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"𝙄 𝘾𝘼𝙉'𝙏 𝘽𝙀𝙇𝙄𝙀𝙑𝙀 you found the real Royal Merchant." Charlotte awed, stealing a glance at the three teenagers in her car as she turned into a parking spot. "You guys do realize how cool that is, right?"
Two days after her fight with Rafe, Charlotte was out of the house for the first time.
For two days she had sat in her room, ignoring calls from Kensington and Willa and watching as Kiara zipped in and out of the house, off on adventures every day it seemed.
Charlotte didn't have the energy for any of that.
But, when her sister had told her about the OBX Summer Movie Series, she couldn't resist. It had been their favourite thing to do as kids, so of course they were dragging JJ and Pope along with them.
"Don't get too excited, Charley." JJ warned. "We didn't find the gold."
Charlotte shrugged as she shut off the car. "Still kind of cool." She paused for a moment. "Where is John B, anyway?"
Pope let out a sigh. "We don't really know."
"Are we thinking that we should be concerned?" Charlotte wondered, feeling uneasy with his absence.
"Nah." JJ assured as he threw open his door. "He's probably working on the next part of the hunt. He'll turn up when he's ready."
"Okay then." Charlotte muttered, pulling herself out of the car and toward the back. "Here." She ordered, passing the cooler to JJ. "If you don't mind."
He gave her a wink. "Of course I don't mind for you, my dearest Charley."
"JJ, stop flirting with her." Pope ordered as he grabbed the remaining chairs. "You're embarrassing yourself."
JJ flipped him off as Charlotte laughed, throwing her spare arm around the younger boy. "It's endearing, JJ."
He shoved away from her. "Whatever."
"I'm so glad they're still doing this." Kiara beamed as she walked ahead of the other three, ignoring their shenanigans. "Keep calm. Carry on. Back to OBX life. You know?"
Charlotte looked around at the crowd, afraid she was going to see someone she did not want to.
"Aren't you guys glad I made you come?" Kie continued, blissfully glancing around.
Pope set the chairs down with a sarcastic smile. "Ecstatic."
"My couch was pretty comfy, I'll be honest." JJ quipped.
"Come on guys." Charlotte prodded. "You need to have some fun this summer. It can't all be about ─" she dropped her voice to a whisper. "─ you know what."
"Charley's right." Kie agreed as she began setting up the chairs. Unbeknownst to her, Pope and JJ were muttering about something as she continued speaking. "We need to maintain some normalcy, or else we'll totally lose our minds. Like we'll go crazy and probably turn on each other and then ─"
Charlotte cut her off. "Kie, they are one hundred percent not listening to a word you say."
Kiara rolled her eyes. "Of course they aren't." She stood up and reached into her back pocket. "I'm going to get a soda. Want anything?"
Charlotte nodded, pulling money out of her bag to give to her sister. "Yeah. Get me a Pepsi, please. I'll pay."
With an annoyed look at the boys, Kiara took the cash out of Charlotte's hand before disappearing toward the concession stand.
Meanwhile, Pope and JJ continued to ramble on about something under their breath.
When JJ noticed Charlotte's curious stares, he hit Pope in an effort to get him to stop talking. "Dude, shut up."
Charlotte studied their expressions for a moment. "What are you talking about?"
"Nothing." JJ quickly lied. But the look on Pope's face was not convincing.
"Pope?" Charlotte pressed, knowing he would be the one to cave first. "You can tell me."
He gave JJ, who was vehemently shaking his head, a guilty look before turning back to Charlotte. "You haven't talked to Topper or Rafe in the past few days, have you?"
She had no idea what this could be about, so she simply shook her head as slight worry crawled up her chest. "No. Why?"
She decided not to bring up the last time she had talked to ─yelled at ─ Rafe.
"No reason." JJ interjected quickly. "Just wanted to make sure you're not going full Kook on us anything."
Charlotte wasn't an idiot, so she wasn't convince with what JJ was saying. However, before she could press anymore, Kiara returned with an odd look on her face.
"Just talked to Rafe." She said, passing Pope and Charlotte their Pepsis. "He said, and I quote, 'Tell your boy we know what he did.'"
Charlotte sunk lower into her chair, her face heating up. "He's here?"
Kiara nodded. "What is he talking about?" She pressed the two boys.
Unlike Charlotte who was doing her best to avoid spotting Rafe Cameron, JJ sat up. "Where is he?"
"Right there."
The three younger members of the group turned behind them, meanwhile Charlotte stayed slumped in her chair with her head down.
"Great." Pope grunted. "The whole death squad." Which most likely meant Kelce and Topper were here with him.
JJ pulled him back toward the front. "Don't stare, bro!" He shook his head. "I'm just saying, bro. If they corner me, I'm coming out swinging, okay?"
Charlotte and Kiara shared a look before focusing on JJ. "What the hell did you guys do?" The eldest Carrera sister demanded.
JJ ignored her as he continued. "Slice' and dicin'. I'm on edge right now."
Pope was nodding vehemently in agreement as if JJ was making some excellent points.
"And if that doesn't work, I've got this right here." JJ picked up his backpack, and Charlotte felt her face pale slightly ─ easily being able to deduce what was in there.
"Yeah. Yeah. So we just gotta stay in the group." Pope instructed. "They can't get us if we're in a group."
"Like a school of fish."
It was painfully obvious that the two boys were saying anything to alleviate their own worries. "Gotta stay in the school. Can't leave the school."
As Pope continued mumbling to himself, Kiara leaned forward. "I'm sorry, JJ, please tell me you did not bring a gun here. JJ, there are kids!"
"No! Kie, I didn't bring a gun. Everything's fine, okay?"
But Charlotte could tell by the look on his face that he did, indeed, bring a gun.
"Oh! Wow, thank you. That's really convincing. I love that, JJ." Kie snapped, sarcasm dripping from her every word. "Founding secret, you guys. No secrets among Pogues. What is Rafe talking about?"
Pope had a death grip on his Pepsi as he looked between the two girls. "Kie, Charley, it might go down tonight."
Charlotte scrunched up her face slightly. "Pope, what does that even mean. What did you do?"
He didn't answer her, but she could faintly hear JJ muttering something to him ─ one word, over and over.
She looked between the two of them. "Do you want me to go say something to him? Because I will. I'll tell him to drop whatever the hell it is that's going on."
Not that she wanted to go talk to Rafe, but she was willing to if it was going to stop it from "going down" tonight.
"No." Pope argued, grabbing onto Charlotte's arm as she began to rise from her chair. "You don't have to do that...we have it handled."
The pleading look in Pope's eyes caused Charlotte to slowly lower back into her chair, a looming feeling of tension over head. Something was going to go down tonight, she just didn't know what.
As the movie began to play in front of them, Charlotte leaned further into her seat before slowly turning her head ever so slightly.
When she looked at Rafe Cameron, he was already watching her.
─☼☼☼─
The once hazy evening sky had turned to dark as the movie played on.
Charlotte's legs were numb from sitting in the less-than- comfortable lawn chair for so long, but she wasn't going to complain.
She was with some of her favourite people, back home in the summer. Why should she complain?
Well, there was the fact that her ex-boyfriend was looming in the dark somewhere behind her, gearing up to exact some kind of revenge on her friends. I guess she could complain about that.
Her attention was drawn from the movie when Pope and JJ both stood up, causing a small flare of panic to surge through her.
"Where are you going?" She whispered, the tightness to her voice evident.
JJ glanced over at her. "Gotta wring it out."
Charlotte screwed up her face as Kie scoffed. "Gonna hold it for each other?"
"And they say girls are bad." Charlotte muttered to her sister as the two boys disappeared around the back of the screen.
Kie cracked a small smile before her eyes settled on the spot the boys had just vacated. "Maybe you should talk to Rafe." She declared, a slight anxious tone to her voice. "You're the only one of us that he would listen to in the slightest. Just ask him to call off whatever this whole thing is."
It was obvious that this situation was stressing Kiara out, otherwise she would have never asked her sister to talk to Rafe voluntarily.
So, with that knowledge, Charlotte gave a small nod. "Okay." She agreed quietly. "I can go find him now, ask him to speak to me in private."
But as she turned in the direction where Rafe, Topper and Kelce had been sitting, she found it to be vacant. "Kie." She whispered, voice wobbling. "They're not there."
Kiara spun around, her face dropping as she saw what her sister was seeing. "Shit." She cursed, turning back toward the front.
Charlotte was doing the same, and instantly saw her ex-boyfriend sauntering over in the direction of JJ and Pope.
"We gotta go." She announced, already out of her chair and heading toward where the boys were gathered. "It's going to be bad."
Kie nodded, her face taught in concern as she bent down and scooped up JJ's discarded backpack. "Just in case."
Charlotte's body stiffened slightly, but she nodded nonetheless.
The two girls hurried through the crowd, neither of them saying a word. Charlotte felt nauseous over what they were about to find. She was smart enough to know it wouldn't be good.
As they rounded the screen, her previous worries were confirmed. Her heart lurched as she laid eyes on the scene ─ Pope and Topper in a skirmish, while Kelce delivered punched to the face of JJ who was being held back by Rafe.
Kiara and Charlotte didn't need to say anything to each other, they both knew what they needed to do.
Kie took off toward Pope and Topper. Charlotte couldn't see what her sister was doing, because her focus was solely on Rafe, JJ and Kelce.
"Rafe!" She snapped, stomping toward them. She had broken up enough of his fights to know how to handle him. "RAFE!"
Kelce paused his beating for a moment, all three boys looking toward Charlotte who stood with an infuriated look on her face.
A laugh fell from Rafe's lips as he leaned closer to JJ's ear. "Got your little friend's big sister sticking up for you now? Huh, Pogue?"
JJ tried to pull free, but Rafe only tightened his grip. "You going full Pogue now, Lottie, or what?"
She could hear Pope and Topper still struggling in the background and looking over her shoulder, she could see that Kie was trying to break them apart.
"That's not what this is about Rafe. Just let him go."
He cocked his head to the side slightly, a taunting smirk on his face. "I think I'm good."
The next punch that Kelce delivered was harder than the rest of them. Charlotte could audibly hear the pained gasp from JJ as Kelce's fist collided with his ribs.
Charlotte had been angry when her and Kie first arrived back here, but now she was seething.
In two large strides, she had neared the three boys and promptly shoved her way in between Kelce and JJ, not at all caring if she got hit. "Kelce, cut it out!" She ordered, giving him a hard shove away from the younger boy.
Kelce's eyes fixated on her for a moment before he grabbed onto her, harshly shoving her out of the way.
"Hey!" JJ snapped, his voice muffled by his own blood as Charlotte stumbled.
"Take him." Rafe ordered to Kelce before shoving JJ out of his arms. "I've got her."
As he turned to Charlotte, she saw a glint of something in the way he looked at Kelce...he was pissed that he had touched her.
Charlotte almost smiled to herself. She still had him right where she wanted him.
"Get up." He ordered, grabbing onto her arm and pulling her up from the ground. He didn't do it lightly, but he wasn't as rough as he could have been either.
"Let go of me, Rafe!" She demanded, trying to yank free as his two arms fastened around her entire body, preventing her from interfering any further.
He held her close to his own body, not budging as she struggled against his grip. "What did I tell you about getting in the middle of things?"
His voice was directly in her ear, causing a shiver to run down her spine.
"LET GO!"
The situation was only escalating.
Topper now had Pope in a choke hold, and Kelce had hit JJ so many times Charlotte wasn't sure how or why he was still going.
"Rafe, please." She begged, dropping her voice to a whisper. "Please."
When they were dating, it had been so easy as her shedding a few tears and begging him to stop that would actually get the job done. She knew it wouldn't be that easy now.
The soft spot that Rafe Cameron once held in his heart for Charlotte Carrera had surely hardened.
Rafe ignored her, just tightened his hold on her as she tried to free herself again and again.
So if he wouldn't listen, she would have to appeal to someone else.
"Topper!" She screamed, leaning as far forward as she could in Rafe's stronghold. "Top, let him go! Whatever happened, we can figure it out, okay?"
With a horribly sick feeling, Charlotte realized that Topper was on the brink of killing Pope. Just like he had done to John B.
"Rafe." She gasped, nails digging into his arms. "Rafe, he's fucking killing him!"
"You don't mess with me, Pogue!" Topper yelled at Pope. "I'm going to give you one last chance! Anything you want to say to me? Huh?"
"POPE!?" JJ yelled, his own voice strained.
Rafe let out a maniacal laugh. "Finish him off, Top!"
Charlotte balked up at him. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" She bit out, tears of frustration in her eyes.
Thank God for Kiara. Because without her, Charlotte was genuinely afraid that Topper would have killed Pope. And if he didn't do it, she feared Rafe would have.
The sky lit up as fire ravaged along the bottom of the movie screen.
Kiara shot back to her feet, stumbling away from the scene she had just caused.
Genius. Charlotte thought, grateful for her little sister's quick thinking.
"Guys!" Rafe yelled to the other two. "Fire!"
His grip instantly released from Charlotte, and she shot him the most withering glare she could muster and she shoved him away with all of her force.
He stumbled, barely giving her a second look as he grabbed onto Topper. "Let's go, man."
"Kelce!" Charlotte screamed, realizing that he had yet to release JJ. "Let go of him!"
It seemed that the calling of his name prompted Kelce to finally realize what was going on around him.
He released his hold on JJ, shoving the young boy into Charlotte's arms before turning to look at the fire that was burning behind them.
"Lottie!" Rafe snapped, as if she owed him something. "Let's go. Now."
She looked over at him like he had two headed, her arms still around JJ. "What?"
"I'm taking you home." Rafe declared. "Let's go."
Charlotte freed one of her hands from JJ, raising it to flip off her ex-boyfriend. "Fuck off, Rafe. You're not taking me anywhere."
Rafe grinned for a moment, seemingly enthralled by Charlotte's anger toward him, before he gave a small nod. With one final look at the chaos he and his friends had caused, Rafe Cameron turned and left.
Tearing her eyes away from his retreating figure, Charlotte looked at the bloodied JJ in her hands. "Are you okay?" She wondered, very well knowing the answer.
The blonde boy cracked a teasing grin, blood spilling from his split lip. "Never better."
"You guys are idiots." Pope groaned as Kie helped him to his feet. "You especially." He added, eyes on Kiara.
She winked, throwing an arm around his shoulder.
"Saved your asses, didn't we?"
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