The Outer Banks felt different in winter. The beaches were barren, the wind harsh. The air, always heavy with salt and secrets, seemed heavier now ; with something darker. You felt it long before JJ changed.

It started with silence. Not the good kind. The kind that lingered after a slammed door, after your calls went unanswered.

He used to run to you like a magnet, fiery and messy, but full of light. Now, he stumbled in at 3 a.m. reeking of weed and cheap whiskey, eyes bloodshot and bruised from fights he wouldn’t talk about. Sometimes he laughed too loudly. Other times he didn’t speak at all.

You knew JJ had his demons. You just never thought they’d win.

One night…

You sit on the couch in your hoodie, his hoodie, candles flickering because the power went out again. You hear the door crash open. JJ staggers in, his knuckles raw, nose bleeding. His breath smells like a bar floor.

“JJ… what the hell happened to you?”

He smirks. Not the charming kind. The hollow, dangerous kind.

“Defended your honor, babe. Some guy said something. I made him shut up.”

“You think I want this? You coming home like a ghost of the boy I love?”

“Boy you loved, huh?”

he spits, slurring.

“That what this is now? A eulogy?”

You try to stay calm, even as your heart beats like it’s trying to escape.

“I’m not leaving you, JJ. But I can’t watch you kill yourself.”

His face twitches. And for a second, the real JJ breaks through, vulnerable, scared.

“I don’t know how to stop, alright?”

he whispers.

“It’s cold. Everything’s cold. In my head. In my chest. You don’t get it. You don’t feel like me...”

He says, leaving you with no idea of how to respond.

When the winter falls… he falls too.