CHAPTER TWO
"hey blondie, what's in your hand?"

( episode one ━━  pilot )

PARTIES WERE USUALLY FUN FOR Scarlett, especially when she had so much to drink, she could barely remember the night the next day. It may not be the best way to live life... but hey, she was a teenager and it was summer vacation, what else was she supposed to do?

But yeah, parties usually were fun... but not when you were busy being a third wheel.

Usually, when being around Sarah and her follower (oops... 'boyfriend') Scarlett always tried to make sure that the balance was even, which is why they always invited Kelce and/or Rafe along, so she wasn't alone when all the lovey dovey shit was happening.

It seemed like tonight was her unlucky night.

Kelce was running late, and Rafe made it very clear that going to a party thrown by Pogues was not something her was interested in tonight so now, she had no choice but to be a third wheel for the time being.

Lucky her.

While Scarlett was busy having the worst time ever, (yeah dramatic, she knows) Kiara was enjoying herself immensely. The remaining members of her crew were busy attempting to charm the different tourists that had made an appearance tonight, and it was a funny sight.

She had a drink in her hand, partly hosting a fun party and was surrounded by her best friends. (and a lot of strangers) It seemed like nothing could go wrong.

And then she saw her.

Scarlett Hall. Truly the worst person in existence (according to Kiara) had shown up tonight. It was strange, seeing how the Hall girl always went out of her way to avoid Kiara. She rarely ever sees Scarlett, maybe the sight of her blonde hair as she would run by, but really that was it.

The sight of the girl made Kiara feel angry and nervous all at once, and she hated it.

"What the hell is she doing here?"

Kiara's smile falls as she watches the girl she once called her best friend walks into the party she was throwing, looking like she didn't have a care in the world. Part of Kie wanted to yell at her for even being here, but another part of her wanted to run up, hug her and just start talking like nothing had ever gone bad between them.

"Sarah!" She watches Topper calls out to his girlfriend. "Sarah, be careful, okay?"

... and she should have guessed. She almost cursed herself for being surprised. Where Scarlett went, Sarah followed and vice versa. Kiara rolls her eyes, as if one blast from the past wasn't enough for tonight. "Great. So they're both here."

"What are you doing?" Topper helps Sarah down from whatever she was climbing on. She laughs as he spins her around.

Scarlett watches the two of them and is almost jealous. She wanted nothing more than to be able to spin around in the arms of the one she loved, but she couldn't. She tried her best not to let the disappointment on her face show, not wanting to bring down the mood or have to answer more of Sarah's questions.

"You two are weird." She comments, ignoring her thoughts. "What time is Kelce coming?"

Topper looks down and checks his watch. "I think he said that he'd be here in about 20."

"Well, in the meantime, I'm going to go find a drink." Scarlett sarcastically salutes the couple as she moves away from the two.

"Have fun!" Topper yells, secretly happy she was leaving the two of them alone.

"Please be responsible." Sarah voices her concern, partly not wanting her friend to be drunk without her near.

Scarlett turns her head slightly as she continues walking away. "Always am!"

While on her mission to desperately trying and find alcohol, Scarlett collides into someone, causing her to almost fall but the mystery man catches her before she can.

"Oh, sorry. My bad." She apologies.

"No, it's my bad." He says. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

Everything about this boy seemed familiar to her, but Scarlett couldn't put her finger on it at first. Studying his face for a moment before it clicked in her mind. "Hey, wait. You're Pope right? One of Kiara's friends?"

"Uh, yeah."

"I'm Scarlett." She introduces herself.

Pope laughs awkwardly. "Trust me, I know who you are."

Scarlett purses her lips and looks around, wondering if the person she'd been avoiding for the past year was nearby.

"Is she here tonight?"

"Kie?" Pope asks. "Yeah, she's around somewhere. We actually organized this kegger."

"Oh, I didn't realize." If Scarlett had known that information a few hours ago, she definitely wouldn't have come tonight. Sure, she'd be missing a fun party, but she had no idea what she would do if she ran into Kiara, silently praying she'd be way past her drinking limit at that point.

"Do you want me to go find her? Tell her you're looking for her?"

"No!" She says quickly before Pope could move. "Just, please don't do that."

"Okay, sorry." Pope holds his hands up in defence, seeing he struck a nerve when he didn't mean to. "I won't tell her you asked about her either."

"Wait uh—" Scarlett stammers, trying to think of how she could phrase her question. "How is she doing?"

"What do you mean?" Pope asks for clarification.

"Is she, like okay?"

The boy sees the look on Scarlett's face and understands what she meant by her questions. He narrows his eyes slightly, wondering if she meant any of the words she was saying, or if she was already drunk and just spewing out randomness. "You wanna know if she misses you?"

She gulps, not sure how a boy she barely knew could see past her facade. "Please, I don't care about that."

Pope almost laughs at this, but keeps it together. She and Kiara were a lot alike. He could see why the two were such good friends for as long as they were. "That's what she would say too, but deep down, it would be a lie. Just like how I'm guessing it's a lie for you too."

Scarlett scoffs, her vulnerable moment was over now. "Whatever. It was fun talking to you, now I have to go get trashed, so later."

☆

As the night went on, Scarlett started to enjoy herself more and more (thank you alcohol!) and her fear of possibly running into Kiara dwindled less and less.

The main problem was when it came to a party, if Scarlett was having fun, it probably meant she was at least 4 drinks in, and the more drinks she had, the more Sarah had to look after her. By this time, Scarlett was already way past her alcohol limit, and Topper was starting to get really annoyed.

"Let's go." Sarah stands up from her seat and holds her hand out to Scarlett. The blonde girl was lying on the sand, continuously laughing at nothing.

Her friend wanting to leave had killed her good mood. Scarlett props herself up so that she could look at Sarah. "What? C'mon, I don't wanna leave yet."

Sarah sighs, knowing that she would have to fight her on this. "You've already had way too much to drink and it's getting late."

"Fine." Scarlett rolls her eyes. "You two go ahead. Kelce and I will follow in a few."

Sarah gives Topper a look, silently begging him to help her and he just shrugs his shoulders, unsure of what to do at this moment. "Let's just start walking, they'll catch up."

Sarah allows Topper to walk her away, turning her head back slightly and seeing Scarlett and Kelce leaning closer together, the sight making her feel disgusted knowing what was about to most likely happen.

"Hey, Sarah!"

A voice calling her name brings her out of her thoughts, staring forward and seeing John B and JJ standing in front of her. The blonde boy had a cup in his hand, holding it out to her.

"Can I interest you in a tasty Milwaukee beverage?"

"No, thanks, I can't." Sarah politely declines. "I'm Scarlett's sober friend for the night, making sure she doesn't do anything too wild."

The four of them all glance back and see Scarlett and Kelce starting to makeout on the sand. Sarah cringes at the sight as the boys chuckle.

"Looks like you're doing a great job already." JJ comments while Sarah power walks over to the two.

"Scar, c'mon. We're going." Sarah was refusing to take no for an answer this time, leaning down to grab Scarlett's hand and helping her walk, Kelce not too far behind them.

Scarlett sticks out her tongue as she leans on the girl helping her walk. "Boo, you guys suck." Her eyes drift to JJ as she notices him holding a red cup and she instantly perks up again. "Hey Blondie, what's in your hand?"

He shrugs and goes in to hand the cup to her. "It's all yours."

Scarlett smiles, getting ready to grab it. "You are officially my new favourite person."

"No, c'mon." Sarah continues her attempts to drag her away. "You've had enough."

Scarlett scoffs. "What are you? The fun police."

"Seriously, Scarlett let's go."

"Is it not fancy enough for her?" JJ jokes.

"No." Sarah says. "We were just leaving."

Scarlett pouts, not ready to go and annoyed at Sarah for killing her fun. "I want to stay."

"Hey, you know what? I'll take it." Topper reaches out, wanting to be done with the situation and go home. "Thank you, man. I appreciate it."

"That's nice, but I didn't ask you." JJ antagonizes him. "If you said pretty please, maybe, but you didn't."

"Oh, pretty please." Topper was starting to get fed up and was trying his best to contain his temper for Sarah's sake, (and also not wanting to cause a scene in public in fear of looking bad) "Pretty please?"

"Yeah. Scarlett, you can have it." JJ reaches out trying to hand the cup over to the blonde girl again.

Topper grabbed the drink before Scarlett could, throwing it in his face. "She's not taking it, you..."

"Okay." Sarah tries to calm her boyfriend down, hoping a fight didn't break out.

Unfortunately she was too late.

Scarlett steps back, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. "Whoa, why is everyone getting all aggressive now? Ew."

Topper and JJ start shoving each other, with John B holding back JJ and Sarah pulling Topper away. Scarlett looks between the two of them, grossed out at the men around her.

"Dirty Pogues!"

The second those words leave Topper's mouth, John B leaves from trying to calm JJ down and runs full speed ahead at the entitled Kook, pushing him aggressively.

Sarah sees the look in Topper's eyes and attempts to get him to reason with her. "Babe, babe, babe, babe..."

It's too late. Topper runs over to John B and punches him as hard as he could, watching as he grunts and falls to the ground, crowd gasping as they watch. Topper continues to kick John B into the ocean.

Sarah runs closer, still trying to get Topper to leave it alone. "Guys? Guys! Chill!"

"Will you two cut it out!" Scarlett shouts at them, her buzz completely gone at this point.

"Hey, John B, don't make me drown you like your old man, all right?" Topper spits at him, slightly kicking him in the leg for emphasis.

The crowd was now eagerly chanting for a fight, and boy were they about to get one. John B quickly stands up and tackles Topper, punching him in the stomach as he fights back.

Everyone continues yelling around them, excited watching the two boys beat each other up. It seemed the only people interested in stopping the fight were Sarah and Scarlett.

"Get your man in check." Scarlett tells her.

"I'm trying." Sarah says before screaming back at her boyfriend again. "Topper! Stop!"

Topper and John B were now pacing around in a circle, daring the other to make their next move. John B reaches over and swings at Topper, landing a perfect punch.

"Come on!" John B taunts him.

Topper scoffs, holding his fists up. "Yeah, you wanna go?" He goes in for another punch, making John B fall back into the water.

They keep fighting, neither boys listening to the people trying their best to get them to stop, nor the crowd continuously chanting for them to keep fighting. Their only focus was on hurting the other. Topper manages to get the upper hand, grabbing John B as he ran to him and flipping him over, pushing his face into the water. He was gasping for air and waiting for Topper to let him up, but the time never came.

"Topper, stop! No!"

He ignores Sarah, only focusing on John B and hurting him. Scarlett slaps Kelce's arm, angry at him for just standing here.

"Hey, can you do something instead of standing here being useless?"

"Why? Topper's winning." Kelce shrugs.

Scarlett's eyes go wide as she can't believe the words she just heard him say. "Killing him is what he's actually doing."

"Oh my god." Kelce whispers and puts an arm in front of the small girl.

She narrows her eyes, wondering what he was looking at that got him so scared so fast, turning back around and expecting to still see John B fighting for his life, not expecting to see JJ holding a gun to Topper's head.

The gun safety clicks and Topper gasps, stopping his actions. JJ smirks at the effect this had on him. "Yeah, you know what that is. Your move, broski. Come on."

The crowd who was so intensely watching the fight was now gone, running away the second they saw JJ pull out his gun.

"Stop! JJ! Put the gun down." Sarah yells.

"Did you say somethin', princess?"

"We're good. We're good." Topper holds his hands up, trying to show him the fight is over and not wanting to antagonize JJ right now.

JJ still showed no sign of removing the gun from Topper's head. Everyone around them started getting worried about what he might do.

"Kie!" Sarah screams at her former friend. "Can you check your psycho friend, please?"

"Okay, everyone, listen up! Get the hell off our side of the island!"

The remaining crowd was gasping and shrieking as they watched JJ hold up the gun and begin shooting it in the air. Kelce quickly grabbed Scarlett's arm and pulled her away. Topper and Sarah follow them closely, the four running away from the beach together.

"What was that?" Kelce questions, after they were all far away and were trying to catch their breaths.

"Well, safe to say I'm all sobered up now." Scarlett attempts to joke.

"Damn Pogues." Topper spits. "I can't believe that psychopath had a gun to my head."

What?

Scarlett couldn't believe he was actually serious... it seemed like the fact he was the one who started the fight in the first place conveniently got lost on him. She was grateful for moments like this that seemed to justify her hatred for this Kook.

"Well, you were drowning what's his name. He was defending his friend." Scarlett comments, reminding Topper he wasn't in the right either.

Topper narrows his eyes at her. "So that justifies what he did?"

Let's be clear... the only reason Scarlett wasn't planning on throwing down with Topper right now was because of two reasons. First, she was positively sure that she would win and didn't feel like dealing with 'whiny Topper' (the worst Topper) and second, physically fighting with him possibly meant verbally fighting with Sarah. So she swallowed her annoyance and decided to attempt just speaking with him.

"I'm not saying that—"

Topper cuts her off, voice getting louder as he begins to shout. "Who's side are you on right now?"

Scarlett scoffs at the sight of Topper trying to intimidate her. It was sad and amusing to her all at once. "First of all, I'm not the one you raise your voice at. Second of all, I'm on neither side because both of you were immature and stupid tonight."

"Seriously?"

"Sarah, I'd appreciate it if you kept your boyfriend in line." Scarlett tells her friend, looking back over at Topper.  "I don't like his attitude right now."

"Yeah? Well no one likes your attitude ever!" Topper said sharply.

Scarlett giggles and covers her mouth trying to hide it. "Great comeback! You've really wounded me. I'll never recover."

"Okay, you both stop it. Scar, you're probably still a little drunk." Sarah gets in the middle of the two of them, not wanting another fight. "Topper, let it go okay."

"Forget this, I'm out of here." Scarlett turns around and begins walking away, grabbing Kelce's arm. "Let's go Kelce, you're driving me home."

author's note.
scar putting topper in his place AS SHE SHOULD but yeah topper stans (if yall even exist...) look away because this fic is not kind to him