𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑷𝑰𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑺 𝑰𝑺 𝑨 𝑩𝑼𝑻𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑭𝑳𝒀 || 𝑹𝑨𝑭𝑬 𝑪𝑨𝑴𝑬𝑹𝑶𝑵

Agatha

Lissie Abbot was supposed to be at Yale, drinking coffee with scholarly kids with pretentious outfits but instead, she's back home, in the Outer Banks. Her impulsive gap year after her mother's sudden diagnosis and then eventual death made her convince herself that once she left that small town, the memories of her mother would be left and forgotten. They called it paradise on earth and Lissie manipulated herself into thinking that it was too.

She wallowed in her grief most times but when she thinks she's had enough of it, she helps out at The Wreck, the outer banks institution as John B would call it. Owned by her mom's best friend, she spends most of her time helping out at the restaurant, and when she's not helping out at the restaurant, she's getting dragged around by Kiara and her friends, distracting her from her feelings.

The Pogues were two years younger than her which she never minded, though they were a bit immature at times, it did come with their age. She always found time to be with them. She appreciated their support for her, even though she was the mom in the group. They wanted their adventures and they sometimes took her along with them.

Hurricane Agatha was coming in a few hours and she's been boarding up her house for what seemed like days preparing for the storm to come. Her dad was in Kilimanjaro on another hiking trip with his buddies. He was never home. Ever since her mom died and she turned eighteen, he scurried off the island, almost fleeing from the grief that came with her mother's departure. And somehow, he always chose the highest places with the worst signal leaving her with a once-a-week check-up call from her father.

"All good here, Lissie?" Ward Cameron, her neighbor asks as he placed down the last pieces of plywood beside her.

Why her house had to have glass all over the first floor was the death of her. The storm hasn't even hit yet and all this effort was for a house so big with no one but her that lived inside.

"Yep. Thanks, Mr. Cameron!" She replies, picking up the wood beside her before placing it on the last window to be boarded.

The Camerons were her neighbors ever since she was born. She knew of Ward Cameron's children, as the Pogues would put it, they were full-on kooks. She somehow grew up with them being neighbors, having backyard barbecues and pool parties together when she was little. The Camerons' crew were kind enough to help her sort out things in the house before the hurricane hits.

"Hey, where are you staying tonight?" Ward asks the girl.

"Here?" She answers confused as to why he's worried. She couldn't tell him that the Pogues invited her to The Chateau for the night as he'd definitely warn her about them and she didn't want the kids to be insulted that way. She knew how the kooks felt about pogues.

"You can stay with us if you'd like. Agatha's supposed to be one of the biggest." He offers her.

"No, that's all right, Mr. Cameron. I'll be fine here." She responds quickly looking at the work she's done for the past hour or so.

She couldn't wait to get drunk tonight. She just wants to be one with the storm.

"Anna would have wanted you to stay with us. She wouldn't have wanted you to stay home alone during a hurricane." Ward says before walking back over to Tannyhill.

That left her dumbfounded. What an asshole. Why would he bring up her mom? What kind of guilt trip is he on? She could never say no to people that kept her mother's name alive.

"Mr. Cameron?" She calls for him.

He looks back at her waiting for her response. He knew he won her over.

"I'll stay over later." She says as her heart swells with pain so hurtful she went inside and started gathering wine bottles.

Thunder rumbled overhead as she stashed her small wine collection inside the bedside drawer. Tannyhill had multiple guest rooms so the Camerons' housing her for the night wouldn't be a problem for them. She was dressed for bed and ready for her wines when the power cut off. No one would be shocked if the whole island had no electricity, even the kooks can't pay God to bring back their power right now.