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"𝙄 𝘿𝙊𝙉'𝙏 𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀 time for this right now, Kensington." Charlotte huffed, perplexed how her best friend had shown up at the most inconvenient moment.

"Charlotte, please!" Kensington begged, trying to block the clear path to the table where Willa was watching them with wide eyes. "I just need to talk to you for a minute."

Charlotte refused to look at her as she attempted to step around her. "Now is not the time."

"Why not?" the green-eyed brunette pressed. "Just give me a few minutes to explain. Please!"

A frustrated sigh fell from Charlotte's lips, knowing that with every second that passed, Rafe could be doing any number of damage on John B. "I'm sure what you have to say will be very interesting, but I literally cannot do this right now, Kensington. So please, get the hell out of my way."

With her mouth slightly agape, Kensington finally stepped out of her way, her shoulders falling in defeat.

With her body buzzing, Charlotte made her way toward the table as fast as she could managed to gather her stuff. Willa was sitting in shock, eyes flickering between Charlotte and Kensington. "Char, are you okay?"

"Yeah." Charlotte lied, in a fluster as she grabbed her purse and car keys. "But I need to go. I'll text you later, Wills."

The word "bye" was barely out of Willa's mouth before Charlotte was halfway toward the gate, barely even throwing a glance in Kensington's direction as she went.

Charlotte was being cold and she knew it. But there were bigger things on her plate than drama with her best friends.

She needed to speak to her sister and friends and she needed to do it quickly. Whatever they had gotten up to without her supervision had clearly not been good.

The way her hands gripped onto the steering wheel gave away the panic she was feeling. She had called Rafe three different times and had been sent to voicemail each and every attempt. Charlotte knew him well enough to know he wasn't going to sit down and have a civil chat with John B...no, it wasn't going to be a contained, mature discussion. That was for sure.

When she peeled into the parking lot of The Wreck, she found it vacant save for Kiara's car and The Twinkie. Charlotte was thankful the restaurant was closed that day, she wasn't keen on having this discussion in front of a crowd of customers. 

The door banged against the wall as she threw it open and made her way toward the table where Pope, Kie, Sarah and John B were sitting. At the sound of her arrival, they all looked up and then ducked their heads when they saw the look on her face. 

"What the fuck did you guys do?" Charlotte demanded, stopping in front of them with a look so motherly and intimidating it rivalled that of Anna Carrera's angry face. 

"We can explain." Pope reasoned, holding his hands out in front of him in surrender. 

"Oh, you can explain?" Charlotte mocked. "Do I need to remind all of you want 'laying low' means? Because you never seem to get it."

Sarah gave Charlotte a guilty look. "We didn't mean for it to go the way it did. I swear."

The eldest of the group scoffed. "I'm really curious to hear the explanation...so will one of you enlighten me?"

"Barry tried to rob us!" Kie exclaimed in exasperation. "He followed us from the pawn shop and held us at gunpoint!"

Charlotte felt like she was going to throw up as she pressed the heel of her hands into her eyes. This was more serious than she first thought.  "Damnit." She muttered, her ever-lasting distaste for Barry growing. "Are you guys okay?" They all appeared to be unscathed, but she couldn't help but worry. 

"We're fine." Kiara assured. "Just a bit freaked out."

"Okay." Charlotte whispered, biting down on the inside of her cheek. "Did he take the gold?"

"No." John B answered as he pushed a lump down in his throat. "We got it back."

Leaning against one of the tables, Charlotte's ferocity had begun to subside slightly. "So explain to me the part where you guys stole 25k from him. And while you're at it, will someone please tell me where the hell JJ is?" The absence of their blonde friend was very uncommon and slightly alarming. 

The four of them shared a look. "How do you know about the 25k?" John B questioned nervously. 

"Does it matter?" Charlotte pressed. 

With eyes dancing between her sister and the other three, Kie let out a heaved sigh. "It was JJ." She explained. "He went off the deep-end...lost it on all of us and took off with the money. We have no idea where he is now."

Great, Charlotte thought. What else could go wrong?

Charlotte raked her hands through her hair as she paced back and forth in a small pattern. "Rafe knows that you guys stole from Barry." She declared, looking to Sarah and John B. "He's looking for you right now. 

Sarah dropped her head into her hands as Kiara gaped at her older sister. "You told him?" She scrutinized. 

"No." Charlotte answered harshly. "Of course I didn't tell him. Barry did. After he caused a huge scene at the Island Club."

John B clenched his fist on the table in frustration. "If he tells Ward...he'll kick me out."

"Just let me handle Rafe." Charlotte advised. "But now is the time that you actually lay low, okay? We can't keep doing shit like this."

The younger kids nodded in agreement, all of them wearing distant looks as if their minds were too caught up on other things. 

"And we need to find JJ." She added. "I don't like the idea of us being split up right now."

John B gave her a reassuring look. "He'll come around, alright? He's doing...a JJ thing."

Kiara stared blankly at the table. "You think he'll go home?"

"There's about a zero percent chance that JJ goes home." Pope answered, forearm braced on the window frame as he stared out toward the water. 

Charlotte watched her sister and felt a pang of regret. She shouldn't have left them to pawn the gold on their own. If something had happened to them...if Barry had pulled the trigger─she could barely stand to think about it.

"Okay." Pope breathed, breaking everyone from their own individual thoughts. "It's too dangerous to pawn this thing off piecemeal. So our best bet is to go back down there and get the rest of it. Bring it all up at once. Put it in─in a safe or a vault or something. I─I don't know. Just until we can find someone who won't rip us off."

Everyone was mulling the idea over in their heads as Pope continued. "I can figure it out tonight, get it done, and we can be out there tomorrow morning."

John B tapped his hand on the table. "All right. Let's do it."

Sarah glanced over at him, her face full of hesitation. "What about that thing with my dad?"

John B dropped his head a muttered a curse as Charlotte looked between he and Sarah. "What thing?"

"I have to go fishing with Ward." John B answered, reluctancy overshadowing his tone. 

Pope rolled his eyes as he rested his hands on the back of one of the chairs. Kiara rose her brows in judgement. "You can't get 400 mil 'cause you're gonna go kill fish?"

"Look," John B breathed, not looking up for a moment. "I have to go."

"Blow it off." Pope prodded. "It's 400 mil in gold!"

"Make something up!" Kie pressed further. 

Charlotte was the only one who understood where John B was coming from. You didn't ditch out on Ward Cameron, that was never a good idea. 

"Come on guys." she ordered. "Ward's letting him stay there for free. He can't just blow it off."

John B let out a relieved sigh. "Thank you, Charley! See, I have to go, okay? He saved me. If it weren't for Ward, I'd be in foster care. So... I have to go. Plus, it'll be better to do it at night. Right?"

Contemplative looks were thrown around the group for a moment before Pope finally sighed. "Fine. Go fishing."

Kiara finally wiped the judgmental look off of her face. "And at least JJ will have probably washed up by then."

"Perfect." Charlotte declared with a tight smile. "Let's just hope that Barry doesn't kill all of you before then."

─☼☼☼─

"Charlotte, will you please pass the potatoes?"

She could hear the words, but didn't process them. Charlotte's thoughts were currently took entrapped on the idea of getting that gold out of the well. She was thinking of every little detail they needed to nail down before tomorrow night.

"Charlotte?"

It took a kick from Kiara under the table for her to finally look up. Upon doing so, she noticed that fact that her father was staring at her with a look of expectation.

"What?" She questioned. 

"Potatoes." Mike repeated, raising his brows. "Pass them."

"Oh!" Charlotte muttered, reaching for the bowl. "Sorry, dad."

Mike regarded her with a look of suspicion for a moment before Anna spoke up. "So, Charlotte. Mrs. Adler said she saw you and Rafe together at the Island Club today..."

Charlotte's heart thudded for a moment. Did her mom know about Barry's freak out? Did Mrs. Adler overhear the whole thing?

"Are you two talking again?" Anna finished, causing Charlotte to let out a sigh of relief. All that her mother was concerned about was whether or not they were getting back together. 

"Anna, come on." Mike pleaded. It was no secret that Mike and Anna Carrera had differing opinions on Rafe Cameron. 

While Anna adored him, Mike seemed to think the opposite. He had been relieved when his daughter and the Cameron boy had finally broken up.

"I was just wondering!" Anna defended, raising her hands in surrender. "You two were just so cute together."

Kiara rolled her eyes. "Mom, he's a legitimate drug addict."

It was Charlotte's turn to kick her sister under the table. Rafe's affinity for drugs was part of the break up that Charlotte had tried to exclude in her explanation to her parents. 

Mike didn't look entirely surprised while Anna didn't seem to believe her youngest daughter's words. "Ward Cameron's son a drug addict? There's no way, Kiara."

"Oh, come on, mom!" Kiara huffed. "You can't seriously be that naive."

"Okay." Charlotte interrupted before Anna could give her rebuttal. "New topic. Mom, how was your day?"

Anna gave one last glare in Kiara's direction before her shoulders relaxed slightly. "It was─"

Her words were cut off by the sound of a car horn honking outside. Anna and Mike shared a confused look as Kiara leaned back in her chair to look out the front window. 

"Pope's here, Charley." She announced, dropping her fork onto her plate before picking the whole thing up from the table. "Thanks for dinner, mom. But we've got to go."

"Dinner just started!" Anna argued, looking between her two daughters incredulously. "You have not been excused."

Charlotte felt a twinge of guilt as she passed her plate to Kiara before standing up and grabbing her bag which was stocked full of supplies. "Sorry, mom. But we have something important to deal with."

"Important?" Mike echoed. "You two have barely been home in the last month. Can you not sit your damn asses down and have one meal with us?"

Both Kiara and Charlotte paused for a moment, trying to gauge how upset their parents actually were. 

When Charlotte deemed that they were about an eight out of ten, she decided that she could handle that. "Soon." She declared. "We'll be done with all of this soon."

"What is 'this'?" Anna snapped as Charlotte and Kiara headed toward the door. 

Kiara cracked a small grin. "It's out future, mom."

The last thing Charlotte saw before Kiara slammed the door behind them was the furious faces of their parents. 

"'It's our future'?" Charlotte mocked as the two sisters bounded down the porch steps toward Heyward's truck. "Really, Kie?"

The youngest Carrera shoved her older sister as she rolled her eyes. "I needed to say something that would convince her that we're doing something important."

"Yeah, I'm sure that did it."

"Shut up, Charlotte."

Pope gave the two girls an impatient look from the driver's seat. "Let's go!"

Charlotte huffed, picking up her pace as she made for the passenger side of the truck. 

Just as her hand reached out to pull the door open, a voice stopped her. 

"Lottie, wait."

Kiara spun, her face already scrunched in dismay. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Bracing herself for a moment, Charlotte turned, joining her sister in regarding Rafe Cameron with a less than thrilled look. 

"What is he doing here?" Pope yelled from inside the car.

Charlotte waved him off over her shoulder before asking Rafe the exact same question. "Seriously, Rafe. What now?"

His eyes shifted between Kiara and Charlotte. "Can I just talk to you for a minute...alone?"

"No." Kiara snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. "Whatever you have to say, say it."

Rafe rolled his eyes. "Back off, Kie."

Kiara's brows shot up as she took a step forward. "Really?"

"Okay." Charlotte interjected, stepping in between the two of them. "Kie, just go with Pope. I'll head over there once I'm done here."

"No!" Pope argued, his voice muffled. "We need you!"

"And you'll have me." She assured, giving him an assuring look. "Just go. I'll be right there."

Rafe's eyes were dancing between the three of them as Kiara turned toward the truck, harshly pulling the door open. "How many times are you going to give into him?" She muttered, shooting Rafe one last withering glare before slamming the door. 

Rafe let out a small laugh as Pope and Kiara pulled out of the driveway, leaving Charlotte and Rafe standing alone in the darkening night.

"You know, in the state of North Carolina, I'm pretty sure this qualifies as stalking." Charlotte declared, giving Rafe a raised brow expression. "Keep this up and I'm going to have to get a restraining order."

She was kidding...mostly.

A defeated breath fell from Rafe's lips as he shook his head. "Did you talk to your sister about what Barry said?"

Charlotte scrunched up her face in disbelief. "Did you really come all the way here just to ask me that?"

"Yes." Rafe answered, but Charlotte could tell he was lying. One look from her caused him to relinquish. "Fine. I wanted to ask if I could stay here again...just for one more night."

Her answer was instantaneous. "No."

"What?"

"I'm not going to be here tonight. And besides, Rafe, we agreed to take time apart. You sleeping in my bedroom is hardly that."

Only one part of her sentence seemed to catch his attention. "Where are you going?"

Charlotte felt a sense of giddiness bubble in her chest despite her conscious telling her to knock it off. Rafe was jealous...and somehow that brought her more joy than it probably should have. 

"Does it matter?"

His jaw clenched for a moment before he spoke. "Yes."

"Fine." she breathed, taking a small step toward him. "But you're not going to like my answer."

Anger flashed over Rafe's face as he clenched a fist at his side, nostrils flaring as he looked down at Charlotte. "Cut it out, Charlotte."

Another step closer. "Cut what out?" She wondered, looking up at him with her big brown eyes. "It's just a small get together...but I'm thinking I'll find me a nice Pogue boy. I'm in need of a good summer fling. 

Rafe's face was so red, Charlotte was afraid he was going to pass out from anger. 

Rolling her eyes, she shoved him back slightly as she gave up the act. "Relax." She ordered. "I'm going to John B's to help the kids with something."

With gritted teeth, Rafe relaxed his hands. "You think you're so funny."

"I know I am." Charlotte argued. "And I'm also leaving now. Go home, Rafe. Or wherever the hell you're calling home right now."

"You're really not going to let me stay here?"he called as Charlotte backed toward her car. 

She shook her head, pulling open the door. "No, Rafe. I'm not."

Step one in getting over Rafe Cameron; learning to say no to him. 

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