CASTAWAY ⚓ R.C, J.M

T W E N T Y F O U R

Harley felt like she had been sucker punched. Tears pooled in an instant, her heart beginning to ache. No way she had lost another parent. "Wh- what? Ward k-killed. Ward killed our dad?"

"No." John B got in Harley's face. "He killed my dad."

"John B," there was warning laced in JJ's tone.

Harley whimpered with glassy eyes. The aching in her heart intensified to a stabbing sensation. She really wanted JJ beside her.

"He was my dad, too."

"No he wasn't. You're not actually family. You're a castaway we let stay too long. If it wasn't for you and your shit then I would have realised something was wrong with my dad sooner and gone looking for him. He would be alive, right now."

Guilt stirred in Harley's stomach making her feel nauseous. 

"John B, stop!" Kie cried. "We know it's a shock and it hurts, but you're saying stuff you don't mean."

John B wasn't listening, he just kept going. "If you were my family you wouldn't have hidden shit from me the way you did. You wouldn't have been getting with your brother's best friend!"

The whole area went silent. Crickets stopped clicking in the grass and birds had gotten quiet in one fell swoop. 

"Yeah. I know." John B's voice dropped, "You and JJ are shit at secrets."

JJ stepped forward. "Look, dude..."

"Save it, JJ."

"I wanted to tell you. I was going to. But, then JJ and I fell out at Midsummer's and we stopped." Harley took wobbly steps toward John B. She needed him to know that she didn't mean to hurt him and that they were family. They had gone through too much not to be. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, okay? B-but, but you're my brother. You are. I-I only have you. And you've got me."

John B pushed Harley's outstretched hands away and got onto JJ's bike. "I don't want you. I want my dad." 

Dust kicked up into the air as John B left his friends behind. 

Nothing anybody said truly registered for Harley after that. Learning that Big John had been murdered by Ward shook her to her core, because Ward had been there the second Big John had gone missing. He had given John B a job and supported Harley despite her breakup with Rafe. Now it was clear that Ward Cameron was a very bad person, and Rafe had turned out the same. Ward was an evil man and it worried her what he would do now. If you were capable of murder, you were capable of anything. 

JJ circled his arms around Harley and pressed his lips to the back of her head. She felt comforted, but she didn't feel better.

"He didn't mean that."

"I think he did." 

JJ turned her around. His lips found her forehead before his eyes found hers. "He didn't. John B's in shock. We all are. He's angry. But, when he cools off, he's going to come find you and he's going to apologise. You're not gonna give in easily, but you two will be okay. He's literally loved having you as a little sister."

Harley remembered how ecstatic John B had been when her adoption certification came in the post. That day had been the best day of her life. "I've loved being his sister."

Even if John B came back and told her he didn't mean anything he said, it didn't change the fact Big John was dead. It had been an open wound that never healed because of denial. JB refused to believe his dad was dead, so Harley refused to believe it too. Now she knew they were deluded to think he'd come marching through the Chateau door like nothing ever happened.