"Maybe we could backpack somewhere." Bali suggested as she held JJ's hand, walking toward the drain, "But then again I might feel bad going to countries and treating them like i'm a tourist and so happy when most counties actually are struggling really bad but no one talks about that."

JJ hummed as he walked with her, listening to her words.

"We could always go somewhere closer. California has great waves for us but dad said Georgia is really nice too." Bali continued on, thinking harder as she shook her head, "No, no, maybe those aren't good for us. Maybe we should go to Alaska. No, I get cold really easily."

"Bal." JJ spoke as he tugged on her hand some, "It's a year away."

"Not a year, JJ. Nine months!" Bali explained as they caught Kie and Pope near the drain, "This was your idea."

"To go on a summer trip with my girlfriend, never did I think we were gonna start planning nine months ahead." the blonde boy explained as he waddled behind her, "Let's just get in the water and end up somewhere random."

"What is a shark gets us?" she asked him.

"Then we go down with Jack and Rose." JJ have her a cheeky grin as he put a arm around her, "Did a report on them. Got a fat zero too."

"Was it about the titanic?" Bali questioned as JJ hummed, "Jack and Rose is just a made up story to go along with what actually happened, JJ. You were probably expected to learn about be real thing."

"How was I suppose to know that?" JJ asked in disbelief.

"Where have the two of you been?" Pope asked in disbelief as they neared, "We just spent a hour looking through trash water."

"Dante took me to breakfast. I had one of those fancy little bread things rich people eat." JJ explained with a grin, "And some strawberries shaped like trophy's."

"And you?" Kie asked as she glanced
toward Bali.

"Funny you ask me such a thing, Kie." Bali spoke as she held her bag open, "I was actually getting this."

Bali yanked a book out of her back and bared it to Kie, "Alakazam, turn Bal's bag into a new Fam."

"What is this?" Kie asked with a shake of her head.

"A book on how to agree when you disagree." Bali said back as Kie took it, "My parents read it when I started dating JJ and they had to get use to me being all pogey."

"Pogey." Pope hummed.

"My parents probably won't listen but thanks." Kie gave her a smile, an apologize for her actions the night before. Bali smiled back, an acceptance.

"So, find any guns up in here?" JJ asked as he walked down the small hill, holding a hand out to help Bali down.

"No, it's gotta still be in the drain." Pope concluded as they stared at it.

"Good thing I brought the crow." JJ announced as he dug into his bag.

"So, are we gonna do, like, rock, paper, scissors?" Kie spoke up in questioning.

"No. Bali always chooses rock, even though we all know she's choosing rock." JJ said in disbelief with a shake of his head.

"It's a habit." she shrugged.

"Alphabetically?" Kie suggested, earning a look of disbelief from Bali, "Like, oldest goes?"

Bali watched the boys pull the drain off with ease.

"In the sewer, there's this worm that you get when you're down there. It gets into your blood, and then it has to come out your pecker." JJ explained as he looked over at Kie in questioning. Bali gave a cringe as Pope agreed with her expression, "So that will be a hard pass for me."

"I'm gonna say no too." Pope agreed with a nod.

"No, I get it." Kie cracked a grin, "You guys are scared."

"No, i'm not scared!"

"It's kinda cute!"

"It's the pecker thing!"

"Yo! Bal!" JJ yelled as he grabbed her belt loop and yanked her out of the drain, "What- you don't just wonder into a drain alone."

"Why?" she asked in disbelief, "I've wondered in worse."

"Oh yeah? What have you done? Sit a little too high on your throne?" JJ mocked her in the slightest with a nod of his head.

"I wiggled through a air unit so could I jump out of a hospital window and landed on the roof." Bali hummed as JJ's face fell, "I think I can handle a drain."

"I can handle the drain, you stay." Kie spoke up as she moved past Bali, "You jumped out of a hospital window?"

"Not a fan of needles." Bali shook her head in return.

"Just, uh, holler if you need anything, okay?" JJ questioned Kie, "We'll, uh... we'll holler back."

"Want me to sing to you?" Bali suggested.

"No." Kie called back, "No offense, Bal."

"Non taken, I can not sing." the Pandaros girl called back.

Balis phone vibrated in her back pocket, pulling it out and staring at the name. She never removed it from her phone, she didn't know why but she didn't. Bali looked over at Pope and JJ in worry before walking off some and hitting answer.

"Barry?"

"Archipelago!" Barry hollered the old nickname her way, "Whatchu doing right now? I need some help."

"I don't wanna help you, don't call me." she spoke, going to hang up.

"Yo! Im broken down on the side of the road, man! Help me out here, I ain't far from your house." Barry tried to reason from the other line, though he could hear her voice echoing through the drain. Rafe gave a questionable look as Barry waved him off, "Archipelago!"

Bali hesitation before she rolled her eyes, "Where are you?"

"Indonesia! You showed up for your old man?" Barry asked when he saw Bali walking his way, the sunflower pants and yellow top making it hard to miss.

"Broken down?" Bali asked in disbelief as she looked at his dirt bike, "Looks fine to me."

"Yo, use your eyes, man! You see this?" Barry asked her in disbelief, a block away from the drain now, "What? You think I called you all the way out here because I miss that awkward standing you do?"

"I don't stand awkward." Bali defended herself as she tried to stand normal, "You walk awkward!"

"So how ya' been? Hum?" he asked, scanning her face as his gold tooth distracted her, "How that rich daddy of yours? Ready to buy me a new trailer yet? After setting mines on fire."

"Why- I'm leaving. You always waste my freaking time and I show up anyways." Bali rolled her eyes as she spoke in the process of storming off, "You are the last person I want to-"

"Yo! Yo! Yo!" Barry hollered as she stormed off, "It's about Rafe, man, get back here."

Bali turned around with a stupid look, "What do you care about Rafe? You loser!"

"Aye, really?" Barry asked in disbelief, "Country Clubs got something going on up here, not everything's right."

Bali walked back over so they weren't yelling about Rafe for everyone to hear. Bali stopped infront of Barry with a sudden glare, "Rafes not right in the head because you constantly selling to him!"

Barry stumbled when she pushed him, "Aye, really?"

Bali crossed her arms.

"Look, i'm just saying, I think he needs someone to talk to him." Barry spoke as he rose his hands up before hitting the side of his head, "Got somethin really wrong up here, you know? And not just the rich white guy thing, all right? It's more."

Bali threw her hands up with a tight lipped smile, "I can't talk to Rafe, are you insane?"

"Why? You was talking to him the night he killed the sheriff." Barry said as a smirk formed on his lips when Balis face fell and she dropped her guard, "Yeah, he confessed to you. Bet your friends don't know that."

"You don't know what you're talking about." Bali said back with a swallow, "You never know what you're talking about, junkie ass!"

"Yo, you're a junky ass too." Barry defended himself, "Only different between me and you, Archipelagos, is you ain't using anymore."

Bali shrugged, "Got more balls then you."

"Yeah, i'll give you that one." Barry said as he saw the look on her face, the heaving of her chest as she fidgeted, "Ah shit."

"What?" Bali asked defensively.

"You thinking about using again?" he asked her with a raise of his brows, noticing the signs so well, "You wanna do this to yourself, Indonesia?"

"I don't wanna use, are you insane!" Bali snapped defensively.

"Oh yeah?" Barry asked her with a laugh, "Cmon now, I know that brain."

Barry pointed a finger at her as Bali pushed it away, "All that stress gettin to that head of yours?"

"I don't have stress." Bali rolled her eyes.

"You don't got stress?" Barry laughed at her, "All right, all right, whatever you say."

Bali sighed, "Has Rafe done something? Why are you just now saying something?"

Barry shook his head, "Man, that dudes outta his head now a days."

"Why?" Bali asked, "Tell me."

"Shit, ask him yourself." Barry said as he rose his hands and got into his dirt bike, "All i'm saying is he could use some sense talked into that huge head of his."

Barry gave her a snap of his fingers before driving off.

It didn't take Bali long to come back around the corner, gapping at the sight.

"What- How did I miss this?" Bali asked in disbelief as she walked back to her friends and found them hugging, Kie soaked in the drain water while the boys dripped from their clothes, "Did you guys decide to take a swim or something?"

"Bali? That you?" Dante called as he heard the front door shut. Bali came around the corner with a tight lipped smile, "No JJ?"

"He wanted to grab a bite with Pope." Bali made the excuse. Though in reality, he suggested Bali stayed back when they brought the gun to the station considering the whole police force knew of her relationship with the Cameron's.

"Aw, all right." Dante hummed as he watched her sit down with a long sigh, "You all right there, sweetheart?"

Bali gave another tight lipped smile as she slummed on the table.

Dante shut his laptop and gave her a nod to his head, "Whats going on up there?"

Bali shook her head with a forced laugh, "Ugh, it kinda sounds too ridiculous to even wanna hear it out loud."

Dante glanced around the kitchen, "Ghost? Hello? Ghost? Will you judge my daughter for telling me her thoughts?"

Bali laughed at her dad as she sat down with a long sigh, "Well, for starters. I wanted to be able to talk to JJ about everything going on in my head but I can't, because I know how it sounds and I can't blame him for reacting badly, like I know he will."

"Reacting to what?" Dante asked her with a nod, "Why would he react badly to something you are thinking?"

"Because I have my voice." Bali stated as she stared, "And I think if I directed it to someone important then what I know might help out someone he loves. And I feel really guilty for keeping it to myself but I know that by saving what he loves might hurt something I don't want to see hurt."

Dante hummed as he glanced her way, "Is that all you're gonna give? I'm confused."

Bali gave a minor laugh, "That's all I got."

"All right, and what else?" he encouraged her to go on.

Bali sighed as she messed with her hands, "Don't get mad at me for saying it."

Dante hummed.

"I'm worried about Rafe." Bali said honestly as she saw the faint look of annoyance and anger at the mention of the boy, "I don't think I should be, all things considering, but I think something is really wrong."

"Is Rafe what you're worried about? That you know something about him?" Dante asked to her previous statement. Bali stared at him, "You can't say it because you know it'll get him in trouble?"

Bali looked down at her hands again, "I know how horrible it sounds."

Dante didn't say anything.

"But, no offense, dad, Rafe and Sarah were the only two people that never left me when I was at my worst. I could never repay what they did for me, even if he was the root of the problem. I mean, he carried to to an ambulance when I overdosed, he protected me in situations that could have gotten me seriously hurt. Still, he never just walked out on me, not until they took me away." Bali spoke suddenly as she inhaled, her chest heaving in a way that indicated she'd held back tears, "No, that was me that walked away. I left him, alone after everything that happened. I left him in my past to move on when I knew he was hurting and struggling. And that kills me."

Dante watched his daughters tears roll down bed face, "Bal, you did what was right for your sobriety. Being around Rafe would have only caused you to use again"

"Maybe." she admitted, "Doesn't change to fact that he never once left me when that's all i've done to him. And Sarah-"

Bali stopped as she looked away, hurting as her voice broke, "And I have no clue if i'll ever get to see her again. So, yeah, i'm worried about Rafe because I don't want to loose someone else before they know how much they've done for me."

Dante inhaled at the sudden break Bali was having, the clear tears and emotions she'd been holding back finally dropping from her face.

"Do you see the problem?" Bali asked as her red eyes looked at her father, "I can't talk to the only person I want to talk to because how am I suppose to say that i'm worried about someone that deserves everything that could be coming for them?"

"Ba-" Dante began.

"And how am I suppose to be okay when I've constantly ignored and walked away from someone's that has something so wrong with them that it has hurt people?" Bali continued on as she inhaled quickly, feeling sick.

"Look-" Dante tried again.

"I have woken up every morning wanted to use so bad." Bali admitted as she shook her head, lip sucking in as she laughed in disbelief, "But I don't, and it feels like it's killing me from the inside out. You know, everything is just sitting on top of me. I feel like i'm just gonna snap in half because I have so much just sitting there, slowly breaking me because I can't even yell for help considering I put myself in the situation."

Dante waited, because he knew she'd go on. His eyes were sad as he watched his daughter, hurting himself for not seeing it sooner.

"I don't have her." Bali whispered as her lip trembled, "I don't have Sarah. And I have no clue if I will again. And she went off into the storm without knowing that she is my rock, that no matter who comes along, no one will be able to fill that spot."

Dante stood up, Bali did after because she didn't want to feel looked down on.

"And I miss her." Bali said as she began to cry again, "I miss her so much."

Dante pulled Bali into a hug quickly, letting her let all the emotions she'd held in go for the first time in quite sometime.

•

kylie speaks

bbg is holding a lot
on her plate right now
and no one stops to realize
whats it's mentally doing
to her:(((

anyways, i have a deadly
trio moment coming. i'll
let y'all try and guess what
trio i'm going on about.