𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐋 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑 - kiara carrera¹

𝒙𝒗𝒊𝒊𝒊. 𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒛𝒚 𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉

TATUM QUINN HAD OFFICIALLY BROKEN DOWN.

Sitting at the back of Sheriff Peterkin's car, she grinned. Not the fun, delightful grin everybody knew and loved too well. This grin was new. It was dark, dangerous.

The day went by in slow motion: the confession, the arrest, the mugshots - nothing Tatum hadn't done before. She wasn't scared. But she wasn't happy, either. She was demonic. She didn't utter a word. She just grinned, at every single person, looking into their souls like she was planning their murder, like she could see their greatest fear.

She looked just like her brother.

"We need you."

Tatum looked up at Kiara Carrera for the first time since she entered the interrogation room. Three days. She'd been in juvie three days, and was already wearing a coat of purple over her left eye. She didn't giggle. She didn't laugh. No, Tatum Quinn chuckled. It was low and full of threat. "Of course you do."

Kie shook her head. The girl sitting in front of her was unrecognisable. Her coat was off. Her arms were bare under the short-sleeved, orange jumpsuit. John B was right. She'd been through so much, and they were too blind to see. "Big John found the Merchant before he disappeared."

"Really? That's cool," said Tatum dryly, bored and tired of hearing all about some random ship wreck from a hundred years ago.

The small room went silent for a moment. Kiara couldn't help but finally notice how exhausted Tatum was under it all. Had she always looked like this? Her eyes scanned the girl's arms. Had she always felt like this? Kie wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer. Her mind drifted back to when John B came to them later that day - after he'd kissed her.

He was a wreck. The man had come chasing after him again, he'd been fired, but none of that affected him nearly as much as Tatum's words. Her harsh, but true words. Not a single one of the pouges had ever stopped to think about how that girl might've been feeling on the inside - they thought she'd always be fine, she was a Quinn, after all. They knew her home was a scary place to be, but they didn't know how bad it actually was. Because Tatum was right - they honestly didn't care. That was what hurt the four teenagers the most; the realisation that they didn't care about the girl who would do anything for them. Then, she went and got herself arrested before they could apologise.

"Listen, I know we probably haven't appreciated you as much as we should've over the years, but -" At Tatum's scoff, Kiara went quiet. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes, begging to be released. She hated herself for making this girl feel such a way - she made the girl she loved feel like the smallest person in the world. Because she did love her. She knew that now. Kiara knew the moment John B pressed his lips to hers that Tatum was the one she wanted. Tatum was the one who drove her half-mad, thinking about her through the night. Worrying about the kind of trouble she might have gotten herself into. Tatum Quinn was the one she loved. But she could never say it out loud. She tried - in this very moment, she tried - but the words refused to leave her lips.

Tatum shook her head. "Don't apologise, there's no point now - it's not like you're ever gonna see me again."

"My dad's getting you out on bail," Kie said positively, a desperate smile forming on her face. She needed - she craved - Tatum Quinn's signature smirk. There was nothing in the world that could bring joy into Kiara's mind the way her grin did. Her giggle. He sweetness. Kie hated herself for taking it all for granted. All because she never knew how much she really depended on it. "There's a court date - one month from now - and we'll pass it easily. My parents already said -"

"Do you know what I'm in here for?" asked the girl suddenly. She was so pale. So fragile. Kiara never knew it could be so easy to break someone. Every glance she took at Tatum, she loathed herself more.

She shrugged. "I don't know. Probably arson, right?"

And there it was. That chuckle - Leroy's chuckle. Kiara's jaw dropped. The girl sitting in front of her was not the girl who gifted her stolen bracelets and helped clean out the beach. The girl sitting in front of her now was a Quinn. "I killed a guy, Kie," she said with no empathy. "Remember? The guy I shot - Cruz, I think his name was." Kiara was shaking her head now. There was no way this was possible. "We haven't seen him since, have we? Just his little friend, who gave me this." She unbuttoned her jumpsuit to reveal a large, poorly-stitched wound that crossed her stomach. She almost died. For them. Tatum shrugged. "It was well deserved, of course, but, God, that sucker hurt."

Tears - literal tears fell at the sound of Tatum being what her last name represented. She kept shaking her head, wanting nothing more than to pinch herself and wake up from this nightmare. "What the hell happened to you?"

Tatum grinned. But it didn't belong to Tatum. "Haven't you heard? I'm the crazy bitch around here."

A/n: Okay, but Tatum is going through her TS reputation era