one | proud to be a pogue

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    THE OUTER BANKS had always been Carson's home. It was where she was born and raised. She didn't care that she lived on the cut either; she was proud to be a Pogue. Of course she sometimes found herself dreaming about what it would be like to have money, but everyone always wants what they don't have. But she wouldn't trade any money for her friends. They were the ones that made the Outer Banks home for her.

"That's what? A three-story fall to the deck?" Pope calculated as John B dangled off the edge of the roof, one foot up with a beer in his left hand. "I give you about a one-in-three chance of survival."

"Hm, should I do it?" John B called down.

"Do I get your van if you die?" Carson asked casually.

"You're the only one I would trust it with," he told her honestly.

"Okay, then I say jump," she joked.

"Yeah, you should jump. I'll shoot you on the way down," Pope added.

"Oh, yeah? You're gonna shoot me?"

"Yep. Pew," Pope said as he aimed the drill up towards him.

"They're gonna have Japanese toilets with towel warmers," Kiara said in disbelief as she walked out of the half-constructed house. Carson laughed, taking a sip from her cheap beer that was slowly starting to turn warm, making it taste even worse than it already did. It was one of the most ridiculous things that Carson had heard, but she also couldn't say she was surprised.

"Of course. Why wouldn't they?" JJ pointed out. The Kooks had all the money in the world to just blow on stupid, pointless stuff like towel warmers. Though, Carson supposed if she had enough money she may install towel warmers in her house too. There was nothing worse than getting out of the shower on a cold winter day. A warm towel could easily fix that. 

"This used to be a turtle habitat, but who cares about the turtles, I guess?" Kiara said.

"I can't have cold towels," JJ said.

"Can you please not kill yourself?" Kiara called up as she realized how high up John B was. Carson and JJ looked up at him as they sat a bit further down on the scaffolding. This was a normal occurrence for them, especially during the summer. There wasn't much to do besides break into half-built houses and drink cheap beer. Any bit of excitement to keep them going.

"Don't spill that beer! I'm not giving you another one," JJ warned him. As if on cue, John B almost lost his balance, but his foot immediately found its way back onto the roof. Unfortunately though, his beer dropped from his hand.

"Whoa! Oh, shit," he said as he watched the metal can hit the deck and the beer spilled onto the wood.

"Of course you did, like right when I told you," JJ said.

"Smooth," Kiara mumbled. "Dumbass."

"A-plus," JJ said.

"Hey!" A man's voice screamed up at the teenagers that were trespassing onto the property. Carson leaned over the scaffolding to see a security guard shining his flashlight up at them.

"Hey, uh, security's here!" Pope informed them. "Let's wrap it up."

"Boys are early today," John B commented.

"Alright, Humpty Dumpty, let's roll!" JJ called up to John B.

"Let's go," Kiara said. Just because they didn't care about breaking the law didn't mean they wanted to be caught by it. That would put a downer on the mood. 

"Gary, is that you?" JJ yelled, taunting the security guard.

"Come on. Get your ass down here," Pope ordered. This was nothing new. As JJ fucked around, Pope freaked out that they were going to get in trouble. Carson kind of had a feeling JJ did it because he knew Pope would freak out. JJ knew exactly how to push people's buttons.

"Gary, good to see you, man!" JJ continued as he smoothly climbed down the scaffolding. Carson and John B were quick to follow him.

"Yeah, you're just asking for it," Kiara told JJ.

"He's always asking for it," Carson pointed out.

"Is that so?" John B teased at the innuendo. She rolled her eyes and punched him in the arm, making him burst into laughter. The joke didn't faze her. Kiara and Carson took a lot of shit from the boys, but that was only because they knew they could handle it. It was always harmless anyway.

"Shut up," she said.

"JJ!" Gary screamed. The teens laughed as they sprinted down the stairs and out of the house to escape the security guard. "Hey, stop!" Carson laughed as one of the guards almost caught JJ, who easily managed to slip out of the man's grips.

"Not much of a hugger, man!" he joked. "Come on, Car!" He pushed her forward as they sprinted behind the rest of the group. "Go, Pope! Go, go, go, go, go!" Carson and JJ easily hopped over the fence as Pope landed straight onto the ground with a hard thud. "Get up, Pope, fatso's coming."

"Come here, you little pricks!" The guard screamed over the fence. Carson threw her middle finger back at him with a wild smile on her face as they continued to laugh and run towards John B's van.

"Bus is leaving!" John B screamed as the stragglers jumped into the van.

"Check out Gary, gunnin' for a raise!" Pope said as the man continued to run after the van. It was clear the man was struggling to chase after them, which Carson felt as equally bad about as she did amused.

"Come on, Gary!" JJ taunted him.

"Hey, stop guys, you're gonna give him a heart attack," Kiara finally said. JJ hung out the side of the van as he waved a beer into Gary's face.

"You're so close! You can do it," he said. "There you go!" He threw the beer at Gary. "They don't pay you enough, bro."

"JJ, stop. Stop," Kiara told him, though she wasn't actually being too serious.

"Oh, come on. That sort of initiative is just begging to be punished," he said.

"I didn't even know Gary knew how to run," Carson said, making them laugh. It was moments like those that was exactly why she wouldn't trade any money for her friends.


The dark clouds bled into the strong waves that crashed against each other. Thunder echoed off the open air and lightning flashed in the distance, acting as a warning to anyone that dared to step foot outside of their house.

That warning went unheard as Carson ran after John B and Pope with their boards in hand. Her damp hair stuck to the back of her neck as sand coated her feet. The rough sand stuck to wet feet was typically a feeling that most people did not like. For the Pogues, it was a feeling of comfort. The sand and the water was home to them.

"It's a double overhead out there, bro," Pope said.

"Double overhead?" John B said.

"Those aren't surfable waves, bro," Pope told John B, whose idea it was to come here in the first place. John B let out a laugh, sticking his tongue out.

"Says who?" He said. Pope gave Carson a warning look, as if he could convince her of the dangers that were straight ahead. She already knew it though. Carson shrugged simply at Pope before running after John B into the ocean.

It was difficult to paddle through the choppy waves, especially with the wind and rain pushing them back. It just made the challenge that more alluring. When she finally got out far enough, Carson sat up on her board. She watched John B fly off his board, the waves taking him victim. 

When she took a crack at it, she experienced the same thing, finding that Pope was right about the waves. She breathed heavily as she climbed back onto her board, paddling over to where John B was sitting up on his and staring into the distance.

"Pope's right, JB, these are impossible to ride," she said. He just continued to stare out at the water, so Carson turned to see what he was looking at. "What is it?"

"What the hell?" John B mumbled, pushing his hair out of his eyes to make sure that he was seeing it correctly.

"Is that a boat?" Carson asked, though they both knew it was. It just didn't make any sense. They looked at each other for a moment then Carson looked back at the beach. "We should head back." He nodded his head in agreement before they headed back to shore. 

As they dragged their boards out of the water, Carson glanced over at John B. "I should probably head home. My mom's gonna kill me if she realizes I'm not there. You gonna be okay?" He didn't have anyone waiting up for him. She already knew he would be okay, but she felt wrong not at least asking. 

"Yeah, I'm good," he assured her. She nodded her head, reaching her hand out for a quick fist bump before rushing to get home. 

As soon as she placed her board back into the garage, she opened her window to climb back into her bedroom. The storm was loud enough to cover up any noise she made, but clearly that didn't matter. After her damp Converse hit the wooden floor, she turned to grab the towel off her chair, just to find her mom sitting in it with an extremely pissed off look on her face.

"Where the hell have you been?" she demanded. Carson sighed, running a hand through the tangles in her soaked hair. The saltwater gave it a soft wavy texture, but the rough waves created knots throughout. 

"I went to the beach with John B and Pope," Carson admitted. She could have just lied and said she was at Kiara's house, but she was a horrible liar. Her mom would have seen right through her, and she was sure she was already going to be in enough trouble as it was without lying about it first.

"You went to the beach in the middle of a hurricane?" her mom yelled. And tried surfing too, but she wasn't going to mention that part. 

"Sorry," Carson said lamely. She grabbed the towel and ran it through her hair before kicking her shoes off into the corner of her room. 

"You're grounded," her mom said. With her back facing her mom, Carson's lips turned up into an amused smile. Every time her mom tried to ground her, it never worked. Carson would just leave to hang out with her friends anyway and her mom never actually did anything about it. She just threatened the grounding to make her feel like she was doing the right thing as a parent.

"Okay," Carson said with a shrug. "You hungry? Want me to make dinner?"

"That'd be great," her mom said, like she hadn't just been yelling at Carson for sneaking out during a hurricane. That was the way they rolled. It was just Carson and her mom. She didn't know who her father was. There was a long period when she hated that her mom refused to tell her, but after a while, she decided she didn't care anymore. If he didn't want to be a part of her life, then he wasn't worth her time. Her mom was the one that was there for her everyday, so that was all that mattered to her.

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