CHAPTER THIRTEEN
[13]
song: headlights by pvris
When Rafe brought his car to a slow outside of her house, Cassie got that familiarly anxious feeling as she wondered what would be the appropriate way to say goodbye.
She swallowed and grabbed her phone off the charger as Rafe put the car in park. Taking a breath, she turned and looked at him, smiling faintly.
"I'll text you later?" She shrugs slightly.
Rafe kept one hand on the wheel, but nodded. "Okay."
She smiled again, then unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car. She sent him a slight wave as she shut the door behind her, and as she walked off she heard him speak again.
"Hey Cas," he yells through the now open window of the passenger door. Cassie spins back around to face him, about to head up the steps to her front porch. "Thanks for your help. Look— I know we didn't get off on the right foot. But—" he rubs his upper lip with his index finger, "—we wouldn't have found that map without you."
Cassie's chest fluttered with what felt like a sense of pride. She nodded, "You're welcome."
Rafe smiled at her from the car, letting his eyes linger on her for a few seconds. "Alright." He scoffed slightly, turning his focus back to the road as he put the car into drive again. "I'll see you later."
And Cassie stood in that spot until he was gone, down the road and out of sight, and then she buried her face in her hands, letting out a squeal made up of embarrassment and excitement.
Looking up with the lingering effects, she let out a small laugh as she brushed her tangled hair behind her ears, and turned back towards the steps to head inside.
She only got up one step when she heard a thud come from around the house.
Cassie took the step back down, peering around the side of the house. "Grandma?" She spoke, casually walking over to wear it came from.
But coming out from behind the trash can, hunkered down with his hands up like he was saying 'don't attack me', was her father.
She froze in place, eyes widening as she struggled to process if that was really him standing right in front of her.
"Cassie, just hold on a second." He spoke cautiously. She assumed her face looked more panicked than she realized, as he approached her with such hesitation.
"What are you doing out here?!" She asks, looking around confusedly. Luke put a finger to his lips, urging her to lower his voice as he gestured to the window above him. When she realized that he was hiding, she lowered her voice too. "What's going on?"
Luke took a breath, straightening his back and glancing around. "I need you to take me the house, do you have your keys?" He asks.
Cassie glanced down at his bloody, bruised knuckles, her head instinctively beginning to shake. "No— I— how are you here right now?"
He must've seen her staring, so he shook his hands like it was nothing. "Just— got into a fight, I need—"
"Did you break out?!" Cassie asks frantically.
Luke shook his head. "Work release. Good behavior. Look— can you get me to the house?"
Cassie glanced up to the front door, then over to her grandma's car in the driveway. "Are you hiding from someone?" She eventually asks.
"Cassie." Luke tried to refocus her attention back to his earlier request.
She swallowed harshly, thinking. "Yes. Yeah, I—" she took a deep breath. "I need to check on grandma. And get the keys. Stay—" she gestured to the trashcan he was previously hiding behind. "Stay down. If she sees you she'll— yeah."
Cassie was already turning to leave and head up to the front porch before she could even finish her own sentence. Her brain now muddled with more questions and confusion as she walked through the front door.
Thankfully the living room tv was still playing loudly, and while her grandma was still sat on the couch, right next to the window her father hid right below, she seemingly didn't notice a thing.
When her grandma noticed Cassie walked in, she first glanced up to the stairs, then back to Cassie, confused as to how and when she'd left in the first place.
"I thought you were still asleep." Her grandma chuckled slightly.
Cassie nodded a bit, walking forward to grab the keys off the table. "Yeah, no, I— slept at Kiara's. We're getting lunch now, though." Cassie didn't like how easily lying came to her. "So I'm taking the car, that okay?"
Her grandma nodded, eyeing her. "You look rough, honey." She said it compassionately, but it didn't feel that way.
Cassie caught glance of her reflection on the mirror by the door. Smudged makeup under her eyes, still wearing that beer stained dress from the night before. She nodded. "Yeah. I know." She grabbed a big denim jacket off of coat hooks, one of her grandpa's old work jackets, and put that on over her dress, hoping it would conceal how disgusting she felt.
If her previously jailed father wasn't hiding outside behind a trash can right now, waiting for her to drive them to their house, she'd probably go upstairs and take a little bit of time to freshen up. But, here she was.
After saying goodbye, Cassie was back out the door and already storming off to the driveway where the car sat. The sound of the car unlocking must've signaled to her dad that they were good to go, as he slowly came around the other corner.
"Thank you, Cassie." He spoke, looking around to make sure no one saw as he got into the passenger seat.
She didn't respond, just got behind the wheel and started the drive to The Cut.
After a few moments, Cassie was sure this would be a silent car ride the entire way to the trailer. And probably better that way, too. Whatever problems Luke had already found himself in, Cassie wanted no part. But he spoke up eventually.
"Who was that?" He asked, glancing at his daughter as she drove.
Cassie clenched her jaw slightly. "Who was who?"
Luke let out a scoff. "Kid that dropped you off. In the Mercedes."
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, realizing that he probably heard and saw that entire conversation go down. "My friend."
Luke laughed, almost hysterically. "Is my daughter hanging with the Kooks now?" He clapped his hands together. Cassie wasn't amused. "Wh— come on, I'm just messing with you." He pushed her shoulder jokingly. "Is he your boyfriend?"
She shook her head. "No, Dad. Can you— just stop."
Luke relaxed, realizing that his joking manner wasn't coming off well right now. He sniffled, sitting back in his seat. "I'm leaving, Cassidy."
She glanced at him, then back to the road. "What?"
He shrugged. "Getting off the island."
She was still for a few moments. "Why?"
"Can't go back to jail. Don't wanna. I'm an embarrassment to my kids. Can't do anything right." He started.
Cassie was done falling for the victim card tricks that he was so good at pulling. She glanced at his knuckles again and assumed there was more to the story there, but didn't want to ask. "So..." she starts, as she pulls off the road and onto the dirt path that led to their trailer. "So where are you going, then?"
"Don't know yet. Taking Malcom's boat, just need to grab some stuff from the house." He says, as Cassie pulls the car up in front of it.
She put the car in park, examining the house— if you could even call it that— in the same way he was. Neither of them had been here in a long while, and it hadn't changed much, if at all, since the last time.
Rotting wood, rust stained water streaks down the sides, taped up cracked windows. Junk scattered all across the lawn, tires, car parts. Old faded kid toys that were left once by her or JJ, when they got too big to play with them, and then never moved again. Overgrown with grass.
It sat in the middle of a poorly maintained patch of land, in between mossy trees and not too far from the water. It looked abandoned, like it hadn't been touched in years. And the saddest part was, it wasn't.
"Come on." Luke spoke, getting out of the car, and Cassie found herself doing the same.
She shoved her hands in the pockets of the big jacket she now wore, as she followed her father inside. The door was barely hanging on to it's hinges, and unsurprisingly, was left unlocked.
Walking in, the stench of the place just brought back all the worst memories. Beer, and cigarette smoke that was practically permanently etched into the walls. The sound of the cheap air conditioner unit whirring in her ears. The sight of moldy wallpaper from the humidity, unwashed dishes, trash left out everywhere.
Her eyes made her way over to the door that she lived behind, in the few times she stayed here. She couldn't really call it her bedroom, it was just where she slept when she was here. Or maybe she just didn't want to admit she lived here, in that room, at one point in her life.
"I'm gonna grab some shit from outside, help yourself to—" Luke gestured around the mess of a kitchen, and he moved and spoke frantically, in a rush.
Cassie didn't even want to think about consuming anything that was in this house right now. "Thanks." She let out, in a monotone voice.
He'd swung the door back open and head back outside. Cassie wandered forward towards her room and pushed the creaky door open.
In the corner sat her small, twin bed, stripped of its sheets and only revealing the stained old mattress that she'd slept in since she was a kid. The walls were covered in a pink, striped floral wallpaper that was peeling off at the top.
It'd turned in to more of a storage room, now. Boxes piled up of what she could only assume were here things that she'd left here before she started living with her grandma.
She swatted at flies who'd found their home in hers, before bending down and opening up one of the dusty cardboard boxes. Inside it were trophies, hers from when she was little. Soccer, and the barrel racing ones she'd brought from Waco. Medals and ribbons. Books. Countless books. She remembered every detail from all of them. Nancy Drew, Black Beauty, Junie B. Jones, Little Women, Felicity— her favorite American Girl doll— Harry Potter, and Anne of Green Gables. She remembered the comfort her books brought to her when she needed them. All those times in this room when she got to shut this door and read.
She was so young, then. Too young to understand her dad was abusive, and that this wasn't normal behavior for a father. Too young to understand that he was high, or drunk, or both at all times. All she knew was that she wanted to hide in here, and worry about the problems her book characters were facing more than her own.
She sifted through more objects. Pulling out a picture frame that sat at the bottom and smiling when she saw what it was. Her and JJ, probably around five or six, in the fishing boat together, both holding up teeny tiny fish that they'd just caught.
Their matching heads of wavy blonde hair and tan skin made them look almost identical at that age. And she understood why so many people thought they were twins back then. It was hard to imagine that they were only half-siblings when she saw pictures like this.
Her heart ached at the simplicity captured in this photo. This was probably one of the few times Cassie came to visit after moving to Waco. And it was probably Luke who took the picture, too. Her mom hated fishing, so she probably stayed back and let him take them out on the boat. It was before things got bad. Before her dad started using, before her dad started tormenting them.
She heard a car door shut, and then she heard someone yell. "Cassie!"
She started to stand up, assuming it was her father at first, but then realized it wasn't his voice. It was JJ's. Cassie quickly dropped the picture back into the box and got to her feet, clamoring out of the bedroom and into the hall towards the back door where her dad had just left from.
Swinging it open only to find Luke holding a hand over JJ's mouth, practically keeping him in a headlock. The sight made all the color and energy drain from Cassie's body, fear overtaking every nerve. "Stop!" She shouts, skipping over the single stair from the trailer to the outdoors. "Get off him!"
Luke had pushed JJ off of him before Cassie got a chance to pull him away herself. JJ stumbles back, panting heavily, as he glances at Cassie, then to their dad.
She watched him steadily, the way with every breath he trembled, his eyes focused on Luke so he could be prepared to protect himself from whatever move he made next.
They didn't deserve to be scared of their father. They didn't deserve to stand there, too afraid to move, because they knew anything could set this man off.
JJ glanced down at Luke's knuckles, too, just as Cassie did, and he did the same thing. Shake them off like it was nothing. "Busted a window at the pharmacy." He says.
"You said you got into a fight." Cassie watched him steadily.
Luke let out a small, breathy laugh. "I did. With the pharmacist."
JJ glanced at Cassie.
"Look— I gotta get outta here. That pharmacist can ID me."
A car honked, and everyone glanced over to where it came from. "JJ!" Kiara yelled from her car. She couldn't see any of them, assumedly, as they all stood behind the shed and blocked her view.
"I need to get off this island. You gotta help me." Luke says frantically, trying to regain JJ's attention.
JJ stood still, careful not to make any sudden movements. He looked at his dad, then over to Cassie, but then he bent down quickly, grabbing whatever tool he was here for in the first place, and sprang forward, trying to make it past Luke and out of this conversation.
Luke grabbed him, yanking him back and latching forcefully onto his shoulders. Cassie gasped, a hand to her mouth as she watched it happen. So quickly. As it always did.
Luke shook him. "I got your restitution hanging over me. This is your fault!" He spat in JJ's face, who was just taking it, his eyes anywhere but meeting his father's.
"Don't touch him!" Cassie had charged forward, her hands intertwining with the mess of it all, pulling back on her father's wrists to get him to release his grip.
"You mind your business!" Luke spat, this time in her direction, before turning back to JJ. "Look at me." He spoke sternly.
Cassie watched, panting heavily as a knot began to grow in her throat, seeing her brother fight to meet Luke's eyes. Trembling. JJ, who was scared of nothing; so terrified of their own father.
"You're telling me..." Luke starts. "You're not gonna help your own blood?"
It was seconds of stillness, and silence, before JJ grabbed Luke's shirt and dragged him out from around the shed. Pushing him on towards Kiara's car.
"Come on." JJ gestured Cassie to follow, though he clearly didn't want her to.
"What the... no." Kiara says, climbing out of the car. "Immediately no." She says, at the sight of Luke making his way over to her car. She looks at Cassie who followed shortly behind, then to JJ, then to Luke again. "What is this?"
"Just get in the truck." JJ says frustratedly, gesturing for Luke to get in the backseat as he dumped his stuff in the trunk.
"What's—" Kiara looked at Cassie again, just as confused to see her here too.
"You too." JJ waves Cassie off annoyedly.
She was struck with an anger that came on quicker than she had expected. "Fuck you! Deal with this shit yourself—"
JJ turned to face her suddenly. "Nah, no. He's your dad too, this is both of our problems."
Kiara speaks up. "I'm sorry— The Twinkie is drowning right now and—"
JJ faces Kiara. "I have to get to the marina at The Island Club. There's a boat there that he can take. There's a sticker on your truck. Twenty minutes. That's all I need." He speaks quickly.
Kiara shakes her head. "The Twinkie's gonna be a submarine in twenty minutes?! Leave him and we can come back—"
JJ slams his fists on the hood of the car. "The cops are after him!" He shouts. "If we do this now. Maybe we'll never have to do it again." He says, before walking around the car, getting in the passenger seat, and slamming the door behind him.
Kiara takes a deep breath as she turns around, facing Cassie with an expression that was certainly not made up of friendship and love. "What the hell?" She says, shaking her head at her disappointedly.
Cassie blinked a few times. Unsure where their emotions got mixed up to where Kiara was mad at her. It was the other way around. It should be the other way around. "What?" Cassie shakes her head.
Kiara scoffs, rolling her eyes before turning to get into the driver's seat.
And Cassie lingered in that spot for a few seconds, glancing over to her grandma's car. The car she could use to leave this situation, and all it's stresses entirely, and go back to Rafe. And then she glanced over to her father, who sat in the back by himself. And then her brother, who was so clearly furious but too proud to admit he was scared too.
She couldn't leave him to deal with this on his own. No matter how mad she was at him.
Cassie came around the side of the truck, getting in the backseat and sitting beside her father. Kiara started driving.
"I'll need food. At least five days worth." Luke says, not having any read on the fact that absolutely no one in this car wanted to hear him speak right now.
"Yeah, so who's paying for that?" Kiara asks annoyedly as she pulled the car through the bumpy dirt roads. "'Cause I have this feeling you have no money on you right now."
Luke let out a laugh, then looked over to Cassie, who was turned in the other direction as not to face him, then to JJ, who was doing the same but in the passenger seat.
"Kids?" He spoke up cheerfully.
Cassie's heart dropped in frustration. "Yeah, I got it."
Like JJ said. Maybe if they did this, they wouldn't ever have to do it again.
When they got into town, Kiara pulled the truck into the closest convenience store. The small shack right off the fishing docks, where Cassie used to run in and get something for lunch when she worked in the area all those years ago. The smell of fish reminding her of all those hot days spent docking and cleaning out old boats.
"Crackers, baked beans, and tuna." Luke spoke, as Cassie piled out of the car. "And salt and pepper."
"Mhm." She mumbled, shutting the door behind her.
"Five days worth!" He shouted out the window.
Cassie heard the car door open again, and turned, expecting it to be Luke, but it was JJ, following her into the store. He didn't look at her, just walked on inside past her.
The bell above the door rang as they walked in together, quiet music playing throughout the small store as they made their way through separate aisles, scanning the shelves for what Luke had requested.
Cassie glanced up over the shelf at JJ who was the aisle over, his eyes focused on the items, his face stoic. She swallowed harshly, trying to read his expression.
"Tuna." He said, as he held up a few cans.
Cassie nodded, her attention being redirected to the reason they were in here in the first place, and she scanned a few more shelves until she found a box of crackers. She grabbed it and held it up. "Do they have salt and pepper?"
JJ was already making his way to the counter, shaking his head. "He'll live without it."
Cassie joined him, smiling at the attendant and placing a ten dollar bill on the counter. Slowly, he scanned each item. JJ tapped his finger anxiously on the counter, his lips pursed together as he tried to steady his breathing.
She took a breath, knowing she wasn't really feeling too eager to be standing here with him either.
When the attendee was done, JJ quickly grabbed the items off the counter and left without another word. Cassie had followed after him quickly, and he let the door slam in her face as he left and made his way back to the car.
She stood there taken aback, catching it with her arm. "Thanks." She muttered. All he did was scoff.
"Let's get this over with." JJ spoke to Kiara, as Cassie got back into the backseat, and Kiara drove off.
When they arrived to the marina, Kiara stayed in the car while JJ and Cassie helped quickly carry Luke's belongings to Malcom's boat, that sat docked at the end with the other smaller boats.
They got inside quickly, Cassie making sure no one was watching them sneak Luke Maybank onto a boat that wasn't his. She held a paper bag full of things in her arms, before placing it on one of the tables inside.
"Start undoing the lines." Luke says, gesturing out the door.
Cassie nods, making her way back out to the outdoors where the ropes still hung the boat to the dock. The callouses on her hands from pulling on ropes have healed, and this wasn't as painless as it once was. Her arms weren't as strong, so unwinding the ropes off of the metal was more of a struggle.
"Move." JJ gestures her out of the way lazily.
Cassie waves him off, already bent over one of the knots. "I got it." She snaps back impatiently.
"No you don't, you're doing it wrong—"
"I got it!" She raises her voice.
"Woah, woah!" Luke comes around the corner, shaking his head. "What's going on, you two? Bickering like chickens all day."
"Don't start playing concerned dad now." JJ says, giving up and walking over to the next knot.
"What?" Luke scoffs. "Wh— I'm not allowed to know what's going on in my kid's lives just because I— 'cause I'm leaving for a bit?"
Cassie finished untying the rope and pulled it onto the ship. "It's not important." She says, as she moves onto the next one.
"Alright. Sheesh." Luke says defensively.
JJ clenches his jaw, standing up quickly before turning to climb up to metal ladder to the main deck where the wheel was. He started the engine, looking around at the other ships around them to make sure no one was watching as the loud noise echoed throughout the marina.
He came back down the ladder and met Luke and Cassie inside, as he was quickly unpacking the items from his bag's into one of the drawers.
She was only three feet away from him, mindlessly stacking cans of food into a cabinet as he stowed away countless stolen bottles of pills.
JJ walked forward, shaking his head at him disappointedly as he helped him finish up hiding the pills before Cassie saw.
"Is that enough do you think?" She asks, counting the cans of food. "Until Jacksonville?"
Luke shuts the drawer quickly and looks up. "Should be."
"You have enough fuel to get there." JJ states. "You have gas money?"
Luke waves it off, walking back to the rear to lift the anchor. "What do you think? Yeah, no. I'll figure it out."
Cassie and JJ exchange knowing glances, before JJ reluctantly reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. His lips were pursed in an almost permanent, frustrated frown as he fought the urge to let the tears spill from his eyes.
Cassie watched as he pulled cash from his wallet. "Here, Dad." He spoke reluctantly.
Luke turned away from the anchor system, looking at the two of his kids who were stood there watching him, both of them wearing the same expression.
JJ started to leave, started making his way out to the rear and off the boat without any further confrontation. But Luke had grabbed onto him before he could. "Hey, hey, come here, son." Luke spoke, turning JJ back around to face him. "I know I could've been better." He spoke, trying to get his son to meet his eyes.
JJ looked down at the ground. "I haven't exactly been perfect either."
"Well, hey, perfect don't matter." Luke nodded. "You got a good heart."
Cassie watched, it was hard for JJ to breathe, to relax his shoulders and look up at his dad. He was trying so hard not to cry and all it did was make her want to.
Luke looks up and faces Cassie. "You too, Cassie Jude. Come here," he waves her over. JJ starts to leave, starts to turn and attempt his way off the boat again, but Luke pulls on his arm. "No, no, don't let it end like this." He says. Cassie takes a hesitant step forward, and Luke waves her closer again. He looks at them both, nodding eagerly. "I'm going to Yucatán. I might never be coming back."
Cassie felt a knot grow in her throat.
"It'll all work out." Luke adds.
JJ's breathing was unsteady as he shook his head, he glances at Cassie, then back to Luke. "No it won't. But maybe in the next life."
Luke frowned, looking down at the ground and then back up to his son. "Come on, J. Don't be like that."
And then he snapped, JJ's lips began to tremble, and despite how hard he was trying to contain it, he started to cry, and then Luke pulled him in. Over JJ's shoulder, stood Cassie, who was letting a tear fall from her eye too, and he pulled her in next.
And there they stood for a few moments, holding each other and in their tears remembering all the good moments. All the good moments spent on the fishing boats, catching tiny fish and taking pictures together. When they were just a little family. And although there was such a strong amount of resentment in this hug, there was love, too.
"Take care, Dad. Okay?" JJ spoke into his shoulder, his voice breaking.
Cassie's chest racked with sobs, the kind where you're almost gasping for air.
"You take care of your sister, alright?" Luke spoke back, patting her back a few times. "I mean it. You two stick together."
JJ pulled away quickly, turning and leaving so no one could see his tears. And Cassie was left, standing in front of her dad, who already missed more than half of her life, about to miss even more.
"And you take care of him." He nods to her. And she nods back, sniffling and wiping the last of her tears off her cheeks before she followed quickly after her brother.
JJ was pulling the last of the lines off the dock, unknotting them and throwing the rest onto the rear as Cassie walked over to him. He didn't say anything, didn't look at her.
And then the boat was leaving, their dad's back to him as he sailed off, and left Cassie and JJ, standing there watching on the dock.
She turned to face her brother, whose eyes were full of sadness and relief. She knew this was harder on him than it was on her. She didn't know Luke the way he did. In the good ways and the bad.
She felt inclined to reach out and touch him, to lay a gentle hand on her back as a reminder that she was here for him despite everything, but there was this sense that he didn't want anything to do with her right now.
"We gotta go." Kiara says from the other end of the dock, a sympathetic soft smile on her face.
Cassie inhaled sharply, readjusting to her surroundings, stretching her arms a bit. She turns to face Kiara. "What's— what's going on with The Twinkie?" She asked.
JJ looks at Kiara, whose eyes stayed on Cassie. Her sympathetic smile soon fading into a familiar look that Cassie's seen Kiara give to so many people before. People they hated, people they wanted nothing to do with. And Cassie's blood ran cold.
When Kiara didn't like someone, you felt it. And she was feeling it now. This sort of panicked state of, 'it's definitely all over now'.
"We're leaving." Kiara nods, beginning to leave. She turns to JJ. "Come on."
Cassie shakes her head, a scoff escaping her lips as the cool breeze rushes past them, the docks creaking below. "What's your problem?" She asks, as they start to walk on without her.
Kiara turns around to speak, but continues walking. "Why don't you call up your new best friend? I'm sure he'll be more than happy to give you a ride."
Cassie was still, watching as they walked farther and farther away, whispering things among each other. She wanted to scream. She was so full of this pent up frustration, but now was not the time to let it out.
"What are you—"
JJ turns around, stopping, which caused Kiara to stop too. "We saw you, Cassie. Yeah. So don't—" he scoffs. "Don't try and lie your way out of this one. We saw the whole thing."
Her eyes were wide. "Saw what?!"
"With Limbrey. And Rafe. At the Angel's Oak. Looking for the cross." Kiara says. "You know that Renfield guy jumped Heyward yesterday? Knocked him out. Trying to get information out of him. That's who you're siding with right now, just so you know." Kiara gives her a fake smile.
Cassie's mouth gapped open. "He jumped... is he okay?"
"Yeah. He's fine no thanks to you. But now they're one step closer to stealing a cross that belongs to the Heywards." Kiara says.
Cassie runs a hand through her hair, trying to gather her thoughts. "What do you mean?"
JJ speaks up. "It's Denmark Tanny's. He buried it. And he— is Pope's like— great, great, great, great—"
"Ancestor." Kiara mutters. "Just say ancestor."
"And that body you dug up?" JJ continues. "That was Denmark Tanny's wife."
Cassie's shoulders fell, and she squeezed her eyes shut to try and process all this information being thrown at her at once. "So—" she starts. "You were looking for it too?"
JJ scoffs, rubbing his temples annoyedly. "Where have you been?!"
Her eyebrows raise in disbelief. "Really?"
"What were you thinking, Cassie?!" Kiara shakes her head. "Those aren't good people! You know that—"
"Actually, I didn't— really. I literally have had no idea what's been going on with anything since the moment I got back. I didn't go to Charleston with you. I barely know who Denmark Tanny is— or, The Royal Merchant? I've—"
"Don't." JJ starts. "Don't make this seem like it's our fault."
She shrugs. "It kinda is, JJ."
"He was trying to help you!" Kiara shouts.
Cassie lets out a loud laugh. "I didn't need help!"
JJ shakes his head, turning to leave. "I can't deal with this shit again. I'm over it."
Kiara stays, staring at Cassie and shaking her head. "JJ." She says calmly, trying to get him to come back.
"No, no. She's clearly doesn't care anymore and she doesn't need our help, so— I'm done. I don't give a shit." He shrugs. "Fucking— do some drugs, and end up like our fucking dad. Don't care."
"Okay," Kiara waves a hand in his face. "Enough."
"And you know what," JJ says, despite the fact that Kiara was trying to get him to calm down and walk away. "You and Rafe actually have a lot in common, you're both junkies with absolutely no respect for anyone but yourself. So, congratulations— cheers. Hope you..." his voice fades out as he turns to leave, swatting Kiara's arms away from him. "Hope it works out."
Cassie's lip was twitching, a sort of seething feeling in her chest she hadn't felt in a long time. She felt out of control. Like this was a cord that'd been long awaiting its chance to snap. "I hate you!" She screamed as he walked off, her voice almost shrill as she choked out her leftover tears from earlier.
JJ just shook his head, Kiara pushing him along.
Cassie clutched a hand to her chest, turning to face the other direction where their father was still sailing away, and she choked out another sob.
She felt this impulse to cast the blame on someone else. Most times it was her mother, who was the reason she ended up like this in the first place. Then it was her father, for being just like she was but worse. Or JJ, for sending her away. But all rational thinking lead to herself. And that was the hardest part, realizing that the reason she was so messed up wasn't because of someone else's doing, but because of her own bad choices.
But she couldn't stop. Glancing back to Kiara and JJ, who piled into the car, assumedly going to reunite with the rest of the group, and then back to her father, who she'd likely never lay eyes on again. She didn't have anyone left.
She fished her phone out of the jacket pocket, frantically wiping the tears from her cheeks and attempting to catch her breath, she clicked on Rafe's name.
It was only a few rings before he picked up. "Hey," he started, and she could hear voices in the back, assumedly Carla's. "You coming?"
Cassie sniffles and looks around. "Yeah, uh— yeah, could you pick me up actually?"