ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴏɴᴇ: ᴄʟᴇᴀɴ ᴜᴘs

𝐂𝐎𝐁𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐏𝐔𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐓 one of the walls in her bedroom, feeling the air leave her lungs as her back came in contact with the hard surface. before she could react, she was getting punched in the face, making her let out a groan. she then felt hands wrap around her throat, making her start to panic. she brought her hands up to the arms of who was choking her, clawing at them in an attempt to pull them off. but it was no use, the man who was choking her was high off whatever drugs he was on and was being fueled from whatever emotions was flowing through his blood.

"did you take my money, you little bitch?" the man, james, asked her through clenched teeth.

coby tried to swallow the spit that was in her mouth, struggling to do so because of the hands around her throat. "for the millionth time. no."

"you're lying!" james yelled, pulling one of his hands away before he punched her again.

her head swung to the left but she was forced to look forward as james started to choke her again. "james, i don't have your fucking money! i - i promise!"

james clenched his jaw as he examined the girl. she had blood trickling down her lip with a bruised cheek. her face was starting to turn red due to the lack of oxygen that she was receiving. she had a scar right below her hairline in the middle of her forehead that she had gotten a few years prior. he continued to let choke her, watching as her eyes started to roll to the back of her eyes as her body started to go limp. but at the last second, he let go, the sawyer girl dropping to the floor sash gasped for breath.

"if i find out you took my money, i'll do a lot fucking worse." james threatened as he walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

coby continued to take heavy breaths of air, wiping the blood away from her lip. she waited for the heavy footsteps of james to stop, knowing that he had sat down on the raggedy couch in the living room. when they had stopped, she reached into her pocket and took the money out of it. she looked at it in her hand, silently counting it. it was about 40 bucks.

"you were dumb enough not to check." she mumbled as she got up from the floor, stuffing the money back into her pocket.

she walked over to the window, grabbing her skateboard and phone as she did so before she climbed through. she closed her window gently, making sure to leave a gap so that she would be able to get back in whenever she pleased. she plugged her headphones into her phone as she started to walk down the street, placing the headphones into her ears. she pressed play on her playlist, tears over beers by modern baseball starting play. she threw her boat down before she hopped on it, making her way down the street.

she mumbled the words to the song that was blasting in her ears, making her way towards the château. summer had just begun and of course she was gonna spend most of her time at the house that was more of her home than her own. she had turned down a street, seeing the familiar volkswagen van that she loved speeding down the road. she kicked her foot out a few times so that she could get some momentum to catch up with the van. once she was at least by the driver's door, she grabbed onto the part where the window was opened, looking through to see that john b was sitting in the seat, a huge grin on his face.

the routledge boy turned when he saw the girl out the corner of his eyes, his eyebrows raising. "hey, coby."

"'sup, jb." the girl greeted, somehow taking out her headphones.

"dude, where the hell do you see coby at?" the voice of jj asked, popping his head between the two front seats. "oh, hey, coby."

"hey, j." coby smiled.

"john b, pull over so she can get in the van." kie told the boy, making him come to a sudden stop.

coby tightened her grip as john b stopped, not wanting to ride right into the side mirror. she then got off her board, picking g it up from the ground before she walked around the van and climbed into the passenger seat. she looked around to see that everyone was here, making her smile.

"hey, guys." she greeted, sending all of them a smile.

everyone noticed the bruising on her face, making their happy mood go down the drain. jj's jaw clenched as his eyes scanned over coby, also noticing the bruising that was starting to form around the girl's throat.

"cobe -" pope started.

"james again." coby said, answering the boy's question before he even asked it. "thought i took his money."

"why would he thing that?" kie questioned.

"because i took his money." coby nodded. "i haven't eaten anything in two days because there's no food in that house and i don't have any money. so i took his. a girl needs to eat."

"there's food at the château." john b informed.

"yeah, old moldy food." the sawyer girl shot back.

"it's still food." john b reasoned.

"food that can kill you." pope corrected from the back, making coby point to him.

"what did i miss? why are you all so sweaty?" coby quizzed.

"we just ran from some rent-a-cops." jj answeredd, shrugging his shoulders. "gary said he missed you."

"awe. i haven't seen gary in forever." coby mumbled.

she smiled, looking around at the people she was glad to call her family. they were the only family she had left after her brother's disappearance. they took care of her, even after how destructive she was last year. they loved her no matter what, and she loved them just as much.

"so is anyone up for some food? i got forty bucks." coby smiled, pulling the money out of her shorts.

"yeah!" everyone yelled in unison.

☠︎ ✶ ♡ ✶ ☠︎

𝐂𝐎𝐁𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 messy streets of kildare, making her way to figure eight. it was the morning after hurricane agatha and she had blown trees down, flooded houses, and knocked all of the power out on the island. she was making her way out to figure eight so that she could clean up someone's yard and get paid in return. she looked around, seeing that a bunch of other people were already crowding some of the kooks' yards. she went further down the road, letting her foot slide against the ground so that she could slowly come to a stop. she smiled slightly when she had seen there was barely any people on the camerons' yard. she picked her board up and walked over to where ward cameron was standing.

"hi, mr.cameron." she greeted, making the man turn towards her.

"hi, coby. how are you? did you make it through the storm okay?" he greeted, sending the girl a kind smile.

"yeah, i did." coby answered, mirroring his smile. "i was wondering if you had any work for me? cleaning up the mess that agatha made. . . starting up some generators. . . patching up some holes, anything."

"you know how to patch holes up?" ward questioned, tilting his head slightly.

"taylor taught me." coby informed.

ward nodded, "uh, if you want you can go around the yard and pick up all of the debris and branches that are around the yard. put them in a pile so that i can get rid of them later, okay?"

"yes, sir." coby nodded. "w - where can i put my board?"

"you can just put it in the house, coby. you can go through the house to get to the back." ward told her.

the sawyer girl nodded, entering the house. she scratched her head when she entered the big home, looking around with raised eyebrows. she made a few turns, not having any idea on where she was going. she walked through to the kitchen, letting out a huff as she grew more and more confused.

"why are you here?" a voice questioned, making coby raise her skateboard so she could get ready to swing. coby realized who it was, lowering her board with a sigh. "easy there, cowboy." sarah laughed, her eyebrows raised.

"i - i got lost. . ." coby mumbled, gesturing around the house. "this house is fucking huge. wh - where's the backdoor?"

sarah raised her eyebrows again, pointing towards the glass doors that was to her left.

"thank you." coby said, propping her board up on the wall before she left the house.

sarah watched her leave, eyebrows still raised as she felt her stomach flutter with butterflies. she didn't know why, but she was always drawn to coby. ever since middle school, she would always look around for the girl whenever she saw the pogues. even when the brunette had punched her in the face for what she did to kie last year, she still was drawn to her.

hours later, coby had practically gathered all of the branches and debris and had put them into piles with help of some other pogues. by the time she was done, she was a smelly, stinky mess. she was laying on the ground, staring up at the sky as she tried to catch her breath. she was watching the seagulls fly through the sky, a sense of peace washing over her. the peace was interrupted when she felt something drop on her stomach, making her flinch as she released a groan. she sat up to see what was dropped, seeing a bottle of water. she then looked up to see that sarah was standing over her, a sly smile on her face.

"you're welcome." the cameron girl commented when coby didn't say anything. that earned her a sarcastic smile from the girl. "why are you still here? everyone else went home."

"i was catching my breath." coby mumbled, grabbing the water bottle and opening it.

"for twenty minutes?" sarah questioned, raising one of her perfect eyebrows as coby took a sip from the bottle.

coby took the bottle away from her mouth as her eyebrows furrowed, looking back up at sarah. "were you stalking me, cupcake?"

"don't call me that." sarah deadpanned, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"still didn't answer my question." coby pointed out.

"no. it's just that i was out here twenty minutes ago when you first laid down." sarah explained, placing her hand on her hip. "my dad told me to bring you water. so - once again - you're welcome."

coby nodded as she got up from the ground, coming face to face with sarah. sarah felt her breath hitch when she realized how close her and coby was; their faces were inches apart, but it was still pretty close. before she could say anything else, coby was walking around her and back towards the big mansion that was behind her. the blonde girl rolled her eyes before she turned on her heel to follow her. by the time she caught up, the girl was already inside, grabbing her skateboard from the spot its been in all day.

"so you're just gonna leave without saying 'thank you'?" sarah asked, watching as coby walked through her home.

"no. i gotta get my money from your father." coby told her. "do you know -"

"ah! coby, thank you for your hard work out there. you were working faster than everyone else." ward appeared, making both girls turn towards him. the cameron man pulled his wallet from out of his pocket, a small chuckle escaping his lips when he saw how coby perked up. "is. . . 200 dollars a good enough amount?"

"yes, sir." coby nodded.

with that, ward handed the two 100 dollar bills towards the girl, sending her a nod before he walked away. coby looked down at the money in her hand, a small but excited smile on her face. she stuffed the money into her pocket before she started to walk towards the door, remembering the route she had taken earlier. she mentally groaned when she heard sarah feeling tapping against the white tiled floors behind her, meaning she was following her. just as coby was about to get to the front door, rafe cameron appeared in front of her.

"what's the dyke doing here?" he question, tilting his head slightly as he glared down at the girl.

sarah watched coby carefully, seeing her jaw clench as she walked around to stand next to her. the sawyer girl's grip tightened on her skateboard as she glared back up at rafe, feeling a wave of anger wash over her. she hated the boy standing in front of her, but she tried her best to put a lid over her anger, knowing that she shouldn't try anything inside of the boy's own home. so instead, she walked around the older boy to the door, opening it as she turned to face a certain blonde girl.

"thanks for the water, cupcake." she mumbled before she left the house.

sarah smiled, glad that the girl had finally said thank you. she then turned to rafe, who was already looking down at her. "what, rafe?"

"just check to make sure she didn't steal anything. you know how sticky pogues' fingers are." rafe told her.

sarah rolled her eyes before she turned around, walking towards the stares that led upstairs.

☠︎ ✶ ♡ ✶ ☠︎

❝𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐆𝐔𝐘𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐀 𝐁𝐎𝐀𝐓?!❞ coby asked her friends with wide eyes.

after coby had rode her board over to the château in hopes to find her friends there. but they weren't there, so she just went over to the dock and sat down on it, waiting patiently for them to come back. because the four other pogues knew her so well, they all knew that the girl would go try and find work the day after a hurricane before she made her way over to the château. so after they went to the coast guard to report the ship wreck - to no avail - they went back to the château in hopes of finding the sawyer girl. and once she climbed onto the hms pogue, everyone filled her in on what she had missed and where they were on their way to.

"yep." john b nodded as he slowly drove the boat down the marsh. "and this motel key was in one of the compartments."

"and we are going to the motel, right?" coby questioned, looking around at her friends.

"yes, ma'am." jj answered, smiling at her.

"still think this is a bad idea." pope announced.

"you think everything is a bad idea." coby shot back, eyebrows raised as the two of them made eye contact.

"so how much did you earn from cleaning, cobe?" jj asked.

"a whole 200 bucks!" coby answered, pulling out said money before she waved it around at her friends.

her blonde friend snatched the money out of her hand, eyebrows raised as he put the bills up to the sky to see if they were real or not. and of course they were real, they came from ward fucking cameron. "woah, where the hell did you work at today?"

coby snatched the money out of the boy's hands, making him release a chuckle. she quickly stuffed the money back into her pocket before she sat back down in her seat next to kiara. she kept quiet, not answering jj's question, which the other pogues quickly noticed.

"where'd you get the money from, c?" john b asked.

"nowhere." the girl shrugged, making sure to avoid eye contact with any of her friends. if the boys knew where she was, they wouldn't really care. but if the girl next to her knew where she was, she wasn't gonna hear the end of it.

"if you didn't work nowhere, then how did you make 200 dollars?" pope questioned, eyebrows knitted together.

the brunette pursed her lips, tapping her hands on top of her thighs as she stayed quiet. kie looked at her with raised eyebrows, starting to catch onto why the girl didn't want to tell her.

"jake." the carerra girl called in a warning tone, making the girl in question wince. the boys winced, too.

she was only called jake when she was either in trouble with the pogues, or when people tried to get under her skin. by the tone in kie's voice, she knew that she was in trouble. "fine. i was at tannyhill. . ."

"what?!" kie asked, making coby lean to her left slightly.

"i am now deaf in my right ear." coby mumbled, bringing her hand up to her ear. "every other mansion had like twenty people on their yards already, the camerons only had ten. it's not like i interacted with your worst enemy, kie. i was working the whole time."

"you better have been working the whole time. or there would've been a problem between the two of us." kie threatened, playfully glaring down at coby.

"you wouldn't have done anything to me, kie. i'm the only one who keeps you sane in this group. plus, you love me too much." the shorter girl teased, wrapping her arm around kie's shoulders.

"whatever." kie mumbled, a small smile pulling at the corner of her lips as she turned her head.

i'm trying out a new theme