TURNING VIOLET

an outer banks story

by -spacecadet

CHAPTER FIVE: DADDY'S MONEY

North Carolina wasn't exactly the ideal location to launch a rock and roll career, but it was, however, the perfect place to get tan and get high.

After finishing their breakfast with Wheezie, Violet and Rafe walked back to the beach to collect Rafe's truck and with it, Violet's guitar. They headed back to the Olivier house, where Violet checked in with Natalia (her parents, of course, were not home) and grabbed some things for the boat.

Then, they'd taken a long detour to the other side of the island, so Rafe could mooch some blow off of his dealer, a pogue with a gold tooth who lived in a trailer at the edge of the Cut by the name of Barry. Coke secured, they headed back to Tannyhill.

They'd taken the Druthers through the marsh and out into the open water, where Rafe had anchored the boat near a dozen other yachts, primed for ultimate kook relaxation.

Violet was relaxing on the sun deck in a black bikini, the stolen Ray Bans and an ugly sun hat she'd found shoved into a closet on board the Druthers. Given how tacky it was, it definitely belonged to Rose, and it brought Violet some amusement to know that Mrs. Cameron would be none too thrilled about her hat sitting atop Violet's head.

Rafe was somewhere inside the yacht, where he'd been for quite a while. Violet assumed he was snorting a line, and hadn't bothered to offer her any. She might have cared, if she hadn't been so comfortable in the sun.

The cockpit door opened and Rafe appeared with two drinks in his hands, sunglasses over his blue eyes.

Violet waved to him, a cocky smile dancing on her face. "There he is, the captain. Don't suppose you're interested in continuing our activity from this morning?"

He let out a rare laugh as he settled into the chair beside her, offering her one of the glasses. She took a tentative sip from it, tasting far more gin than tonic in the G&T.

"Vi, as much as I would love to take you right here and right now, that boat belongs to my father's colleague," he said, pointing to the closest yacht to them. "And that one, next to it, belongs to Rose's old sorority sister."

A mischievous smirk filled Violet's face. "Are you saying they wouldn't be amused to see us going at it on the Druthers?"

Rafe snorted, his eyes growing cold. "'Amused' is not in my father's vocabulary."

Whenever he brought up his father, Rafe shut down. He closed himself off from the world around him, acting like nothing his father did ever bothered him, even though it was obvious to anyone that he felt the exact opposite. To Violet, it was extremely obvious. She was just about the only person Rafe let get close to him, and even that had taken a long time.

"Yeah," Violet sighed, taking a long sip of her drink. "Your dad's a dick."

Rafe was silent for such a long time that Violet was certain she'd pissed him off. Even though his father treated him like shit, Rafe was still extremely defensive about him. She slipped the sunglasses down her nose, peering over them as she turned to look at him.

He was watching the horizon with a smirk on his face, his arms behind his head. "Yeah. He is."

"Even better reason to desecrate the Druthers."

He laughed, his smile so full it reached his blue eyes, a rare occurrence most days. The sight brought a smile to Violet's own face and they sat there laughing, like two carefree kids, the kids they should be.

"Oh Vi," Rafe sighed, reaching over to squeeze her hand. "You never fail to surprise me."

She grinned. "You mean after four years, I can still keep you on your toes?"

He smirked. "You keep everyone on their toes." He used their connected hands to pull her towards him, and she stumbled out of her chair and towards him, falling onto his lap. She quickly set her drink down as he kissed her, running his hands through her dark hair.

She had lots of vices, but Rafe was perhaps her biggest addiction. Any time his hands were on her body or his lips were on her mouth, she lost all control.

"I thought we weren't doing this on the boat," she murmured, pulling away from him for a second to catch her breath.

"I changed my mind. Fuck my dad."

"Spite sex," she said with a smirk. "And they say romance is dead."

He rolled his eyes and kissed her again, pulling her bottom lip against his teeth. She was reaching her hands into the waistband of his swim trunks when a boat horn sounded, and she pulled away.

She was still straddling Rafe's lap as she slid her sunglasses off of her eyes, squinting out into the water and at the boat that was nearing them. Loud, overrated pop music blared from the yacht's expensive speakers, and she recognized the ship as one belonging to one of Rafe's friends, Kelce.

"Fuck's sake," Rafe muttered, letting out an annoyed sigh as he rested his hands on top of Violet's thighs.

Violet raised an arm to flip the boat off, rolling her eyes as the kooks on board laughed and yelled at them.

"Sorry, are we interrupting something?" A girl called out, and Violet's stomach twisted in anger as she recognized her as the girl who was flirting with Rafe at the concert the night before. Rafe being Rafe, he'd ignored her.

Violet gave her middle finger another shove into the air before settling her hand back down on Rafe's bicep.

"Mind if we dock by y'all?" Kelce yelled through the wheelhouse window.

"Yes, we do mind," Violet muttered, but Kelce was already tossing an anchor over the boat and into the water.

"Hey, Vi," Kelce said, waving his hand. "Nice concert last night, by the way."

"Yeah. You guys left so early though," the same girl called out.

Who the hell was this girl? Violet didn't recognize her, and she knew all of the kooks that lived on the island year-round, and the ones that only came during the summer.

"Who is that?" Violet muttered, glancing over at her boyfriend.

"Mina," Rafe replied with a roll of his eyes. "Kelce's cousin from Charlotte."

"Is she visiting for the summer?"

He shrugged. "Must be."

She slid off of Rafe's lap and downed the rest of her drink. "I'm gonna go do a line," she told her boyfriend before retreating to the cabin.

By the time Violet came back, she noticed that she was alone on the boat. Rafe had jumped overboard and swam the few short feet over to Kelce's boat, likely at the urging of his friends.

"Violet! Come on over!" Kelce called, waving a bottle of beer at her. She saw a bong at the back of the boat, Rafe seated in front of it. She rolled her eyes. Of course. His drugs weren't good enough.

"I don't want to get wet," Violet yelled back. She was about to settle back on her seat, content to sit alone on the Druthers, when she spotted a familiar face on Kelce's boat. Her same blue eyes and dark hair reflected back at her from underneath a 5-panel hat and a pair of Ray Bans, much like the stolen ones Violet was wearing.

"Cade?" she muttered to herself, her brows furrowing together.

Her little brother was a kook as much as she was -- he went to private school, drove around in his daddy's car, and had never worked a day in his life. He was, however, a massive nerd and an introvert, and she never saw him hanging around the kinds of people she hung out with. He didn't drink, he didn't smoke, he didn't do anything -- as far as she knew.

But there he was, on Kelce Jones' boat.

"Aww, come on, Violet!" the annoying girl, Mina, called to her.

"I'll be over in a second," she replied with an annoyed huff before tossing off her sunglasses and hat and diving into the water. It felt nice on her skin, which was warm and red from the sun.

She swam the distance to Kelce's boat, holding out a hand as two of the boys on the boat raced to help her up. Their eyes trailed her body as they pulled her out of the water, and she instinctively crossed her arms over her chest as she made a beeline for her brother, who stood near the cabin with a hard lemonade in his hands.

"Cade Olivier," she said as she approached. He glanced over at her, his eyes widening in surprise and a sheepish grin crossing his face.

"Oh. Hey, Vi."

"Hey. Give me your shirt," she said, pulling on the sleeve of the patterned button down he was wearing.

"What?"

"Give me your shirt," she hissed, all but pulling his arms out of the fabric herself. "What are you doing here?" she asked as she buttoned the shirt over her skimpy swimsuit. She hadn't expected to be wearing it in front of anyone but Rafe, and he'd seen her in less.

"Same as you," he said, shrugging as he took a sip of his drink.

She scoffed and wiped at her nose. "Yeah, I doubt that. Since when do you hang out with Kelce?"

"You hang out with Kelce."

"Rafe hangs out with Kelce."

Cade smirked. "Touche." He shrugged. "I don't know. I wanted something different this summer."

"So you decided to hang out with my friends?"

"I thought they weren't your friends."

She rolled her eyes and gave her brother a slight shrug. "Whatever. Don't do anything more than that, got it?" She gave a pointed look at his lemonade.

Cade's eyes drifted towards Rafe, and the bong he was currently using. "You mean that's off limits?"

"If I see you doing anything Rafe is doing, I will push you into the ocean."

"You don't have to be so overprotective, Vi."

"Well, I do, because you're sixteen."

"I'm seventeen," Cade replied with a chuckle. "Almost eighteen."

"Not 'til September."

"Rafe, give me some of that!" A shrill voice called out, capturing both of the Olivier siblings' attentions.

Violet turned around to see Kelce's cousin stumbling towards Rafe. She fell onto the couch, her hand not-so-suavely brushing his bare shoulder.

Cade looked towards his sister, an amused smile filling his face. "I think you should spend a little less time worrying about me, Vi."

Violet wasn't one to speak poorly of other women, but she was about two seconds away from pushing that Mina girl into the water. "Don't do anything stupid," she hissed at her brother before storming towards Rafe, her arms crossed over her chest.

"There you are," Rafe said, looking up as Violet approached. He was ignoring the drunk girl beside him as she clumsily attempted to take a hit from the bong, even though she was all over him.

Violet knew Rafe would never make a move on another girl, or even flirt with her. He'd only ever had eyes for her.

"Am I doing this right?" Mina asked with a giggle, patting her hand on top of Rafe's thigh.

"No sweetie, you're not," Violet replied with a tight-lipped smirk..

Mina looked up, her eyes locking on Violet. "Oh hi, Violet! I don't think I got the chance to introduce myself at your concert yesterday. I'm --"

"I don't give a shit," Violet replied, ripping the bong out of the girl's hand and sliding it down the table, towards two other kook boys.

Mina scoffed. "That was fucking rude."

"It was," Violet agreed. "Now get your hand off of my boyfriend's lap."

She removed her hand and looked up at Violet, feigning innocence. "Oh my God, I wasn't --"

Violet scoffed. "No, Rafe wasn't. You were. Now move it."

Mina rolled her eyes and stood. "You're kind of a --"

"Bitch? Yeah. Oh, and steer clear of my brother too, would you? Thanks."

Mina walked away, too stunned to say more, and Violet settled onto the couch beside Rafe, who was watching her with an amused smirk. His arm slid around her shoulder as she sat down, and he pulled her close.

"That was kind of hot, Vi."

She rolled her eyes and elbowed him. "Oh, shut up."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ author's note ✫・゜・。.

say what you will, but violet is a badass. i know it's been a while, but here's a new chapter. working on another one as we speak! i really wish i had a big boat where all of my friends could party ... alas, i'll have to live vicariously through vi and rafe.

xx,

madi