Song of the Chapter: Blister in the Sun by The Violent Femmes
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"Well that was fun. Could've warned us sooner." JJ spoke up. They were back on the boat, drifting towards the docks in town. The sun was hanging lower in the sky now, casting a slightly orange glow all around them, causing Remi's hair to appear a thousand times more vibrant.
"Not fun for everyone." Remi scrunched her nose, her lips turning downward, still disgusted. She sat beside Kiara with her arms crossed over her chest.
"I can't help it!" He blurted, the rest of the group confused and not following along.
"Uh- We would have warned you sooner, but Pope was on the math team." Now Remi was the one left confused, wondering how that correlated.
"You were on the math team?" John B spoke, having not known that before now. Pope, wanting to get back on track, only offered a nod before speaking.
"The cops took everything like it was a crime scene. Did you guys find anything?" He questioned, looking between the boys and Remi. At his question, Remi felt guilt strike her all over again. She was once again aware of the wad of cash in her back pocket.
"Did we find anything? No I don't think so." JJ drew out theatrically as he stood, pulling both the handgun and his own stack of money out of his pockets. He held them out for everyone to see. "Oh yeah, we did." His smile was wide, he was obviously amused with himself.
"What the hell?" Pope exclaimed, clearly not happy about the gun in JJ's hand. Feeling her guilt weigh her down, Remi grabbed the money from her back pocket. She held the stack up for her friends to see, Kiara's jaw immediately dropping.
"Remi!" The girl whined, thinking her friend to be above stealing from a motel room that they now know to be a crime scene.
"He closed the safe before I could put it back. There was no time." She explained, glancing to the blonde boy. Kiara closed her mouth, not saying anything else but reaching out to pat Remi's arm. The Elliot girl was usually the moral compass of the group. The one most likely to lead a lost child back to their worried parent or to help an elderly lady get her groceries to her car. Though she loved a bit of fun and getting into trouble just as much as the rest of them, she was perhaps the most grounded person they knew.
"Okay, fine. But can we talk about the fact that you took a literal gun?" Pope redirected the focus to JJ.
"Better than the cops having it." JJ tried to defend his actions, earning nothing but scoffs from Pope and Kiara.
"No, he's actually right. They purposely stole money, evidence for themselves. If they got a hold of the gun, they'd probably use it as a throwaway." She shook her head, honestly surprising herself with defending JJ's antics.
But she knew the cops around the area.
They were corrupt, turning a blind eye to the crimes of the Kooks and over-patrolling the Cut. Not once had a Figure Eight rager of a party been shut down, despite the drugs that changed hands and the other crimes that were committed. Remi believed it was because their parents funded the Sheriff's station and had connections, but whatever the reason, it was still wrong.
"Seriously?" Kiara was taken aback by her words and the small smile on John B's face.
"I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship." Pope nodded his head, staring out into the horizon as if he was coaching himself through the realization.
"Hey. Shhhh." JJ shushed the boy, holding the gun against his lips for a moment. "At least you have us, right?"
"I'm living the nightmare." Pope nodded, sitting down on the back bench of the boat.
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Not having anything better to do, the friends found themselves loitering outside of a small fish shack on the docks. After all, what did teenagers do better than loiter around aimlessly? Living on the island her whole life, Remi barely noticed the pungent smell of fish and stinky saltwater, something she was endlessly grateful for. She had ran into Lilah, the girl already hanging around the small building and inviting them over to sit with her by the railing. The sweet girl had filled them in on the police activity around the area and as she spoke, more officers tended to something further down a dock.
Remi was stood behind Lilah, the girl's blonde hair in her hands. She idly twisted the strands into a loose braid, nearly finished as a commotion caught her attention.
"Scooter? Scooter!" A woman that she quickly recognized as Lana Grubbs shouted, running down the dock. Rather often, the woman had come down for some herbs or flowers from her grandmother. Seeing the dead body of Mrs. Grubbs' husband on a stretcher gave Remi a stark realization- Lana might come over for flowers, but for the funeral of her husband. That is, if the woman could afford a funeral.
Her eyes stuck on the dead body of the man, a glossy sheen over his paled skin, his clothes tattered from wildlife picking at him. She found herself not knowing how she should feel. While seeing a dead body meters away would be traumatic, even for most adults, Remi wasn't all too phased by the sight. At just twelve years old, she attended the open-casket funeral of her own parents.
No, it wasn't the sight of a dead body that saddened her.
It was Lana Grubbs' knees buckling as she rubbed her hands lovingly over her husband's face.
It was the fact that someone had lost the person they were closest to.
Lana's whole world was falling apart and Remi felt utterly selfish for thinking of the grief bubbling up to the surface over her own parents' passing.
"Who's that?" John B wondered.
"It's Scooter Grubbs. He was out during the storm." Lilah glanced around as she spoke, Remi nearly loosing hold hold of the girl's unfinished braid. A frown settled onto her lips as confusion set in. From her understanding, she thought Lana's husband was a fisherman? She recalled the woman telling her grandmother that very fact during a visit, so why was he out during a hurricane? He would know the danger.
As if the whole situation could get crazier, she felt like something was up.
"Check out this pic I got." Lilah held her phone out to John B, who was sat beside her, his legs pulled to his chest. He, JJ and Kiara all stared at the phone screen. Remi leaned over, glancing at the photo, but finding it a little disrespectful to be amused by a dead body. But then again, this was practically Pope's wet dream. "Dead bodayyy." Lilah sang.
"Insane." Kiara agreed.
"Holy shit." John B muttered, looking back up from the phone. Lilah moved the phone over for Pope to see, the boy's eyes analyzing the photo quickly.
"What kind of boat did he have?" JJ spoke up, also feeling like something was off.
"Somehow that dirt bag copped a brand-new Grady White. Everyone's out looking for it." The girl answered, equally as confused how the man got his hands on such an expensive fishing boat. Of course the situation could get crazier. Remi held the final braid in her hands, frozen in place. Her eyes met Kiara's, both girls sharing the same expression. Remi shifted her gaze up to JJ, who stood beside her. His lips were parted in confusion, glancing right back to her.
They were all thinking the same, central idea-- they had found themselves caught up in some serious shit.
"Are you done?" Lilah's hand reached back to feel the braid, breaking Remi from her unsettled thoughts. She slid the hair-tie off of her wrist, tying the end of Lila's braid.
"All done." Remi forced a smile, not wanting Lilah to catch on.
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The stack of cash was spread out on the small table, surrounded by long-finished beer bottles and oil lamps, left over from Agatha passing over. Remi's emerald eyes bored into the bills, her stomach clenching in a moral dilemma. She sat on the middle of the old couch in the Chateau's covered and screened-in porch. Her elbows rested on her knees, the girl hunched towards the money, deep in thought. She could feel Kiara's eyes on her from where the girl sat beside her, holding back from giving her opinion.
"Okay, so, we didn't see anything." Pope panted up the stairs, letting the screen door slam behind him. He stepped over to the couch, plopping down beside Remi.
"Actually, Pope's right for once." JJ pointed his finger out towards the boy, moving to stand from the cheap rattan chair. "See, I agree with you sometimes. Deny, deny, deny." He repeated and stepped to stand beside John B.
"Guys we can't keep that money." Kiara shook her head, finally breaking and speaking her mind.
Remi sighed, feeling absolutely torn. On one hand, she felt guilty for stealing, whether it was an accident or not, and on the other, her grandma was drowning in hospital bills. There was the last of the mortgage to pay off, water and electric bills, a car payment and insurances to pay. While if she kept it, she would of course share it amongst her friends, the money she had spread out in front of her could alleviate the near-constant unbelievable stress that she and her Grandmother felt trying to scramble and pay final notices. She could fix the front steps, the chipping paint, the creaky doors, the water damage in the bathroom, the back burner of the stove that never seemed to want to light.
They would finally not worry about putting food on the table.
"Okay. Not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara." JJ shot at Kiara, slightly annoyed with her simply not understanding money problems.
"We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs. Otherwise it's bad karma." Kiara shrugged.
That was the other side of Remi's mental battle. Her Grandma had always taught her that what she put out into the universe, she would get it back. Whether it was God himself, nature, or another person, she'd reap the effects of her actions.
If she used stolen money that was tied to some crime and belonged to a dead man-- God knows what she'd get in return. All Remington Elliot wanted in life was to be a light in a dark world and using the money might just pull her into the darkness.
She leaned back on the couch, her back slumped against the cushion.
"Bad karma to be implicated in a felony, too. We gotta go dark." Pope tossed in, throwing Remi's head for yet another spin.
"If that means that we get to keep the money, then I agree." JJ gazes out into the yard of the Chateau. Beside him, John B breaks from his deep thought.
"I don't." He states simply, turning from JJ.
"What? Why?" JJ was shocked John B wasn't on his side.
"Just think about it. This is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about, right? Same dud that's buying individual cigarettes at the Porthole. Shit, one time I saw this dude begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas. We're talking about a dirtbag marina-rat who's never had more than forty bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden, he's got a Grady White? Just sayin'." John B shrugged.
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Remi sat on the wooden planks of the pier, her legs through the rails and dangling over the edge. Water lapped at the barnacle-covered posts holding the pier up. Her mind was still spinning with the decision of what she should do with the money.
"All right, so think about it, Pope. How does a marina rat get a Grady White?" He posed the question.
"Prostitution." He answered after inhaling sharply.
"No, bro. Square groupers. Okay, flying under the radar, no aerial surveillance. They don't do that stuff during a hurricane. What does that mean? JJ?" He pointed past Remi and at the boy, waiting for an answer even though everyone was catching on to what he was proposing.
"They were straight smugglin'" He voices, leaning on the railing with a fishing pole in hand.
"Smugglin'. And I bet there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck." John B nods, turning back to Pope. Remi purses her lips, gazing back out into the marsh. Her eyes focused on nothing in particular as she thought about his suggestion.
"Hell yeah." JJ agreed, jerking as soon as he felt a tug on his fishing line. "Fish on!" He shouted, reeling in the catch.
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"For the record, if that is a smuggling ship with illegal contraband inside of it, it probably belongs to someone else." Pope ran through his thoughts holding the stack of money Remi had accidentally taken. She sat beside him on the small bed, her legs extended down the mattress.
"Minor details." Kie threw out, resting in a chair with a ukelele in her lap.
"They could come looking for it. Taking it would be catastrophically stupid." Pope finished.
"Right, well." JJ leaned over from his own chair, reaching for the money in Pope's hands before continuing. "Stupid things have good outcomes all the time." He fanned out the hundred dollar bills, making Pope shake his head and lean back against the bed frame. "All we need to do is figure out a way into the cargo hold of that wreck. Till then we just lay low. Just act normal" He suggests. Remi and Kiara glance to one another, figuring out if the other was on board.
"Right, and how exactly do we do that?" Pope shrugs. Remi smiles as it looks like an idea pops into Kiara's head.
"Kegger?" She looks around, everyone else nodding at the idea.
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The Elliot girl had returned home for a quick moment before the party at the boneyard. The small house was empty, her grandmother out running flower and herb orders around town. Faint jingles sound from the windchimes on the porch, their notes being carried by the breeze over to her slightly opened window, the fabric of her white curtains swaying. She stood in her bedroom, the stack of cash in her hands as her moral conflictions battled it out in her busy mind.
As Kie would say, Remi was just being a classic Libra, always indecisive, but truly, she had no idea what to do with the money. Was it morally wrong or was it just plain stupid not to use the money in her hands to help out her grandmother? Her fingers rubbed across the cotton paper material, her eyes stuck on it.
She heard the family dog, Sadie, padding down the hall, the animal's nails tapping against the wooden floor. The dog stopped at Remi's doorway, her eyes stuck on the girl. Remi sighed as she looked up to the sandy-haired dog.
"What do you think, Sadie? Should I use it or burn it?" She asked rhetorically, moving to sit down on the wooden floor, her back leaning against the side of her bed. She bent her knees, pulling her legs to her chest as she stared at the money. Sadie took that as an invitation to plop herself right beside her, expecting to be pet and Remi being Remi, she did just that.
As her fingers scratched behind the dog's floppy ears, she realized she may never come to a decision. If she tried, she'd probably sit there all night and miss the party. Turning onto her stomach, the girl scooted her body partially under her bed, reaching to the vent that was just behind her bed-frame. She pulled out the screw in the vent cover that she kept loose, pushing the cover aside and dropping the stack of money right beside the only stash of 'herbs' that her grandmother probably wouldn't approve of-- but who knows, it's Loretta Craven after all.
She slid the cover back in front of the vent, sticking the screw in and shuffling out from under her bed. Sitting back up, she pet Sadie once more, the dog leaving slobbery kisses on her arms before Remi stood. She made her way out of her room, walking through the hall and into the living room. Passing the shelves full of odd and eccentric items that no doubt gave truth to the town rumor about her grandmother being a witch, Remi came into the kitchen, opening the alcohol cupboard and taking out a bottle of Jameson that her grandmother hadn't touched in months. Closing the cabinet door, she turned to face Sadie, the dog looking right back at her.
"Don't tell Grandma." The girl whispered at the dog, walking to the front door and letting it shut behind her.
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A/N: I know this chapter is shorter and kind of boring but the next is the party! Shit's about to go down.
I was actually gonna post this right after the last chapter and make it a double update kinda day but Wattpad's servers went down and I frantically backed my story up elsewhere for a whole hour.
Also, I changed the faceclaim for Remi's brother, Parker, from Jacob Elordi to Cameron Monaghan. I think with the red hair and all, he just looks more similar to Abby Cowen, who portrays Remi. He's in Shameless, one of the best shows to ever grace this godforsaken earth and is partially modeled after his character, Ian, and a little after Klaus Hargreeves from Umbrella Academy!