ʙᴇꜱᴛ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ | ᴏᴜᴛᴇʀ ʙᴀɴᴋꜱ

𝟢𝟣. 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖼𝗈𝗇𝗋𝖺𝖽𝗌

ᶜᴴᴬᴾᵀᴱᴿ ᴼᴺᴱ⸴ ᵀᴴᴱ ᶜᴼᴺᴿᴬᴰᔆ

THE CONRADS were a known family on the cut. the small family of four were the sweetest people you could ever meet. the family consisted of a young couple and their two kids, spencer and dylan, twins. 

leah, was a beautiful person, inside and out. she helped out the elderly and kept the children on the island busy, giving them painting lessons. she was a painter, one of the best many would say. she enjoyed the nature around her, part of the reason she moved to the beautiful island, other than meeting her husband of course. 

owen, a tough-looking man with a big heart. he was a chef. made food for the whole island. he enjoyed cooking for people and seeing them enjoy what he had made for them. in his free time, he enjoyed fishing and surfing, which he taught his children from a young age. he didn't want them to miss out on those experiences. 

they were the best parents. they'd fallen in love when leah visited the outer banks and they never stopped loving each other. they leaned their kids how to love, treat others with kindness and to always be themselves. 

leah taught the twins how to paint, and eventually also taught their friends when they came over. owen taught the twins how to surf and fish, how to cook and how to pull pranks on their mother. once the kids were a little older they wanted their friends to join them in surfing so owen spend his free time teaching them, so he could watch his kids and their friends surf together. 

dylan had met jj in kindergarten and had been best friends ever since then. john b joined them not even a week after they'd met. a year later pope joined the group. they were best friends, together with spencer who'd been dragged in by his sister.

eventually kie joined the group and they'd been the pogues ever since. 

the 'young' couple loved watching their kids having fun with their friends. They were kind of their children as well. And even though parents always say they don't have a favourite child, they both had a favourite friend. jj had been around the longest, had been around the most. always attached to their daughter, he made her happy, he made spencer happy too, and they loved seeing their children happy, they'd do anything for them. 

everyone loved the conrad family. dylan and spencer's friends were always around their place, it was home for them all. 
they didn't live in a large house with big windows and a flatscreen tv. they lived in a little house, much like big john's chateau. though it had a little space attached where leah's atelier was located. it wasn't much, but it was home, to them and many more. 

that was until the twins turned 14. leah hadn't been feeling well and a month later she was diagnosed with breast cancer. the usually happy and loving family suddenly became a sad one. they could not pay for leah's treatment.

when the twins were 15 they threw their mother's ashes in the ocean on a beach in England, leah's birthplace. this loss was hard for all three. spencer and dylan's friends were there for them as much as they could, as was the rest of the cut. the whole side of the island was sad with the loss of the bright woman that was leah. the whole of the cut had gathered for a memorial, and leah now had a permanent place on the cut, a bench with a beautiful view, that would make everyone remember the bright woman.

while owen drowned himself in his work and dylan turned to her friends for comfort. spencer closed off, he stopped talking. he didn't skate, surf or fish anymore.  and one day he stopped coming to school. dylan tried everything to get his mood up, to comfort him.
their father hadn't been talking to the twins, he neglected them as the loss of the love of his life became too much to bear. the twins reminded him of her and he couldn't handle that. 

dylan tried to keep everyone together while trying to heal herself, luckily she had jj and the pogues by her side. but spencer couldn't handle it anymore. and one sunday morning, when dylan decided to check on her twin brother, he was gone, the only thing left was a note. 

Hey Dyl, I know you're probably conflicted about why I'm gone. don't worry, I'm alive, I just can't stand being here anymore. I need a new place, a new life, I can't handle it anymore. I love you always, little sis. give dad a hug from me.

dylan cried for hours that day, the letter in her hands. she'd shown her dad, 

a mistake. 

owen began drinking, more and more each day. dylan would come home finding him passed out with empty bottles all around the house, this became a routine. he stopped going to work, forcing dylan to get a job at the restaurant of kie's parents to pay the bills, while owen found friends with a shared interest; drinking. one of those friends was jj's dad. 

with his drinking habit, dylan could manage, but he was always angry when he drank, first it was verbal abuse, telling her how it was her fault her mom was dead and her brother left. then the abuse became physical, first mild, then extreme. 

her friends didn't know for a long time until she stumbled into the chateau covered in bruises and blood. a broken nose and a black eye. 

dylan had told her best friend jj about the verbal abuse, but kept the physical to herself, knowing what he went through himself, she didn't want to bother him with this as well. but that day at the chateau, he'd held her so close to him like she'd vanish if he let her go. dylan told him everything, and from then on, dylan mostly stayed at the chateau, just like jj had been doing, they shared the pull-out couch. big john was happy to have them, here they'd be safe from their home lives, besides he loved them like they were their own, he'd known them forever.

The pogues are one big family, no matter how fucked up their separate lives were, they'd always have each other.