Aʟʙᴀᴛʀᴏss (2)

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The next morning, the Pogues loaded Terrence up and set out to the dock. As they passed, JJ stood up from his place by the Twinkie. He nods his head as they walk by. Sarah quickly setting the gun in the van. JJ eyes Estrella as she passes. Her eyes elsewhere and JJ could tell this was affecting her almost as much as it was affecting Cleo. The teens make it to the dock and load Terrence into the boat before setting off.

As they continued on, Pope quickly caught onto someone following them, "Hey. I think we're being followed."

The teens turn noticing the boat. John B sighs, "Oh shit."

"Let's lose him. He's in a johnboat." Kie says

"Hold on, y'all." John B says before speeding up

•••

After losing the boat, John B turns the engine off. They gather around Terrence in silence.

"I know you guys didn't know Terrance that well, but... he took care of me when no one else did. He was like a father to me. And, um... And I loved him. And I'm gonna miss him." Cleo says, "I ain't going to forget who did this. I got you, boss."

Estrella turns away as John B and Pope drop Terrence in the ocean. Her heart raced as she looked off toward the sun. She shuts her eyes as she takes a few deep breaths to calm her heart.

"I'm sorry." Pope says

"Everyone's always sorry." Cleo says, "Nothing ever happens."

Cleo walks off without another word. The others staying silent as John B starts the boat up.

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As Estrella steps off of the dock, she immediately looks for JJ. She could feel herself becoming increasingly anxious and just needed comfort from him. The longer she searched around, the more panicked she had become. She pulls out her phone and dials his number as John B walks over to the Twinkie noticing a note in the windshield.

"What?" Sarah says as John B reads it. Estrella sighs as her phone goes to voicemail. Sarah takes the note from John B, ""She's topped off, had to run an errand, go on to Chucktown without me, catch up with you later, JJ." Since when does JJ ever run errands?"

"Since never." Kie says

Estrella groans again as she hears JJ's voicemail. John B looks over to her, "Anything, Estrella?"

Estrellas shuts her phone off, "Not answering."

"Great. So what are we gonna do now?" Pope says

"He said to go." Cleo says, "We should go."

"Y'all go ahead." Estrella says turning to them, "I'll hang back and... if we can, we'll catch up with you later. Plus, I can keep the shop open."

"Might as well." John B says

"Yeah." Sarah says

"All right." John B nods

Charlotte walks over to Estrella as the others head to the Twinkie, "Be careful."

"Yeah. You guys, too." She nods as Charlotte rubs her shoulder. Charlotte gives a small smile before walking off. Estrella dials JJ's number again as she walks toward the dock.

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It wasn't long before the Pogues made it onto a ferry and were on their way to Charleston. They had all sort of split up seeing as nothing could be done until they actually made it to Charleston.

Kie and Charlotte walked over to the edge of the boat to look out at the water. Kie looks over at Charlotte noticing the distant look in her eyes, "You okay?"

"Yeah." Charlotte says softly, "Just worried about Estrella."

Kie nods in understanding, "Yeah, me too."

"I know I haven't known her long, but I don't think I've ever seen her like that." Charlotte says looking over, "You think everything is finally catching up to her?"

"Yeah." Kie nods, "Out of everyone, I think she wanted things to go back to the normal the most. And I don't blame her."

"I'm just worried about her." Charlotte says looking down at her hands

Kie nods softly as she looks out to the water. She sighs, "You know, when we first got into this, Estrella said the first thing she would do with her money is get to the hell out of here."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Kie chuckles, "She didn't really wanna get involved, but she wanted to help John B figure out what happened to his dad. She's done so much for us and all she wanted was to go back to normal like we said we would. I feel terrible."

"Maybe after all this, we can finally give it to her." Charlotte shrugs

"I hope so." Kie sighs, "If anyone deserves it, it's her. She deserves to be happy."

Charlotte smiles softly with a nod. Kie leaning over and laying her head on her shoulder. Kie lets out a sigh as Charlotte intertwines their fingers.

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Estrella sighs as she looked down at her phone. She scrolled through the multitude of messages she had sent JJ, "Dude, where are you?"

She walks over to the counter as the shop bell rings, "Hey, can I help you?"

"I don't know, can you?" She hears. Her heart nearly stops as Rafe looks back at her. He smiles, "Hey, Estrella."

"What are you doing here?"

"Uh, yeah. Do you... What, you don't think I'm just a customer coming to shop at my local surf and bait store?" He asks as Estrella steps behind the counter, "No? I'm just looking for my sister."

"She doesn't want to see you, Rafe."

"Well, she's my sister, okay? I can come have a little chat with her if I want." He says as he looks down at the product he had picked up. Estrella quickly picked up a pocket knife JJ left behind the counter, "Oh, it was a really... it was a really nice performance yesterday at the break. You gave it up for those turtles. It was super fun to watch. It was awesome."

Estrella eyes him as he stops a few feet in front of the counter, "You know this place is on the chopping block, right?"

"You don't say." She squints, "Let me guess. You're behind that or something?"

"Uh... I... I could be, but no. It's not me." He says, "Well, I came to give you a heads-up, actually. You know, to try to do you a solid, and to try to be a good brother, and I... I wanna be better. But I already... I've got you snapping at me as I'm trying to help, as usual."

As he steps closer, Estrella opens the knife. Her brows raising as Rafe stares at her, "And you guys... you guys always wonder why you end up at the bottom of the food chain. It's... It's... sad."

Estrella's grip tightens on the knife as he steps around to the other side. He then digs in his pocket, "Oh. Take this.

He holds a card out to her. She takes it with a frown, "It's my business card. Tell Sarah to hit me up. I think I can help."

Estrella flips the card over in her hand. She looks up as Rafe smiles.

"Mmm." Rafe hums as he leans down on the counter, "You really did me wrong, Estrella."

She tilts her head, "Did I?"

Rafe chuckles, "But I forgive you. We're good."

Estrella nods softly with a shrug, "If I'm being honest, Rafe, that doesn't mean shit to me. I couldn't care less whether you forgive me or not."

"I'm not your enemy." Rafe says shaking his head, "I'm on your side."

He leans forward and taps his hand on the counter before walking off, "All right."

Estrella's eyes stay on him as he walks out. As she hears his footsteps descend down the dock she tosses the knife down. Letting out a sigh as she leans on the counter.

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