JJ settles In For A Long Night

A few hours passed by, Nicole never once left her room, the red-haired girl's world was spinning out of control right now. She couldn't get past the thought of Anna and Kenny being stuck out in the storm, she wanted just to go out and find them, but she knew she had no chance. This only caused the girl to spiral even further into terrifying and depressing thoughts, which of course kept her a crying, sniffling mess. The only upshot was the amount of stress and crying she did make her eventually slip into a deep sleep, giving her some respite.

Mindy, Brian, and Kailyn were all dealing with things in a similar fashion. After fucking each other, Brian and Mindy separated, they didn't exactly know what they should think about the whole thing. Brian found himself really enjoying Mindy, for someone so new to sex, she didn't seem that off put by Brian's suggestions. Mindy, on the other hand, was starting to wonder why she threw herself at the blonde haired man so easily, seeing as the only man she wanted in her life was Kenny. Kailyn had no idea what events had transpired between the two, nor did she care at the moment, she simply wanted to go to bed, and try and sleep without thinking about the four young teens outside.

This left JJ and Rachel alone in the den; the jock wasn't getting any sleep tonight, he decided that. He felt at fault for this that somehow he could have done more and brought his friends back to safety. JJ tried to tell himself that it didn't make sense to feel this way, the teen started to compare the feeling of survivors guilt, which only made him angrier. As far as he knew, his friends were fine; survivors guilt was supposed to be for people who were dead! With this in his mind, JJ continued to rotate his thoughts between optimism and low pessimism, not able to settle on a side.

Rachel noticed what JJ was going through, he didn't say a word, but the way he continued to shake his head, run a hand through his hair, or rub his eyes, gave away his every thought. It was starting to worry the girl, she didn't want him to do something dumb, and she couldn't very well leave him alone in this state. "JJ, come on, it's enough now." She finally said causing him to glance over at her, "I know it's scary and hard to deal with but freaking out isn't going to help,"

"I...can't help it, Rachel," JJ muttered back while his leg began to bounce, "I should be out there, looking for them. No, I should have done something before, got us all back here,"

"You couldn't have done a thing different, JJ." Rachel softly assured the teen, "It's a shit situation, but we did the only thing we could. My brother was right; if we went looking or went back out, we'd end up lost and in the same situation as them." JJ hung his head and lightly shook it, "They're probably fine, just hold up somewhere waiting the night out. They'll be back in the morning, or the Rangers will find them, either way, we'll see them all soon."

"God...it's my fault," JJ sighed while cupping his hands over his face, "I shouldn't have let us split up in the first place,"

"It not your fault!" Rachel exclaimed while pulling JJ's hands away from his face, forcing the teen to look at her, "You didn't do anything wrong, Kenny went off on his own, I'm the one who lost her whole group. If anything, you should blame me, not yourself," Rachel firmly stated,

"No...Rachel, this isn't on you," JJ softly replied,

"It's more on me than you," Rachel retorted, "So stop sitting here losing your mind, I can't take it,"

"I'm sorry..." JJ sighed, "I just-the thought of them all out there in the dead of night, it's scares the ever living shit out of me,"

Rachel held a sympathetic look and gently pulled the teen into a hug, "It's going to be okay, we'll wait together," JJ returned the hug, feeling a bit of relief, "Then when they get back, we can kick their asses for making us worry," She added on with a short laugh,

JJ let out a half smile and weakly chuckled with her, "Sounds like a plan," He nodded while leaning back on the couch. Rachel let out a short hum and did the same, though she was nearly snuggled up next to JJ, her head even resting on his shoulder, "This is going to be a long night,"

"Yep...lucky you got me to spend it with," She smirked while peering up at the teen who flashed her a short smile.