𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝚬 𝐒𝚬𝐂𝐑𝚬𝐓, ʲᵒʰⁿ ᵇ ʳᵒᵘᵗˡᵉᵈᵍᵉ

iii. just keep lying

she'd always been her uncle's favorite. out of her and holly, briar was definitely the "normal" sister. uncle ward loved normal.

briar walked quickly down the dock to the druthers. the pregnant girl had been having waves of nashua since leaving the chateau that morning. she paused half way down the dock, leaning over to throw up. she dry heaved for a minute, nothing coming up. she was good for now.

briar walked into the druthers and down a little set of stairs where uncle ward stored the scuba. briar's already fragile stomach lost it when she saw her boyfriend already there.

"what the fuck?" briar blurted before losing her stomach onto the clean floor. john b panicked, racing over to hold briar's hair out of the way. he winced looking at the little butterfly stitch on briar's nose from their adventure last night.

"hey, hey, you're good," john b rubbed briar's back.

"i'm so fucking not," briar snapped wiping her mouth. she furiously removed a piece of gum from her pocket, desperate to get the sour taste from her mouth. "what are you doing?" she yelled. john b had a bag, which briar assumed to be filled with the missing scuba gear from the open closet.

"you're a thief now?"

"no, no, it's not what it looks like," john b tried to explain.

"then what the hell is it? because i could've easily gotten this for you but instead you break onto my uncle's boat, completely misusing the trust he gives you with the key. you went behind my back john b, what the hell?" briar wasn't just angry, she was hurt. she'd tried everything to get john b to understand that she wanted to help him, he wasn't charity, he was her boyfriend. and here he was, behind her back again.

"briar, listen, it's not about you," john b might've been good at a lot of things, but lying wasn't one of them.

"it better not be!" briar was crying for the second time today. "if you don't wanna tell me fine! but don't just keep lying and going behind my back. i understand i don't live in your world, but let me try to understand it."

"it's about that wreck," john b said. briar's eyebrow arched. the wreck seemed to be the only thing he'd been lying about lately. what was it about that boat? "we need to go back down there. it's obviously something big if peterkin wants me out of the marsh."

"exactly!" briar struggled to understand. "if she catches you in the marsh, she'll ship you to DCS on the mainland. and i'm not raising this baby alone."

"i know it's careless, and i'm so so sorry, bri. but, i have to do this. this could really be something. something to give us some help. you might have your parents backing you with money and fancy nurseries, but i don't. i wanna do something for this kid. please."

"let me in on it," briar said calmly.

"what?"

"let me in on it," she repeated. "if this is some big treasure hunt to help our baby then we're doing it together. somebody needs to hold you responsible and keep you out of trouble."

"no, briar, it could be dangerous. i mean, if peterkin's involved, something's up."

"if it's dangerous i'm not letting you do it alone!" briar yelled. she was sick of john b not seeing her side of the argument. "you might wanna run around with jj and have the best summer ever but you're gonna be a dad now. and that should mean something to you. because it means a whole lot to me."