"𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 slice of bread in this kitchen has mold on it, is appalling." I grimaced.
John B let out a soothing laugh, as he casually tipped the overheard cupboards closed with a finger, slowly approaching me. I sat on the countertop few feet away, my ankles crossed and swinging lightly, and hands gripped onto the granite for support. There was a frown on my lips as I stared down at the loaf of bread next to a stack of cups.
We had watched the sunset together. It was just the two of us, sitting on the fallen tree trunk outside of his house, facing the water as the hues of orange and yellow transformed into rays of pink, soon disappearing over the marsh before our eyes. With my head leaning on his shoulder, and the wind softly breezing past our bodies, I felt okay. The thoughts of Ward, Sarah, and my grandparents were in a different place, and all my mind could think about was John B. Something was different.
Maybe it was the way he had kissed me, or the fact that I had felt safe enough to tell him about my parents— it was unclear. But my feelings were changing for him, in a good way.
"Kie and Pope are out right now," he said, while running a hand through his hair. "They'll probably pick something up, comin' back tonight." His voice was low, and I found myself enjoying the way he spoke so calmly, creating a soft mood in the air.
"And Jj?" I delicately narrowed my eyebrows, wondering about him for a brief moment.
John B stopped in front of me, shrugging with a small air of disappointment. "Still haven't heard from him," he told.
I watched as he placed both of his hands on the surface of the countertop, next to my legs, his back bending over slightly to casually loom over me. Our faces were few inches apart.
"He'll turn up," I rose my hand, and ran a few fingers through his messy waves, "I'm sure of it— I mean, he can't go that far, right?"
John B looked at me, "I fuckin' hope so," a small laugh fell from his lips.
I let my hands trail down to his chest, my fingers resting on the crook between his shoulders and neck. I smiled at him, a tight-lined smile.
A smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth, and his eyes flashed, "But that means we have the place to ourselves," he said, with a lower voice. He was joking, but also somewhat serious at the same time.
"I guess that's true," I laughed at his words.
Sitting on the counter, he leaned over me, our faces close to one another, with the kitchen lit up by lanterns. I felt his thumb slide through the belt loop of my jean shorts, at my waist.
"You're crazy," I threw my head back in laughter.
His lips opened up into a wide smile, "What's new, Charls."
Letting out a happy sigh, I locked eyes with him again. He only held it for a moment, as his eyes flickered down to my lips, lingering there for a second.
I stared at his face, lit up by the yellow lanterns. I looked at his freckles, scattered like small polka dots on the bridge of his nose, trailing over his cheeks, and breaching his chin. His eyes, the bright colour of them twinkling back at me. His hair, falling over his forehead in a messy wave, and the smallest of curled wings at his ears. I placed my hands along his jaw, smiling.
Closing the gap between us, our lips collided against one another as he leaned in first. The second we touched, a wave of happiness spilled through my body, along with that same rush shooting through my veins. When his left hand firmly placed itself on the side of my thigh, my heart began to beat even faster. He kissed me slowly, but repeatedly, and with a strong feeling, a feeling of want.
He made a space between both of my legs, his hand moving them apart so he could stand directly in front of me, our front sides pushed together. I couldn't help but let my body arch into him, when he trailed a hand on the lower part of my back, bringing me closer. My stomach tightened. As our lips detached and reattached in smooth motions, both of his hands firmly gripped the sides of my waist, and before I knew it, he was picking me off the counter.
"John B," I laughed out loud, my arms wrapping around his neck to hold myself, as he started walking away from the kitchen. I wrapped my legs around his body.
With one hand tightly grasping the bottom of my thigh, he pushed open his bedroom door, all while I giggled— feeling happy. I could've sworn I heard him let out a chuckle as well, but through his heavy breaths. He closed the door with his foot.
Inside his room was dark, only a small lantern lit up on his bedside table, close to burning out. With a heavy passion I'd never felt come from him before, he attached our lips again, this time even stronger. I kissed back, hands on the back of his neck, my body arching into his as he held me. With a tiny laugh, he gently placed me down onto the bed, my body bouncing against the mattress, and him looming over me, still standing.
My top teeth bit down onto my bottom lip, hard, watching as he pulled his t-shirt over his head, revealing his body, now only wearing shorts. I breathed in his scent as he climbed onto the covers. His knee created an indent next to my leg as he moved them apart again, maneuvering himself in between. Suddenly, my breathing was accelerating when he leaned down, placing his lips on my jaw, wasting no time in trailing down towards my neck, kissing slowly but with urge.
"John B," I breathed out, feeling my heart rate pick up immensely.
Two fingers gripped the bottom hem of my shirt.
"Wait, wait," I caught up to what was happening, my words coming out not much higher than a whisper, nearly breathless. "Can we— wait, for a second," I placed my hands onto his shoulders.
He raised his head up, looking at me. Immediately his face softened when he realized what I meant.
"I"m sorry— it's just that, like," I was rambling, my chest heaving in and out slowly, looking into his eyes, "You know, I've, like, never done this before,"
"That's okay," he breathed out, his expression relaxing, "We don't have to, Charls," he giggled softly, moving out from leaning over top of me. His voice was delicate.
A gentle smile lay over his lips, and I could see it in his eyes that he meant it. He plopped himself down next to me, turned onto his side.
"I'm sorry," Although I could see it in his face, my body still swarmed with guilt. "Like, are you sure, though? I mean, we could—"
"Charlotte." He said, seriously.
He slid himself up and placed his head on the pillow, his arm wrapping around my body. He pulled me into him by a hand, slowly.
"Let's just," he breathed, happily, "Relax, then, yeah?"
I settled my head on his bare chest, my hand gently trailing over his stomach.
"Don't ever apologize for that," he placed a kiss on the top of my head, "We'll wait, you know, as long as you need."
I smiled, the side of my cheek coming in contact with his chest. "Thank you, John B."
"For what," he played with my fingers, absentmindedly. I giggled at his obliviousness.
"Like, everything." I mumbled, softly.
He didn't say anything, but the way he grazed a hand along the side of my arm was telling enough. The room fell quiet, but a comfortable quiet, and I stared out the widow.
"You know, you make me feel like I'm on a rollercoaster." I smiled.
"Have you ever even been on a rollercoaster," he joked, mocking me sarcastically.
I laughed out loud, throwing my head back slightly, "Fair point. What does it feel like— a rollercoaster,"
"It's like, when you get to the top, you're not sure if you wanna go down, right, doubts." he started. "But then when the drop actually hits, you get these butterflies everywhere, and it's all, like, worth it." He admired, "It makes you feel alive, really."
"That's how you make me feel," I giggled sarcastically, knowing it was cheesy.
"Stop, Cherry Cola, you're making me blush," he played along, joking.
I looked up at him, tangling our legs together. I hugged him tighter, my head remaining on his chest.
"I think I'm gonna go and see Sarah tomorrow." I said after a long while, keeping my voice low, newly looking out the window.
He looked down at me, "Yeah?" There was a very small hint of confusion in his voice.
"Yeah," I repeated. "I don't know, it just feels like I should. Maybe I'll even stay with the Camerons for a few days."
"Whatever feels right, Charlie." He agreed.
I bit on the inside of my cheek.
___
A loud and startling bang jolted me awake, my eyes instantly forming into small almonds from exhaustion.
With a fogged brain filled with confusion, voices and shouts were heard coming from outside the Chateau, as strong commands. Their manly voices were heard, but muffled, and words were inaudible. I immediately looked to my side, expecting to see John B sleeping next to me as we had left it, body buried underneath the covers, but half of the bed was vacant. He wasn't there.
Instantly, after seeing the open space, my heart started to beat faster. I slid my legs from underneath the covers, and hopped onto the floor, wasting no time in heading straight for the window, in hopes of finding the source of the voices.
Just before I placed my hands along the windowsill, a ray of neon lights suddenly lit up the glass, causing a sharp pain to shoot at my eyes, resulting in them squinting.
One by one, more neon lights began to glow, somewhere outside the house, but not outside John B's window. The gleaming shadow cast by the lights, cascaded a sea of colours over to the patch of grass outside of the room, making my eyebrows narrow.
As I grabbed my pair of pyjama shorts that I had taken off in the night, laying on the edge of the bed, I nearly tripped while trying to slide my legs through, stumbling to get over to the bedroom door. But, right on the middle of the door, there was a small piece of paper with writing on it— in which I almost passed by— stuck to the wood with a small piece of scotch tape. I ripped it off, straining to see the letters in the dark.
Off with Cameron to clean the boat at first light, get it ready for our trip on Tuesday. Totally forgot to tell you about it, slipped my mind completely. Pope and Kie should be there, and I'll be home by ten, there's cereal on top of the fridge for you. Don't let Pope eat it.
— JB
I let out a small huff of air, feeling a wave of relief wash over me, knowing he was alright. But as soon as I finished reading the note, I placed it onto the bedside table next to his battery-dead phone, and pulled open the bedroom door. My strides were strong while marching over to the back porch, head turning in very direction to glance out every window, hoping to get a glimpse of anything unusual, or unknown people who's commands I heard.
But my eyebrows narrowed even more when the beeping of a truck, a large moving truck, it seemed, sounded from outside the back porch. It beeped loudly, as if backing up into the backyard of John B's home. I moved faster towards the back door.
Expecting to see Kiara and Pope walking up towards me, or at the least, someone recognizable, my stomach tightened when I laid eyes on the exact opposite. There was a truck, and I was too busy trailing my eyes around everything else to read the company name on the side.
Outside the back of the Chateau, there was about six men, wearing uniforms and hats, transporting a large hot tub over to the grass clearing. Five of them lifted the ginormous grey tub out of the truck, which had stopped reversing— and stopped beeping loudly— while the other man stood off to the side with a clipboard, the neon lights lighting up his face.
"Excuse me," I called out to the man with a loud tone, my voice groggy from sleep.
He tilted his neck up from looking down.
Huffing out, I quickly skipped off the porch stairs and ducked past the men carrying the hot tub, trying not to get hit. I shoved strands of hair behind my ears. My bare feet were probably stained with dirt.
"What's— What's going on here?" I stammered, somehow feeling out of breath. My eyebrows were sharply furrowed, as I stopped in front of the uniformed worker. "It's past midnight,"
"Are you Maybank?" The tall man disregarded my urgent question, after taking a glance at his papers, and looking back up at me. "Mrs. Maybank, by any chance?"
My confusion drove further. "What?" I looked at him oddly. "Im sorry, my name is Charlotte, this is John Routledge's home, sir, I think you might have the wrong house,"
"We were told to deliver to 78 Richardson Road, ordered by a..." he shifted his eyes back to his papers, trailing off for a moment, "Jj Maybank," he spoke the name with an odd tone.
"That's me, sir," the familiar voice called out over us, immediately causing my head to shoot around where the voice came from.
I nearly choked on my own saliva when Jj came around the corner of the truck, hopping off his motorbike. He had a smirk on his face, but I was barely even looking at his expression as I quickly marched over to him. I threw my arms around his neck.
"Jj, oh my god!" I breathed out onto his shoulder, grasping tightly, and he held onto my back with loose hands, "Everyone was worried sick about you, are— are you okay, are you hurt, or," I pulled away, looking at his face. "Do you know what all of this is?" I motioned to the truck.
We had never really hugged before, but it had been almost a week since I'd seen him last, and I had actually found myself to be getting quite worried.
But when I looked at his face, something was off.
And when the famous scent of alcohol, the same smell of the kind he's always drinking at the Chateau, wafted through my nose, I knew.
"Nice to see you too, Charlie," he said with a distracted voice, and then patted my back before stepping past me.
He waltzed away, leaning to the side as he walked, his feet slightly stumbling. He was drunk. Or high. Or maybe even both.
"Hope you enjoy, Mr. Maybank," the man gave him a sure smile, and a nod, while he walked past. "Payment is already done."
"What payment," I rushed out my words, and stumbled on my feet to catch up next to Jj. "What is all of this!"
Jj wasn't paying attention to me as he made his way over to the grass clearing, where the men had successfully placed down the hot tub, and were now filling it up with the jets.
I nearly fell to my knees when I took a look at our surroundings.
My jaw was on the floor as I trailed eyes around the space, neon fairy lights lighting up everything, hung on trees, draped around the hot tub, and blow-up tubes and items placed all around us. There was a generator powering up everything, sitting near the exterior wall of the house.
"Ah, hell yes!" Jj exclaimed with a loud tone, "This is what I'm fuckin' talkin' about!"
I placed my hand on his arm, "What the fuck, Jj, what is all this," I asked, urgently, "You ordered all of this?"
He wiggled out of my grasp.
"Cmon, Charlie, it's almost filled," Jj was telling me, as he pulled his t-shirt over his head, his back turned to me, "Damn this thing works fast, look at it! Go put your bathing suit on," he let out a loud laugh.
I couldn't process what was happening.
Just less than six hours ago, I was lying in bed next to John B, my head on his chest as we watched the stars. But now, I was standing in the middle of his backyard, illuminated by neon lights, as five men filled up a damn hot tub, and Jj placed a bottle of champagne in the cup holder.
"Thank you," I mumbled to the men as they finished setting up the rest of the tub, leaving the clearing once done. But the second they were out of sight, I nearly lost it.
"Hop in, Charlie," Jj ducked his body under the water, and sat against the wall of the tub, facing me.
I could barely muster up words that would describe my outrage. "Who bought all this, Jj, what the fuck?" I was loud.
"Relax, I did," he claimed, sounding sure. He slid a pair of sunglasses over his eyes.
"What?" I took a step towards the tub, my stomach dropping.
"Turns out it costs a fuck ton for a generator and delivery," he let out a loud laugh, his words trailing off drunkly. "But you only live once, am I right?"
"You spent all of the thirty grand!" I felt like throwing up. "Are you mental? You're going to get us killed, Jj!" my fingers ran through the strands of my hair unsteadily.
"Would you relax, Charlie," he said with a calm voice, leaning back as he placed his arms along the top rim, "just hop in."
"Why would you do that!" I yelled, "Are you insane! Do you know how much shit you just caused us!"
"Who the hell is that," a recognizable female voice was heard coming from around the trees, as well as sudden footsteps. I turned my head around to see Kiara, followed by Pope, turning the corner.
I had my arms crossed hard over my chest, and confused looks were instantly plastered over their faces, completely bewildered at the sight in front of their eyes. Kie looked from me to Jj uncertainly.
"Fuck yeah, full house now," Jj howled with excitement, "just missin' JB. Come in guys, I got champagne!"
"What did you do, Jj?" Pope was confused, but equally as upset.
"I got a jet goin' straight in my butt right now," he giggled.
"He spent all of the money." I told them, with a sad tone, no longer angry after seeing the way Jj was acting. He wasn't okay.
Pope and Kiara dropped sudden outraged comments, expressing their anger and disappointment, while Jj relaxed in the tub. He took off his glasses, and that's when I could really tell something wasn't right. Pope argued that he could've paid for restitution, and Kiara mentioned charity. I stood, with my teeth biting on the inside of my cheek.
"Or you could've used it to help us buy more supplies for getting the gold out of the well!"
Pope urged.
Jj was biting down onto his bruised lip, and suddenly I wasn't angry at him anymore.
"Okay— well you know what, I didn't do that!" Jj finally lost it, his voice cracking as he stood up.
I felt my heart sink.
There, on his body, were more than three big red bruises. I could instantly tell that the marks weren't just from a scrap fight on the beach, or from falling.
"Jj," I threw a hand over my mouth.
"I got a hot tub for my friends," his voice cracked shakily, "No, screw friends. I got a hot tub for my family!" He motioned around at the tub. "Okay, I got a hot tub for my family, is that so wrong?"
"Jj, what the hell," Kiara whimpered.
"No, stop being emotional okay!" He cried, looking from me to Kiara, "It's fine! I mean— it's sweet right?"
Tears gathered at the brims of my eyes, as Jj looked around at the tub with shaky breathing, holding it all in. Before he could say anything else, Kiara was climbing into the hot tub.
The second she wrapped her arms around his neck, he completely broke down.
Everything he'd been holding inside for however long, was finally rushing out in the form of tears, and he sobbed uncontrollably on Kiara's shoulder.
"I just can't take him anymore," he cried, voice breaking and cracking. "I was gonna kill him,"
For a second, I didn't know who he was talking about. But with a glance to Pope, who mouthed the words 'his dad', I was rushing over to the hot tub, my tears falling.
I didn't care about my pajamas anymore, I swung both legs over the rim and stepped into the water, immediately wrapping my arms around him and Kiara. I cried onto his shoulder.
Soon enough, Pope had his arms wrapped around all three of us, and we stood there in the hot tub, lit up by the the neon lights, in the middle of the night together.
✰༄✰
𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞
𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 🥺
-- 𝐢 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬𝐧𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐥
𝐢𝐦 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐬
𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤(𝐬), 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟
𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧
𝐨𝐧𝐞/𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐇𝐀𝐇𝐀𝐇𝐀
𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 !!