CHAPTER FOUR
"never mix vodka with crystal light."

( episode three ━━ the forbidden zone )

CLEANING UP THE BEACH FOR the whole day... yeah, it's safe to say this was not Scarlett's ideal way of spending her precious summer vacation.

However, spending her day cleaning up the beach while trying to hide the fact you were drunk the whole time? Now that sounded way more her speed. She could have kissed Kelce (but she wouldn't have enjoyed it) when he showed up with a bunch of alcohol.

She watches as he mixes the alcohol in his water jug for them to share for the afternoon. When he had originally had came to pick her up, she immediately began venting about how fed up with her parents she was. Constantly taking last minute vacations, working late nights and doing whatever the hell else. Jokes on her for thinking Kelce would give her a sympathetic response, he was only focusing on her parents being gone.

"I still don't understand you, why not throw a party?"

Scarlett's eyes go wide, applauded he would ever ask her that. "What, and have Lisa rat me out? No way."

Sure, her and Lisa were pretty close, but that doesn't mean the woman wouldn't inform her parents if she decided to possibly get the house trashed. Maybe her parents wouldn't think it was that big a deal, but that wasn't a chance she was willing to take.

"I mean no offence, but would your parents even care? At least they would finally pay actual attention to you." Kelce says, not seeing how he sort of struck a nerve.

Oh... she was seriously resisting the urge to hit him right now.

"Just keep mixing."

She looks away from Kelce and watches everyone else around the beach participating in the clean up, trying to ignore the weird energy around them at the moment.

When he had offered to pick her up, she originally wanted to say no. Sarah had told her before that apparently Kelce had been planning on officially asking her out, the thought making her want to vomit. She had guessed seeing her and the eldest Cameron together yesterday had given him the wrong impression. She didn't want him, she didn't want any man in the OuterBanks.

There was only one person she wanted.

"So, you and Rafe seem pretty close." He says, not bothering to hide his bitterness. "You two official?"

"I don't do official with anyone, and I've made that very clear."

"Yeah, well it seems like you may want to tell him that."

"Look, get over whatever feelings you have for me. I made my intentions clear from the beginning of us drunkenly hooking up, so don't even start with me right now."

That seemed to shut Kelce up immediately, and Scarlett hoped this was the last she ever heard about that subject. She felt bad for snapping at him like that, but she was correct, she did make her intentions very clear when they started doing whatever they were doing. It's not her fault he decided to feel more.

Glancing around the beach, trying to find any excuse to start up a new conversation since this awkward silence was killing her, she had never felt more happy than when her eyes eventually landed on Sarah and Topper walking around.

Yeah, she never thought she'd be happy to see Topper either.

Jumping up and quietly excusing herself, she quickly marches over to the two of them, walking in on Sarah seemingly frustrated over something. "Damn Cameron, what's got you so heated?" Scarlett asks as she catches up to the couple.

Sarah rolls her eyes. "John B. He's such an asshole."

"It's..." Topper starts. "He's a Pogue, at the end of the day."

"What does that mean?" Scarlett questions.

The whole Kooks versus Pogues thing was unbelievably stupid and Scarlett was tired of hearing people using it as excuses for people's behaviour.

Entitled rich kids really got on her nerves (she may be a rich kid but she was no where near as entitled as others) it seriously shocked her hearing the many ridiculous things they'd say.

"I mean, you can say we're all just people, or... or whatever, but it's a totally different mindset on the cut."

Before Scarlett can scold Topper for what he said, Kelce comes jogging over to the three, holding up the water bottle filled with what he was mixing earlier. "Yo. You look thirsty!"

Finally, something to drown out this conversation.

"Oh! Me first!" Scarlett grabs the bottle from him and takes a huge sip before passing it off to Topper.

"Okay, what do we... what do we got here?" Topper unscrews the lid and sniffs. "Oh, my God!"

Kelce rubs his hands together and laughs watching Topper drink. "Mm! Yeah! That's how we do it, baby!"

"Oh, man. Come on, Sarah." He hands the bottle to his girlfriend.

Sarah sniffs it and looks back at Kelce with a disgusted face as he continues to encourage her. "Come on, Sarah."

"Let's go." Topper says.

Sarah listens to them, taking a swig of the drink and nearly choking at how strong it was. "What did you do to this?"

Topper laughs. "He's not playin' around."

She goes back to take another drink but Wheezie grabs the bottle out of her hand and starts chugging before she could, startling all of them. The sight of little thirteen year old Whezzie Cameron chugging back this drink was really starting to make Scarlett realize that maybe they were bad influences...

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!" Sarah grabs it back from her little sister. "Since when did you start drinking?"

"Since today!"

"You guys got it under control?"

A voice startled them all as an adult began to approach them, so neither girl had time to properly scold the younger Cameron. Fear ran through Scarlett's body as she was not in the mood of dealing with the consequences of getting caught underage drinking and quickly gestured for Kelce to go away. Good thing he wasn't an idiot (well... jury may still be out on that one) and was already running away to hide their drink.

"Yes, sir! It's looking good, sir!" Topper smiles at him. "Just clearing the stretch out!"

"Just hydrating!" Scarlett waves back at him. "Almost finished!"

The man gives him a thumbs up, believing their lie but still looking at them like he knew they were hiding something. "Great job. Keep it up!"

"Yeah. Thank you!"

☆

Rafe walked around his house peacefully, feeling startled when he felt arms wrap around his waist and grab him from behind, relaxing after seeing it was only Scarlett. "Hi."

"Hey. Why do you smell like alcohol?" He questions, laughing.

"I was at the beach thingy with Sarah." She explains. "Kelce brought drinks."

He wasn't sure why he asked, it was pretty obvious that she was drunk. The number one tell being that she was actually showing him affection, something she would never do sober. It partly made him feel upset, like he wasn't worthy of her emotions and feelings when she was completely clear minded, but with how hot and cold she was with him, he figured he'll take what he can get.

Rafe removes the girls arms from his waist so that he could turn around to properly face the girl. "Okay, on a scale of 1-10 how drunk are you?"

She rolls her eyes. "0, I'm not a lightweight."

"Okay, let's test that." Rafe holds his index finger in front of her. "Follow it."

She giggles, moving his arm away only for him to put it back and continuously move it around in her face. "I don't need to do this."

It was cute moments, nice moments like this that made her wish she could have true feelings for Rafe, (maybe she was only thinking all of this due to the many drinks she had prior) since the majority of the time he treated her well. She wanted so badly for him to be the one she was madly in love with, especially since it was practically obvious how obsessed he was with her.

But he wasn't the one, and he never will be.

"You watching or—"

"Rafe." Ward enters the room and the playful mood immediately drops. "I need to talk to you. Now."

"What's going on?" Rafe asks.

Ward looks at the younger blonde girl, giving her a tight lipped smile. "Hi Scarlett."

She waves awkwardly, easily sensing that he was in a bad mood and didn't wanna test him. "Hi Mr Cameron."

"Could I have a minute alone with my son, please?"

"Of course." With the attitude he had right now, she didn't need to be told twice. She starts to back out of the room without protesting. "I'm gonna go find Sarah."

Scarlett walks over to the bathroom where Sarah was helping Wheezie through her first drunk experience, and to say it wasn't going well, was a huge understatement. She thought about how good of a sister Sarah was to be holding her hair back and helping her through this, all she could think is if she had a younger sibling, Scarlett would be laughing and teasing them the entire time.

... maybe it's a good thing she's an only child.

"—Never mix vodka with Crystal Light."

Scarlett laughs at Wheezie's words as she enters the room. "Well, isn't that the truth."

The younger girl goes back to vomiting in the toilet, whipping her mouth after she finishes and gives the two older girls a pleading look. "Ugh... Please don't tell Dad, both of you."

Scarlett holds her hands up in defence, half joking but her words were serious. "Hey, I am not a snitch."

"I won't." Sarah says as she continues holding her hair up. "On one condition."

Wheezie sighs and leans back "What's that?"

"You cover for me sneaking out with Topper tonight."

Scarlett gasps dramatically, enjoying the fact that Sarah was getting more and more rebellious by the day. "She's sneaking out instead of asking for permission? I've never felt more proud."

"I promise I'll cover—" Wheezie pauses, quickly goes back to the toilet as she begins feeling herself wanting to vomit again. "Oh..."

☆

Scarlett could not believe she had chosen to come to this party sober. The last time she had done that was freshman year, and she wishes that were still the case. After spending the majority of her afternoon helping a thirteen year old with her first drunk experience, alcohol did not sound like a fun time. Sadly, she had lost Sarah a half hour ago and was now desperately pushing through the crowd to find her, or at least anyone she knew.

Damn... maybe she should have been drinking tonight after all.

"Yo, Topper's on the roof!"

Scarlett scrunches up her face in confusion and looks up at the roof, and well there he was, looking down at everyone cheering his name and hyping him up. She rolled her eyes and was about to walk back inside, until she saw Sarah walk onto the roof after him.

"Yaaaah!" The party goers cheered, quickly switching up and chanting for them to jump.

"Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump!"

She watches as Topper picks up Sarah, the girl looking absolutely terrified, but Topper still takes a step forward and jumps off into the pool below with her in his arms. Scarlett starts to panic, but relaxes after seeing Sarah swim back up to the surface, laughing the whole thing off.

"Can you believe this girl right here?" Topper grabs his girlfriend. "The coolest chick in the OBX!"

Feeling better now that her friend is fine, Scarlett goes into the house, trying to find more water to put in her cup, at least wanting to give herself the illusion she was drinking. On her way to the kitchen, she spots Rafe having a conversation with another girl at the party and rushes over to see him.

"Hey, you finally made it." She reaches up to hug him. "You just missed Topper jumping off the roof. Literally."

"Yo, Rafe." Kelce walks up to the two of them and pats Rafe on the shoulder. "Where you been at?"

Rafe leans in, trying his best to whisper. "Hey, yo, I got some yayo. Spread the word."

It was no use, Scarlett heard every word. She removes her arms from around him and gives him a stern look. "Seriously?"

"What?"

Now, she knew that she really was not the one to be lecturing anyone on how they choose to party, like at all, but she was also one of the only people who knew how serious Rafe's addiction actually was. To say it worried her would be putting it lightly.

They had an intense conversation about it around a month ago, to which he had sworn to her he never planned on touching drugs again and wanted to get help. Scarlett believed him, now realizing the error of her ways.

She scoffs and rolls her eyes. "I thought you said you were done with this shit. You promised me."

Rafe groans, not wanting to deal with an argument right now. "There's just a lot of things going on that you wouldn't understand, okay?"

"I am so over this."

"What, so I can't hit a few lines but you can act trashy and be drunk off your ass 6 days a week?" He mocks her, going a little too far.

Scarlett tries her best to not let it show on her face that his comment stung, a lot. "You did not just say that to me."

"I have business to attend to, follow me when you're ready to be less uptight tonight." He shrugs it off, moving her aside as he starts walking away.

☆

"You know, 40 isn't enough for the amount of coke you've been doing tonight, but I'll let it slide this time."

Rafe counts the money handed to him from the girls he and Kelce had been doing drugs with for the past 30 minutes. Scarlett was the only one sitting around who had yet to participate, not that she was planning on it... but she was bored. Her best friend was completely MIA, and in return she was stuck hanging around people she really didn't want to be near right now. Scarlett really just wished she had chosen to stay home instead.

"Whoo!" Kelce hands the bill over to the blonde girl next to him after he just finished doing a line. "Scarlett, you wanna do one?"

"No thanks." She declines. "I'm actually staying sober for the night."

"Yeah, she went and got all boring on us Kelce." Rafe mocks her.

"Unbelievable." She mutters as she slouches back in her seat.

Topper walked by, noticeably upset and didn't want to let it show. He was trying to walk by everyone unnoticed, but Rafe was quick to jump out of his seat to go greet him. While he, along with everyone else seemed excited for Topper's arrival, (something Scarlett couldn't relate to) the main thought on her mind seemed to be Topper's arrival without Sarah.

"Hey, everybody. Hey, this is Top, all right?" Rafe introduces him. "I call him the Shred God. He goes Conan on overheads, right?"

Scarlett leans her head back in her chair, looking up at the ceiling. "Just shoot me now."

"What were you last year?" Rafe continues. "You were, like, top ten."

Topper thinks about it for a moment. "Last year, uh, seventh in Nationals."

"He was seventh in Nationals."

"Girls, look." Rafe pushes him to sit next to the girl he just was. "Take a seat. Sit down, man!"

"Wait, if you're here, where's Sarah?" Scarlett questions.

Topper shifts awkwardly in the chair as he recalls the small fight they'd just had, hoping no one had noticed that, but Scarlett did. "We were talking outside behind the house and I got bored, now I'm here."

She scrunches up her face listening to Topper. "So you left her there on her own?"

"Relax, it's not a big deal."

Scarlett rolls her eyes and gets up from her seat, happy to finally be leaving. Pushing her way past everyone, she quickly makes her way up to where Topper said he left his girlfriend, hoping she was still there.

She was. The second Scarlett had stepped foot in the area where Topper directed her, there she was with her head in her hands, looking seriously upset.

"Hey, Sar. What's going on?"

Sarah turns her head up, watching Scarlett take a seat next to her. "Nothing, I'm fine."

"Liar." She playfully hits Sarah's shoulder with her own. "Do you want to talk about it?"

It was obvious to anyone with eyes that she wasn't, and while Scarlett didn't want to push her to talk about it, she wanted to make sure the girl was okay. All she knew was, if Topper was the one who made her like this... he was dead.

Okay not literally, but still.

Sarah sighs, leaning back on her arms thinking over her relationship. "I keep giving Topper mixed signals. I'm a bad girlfriend."

"False, you're way too good for him." Scarlett disagrees. "Still, I'm going to need a little more context."

"I told Topper I was ready, and then it's like I wasn't."

"That's okay. You changed your mind, you're allowed to do that."

"Yeah but—"

"No buts." Scarlett interrupts, not wanting to hear her friend put herself down. "If you're ready, you're ready. If you're not, then you're not. Don't ever let anyone guilt you or pressure you into anything that you aren't ready for."

Sarah smiles at her and leans her head on her shoulder. "You give pretty good advice when you're wasted."

"Surprise, I actually haven't had a sip of any alcohol all night."

Sarah raises her eyebrows and moves her head slightly so she could look up at the girl. "Why?"

"Wheezie puking her guts out this afternoon sort of turned me off the idea of getting trashed tonight." Scarlett laughs. "Don't worry, I will be back to my regularly scheduled shenanigans at the next party."

"Looking forward to it."

"What else is on your mind?" Scarlett leans her head back on Sarah's. "I can tell it's not just Topper."

"John B."

Scarlett tries her best to rack her memory, attempting to figure out who Sarah was talking about. "Who?"

"Remember? He snuck on the boat when we were sleeping and returned stolen scuba gear." Sarah explains.

Oh him, Scarlett knew little to nothing about him, but all she knew is he was definitely someone she could get behind Sarah dating. It was obvious that she never enjoyed the company of any of the girl's previous boyfriends, but this guy felt different. Even if the two weren't dating, she secretly hoped they would be soon.

"I knew you wanted him! I knew it! I called it." Scarlett giggles as she starts making kissing noises to bother Sarah.

"No, not that." Sarah sits up straight and spins around to face Scarlett. "He accused me of telling my dad after I promised him I didn't, not even giving me a chance to defend myself."

"So, find him and set the record straight." Scarlett shrugs her shoulders. "Tell him the truth."

"You're right, I know exactly what to do."