─☼☼☼─

─ONE YEAR PRIOR─

"PARTY'S OVER," CHARLOTTE announced, taking drinks from people's hands as she weaved through the house. "Time to go."

She was met with the brazen expressions of drunk teens, none of them at the point where they were ready to go home. But she couldn't have anyone in that house, not when she knew that was about to happen.

"Now," she snapped, raising her voice, noting how it wobbled. "Everyone out!"

Someone cut the music, dozens of pairs of eyes landing on the dishevelled Carrera girl. Her eyes were still red from tears, voice thick and unbalanced.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rafe gritted out, finally having caught up to her.

Charlotte ignored him, gathering up a stack of red solo cups that had been discarded on one of the hallway tables. She sniffled, unable to look at him as people began to file out of the house.

"Don't listen to her!" Rafe called, "She's drunk. Party's not over."

But no one wanted to stick around, not when they could tell that an indescribable tension was brewing between the party hosts.

"Look what you did," Rafe snapped, grabbing onto Charlotte's arm as the house became empty, leaving only them and their ghosts.

Charlotte ignored him again, fresh tears stinging at her eyes as she continued to tidy as she went, trying to reach their bedroom before Rafe had a blowup. If she could just get to bed, she thought, everything would be okay, that he'd sleep on the couch and sober up by morning.

But Rafe followed her, his anger emanating into something almost tangible, as if one could feel it in the air.

"I'm going to bed," Charlotte finally spoke to him, her voice laced with tears no matter how hard she tried to hide it from him. "We'll talk in the morning."

Rafe's hand stopped her as she tried to close the door, shoving it open so harshly Charlotte almost fell backward. "You don't make the fucking rules here, Charlotte."

"Stop," she breathed, utterly defeated and exhausted. "Don't do this right now."

"No," Rafe argued, his eyes wild and nothing like they usually were when they regarded Charlotte. "You want to upend the entire night? Then you can fucking take five minutes to talk to me."

Charlotte turned her back to him, rifling through the drawers for a pair of pajamas. "I've told you, I'm not dealing with you when you're like this."

Rafe dug his fingers into her hips, turning her body so she was facing him, "The words I'm saying now are as honest as they would be tomorrow morning," he sneered, "Maybe even more honest."

Wincing at the grasp he had on her, Charlotte took a step back, raising her chin as she focused her tear-filled eyes on him, "Fine. Let's hear it then, Rafe. What do you want to say to me?"

His nostrils flared, his intoxicated eyes boring into her for a moment as if deciding if he wanted to open the flood gates.

Turned out he did.

"You're so self-absorbed it's actually ridiculous."

His words hit her like a slap to the face. She'd never thought of herself as self-absorbed, if anything, she thought she cared too much about other people. But she didn't want Rafe to know he'd struck a nerve, so instead she took there and took it.

"Everything is always about you," he continued, gaining confidence when she didn't argue back, "And somehow you always have it worse than the rest of us." He jut his lip out in a mocking pout, "Oh, poor Charlotte, her parents want what's best for her and don't let her do whatever the fuck she wants. Oh, poor Charlotte is sad because she watched someone else go through something traumatic. Oh, and can't forget the fact that she doesn't quite know where she belongs, poor thing...can't imagine how hard that is."

Charlotte pushed the lump down in her throat, feeling like she was physically going to throw up .

"Well news flash, Charlotte, some of us wish they could live the cushioned life you do. Some of us wish they even had parents!" His eyes were glassy, on the verge of tears. "Everything is always about you and your feelings. Everything."

Charlotte knew, she knew how hard he'd taken the death of his father, even if he tried to pretend it didn't weigh on him. She tried to remember that, to compartmentalize the words he was saying so far back in her mind she wouldn't even remember he'd spoken them. "Rafe, please. Let's just talk about this in the morning." She turned back to the dresser.

"No!" Rafe snapped, moving so he was directly behind her. "Let's talk about you some more, because I know you love that." He paused for a moment, and Charlotte did the same, her eyes too full of tears to see straight. "Where should we start?" Rafe mocked, "We could talk about that time you broke up with me when I needed help. How you cast me to the side because you didn't want to deal with the hard things."

His every word felt like fire on her skin, scorching her flesh, leaving their mark.

"Or, what about the time you strung me along, toying with me as if I was some fucking pawn, meanwhile fucking that Maybank kid, hoping I'd never find out."

Charlotte didn't speak to argue with him, to tell him all she'd ever done was kiss JJ. It didn't really matter in that moment.

Rafe was directly behind her, his body almost pressed against her as his hot, angry breath touched her neck. "What about ya when you betrayed my family, siding with the Pogues just so you could get another dollar in your pocket?" He laughed, the motion causing Charlotte to flinch.

"You want to know what my favourite thing is that you've done?" He bit out, not waiting for her to answer. This time when he spoke, his voice was full of even more venom than before. "It was when you got my father killed. When you were so fucking stupid that you got us all into a situation we couldn't get out of. All of that, Charlotte, was your fault. Everything is your fault."

Charlotte swore she actually felt her heart break in two at the weight of his words. Because what if he was right? What if everything was her fault?

"Look at me, Charlotte." Rafe demanded, his voice dark. "Grow up and face me."

She couldn't turn around, because once she looked at his face, she couldn't pretend it wasn't him saying this words. Once her eyes met him, all of this would become real.

"Fucking face me!"

The words flew from Rafe's mouth just as his fist collided with the wall next to Charlotte's head.

She was too shocked to even move, her eyes wide as a small sob tumbled from her lips.

"You're a fucking bitch, Charlotte." Rafe bit out, pulling his hand from the drywall. "And I want you out of my house."

Something gripped onto Charlotte from the inside, an emotion too big to even explain. She felt like she wanted to throw up, to crumble to the ground, to run, to hide. She didn't even know.

But eventually her feet moved, taking her toward the door without even stopping for one of her belongings. She didn't care about any of those things, she didn't care about anything right now. Part of her wanted to turn around and face Rafe, the other part of her couldn't bear to.

She never did.

She walked out of Tannyhill that night
and never turned around. She still hadn't.

─☼☼☼─

─NOW─

"You okay, Charls?" His voice was gentle, as was his gaze when Charlotte looked up at him. It was the same way he'd looked a year ago when she showed up on the doorstep of their shared home in the middle of the night, tears streaming down her face.

JJ hadn't asked any questions that night, just let her stay with him for as long as she needed without so much as a second thought. Out of all the people she could have turned to, she ran to him. And this was the reason why, he always knew before anyone, even her own sister, when something wasn't quite right with Charlotte.

"I'm going to fucking kill him," JJ had gritted out as Charlotte sat across from him, her tear streaked face lit up by the moonlight.

"Don't bother," Charlotte had responded, voice barely sounding like her own, "it makes all of this much easier."

JJ had furrowed his brows, "Make all of what easier?"

"Leaving." Charlotte's voice was quiet. "I'm going back to Duke."

It had been a year since she spoke those words to her best friend, but she could still remember the hurt that flashed across his features, even if it only remained for a brief second. He'd quickly replaced it with pride and joy, supporting her in whatever she wanted to do.

Refocusing on the now, Charlotte set down the souvenir that she had been fiddling with, "Yeah, J. I'm okay." She promised, doing her best to get the smile to reach her eyes.

"This place is sick!" Came Carson's voice from across the shop, "No way you all own this."

The Kildare County Surf Shop was built upon the old Maybank property, a sign of a new life being built atop what was left behind. It was amazing what they had accomplished, how successful it had been over the past year. Charlotte was immeasurably proud.

"Sure do," John B grinned, throwing an arm around Charlotte. "We're just waiting for this one here to stop being a silent partner and come back to us. She spent all this time helping us build it, just to run off to Duke and miss all the excitement "

When the idea of the surf shop had come to fruition, Charlotte  was all in. Their joint bank account was obviously the main source of savings, and it was understood that this was an investment to benefit them for years to come. So Charlotte had bought in like the rest of them. But unlike the rest of them, she didn't live in the OBX full time, which meant she took more of a backseat in the matters. She did their bookkeeping and managed what she could from Durham, but she longed for the day she could play a more active role.

"Yeah," Sarah agreed, shooting Charlotte a grin, "The day Char comes back to us is the day this place will be complete."

Letting out a small laugh, Charlotte ran her finger over the ridges on the counter, "I have a year and a half left in my program...then we'll talk."

"You could stay for the summer?" Pope proposed, a hopeful look on his face. "Help out here, help out with whatever we decide to do about this Blackbeard thing."

The strange man's proposition from the day before still hung on all of their minds, the seven of them unsure about what to do about it.

Stealing a glance at Carson, Charlotte gave a small nod, "I could."

Cleo spoke next, her words meant to be playful, yet she didn't know the power they held. "Don't worry about Rafe. We've barely seen him since everything went down between you."

Ice raced through Charlotte's veins as she paused, sucking in a deep breath. She'd barely heard his name in a year, and somehow it brought her right back to that moment in Tannyhill when she had turned and never looked back.

Silence fell across the shop as the Pogues looked to Charlotte, each of them waiting to see how she was going to react. Kiara looked ready to be on damage control if her sister reacted poorly, JJ watched with concern, John B and Pope looked terrified that she was going to break down in tears, and Sarah looked remorseful, as if somehow any of this was her fault.

But amongst the worried eyes of her friends, there was one that stuck out, a curiously behind the gaze.

All eyes turned to Carson when he spoke.

"Who the hell is Rafe?"

─☼☼☼─

little something to tide you all over until we get season 4 😈

-maddy xoxo