005 !! FAIR

When Georgie was five, she got lost at a Fair.

It was the Annual Christmas Fair held at Charleston every year and for the first time in her five years of being alive, Luke had finally got his shit together and taken his two kids out to Charleston for a day.

They were stationed at a dingy motel with the most fascinating thing a five year old could find as being a chocolate bar decked with two layers — one containing white chocolate and the other containing milk chocolate — lazily sitting in the vending machine.

Georgie had begged and begged her father to buy her the chocolate bar but when Luke calculated the dollar bills in his wallet, Georgie knew that by the look on his face they didn't have enough money.

The trip was expensive enough in itself considering their financial condition and to top it of, a large chocolate bar from the costly vending machine was like the devil taunting them.

She didn't ask for it again.

She was okay without it — at least she had her dad and her twin brother to have fun with.

Charleston felt like a foreign place and to the two blonde kids, it was everything they'd dreamed of.

When they got to the Fair, Luke was supposed to keep an eye on his children — as is expected of any responsible guardian — but he didn't.

Because Luke is far from responsible.

So when she accidentally let go of JJ's tiny hand while they were walking through the heavy crowd, she didn't think much of it.

Because for Georgie, this was an opportunity.

An opportunity for adventure.

By that point, she'd grown tired of the constant back and forth between the beach, John B's chateau and Heyward's shop.

She wanted something new.

Georgie had always been a curious kid, eager to learn and consume every piece of knowledge driving her way.

And getting lost in the crowd for a while felt good, it was a new experience and she was eager to go back home and narrate it to her friends.

But then the sun set.

And the rush began.

And her brother was nowhere to be found.

Neither was her father.

Then the fear came, at first, slowly creeping up in the form of anxiety not being easily detectable.

And then it turned monstrous bringing with it the unavoidable and saddening urge to cry.

She cried that evening.

She cried a lot.

Only when she caught a glimpse of a panicked Luke running up to her through her blurred vision as she sat next to the old lady at the candy shop did she feel slightly okay.

That was probably the last day when she had clutched onto her father's large frame and cried her lungs out.

And it was also the last day when her father had felt like he'd truly lost.

Today, with the heavy rainfall and the loud winds colliding with the glass of the window in John B's room, Georgie lay under a blanket on the bed thinking.

About that day.

For a few hours, she'd felt relief — for the fact that she was now safe and that maybe, just maybe, those few hours of separation had transformed Luke Maybank into a completely new person.

She was wrong, as she always is when it comes to things like these.

He'd hit JJ when they had returned to the motel.

Hit his son for not looking after his daughter.

And JJ had cried himself to sleep, while Georgie had clung to his little frame like a desperate cub clinging to its mother.

That day is one of the many that inevitably tell her that if she is to think about family, she is to think about JJ.

And her friends, of course.

But by blood, JJ is the only one she's got.

And she's the only one he has.

Georgie tiredly exhales shifting to lay on her back and pulls the blanket up, the temperature now feeling low due to the downpour.

"Georgie, you want some fries?", JJ knocks on the door and she immediately yells back with an affirmative reply.

After a minute or two of laying still, she throws the blanket away and gets back on her feet straightening her clothes and walking out into the living room.

She finds JJ near the stove turning on the microwave while he carelessly whistles slightly bobbing his head to the sound of Fleetwood Mac playing on his phone.

She glances around — her eyebrows furrowing at his absence.

"Where's John B?", she asks causing JJ's head to snap in her direction and the whistling to take a momentary pause.

"Taking a shower. Though how exactly a cold shower is supposed to help during a hurricane, I have no idea", he rolls his eyes hitting a button on the microwave.

Suddenly the lights turn off.

"JJ!", Georgie yells running a hand through her hair in frustration.

"What?", he scratches the back of his head.

"Plugging in a microwave? During a hurricane? Come on".

She walks over to him, huffing and bending down to look at the microwave.

She turns the switch off, pulling the plug right after and sighs irritatedly.

"Power's out and there's nothing we can do about it", she glances back at him in scorn, the blond shrugging in response.

"Uh. Guys, power's out".

Georgie turns to her left, her breath catching in her throat at the sight of John B standing there — rubbing the back of his neck — in nothing but a towel round his waist.

Water drips from his hair, down his neck and eventually cascading down his toned chest.

He ruffles his wet hair, placing his hands on his hips and staring at the brother-sister duo.

Georgie tries to tear her eyes away from him, this is wrong, her mind yells.

Look away! it commands her.

But she just can't seem to focus on anything else, anything other than the way his wet hair look lightly stick to his forehead and the way the towel hangs low on his hips, his prominent muscles being revealed in pride.

She wants to kiss him right now.

"Yeah, well, guess we'll just have to sleep all day", JJ rolls his eyes walking over to the couch.

John B's eyes follow him and then he returns his gaze to Georgie who quickly looks away clearing her throat.

"Was it the microwave?".

She nods, "JJ turned it on".

"Oh. Let me see".

He begins walking towards her and alarm bells go off inside her brain.

Walk away! it begs her.

But surprisingly, she stays put, frozen even.

He gets close, the warmth now radiating off his body as he stands close behind her with knitted brows.

You've seen him without clothes before, stop gawking!

He leans forward, her breath going awry once again to the point where she feels like she might never breath again.

His breath hits the side of her neck, her eyelids begging to flutter shut.

John B hums licking his lips.

Oh fuck me, kill me now.

Georgie stays frozen in place resembling a statue one which is clearly dying inside.

"The power cord's burnt, I think. Gonna have to get a new one tomorrow".

Georgie only nods not quite trusting herself to speak.

He pulls back exhaling loudly and walks away into the living room bickering with JJ as he nears the couch.

Georgie finds herself missing his warmth as soon as he leaves, the way his body was so close her, just a little tilt of his head would've landed his lips to the side of her head.

Oh, how heavenly his lips would feel.

Especially on her neck, touching her slowly and painfully trailing their way down.

And she's fucked.

***
two words: hot damn