❝did you ever hear about
the girl who got frozen?
time went on for everybody else,
she won't know it❞
-right where you left me, taylor swift
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chapter five, GRAVEYARD OF THE ATLANTIC
The air was thick with unspoken tension and emotions. Sarah, obviously with her family grieving and the pogues all somber and weird. AJ strolled the aisle of the small corner store JJ wanted to stop at to get some more beer.
She couldn't help but stop in the candy aisle, sour patch kids catching her eyes. They were her mother's favourite, which might have been why the girl's hand gravitated toward them. She didn't stop herself from grabbing a few bags and heading to the cash.
She emptied some change from her pocket, just enough to cover the stupid candy and she stepped off to the side after paying. Waiting for the blonde boy who was still roaming the store.
John B and the others were at the Chateau by now and AJ was leaning against the wall, bored. JJ took his sweet ass time to get what he wanted.
"Are you ready to go yet?" She let out annoyed when she decided to go find the boy.
"what's the rush? Or are you just super into the vibe back there?" JJ didn't seem to be thinking before he spoke and AJ was fast to come to the conclusion he never did.
"the vibe? yeah no" AJ leaned down to grab a case from the floor where JJ put it.
"oh, you're not into dead people?" AJ was quick to send him a disgusted look and shake her head. "unfortunate" She didn't have time to question why he was saying that before he finally got everything he came for.
JJ fished out the cash for the beer and after an annoyingly long time of the cashier trying to not sell them the beer, AJ and JJ were walking out of the corner shop, arms filled with beer cases.
AJ chose not to complain about having to carry back the beer to the chateau and instead decided silence was not the worst thing in the world. The sky was dark now, a cool breeze blowing through the island and calming AJ.
"why'd you come?" JJ asked and AJ raised a brow, hiding how taken aback she was by the question. "was it just because of your mom?"
"I mean, I had nothing in St Port Lucie apart from my mom and a few kids I smoked weed with." Once again, AJ failed to mention the little brother she would've done anything for. But why mention dead people?
"I guess it just made the most sense. A better part of her life revolved around whatever was in her office and so, like she asked me to, I'm finishing it for her" AJ didn't want to talk about it anymore so she picked her pace up a bit. She wasn't on the island to make friends and get comfortable. She was there to do what her mom couldn't do now.
And none of that came with giving her entire life story to some strangers who just happened to be somehow connected to it all.
AJ made it to the Chateau first and headed inside, not caring much to find out what the others were talking about outside. She dumped the case of beer she was holding by the door and made her way to the table.
They decided that it would be better to not have everything on show all of the time and instead to put everything away in a false bottom of one of the cabinets.
The papers were soon re-scattered over the surface of the table, AJ getting straight back into working everything out. Surely they had to be missing something.
She felt like she had gone over the papers a million times by now but she needed answers. Her body sank into the chair she picked, her knees brought up onto the chair as she got comfier.
AJ needed to focus solely on the papers. Try to push the information she knew out of her head. It seemed impossible but she knew it was the only way to get something new from it all.
Along the way, without the girl even realizing it herself, AJ grabbed the candies she bought. Sour patch kids scattered onto the table, the blonde teenager snacking on a few as she went.
She couldn't help but feel like this is what her mother felt like. Cooped up in the office, an endless supply of sour patch kids and a million papers in front of her. No instruction on what to do next.
AJ contemplated grabbing the old books and re-reading them. Their large size making the girl think about it. Not to mention the fact that if she committed the time to read it and it ended up being a colossal waste of time she'd probably give up entirely.
The door opening didn't faze the girl, having not heard it. She grabbed a blue sour patch kid and began biting the head off it. "I do that too" The voice made her jump in her skin a bit but she composed herself and turned, Pope, coming into sight as he walked closer. His steps making the floor creak.
"What?" She was confused and slightly out of it and Pope chuckled a bit.
"bite the head off first" He answered, his hand lazily pointing to the candy in her hand. AJ hadn't even realized she had done it so she just shrugged her shoulder before turning back to the paper in front of her.
She read to the bottom of the page, the initials still making her brows furrow after the third time of reading it. "do you know why John B has a paper signed by L.A.R?" AJ asked, turning back around and finding Pope still standing there.
"uh," Pope seemed to think for a second before he took the seat to AJ's left. "I think maybe it's his grandma. Her name was Luella." Pope answered and the girl nodded, her eyes trailing the page again.
"you know you're just gonna drive yourself crazy reading and re-reading all of these" Pope offered and AJ shook her head, keeping her focus on the papers.
"what's got you so fascinated with this all?" Pope asked, still not taking her silence. AJ sighed, putting the papers down on the table and turning, meeting Pope's curious eyes.
"my mom. She sent me here to do this. I just need to finish it for her" AJ answered honestly and Pope nodded. "sounds like your missing quite the party out there." She hummed, hearing the splashing of water and loud laughs coming from the pogues outside.
Pope left after that, not bugging the girl much longer. He complained to his friends and they shared looks. Whoever the hell AJ was, she was just as obsessed, if not more obsessed with the shipwreck than John B.
That night as AJ slept, having fallen asleep at the table leaning on her crossed arms, papers still scattered, the pogues got drunk. They pushed what happened that day aside and apart from talking amongst themselves about the blonde teenage girl none of them actually knew who was asleep in the Chateau, they just relaxed.
When AJ woke up the house was empty. She stretched her sore body, thanks to sleeping at a table. She looked around, no one in sight. Her brows furrowed but when she looked to the table a bright yellow sticky note from Pope saying they were at school made everything come to sense.
AJ sat back at the table to clean up the papers and put them away. Maybe Pope was right and there was no point. Maybe it was a dead end. She tried not to let the thoughts overwhelm her and instead she just tucked the papers back where they were supposed to be.
In boredom and also the looming thoughts of wanting to continue to research everything AJ grabbed a book from the stack John B took out of his dad's office. She picked at random and moved out onto the porch, getting comfy on the couch out there. She had to admit, it was far better than the table inside.
She yawned as she opened the book, still half asleep. But she couldn't help but sink into the book. Her eyes moved quickly, taking in the words she read. Some of the pages were annotated and marked up with pen and pencil and she took the time to read it all. John Routledge had an interesting mind that AJ could get lost in.
AJ read the information about the Graveyard of the Atlantic on the page but in all honesty, she was far more interested in the messy scribbles on the sides of all the pages.
Little scribbled initials caught her attention, j.r, b.r, w.c along the sides under writings. AJ started to be able to decipher which was writing and she took all of it in. Near the end of the book she started to see b.w popping up and it made the girl feel funny.
Knowing your mother was a part of something you couldn't have ever imagined was a weird feeling. Even though the girl had been reading passages from journals and research papers seeing messy annotations in books made it all the more real.
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