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As Annabelle's eyes opened she was instantly hit with a throbbing headache along with a harsh sensation of nausea. The sunlight that poured into the room wasn't exactly helping making her groan as she threw her head back into the pillow, pressing her face against the fabric. She wasn't even sure where she was but she didn't have a care in the world as all she wanted to do was fall back asleep to get the alcohol out of her system.

The events of the night before were mostly a blur except for the fight. She remembered the look on JJ's face as he threatened Topper with a gun and the actual fear she felt in that moment.

She pressed her face harder against the pillow, letting a loud groan leave her lips wanting nothing more than to forget the previous night. A blurry image of a blonde guy popped into her head and she remembered the kiss they almost shared. Her mind trailed back to Rafe. The two hadn't talked much in a while and when they actually did it was only if it was one hundred percent necessary. Annabelle thought that he hated her as much as she hated him but judging by the protective shield he held over her the night before, she started to think she was wrong.

Her head was suddenly brought up at the sound of knocking. She looked up to see John B standing in the doorway with a tried smile. Her gaze instantly fixated on the back bruise around his eye from the fight the night before.

"Mornin'."

Annabelle answered with a groan as her head fell back onto the pillow making him chuckle.

"How are you?"

She squinted one of her eyes open sending him a sarcastic thumbs up to which he nodded.

"Yeah, me too." He smiled.

Annabelle sat up slightly, using her elbows to support herself up, letting her cover fall off her revealing the big t-shirt that she was in. which clearly wasn't hers.

"Where are my clothes?" She frowned.

"In the washer. You threw up all over them." John B said.

"Ah, man! I loved that dress." She groaned.

"Hey, better that than my van." The boy smirked. "Anyways you had to change." He looked at her noticing the slightly uncomfortable expression on her face. "Don't worry, Kie helped you change."

Annabelle exhaled, slightly comforted by the fact that the other female friend in the group was the one to undress her and not the of the three other boys. Her eyes traveled over the beige surfer's shirt with the slightly hidden text at the bottom. "Ride my surfingboeard." an arrow was pointed down to the end of the shirt where the pants would usually start but the shirt looked huge on the girl's small figure making it go all the way down to her thighs.

"JJ's ?" She asked pointing to the shirt earning a nod from the boy in the frog of her. "Cute."

The two had forced themselves out of the house with Annabelle still draped in JJ's shirt. Her head was pounding as she walked out to the backyard using her hand to cover her eyes from the torturing sun. She threw herself on the couch, groaning as she placed her head in Kiara's lap.

"Hey, party girl." She snickered.

"Don't." Annabelle sighed. She placed the back of her hand on her forehead, closing her eyes for a moment of silence but her peace was quickly ruined by the sound of John B's voice.

"Look, I'm calling it off. Alright?" He said out of nowhere making everyone instantly turn their attention to him. "Peterkin said, if I stay out of the marsch she'll help me with DCS."

Annabelle heard JJ scoff from where he was sitting on the round table, a few feet away from the rest of the group. "And you believe her?"

"Yes, I believe her, JJ!" John B snapped back.

"An actual cop, John B. A cop." The blonde let out a sarcastic laugh before tossing another rock into the distance, slightly more aggressive this time.

"Peterkin is a good person, JJ," Annabelle said, looking back at him. She remembered the day of her mother's death when Peterkin was the only one out of the many cops who actually seemed to care about Annabelle's wellbeing as she was the only one who spoke to her like an actual human instead of interrogating her like the other cops did. Peterkin was the first person to hug her after the accident and she was endlessly grateful for that.

"Look, all I gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple of days and she'll help me." John B shrugged with annoyance. "It doesn't help that your ass got into a fight with Rafe Cameron. Not to mention shooting a gun."

The brunette's words instantly earned a strong reaction from JJ. "You're telling me I should've just let Rafe drag Annabelle into his kook nest and do God knows what?" Jj used her full name instead of her nickname which never was a good sign.

"Rafe wasn't gonna hurt me." Annabelle muttered.

"Yeah, I doubt that." JJ's voice had become more and more aggressive. "And I wasn't gonna take the risk."

John B paced back and forth in front of the group and JJ shifted his attention back to him. "You know what I should have done? Just let Topper drown your ass." Annabelle snapped her head to the boy at the statement.

"Yeah, because Topper was gonna drown me?" John B said.

"Sure looked like it," JJ said without meeting his best friend's gaze, keeping his eyes plastered on the rock that he tossed away.

"Funny." John B scoffed making the blonde stand to his feet.

"Have you looked in a mirror?" He said approaching the group. All the yelling sounded ten times louder in Annabelle's ears adding onto the already hash headache making her place her head back in Kiara's lap. She closed her eyes hoping to drown out the noises.

"They always win, don't they man? Kooks versus pouges. They always, always win!"

"Look, it's okay." Kiara tried but he instantly snapped back at her.

"No, it's not okay!" The boy yelled. "It's not! They don't want us to go into the marsch. That means that there's something valuable down there and you know it!"

Annabelle gave us her attempt to drown out the noise and sat up with her feet on the couch, hugging her knees to her body as she watched the boy swing his finger around the group of friends.

"And I understand why you don't want to go." JJ turned to Pope. "You're the golden boy. You got way too much to risk. And you-" He said, facing Kiara instead. "I mean you're already rich as fuck anyways."

Annabelle stared back at him as his eyes shifted to hers. "You- I mean you've got your little sister. You can't risk going to jail."

He was right. Annabelle wasn't sure if she was willing to take the chance knowing that she might end up in a prison cell, leaving Tessa alone. She couldn't do that to her sister no matter how much money was in the line.

"But you and me, man." JJ pointed to John B. "We've got nothing to lose. We really don't."

"That's not true," Annabelle spoke up making the rest of the group tear their eyes from JJ. "You've got us. We can't lose you two."

A silence was laid upon the group before John B took off, walking past JJ as he muttered that he didn't want to talk about this anymore. The blonde boy tried to stop him from marching away but he quickly pushed him off himself before walking away. JJ called out for him without gaining any response making him hurry after him. Annabelle exchanged a quick glance with both Pope and Kiara before sinking down on the couch as the two boys chatted about their plan. She heard something about Ward Cameron's scuba gear before she fell back asleep.

𝟏𝟑𝟎𝟗 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
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𝐀/𝐍
we love our hungover party girl Anna<3
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