Gold Digger// JJ Maybank- OBX

thirty one

A HAND pressed gently against Scarlett's shoulder and she looked up to see JJ. He looked too as if he had been crying. Scarlett wouldn't blame him if he had been- they'd just lost one third of their original trio. Without speaking, JJ pulled her off the floor, wrapping an unfamiliar coat around he shoulders. "You're dad brought it." JJ explained, noticing her confusion.

"My dad?" Scarlett questioned. "I don't think he cares that much about me to travel over here."

JJ shook his head. "No, your other dad. Your real one."

Scarlett looked up at him, her vision slightly blurred from the mixture of her tears and the rain. "He's here?"

"Yeah." JJ nodded. "So's your sister. She's with that British Kook and her son. Luke, I think?"

If it was possible, Scarlett's face paled even more. "No, no. Maisie can't be here. This is too much for her too see right now." She pulled away from JJ's arms, rushing back to the tent. She came to a stop, shocked to see her birth father and his family, along with Olivia Fields. Ignoring them, she crouched down, wrapping her arms around Maisie.

"We brought you a coat. Figured you might need it." Sebastian Hale spoke. "Look, we thought you deserved an explanation. And then we saw you and your friends on the news."

Scarlett looked up at him. "What do you want?" Her words came out harsher than she meant them too. But she lost all ability to care. She handed Maisie to JJ- who had followed her into the tent- and stood up.

"As your father, I wanted to be here for you." Sebastian told her. "I know what you're going though isn't easy-"

Scarlett shook her head at him, trying to hold back her anger. "How could you know what I'm going through? Huh? In the span of nine months I've lost almost everything! My mom went missing at sea with the only man who treated me like a daughter. Only for them to end up dead. And tonight I lost two of my friends. My oldest friend and closet friend. Someone I thought of as my brother." She paused, collecting her thoughts. "But I guess you can understand that, yeah? I'm not like you. 'Dad'." She air-quoted around the last word. "You've been absent for literally almost every part of my life and now you suddenly care?" She shook her head. "I don't buy it." She turned away, walking towards the tent's exit. "I'm going home. Wherever that is nowadays."

❤❤❤

Without realising it, Scarlett had made her way to the Château. She was drenched head to toe from the rain, her new coat not doing much to shield her. Hesitantly, Scarlett made her way up to the front door. It felt strange and empty, and her heart shattered when she realised John B wasn't going to be in there like he had been every other time she gone to his house for comfort. She stepped through the door, throwing her coat onto the back of a chair. Fresh tears trailed down her face as she looked round at the room. It was still messy, having not been cleared up since the last time the Pogues had all hung out there.

Scarlett's feet led her to John B's room, where she curled up on the bed. She cried into her knees, hugging one of John B's old jumpers close to her face. "I'm gonna be so lost without you, JB." She whispered. She heard footsteps enter the room and felt the bed sink next to her. But she knew it was JJ, they'd been friends long enough for her to just know. "I've seen dark before, but this is different. Losing John B feels different to anything else. I always followed him everywhere, and I know it probably annoyed him sometimes." She paused, reaching up and wiping away the stray tears that scattered her face. "But now, he's gone. And, I don't know how to exist without him, JJ. He's been there since forever. And..." She shook her head softly. "I can't. I don't know how to be without him. Nothing will ever be the same without him."