The breakup had been messy.

It happened at the beach, of all places. JJ showed up drunk, reeking of beer, weed, and ocean air. But it wasn’t the drinking that ended them, it was the truth that spilled out with it.

“I can’t keep pretending I’m good enough for this,” he slurred. “Your dad’s right. I’m just gonna drag you down.”

Y/N tried to argue, but JJ had been spiraling for weeks, ever since her father offered him money to leave. He refused, but the shame of it festered, feeding every insecurity his own father had drilled into him. The more Y/N’s parents pushed her toward trust fund boys and Ivy League futures, the more JJ pulled away.

The next day, the entire island knew JJ Maybank and Y/N Y/LN were over. News traveled fast in the Outer Banks.

People had bet against them from the start. JJ was a Pogue, with a record and a reputation. Y/N was Kook royalty, her family’s name stamped on half of Figure Eight. A modern-day Romeo and Juliet, everyone said, and everyone knew how that ended.

A year passed. They saw each other at parties, across the beach, in the aisles of Food Lion. Never speaking, just exchanging glances neither acknowledged. JJ buried himself in work at the marina. Y/N focused on college applications. Both trying to build lives that didn’t include searching for the other in crowds.

Then came the storm.

Rain pounded the island, streets turned to rivers, and Y/N stood soaked on the Chateau’s porch, mascara streaked, breath hitching. She’d walked three miles from Figure Eight, after the final showdown with her parents.

They kicked her out, for choosing art school over business school.

She chose her dreams. They chose to change the locks.

JJ opened the door in old sweatpants, brows furrowed in confusion. Y/N’s walls, carefully built over a year, crumbled in an instant.

Rain mixed with tears as she whispered the words that would change everything again:

“I didn’t know where else to go.”