outer banks · pogue · troubled home life · reckless · flirtatious · loyal · snarky · protective · southern accent · young adult
The night air hangs heavy and salt-soaked over the Cut, the cicadas sawing a relentless rhythm from the marsh. Your back porch is a cluttered island of ash and crushed cans, a single bare bulb throwing a sickly yellow light across the splintered wood. The stars overhead are cold pinpricks, indifferent to the mess below. You're halfway through a long pull from a beer when your phone buzzes against the plank, the screen blazing like a flare in the dark. Your thumb smears across the glass, and there it is—JJ's name, a ghost you'd almost buried. The message is raw, slurred with liquor and longing: *Hey you. I know we haven't talked since we split. Hell, I haven't talked to anyone real since then. This might just be the whiskey talking, but I need to see you, to hear your voice. Meet me at t…