despite everything else, her mind was made up. Her legs stretched out in front of her, tingling slightly in the after affects. "I'll go first." She smiled, slipping from his lap and standing, making her way back to the Chateau behind them.
"Where you going, Evie?" John B called after her.
"Toilet." She shouted back to him, watching as heads turned to follow conversation. "And I need proper light to check to see if JJ got that splinter out."
"There's first aid somewhere in there." The man of the house - who was only really just a boy - added. "Might be a few years out of date, but it's there."
"I'll try find it." Evie had absolutely no intention of doing so, of course, a certain spring in her step as she pushed open the door to the porch, coming to rest in the shadowed doorway to the house, knee brushing against the old sofa.
From there, she had every vantage point covered, the fire illuminating her best friends as they sat around, laughing and talking. She felt only a little guilty for not telling them - although she was halfway convinced John B knew everything already - but exhilaration was beginning to flood her veins again at the prospect of it, and she watched JJ get up, too far away for his excuse to be heard, and follow her into the house.
Her arms folded over her stomach, anticipation only growing as she saw him ambling towards the house. He reached the house in mere moments, pushing the door open to join her with the same shit-eating grin that had been on his face when he suggested the entire thing.
"Hey there, pretty girl." JJ greeted, crossing the short distance remaining between them before pulling his hat off of her hair and replacing it over his own.
"J-"
"Nuh-uh, don't talk." As though he was trying to make a point - which he most likely was - he placed his index finger on her lips. She smiled beneath it, felt him trace over her cupid's bow. "Just kiss, okay?"
Evie could only nod for a fraction of a second before he kissed her, his hand moving to cup the curve of her jaw and pull her into him. He tasted of beer and smoke, smelt like the sea and cheap lemon soap he and John B tended to share. It felt like coming home, just because they hadn't had a chance to be alone properly for a moment for a day, and she was beginning to question the clauses of their agreement.
"God, you're so fucking pretty." He murmured, because even in the half-light she really was, and her fingers were grasping at his t-shirt and he could feel it over his abdomen.
"Mhm - we have to be quick." She replied, stood up on her tiptoes to kiss him again before feeling his hands leave her face behind and instead broke away to reach for her thighs, hooking his hands beneath them and picking her up. "Shit - J." Evie laughed, legs wrapped around his waist, before he kissed her. "I'm only supposed to be in the bathroom."
"Just tell 'em you were taking a shit." He shook his head. She made a face. "What! It's perfectly natural. We all do it. I do it, JB does it - he definitely does it - we're all human beings. Really, we're all just monkeys and-"
Her head tilted back as she laughed, leaning against the wooden planks. "Do you think I'm gonna kiss you after you call me a monkey?" She asked. He adjusted his grip, fingertips slipping under the folded hem of her denim shorts.
"I've called you worse and you still look at me the same."
Her head tilted. "How do I look at you, J?" She asked, voice nothing more than a whisper. Outside the Chateau, a burst of laughter could be heard.
"Like you're gonna be there forever."
"I am. Swear."
"Spit on it. Right here, right now."
Evelyn's eyebrows raised. "You want me to spit on my hand when we could just make out instead?"
"Oh my god, I think I'm in love with you." He laughed, words truly meaningless as he captured her in a kiss again, drinking her in like he had been kept from hydration for the longest of days. And he did - love her, that was, but it was such an ill-defined way of labelling his feelings towards her because he just didn't know how. "Sleep in my room tonight?" He murmured.
His room - John B's old room because he preferred to sleep in his old man's since he went missing. JJ's room, where things had gone from being best friends to something more, where she had spent most nights since, where she usually ended up sleeping anyway.
"It's stupid that you still even need to ask."
"So stupid." He nodded, and the sound of conversation drew him away from the conversation in which he had sunken. "How long do you think we have?"
"I don't know, how long do you think it would take for me to-"
"Two more minutes, at the very least." JJ ignored the implications of his words as he cut her off in another kiss, more demanding, more necessary, more needy than all those before. "God, I missed you so much."
"Missed you too, J." And she smiled again, so sweetly, before tapping at his shoulders. "But I gotta go back. Steal your seat."
"And I gotta try find more beer."
Evelyn looked momentarily confused, only for the expression to diffuse seconds later. "Your excuse?" She asked.
"Yup." JJ did let her down then, but didn't let her go because suddenly his hands were in her back pockets, pulling her close. "Need one more kiss for good luck though. Y'know, in my search."
"Because you're trying so, so hard." Sarcasm dripped, heavy, from her tone. But who was she to deny him? Grinning, Evie pressed a quick, almost chaste kiss to his lips, but found herself still trapped. "What? Not enough?"
"Quick one for the road." He added, and this time he kissed her, hard, like he needed it imprinted on his lips to remember. Then, his hands slipped away and he replaced the cap on her head, adjusting it so that dark curls fell in front of her face. "My pretty girl." He hummed. "I'll bring us a beer 'n we can smoke, okay?"
"Promise?" Evie smiled, and watched as he nodded, slipping behind her and off the porch and into the house. A moment passed, her heart in her ears and a warm feeling fluttered gently in her stomach. Composed, she too left the porch, crossing the distance between the Chateau and the firepit in moments.
She settled in the chair they would no doubt share once JJ returned, knees pulled up to her chest and her hoodie pulled tight over her. The fire glittered over her face and John B turned towards her, expectant.
"You bump into JJ in there?" He asked, although there was something more in expression that insinuated exactly what Evie knew; he was well aware of the rule-breaking that went on in his home, yet he wasn't going to be the one to ruin it - that would, certainly, be JJ and Evie's doing themselves.
She nodded. "Yeah, he's not having much luck." Evie confirmed, and satisfied with her response and verification, John B returned to the conversation with Kie and Pope.
When JJ ambled out to join them once more, two rogue beer cans in his hand that had had managed to dig out from god-knows where, they returned to the usual scheduling of their evenings. And in reflection on it all, Evie was entirely happy.