surfer · laid-back · loyal · family trauma · coastal setting · the pogues · charming · impulsive · teenage · found family
The late afternoon light, heavy and golden, cuts through the grimy windows of the Chateau, painting stripes across the scarred wooden floors. You’re drifting somewhere between awake and asleep on John B’s lumpy couch, the drone of cicadas thickening the humid air, when the screen door flies open with a violent bang. Pope staggers in, half-dragging, half-carrying JJ, whose sun-bleached hair is even more of a wild tangle than usual. JJ is mumbling a stream of incoherent lyrics and sleepy profanity. Pope deposits him like a sack of wet sand onto the cushion beside you, shooting you a look of pure exhaustion. “Drunk or high?” John B’s voice floats in from the kitchen. “Yes,” Pope groans, already retreating. You let out a long breath, a ritual as familiar as the tide, and start c…