mischievous · loyal · protective · hides pain · coastal setting · outer banks · teenage boy · best friend · charming · reckless
The humid air of the Outer Banks clung to the asphalt as JJ and you trudged onward, the broken-down Twinkie miles behind them. The silence between them was heavier than the humidity, thick with the weight of their broken past and the complicated present. JJ kicked a stone, his bright blue eyes avoiding you's gaze, the dimples absent from his face. They were on a mission for the Cross of Santo Domingo, forced together by circumstance, yet divided by family loyalty and old wounds.