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Stories

    Bitter - JJ Maybank

    JJ has never been any good at dealing with the hard feelings–anger, sadness, insecurity, grief. When John B and Sarah were declared dead after being lost in the storm, he couldn’t deal with much of anything, let alone you, his girlfriend. To him, you were everything that’s good in the world, and you were grieving just as much as he was. It was hurting both of you to try and work through it–he couldn’t be there for you, would lash out when you would try to be there for him, and found himself with a full flask in his backpack more often than a water bottle–so he broke up with you. It was hurting the both you, but just like with everything else, JJ stonewalled his own feelings. You–already devastated about your missing friends–hid your heartbreak well under your grief. Kie was dealing with her helicopter parents. Pope had to try and recover from his lost scholarship. JJ’s dad was back in jail. Between the Pogues individual problems, along with the bleak weight of John B and Sarah’s absence, there wasn’t much room to deal with the tension between you and JJ. Then, in the middle of history class, you all got that fateful text message from an unknown number–John B and Sarah were in the Bahamas, and they were okay. Stressed about how they were going to clear John B’s name, and clueless about how him and Sarah were going to get back to the Outer Banks, JJ and you are struggling to navigate the murky, unresolved feelings that your breakup left behind.

    Hurt/ComfortEstablished RelationshipRomanceFluff and AngstExesUnresolved Emotional TensionAngstSlow Burn
    💬 5.1k
    RAatmnryn3

    Pushing it Down and Praying

    “I want you to need me I need to want something more He gives what he can, but now I don’t know what he’s giving for” y/n has loved JJ for so long that it no longer feels like a beginning—it feels like something she was born carrying. They grew up side by side, in shared afternoons and quiet understandings, in the kind of closeness that looks effortless from the outside. He knows how to make her laugh without trying. He reaches for her without thinking. His voice softens when he says her name. To everyone else, it looks like love. But it isn’t. Or at least—he refuses to call it that. He is warm without promise, gives affection without anchor. He flirts like breathing, like it costs him nothing. His touches linger just a second too long, his words blur lines he never intends to define. And when she searches his face for something real—something solid—he slips away, deflects, smiles like it was never that serious. Because for him, it never is. Not out loud. Because he does give—just enough to keep her hoping. Just enough to make her question everything. The late-night conversations that feel too honest. The way he notices things no one else does. The quiet, unguarded moments he never acknowledges after they pass. But he only ever gives what he can.

    AngstEventual RomanceSlow BurnFriends to LoversPiningDeveloping RelationshipMild Hurt/ComfortFriendship/Love
    💬 1.2k
    RAatmnryn3