chapter three

| vodka lemonade |

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      "Ugh, I feel like it's too hot to tan," Sienna pulled her hair into a bun, her sunglasses resting on her face.

  Sienna and Sarah sat by the edge of the Cade pool. The two had decided to just have a girls' day, without the boys. Although it may have been one of the hottest days of the summer, the two decided to tan. Well, mainly Sarah. Sienna would rather be at the beach, but she just decided to go along with Sarah's plan. The blazing sun beat down on the girls, definitely going to create a bronze look for the two.

  "Go jump in the pool then," Sarah lifted up her sunglasses, looking at Sienna.

"Can you come with?" She stood undoing her bun, she just put in.

   She hummed, "I'll dip my feet."

Sienna shot the girl a thumbs up before doing a running dive into the pool. It was nice and cool for her to bask in. Her wild freckles were more prominent in the summer, which were existent through out her face. As she resurfaced her hair was slicked back. Her freckles danced around her face, but slightly burned from the chlorine.

Sarah laughed in the sun, watching Sienna swim over and grabbing her ankles.

  "Hey can you help me out?" She asked, holding her hand for Sarah to take, a mischievous grin playing at her lips.

"Not falling for that." The dirty blonde crossed her arms, before speaking again, "What? Do you think I'm five?"

  Sienna didn't back down and committed to the bit, "No, I'm serious. Can you help me?"

   Sarah rolled her eyes, before smirking and holding her hand out for Sienna to take. With that, Sarah had fallen into her trap. The hard pull Sienna exerted, jolted Sarah forward into the pool, to which she screamed before being cut off by going underwater. When Sarah resurfaced, she started splashing her blonde best friend. It had turn into a full blown splash war. The two girls laughed as the splash came to a slow, yet steady halt.

   Standing over them was Bianca, the youngest Cade with Wheezie, the youngest Cameron. The girls both held their phones and a drink.

   Wheezie sipped on hers while, the young blonde spoke, "There's better ways to spend your time." She tapped her foot on the cement.

  Bianca was quite literally a spitting image of their mother, looks and personality wise. The only thing that Sienna was sure that held Bianca back from being just as awful as their mother was because Sienna was older. The girls were both taught to respect their elders, although Sienna believed respect goes both ways as she grew older.

  "Like what?"

"Tanning," Bianca shrugged her shoulders. Wheezie and her walked to take both of their older sister's seats.

  Sarah and Sienna gave each other a look, rolling their eyes, before getting out of the pool. They both walked inside. "Vibe murderers," Sarah said playfully, leaning against the kitchen island.

  Sienna walked to the cabinets to grab two glasses, and some lemonade from the fridge. She reached under the island, where her parents kept some vodka, shushing Sarah. She poured some in each of theirs. Sarah giggled as Sienna placed it back where it came from, just as her father walked in.

  "What are you ladies up to?" Sienna almost jumped at the sound of his voice, sighing in relief that her father had come in at just the right time.

  Sarah jumped in immediately, "You know, just planning our outfits and stuff for Midsummers. Sienna and I are thinking either flowers, or basics."

   Toni Cade laughed, placing his palms on the counter, "Ok, while you two do that... I have to talk with your father, Sarah. Any chance he's home? I have some questions for him about work."

  Sienna quirked an eyebrow suspiciously, "Dad, Ward's a landscaper... you're a lawyer. How do those two correlate?"

  Her father tensed at her question, "I'm representing him in a case, his lawyer is a little busy." He reasoned with his daughter.

"Yeah, he's home. Should be in his office," Sarah smiled.

"Thanks sweetie," Antonio Cade rushed from their house quickly.

  Sienna and Sarah exchanged a look, and sipped their spiked lemonades.

   As the day went on, the girls hung out on the front patio, away from their sisters, and her mother. They joked around, the jokes that weren't funny, the vodka made funny. Sienna and Sarah were talking about something random, when Sienna spotted JJ Maybank walking towards her. Her eyes narrowed in his direction. Sarah sat facing away from the front yard.

"So, anyway-" She talked indistinctly.

Sienna's gaze zeroed in on his appearance. Was it actually him, or was just she just imagining him? It was actually him, she confirmed. She saw the look on his face when he realized it was her, one of pure annoyance. And with him, was John B, the boy Topper almost drowned last night, next to the boy who almost blew his brains out.

Sienna stood up at the sight of John B, and Sarah stood too, fully mortified. Sarah couldn't quite believe Topper would do such a thing. She whispered to Sienna, "I'm going home."

   The blonde stood there alone, understanding of Sarah's situation. Sarah was incredibly upset with JJ, and so was Sienna, but she was also kinda pissed at Topper too.

  "What are you two doing here?" Sienna put on a tough persona her face twisting into disgust, almost trying to protect her home defensively.

  "Woah," JJ threw his hands up, "Just picking up my paycheck."

      Sienna nodded in the direction of John B, "And him?"

  "I'd expect you'd be at least nice to me after what Topper did," John B explained pointing at his face.

"Sorry you got beat, and I'm sorry that it was Topper, but from what I heard," Sienna crossed her arms looking between the two, "One of you threw first punch, shove, whatever-" JJ opened his mouth to retaliate, but Sienna continued, "And don't start Maybank," She shoved her finger in his face, walking towards him, "You tried shooting his fucking head off."

  "Fine, then why isn't Sarah here? We saw her run off," JJ leaned against the railing of the front porch.

  Sienna rolled her eyes, "Why should I know?" She hummed tapping her chin in sarcastic thought, "Maybe it's cause you literally threatened to kill her boyfriend with a gun? Maybe she's... I dunno... scared?"

   JJ stepped closer towards her, "Are you?"

The two held eye contact for a few moments. He was so close she could smell his recently smoked blunt off of him, and his cheap aftershave. She could she the steam that filled his ears. The blonde hair that refused to slick back. His blue eyes pierced her stern green ones, but she refused to break eye contact. Heavy breaths were shared between the two. They could argue all day, and yet someone far worse called her daughter's name.

"Where are you, Sienna Charlotte Cade?" Her mother's shrilly voice bellowed throughout their house.

  "Duty calls," JJ smirked, and Sienna whipped away from him rolling her eyes.

John B snorted, "Got the middle name too."

  "Down here, Mom!" She looked at the two boys while speaking again, "JJ's here to pick up his paycheck," She accidentally bumped her mother's shoulder walking inside, who slapped her on her arm for her attitude. She winced as JJ and John B watched, before disappearing back inside.

  "Can I help you?" Alexandria Cade stood.

"Well, just like your daughter said, I'm here to pick up my paycheck," He bounced on the balls of his feet, awaiting his money.

"Paycheck?" She leaned against the door frame, inquiring in his request.

"Yes, ma'am. I was promised two hundred dollars a week, for maintaining your lawn?" He took his hat off clutching it between his hands behind his back. John B scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

  "I'm sorry, I only recall one hundred," She walked inside, grabbing her checkbook which was in the kitchen, where Sienna sat with her head in her hands, having continued to listen to rest of the conversation.

    As her mother walked into the kitchen, she lifted her head, "You promised two hundred a week, Mom."

  "Don't eavesdrop, I'll deal with you later. He doesn't need that much," She had found the checkbook, sighing in annoyance as she wrote down a check for one hundred instead of two.

  She walked back outside, handing the blonde the check, "Ma'am, you and your husband promised me two hundred a week. I can assure you that," He tried to create his best smile.

Alexandria Cade snatched back the check, "I don't have to give you any of the money. You kids are so ungrateful." She slammed the door in the two teenage boys' faces.

  "Dude," John B whistled, "You need to find a new job."

"If I can find a new job." The boys walked off back towards John B's car, affectionately named The Twinkie.

   "Hey man, don't worry about it, who knows what we'll find in that Grady White later," John B reassured JJ by giving him a quick pat on the back.

  "You're right, let's hope I never have to work for these bastards ever fuckin' again," He observed the gun, that sat on the dashboard.

  With that, the Twinkie sped off towards the Chateau. Sienna remained with her mother inside. They were sending each other death glares from across the kitchen table during dinner. Sienna's cheerful father had noticed the tension tonight, and decided to inquire.

"What's wrong?" He asked eating his salad. Sienna and her mother didn't speak, still continuing to stare at each other.

Bianca sighed, looking up from her phone, "Sienna got in a fight with the yard worker and took it out on Mom."

  Sienna snapped out of the staring contest with her mother, "What? That's not what happened. The fight yes- But I didn't take it out on Mom. Mom didn't even pay him fully."

  Antonio bit into his corn, and sent a look towards his wife, who gasped in shock, "Why are you always lying young lady?" She pointed a finger in Sienna's direction, "Especially trying to make your own mother look bad."

  "I'm not lying!" Sienna slammed the table, "Why would I lie about that?"

"To make an excuse to your actions," Her mother replied, she turned towards the youngest daughter, "She's lying, right Bianca?"

  "I mean, I was outside-" A stern look from Alexandria Cade, conformed Bianca to her mother once more, "Yes, she's lying." She looked down shamefully at her food.

  Sienna seethed, "Ugh," She groaned before standing and taking dinner to her room with her.

Antonio Cade stood to check on his daughter, before his wife pulled him back down, "Leave her be. She needs her space."

  Sienna Cade slammed her door shut. She took her pillows and threw them on the floor with aggression. Her mother had her entire family pitted against her, and she had no idea why. It had only begun this past year. Before that, the two were inseparable. Almost as inseparable as herself and Sarah. It was almost like one night, something switched in her mother, causing her to manipulate the entire family into be against Sienna. Mainly Bianca, but even sometimes she convinced her father to join in on the antagonizing.

  With every pillow she threw, she imagined it to be her mother's face, shattering into a million pieces once it made contact with the wooden floor. She couldn't understand how her mother could be so gentle with her younger sister, yet the second Sienna walks in, everything goes to hell. If Bianca and Sienna talked about how their mother treated them to someone else, that person would probably assume they have different mothers. Sienna assumed it was because she was her father's daughter, but then it raises the inexplicable question. Bianca has the same father, so surely Sienna won't be able to put the blame on her father, not that she would anyway.

So the only question she had left to ask herself, What have I done wrong?

  After ten minutes, she became tired from the energy and force it took to be aggressive. She sat on her bed breathing heavily, thinking about the money JJ Maybank didn't go home with. She began to think if she hadn't been outside, she wouldn't have had to see JJ. Her mother would've never come running down the stairs, seeing her with what she liked call Island Trash. She would've never bumped her shoulder. She would've never had spoken to the boys, the vodka lemonade allowed angry words to seep off her tongue. Fuck vodka lemonade, it made her feel awful.

  Sure, JJ had pissed her off yesterday and today, and he would piss her off tomorrow too, but for all she knew what they were paying him was money that went into keeping his lights on. And for all she knew, she had pissed him off too. Sienna knew people hated her, mainly ones from the Cut. It was easy to be jealous of something you couldn't have. That's what her mother told her, but what the fuck does Alexandria Cade know? She was well into her 30's and still acted like a teenager. Exhibit A; the fight tonight.

   Her mind jumped back to the topic of pissing off JJ, for real. She didn't know why, she just felt an uneasy feeling swelling in her stomach. Not a feeling of fear, not one that Sarah felt when she saw JJ this morning. A feeling of regret and guilt. One Topper should've felt last night- Sienna huffed. She forgot that she was pissed about that too.

  Sienna knew her family had made a deal with him, and she was insistent on holding up their end. She had felt increasingly worse as night fell about how she treated the two earlier, JJ was just there to pick up his paycheck. She devised a plan that would get revenge on her mother, get JJ his money, and give herself an opportunity to apologize to the boys.

Sienna opened her door quietly, sneaking down to the kitchen where her family remained eating dinner in the dining room. She went into the kitchen to grab the checkbook, writing JJ another check for three hundred dollars. She figured he would appreciate a hundred dollar inconvenience fee. Sienna wrote it out to JJ, from her own bank account. That way her mother wouldn't be able track the payment.

  She would go to JJ's tomorrow to give him his check. She just needed to check what address he wrote down in her father's employee records first.

  The next morning, she took her Mercedes to the address that was written down as JJ's in her father's office. It led her to an extremely wooden house, with John B's car in front of it. It was the universe basically telling her that it was the perfect opportunity to apologize to both of them.

  As she walked through the front yard, she noticed tiny holes in the ground, weeds stemming from everywhere, and fallen trees. So this is what lack of garden keeping presents, Sienna thought to herself. At the back she could spot a small dock, with Christmas lights covering a verandah. A small, fishing boat sat at the end. She pinched herself on the arm, trying to force herself out of the Kook mindset. If she was gonna make an apology to Pogues, she needed to at least pretend to act like one. Even if it meant not judging her surroundings with every step she took nearing a back screened in deck.

She practiced the apology in the mirror this morning, something she did before presenting school reports, important conversations, and from time to time she fantasized arguments that she would win in with a person she had a conflict with; it was usually her mother.

She recited it to herself quietly, with her head down, "Dear JJ and John B- Wait this isn't a letter," She paused taking a breath to restart, "John B and JJ, I'm-" She sighed again tugging at her hair, "You know what, fuck it."

She walked up the rotting wooden stairs giving up her formulated speech. It was probably better that she spoke with her heart anyway. The stairs creaked with every step she took, "John B?" She called out, "JJ?"

   It was empty as she walked inside. It smelt like the morning after a party in here, Sienna breathed through her mouth, she didn't know if she would be able to stomach the stench if it grew stronger. The interior of JJ's house was completely trashed. She pushed open the screen door, against the weight of an overflowing trash can. When she walked in, she could see a dusted pull out couch, and the house stretched a small span to the other side, with a kitchen. The dishes were stacked up, nearing the roof. As she continued to walk in, she could spot a backpack sitting on the porch. Someone is here. The little shits are ignoring me.

  "I know you guys are here! I just wanna talk, I promise," Sienna pleaded throughout an empty shack, that seemed not so empty anymore as she felt a presence nearing her.

Click.

A cold surface against, her temple.

A gun.

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woweewow CLIFFHANGer. mauahahah. i feel so evil. little hint for y'all- we're officially in episode two. also im actually dead. i'm officially done with taylor swift. she sang getaway car AND maroon crying fr. LIKE IM SO DONE.