~~~
Belle walked out of her room seeing her parents sitting at the kitchen table with her brother. it had been a few weeks since John B and Sarah's disappearance, school was starting up in a few more weeks and Belle wasn't the same Belle she was at the beginning of the summer. she shut her door shoving her phone in her pocket making her way to the fridge grabbing a water before slamming the door shut.
"Belle." Zale sternly said.
the girl turned around looking at her brother avoiding eye contact with her parents.
"we gotta talk. sit down." he pulled out the chair next to him for her to sit, Belle walked over sitting down crossing her arms.
"oh my babies, look at you two-" Elizabeth started to say.
"cut the bullshit." Belle spat, "why are you guys back? after four years, you just decide to randomly come back?"
"we can explain that. we just need you two to hear us out." Noah calmly said.
"explain how you two somehow owed Barry money and with one little threat he gave you, you two just ran off and didn't think about your children?" Belle asked raising her eyebrows at her parents.
"we paid him back." Elizabeth said.
"how?" Zale asked.
"we went off to California, made our own business and it went great, when we realized how much money we had we thought it was a good time to come back. pay him off and get a better house for us down here." Noah explained, Belle scoffed shaking her head standing up.
"so you two just up and left California to come back here? after not speaking to us for four years thinking we can be a big happy family again?" Belle asked.
"we know it sounds bad-"
"yeah, it does." Zale snapped, "do you guys wanna know how hard we struggled the last four years? just so i can feed the both of us and keep a roof over our heads? how i had to pay for school all on my own!" he yelled.
"Zale, sweetie. we're sorry, we are! but we're back and we're trying." Elizabeth stated.
"you should just leave again. we don't need you." he argued.
"we moved the business down here to see you guys again. we bought a house in Figure Eight, where we can all live and make things right!" Noah stated looking at his son.
"so you paid Barry back so he's off your backs, bought a house on Figure Eight, and then came to see us?" Belle asked feeling her phone vibrate.
"yes-"
"but you still left! you left us! without a phone call or a text or even a fucking letter! just gone!" Belle yelled, "and now you think you can come here with your money to buy us back? well here's a huge news flash for you mom, we're fine here! we don't need your money or your Kook house. you can try all you want but we don't want fucking anything from you." she spat pushing the chair in roughly grabbing her bag rushing out the front door.
"Belle!" Noah called out following his daughter outside.
"gotta go, dad!" she spat walking down the steps towards JJ's bike.
"Arabelle Lively!" he yelled, she stopped turning around hearing her full real name shaking her head at him.
"you don't get to be the parent now. not after you ditched your kids for four years, enjoy your Kook life." she spat getting on JJ's bike holding onto him as he sped off.
~~~
"haven't heard that name in a while." JJ told his girlfriend as they laid on the sand at the boneyard on a towel.
"yeah, surprised he remembered it." she looked at his hand that was holding hers.
"they're full Kook now?" he asked blowing the smoke of his joint in the other direction.
Belle nodded sighing lightly, "they wanted us to move in with them but i told them we're doing fine on our own."
"your brother isn't gonna let that happen, not after everything they did." he handed her the joint as she took it sitting up.
"have you heard from Shoupe?" she asked changing the subject not wanting to speak about her parents.
"no, Kie went yesterday for updates but they haven't found anything yet." he sat up looking at her.
"he has to be okay. they both do." her voice cracked.
"babe.."
"i know. fuck i know." she rubbed her face hearing JJ rummage through his bag pulling out a flask.
"where'd you get that?" she asked.
"had it hidden for a while," he opened it up taking a sip of the alcohol.
"don't go to crazy with it will you? at least not without me." she held out her hand for the flask which he handed over.
"never." he shook his head watching her down the drink.
"Kie did a good job doing your hair." he twirled a piece of her hair looking at her now black hair.
"yeah, she wanted to test out a new look for me for school." she chuckled, "i trusted her enough to not damage it but it's fine."
"i bet she watched it youtube." he laughed pulling her closer to him.
"if she did she probably watched a really good youtube video." she laughed resting her head on his shoulder.
"how are we gonna do school without him?"
"i have no idea." he sighed.
nobody knew what their first day of school was going to be like, everyone still thought it was John B that killed Peterkin. nobody had heard or seen Rafe after the incident at the garage and nobody wanted to either. Belle only had one thing on her mind and it was to clear John B's name so everyone can have the memory of him being innocent and not a murderer.
~~~
Belle shut the front door of her house noticing her parents on the couch, the two looked over quickly standing up looking at their daughter. she looked at them and went straight off to her room shutting the door setting her things down not wanting anything to do with them. she felt her chest tighten as she clutched it taking deep breath's holding in her tears, a couple slipped out but Belle managed to get herself together. she didn't want to look or feel weak, she wanted to be strong for John B and Sarah.
"Belle?" Elizabeth knocked on her door.
"go away." Belle stated picking up some dirty clothes from her floor tossing them into the hamper.
"honey, please." her mother begged, Belle looked at the door and slowly approached it opening it slightly.
"can i talk to you for a minute?" Elizabeth asked, Belle hesitated and nodded letting her mother into her room.
Elizabeth admired the room, she always knew her daughter had a thing for books since she turned three. smiling at the books all around the room and the photos of her and the Pogues on her wall. Elizabeth turned around to her daughter who just stood silently in the corner of her room with her arms crossed.
"i want you to come live with us." Belle scoffed at her mother's words.
"no."
"Belle, we can get you out of the cut. your father already tried with Zale after you left and he's stuck on staying here. but you can come live with us, wouldn't you like a bigger room with more space to put up your books and be able to decorate more?" Elizabeth asked, Belle thought of the idea of having a new room but this small room and small house down by the cut next to the Château was her home.
"i like it here and i'm not leaving Zale alone." Belle said putting more clothes away.
"Belle, we don't want you to live as a Pogue for the rest of your life. is that what you want? if you come home you won't-"
"this is home!" Belle snapped quickly facing her mother, "i like being a Pogue and i always will be. you think you can just come back here and convince us to go Kook? you're wrong!"
"i am trying to make up for the lost time i caused, Belle. but you and your brother are making it so damn difficult!" Elizabeth argued, Belle laughed shaking her head.
"lost time," she chuckled, "hate to break it to you but everything you two did you won't be getting it back that easily. have a nice life in Figure Eight."
Elizabeth sighed pulling out a pamphlet of her back pocket to the Kook Academy slamming it on her dresser.
"you can get out of the cut and out of that shit school you go to and find better friends than those Pogues." Elizabeth spat leaving the room slamming the door shut.
Belle looked at the pamphlet throwing it into her trash can in her room locking the door to her room. she heard a truck leave her house and looked out the window seeing her parents leaving. she sighed shutting her curtains laying in her bed turning to her side looking at the picture of her and John B.
"please be okay." Belle whispered and shut her eyes.
~~~
hello all!
i hoped you all enjoyed this bonus chapter, there will be another bonus chapter up very soon as i'm rewatching season 2 to get ideas for the future events on this book and waves!
thank you all so much for 11k reads on this book already as it's been two weeks since it's been published.
Belle will be back very soon!
love, A.