Good Days •Rafe Cameron•

Reparation

     

       JJ pulled up to an old trailer hiding behind a bunch of overgrown trees and bushes.
     "Welcome to Crackhead Wasteland." Sarah comments as JJ parks the van. "I don't know about this, man." Pope says.
    "Dude, why are we at Barry's?" John B asked, looking around the yard. JJ ignores the question, hoping out the van. "This'll only take a second." He assures, before running into the trailer.
    John B opens the side door. "Where you going?" He calls out following JJ into the house. Sarah, Pope, Kiara and I sit in silence as we wait for the two Pogue to return to the van.
     "Hey, Be." Kiara says. "Yeah?" I asked, looking at my cousin. "What did Barry mean when he said: Rafe's Girl?" She says, using air quotes.
    I pull my lips into a thin line. "I'm not sure what you mean." I lied. Kiara rolls her eyes. "He addressed you as Rafe's Girl." She repeats only this time her tone is annoyed and impatient.
     Pope and Sarah look at me waiting for me to come up with some answer. "Wait, you've been hanging with my brother?" Sarah furrows her brows.
     "What? No!." I lied. "Barry's a drug dealer. He probably got me mixed up with someone. Maybe Rafe's been hanging with some girl." I add.
    "That doesn't make sense, Be." Pope says. "How can Barry get you mixed up with someone else? You're the only girl I know on this island who has locs." Pope states. "Thanks for the hair lessons, Pope." I sassed.
    "So you're not hanging with Rafe?" Kiara asked, narrowing her eyes at me. "No. I would never want to hang out with some Coked Out Drunk like him." I lied again.
    Kiara looks me up and down. She bites the inside of her cheek before rolling her eyes and looking away. "Whatever." She hums.
    John B and JJ quickly pile out of the trailer. The four of us hop out the van joining the two. "All right, so we're looking at five grand each for the reparations of putting us through that bullshit." JJ says, holding a large stack off cash in his arms. "Sorry about that y'all." He apologizes.  
       "That's what we're doing now? We're robbing drug dealers?" Kiara says, scolding JJ. "This Barry guy is gonna find out. And he's gonna coke after us." Sarah says.
    "Yes, he will. This is not the time to start wilin' out." Pope warns. "How'd you guys like havin' a gun pulled on you?" JJ shouts. "That's not the point, JJ. And you know it." I shout back at the boy.
     "You need to relax." John B says, walking up to JJ. "Man, he had it right here on you, bro." JJ says, making a gun with his finger and pointing at John B's face.
    "Listen." John B yells. "We've gotta go get the gold, okay? Just give me that shit." John B says, reaching for money. "I'm putting it back."
    JJ snatches the money out of John AB's hands before pushing him up against the van. "Do you feel like a tough guy, huh." John B asked.
    The four of us watch the two stand in each other's faces. "What are you gonna do when he comes for us?" John B asked.
"We punch him in the throat." JJ states. "Yeah, good fucking idea, JJ." John B says, sarcastically. "I'm not putting it back." JJ says. He hops into the back of the van, stuffing the cash into his his bag.
The rest of stand and watch with disappointment. "You guys getting in or what?" JJ asked. I cross my arms looking away. JJ clenches his jaw when he realizes that we're not listening to him.
He jumps back out the van. "What?" He asked, looking at us, shrugging his shoulders. "We're sick of your shit?" John B says.
"Oh, my shit." JJ laughs, incredulously. "Yes, your pulling guns on people shit." Kiara scoffs. "JJ it's getting out of hand." I start. I march up to him jabbing my index finger into his chest. "God, the first time I met you; you brought a gun to a movie. When there were kids around, JJ. This isn't Menace 2 Society or some fuck up shit like that. This is real life." I scold the Pogue, stepping away.
"You're acting like a maniac." Pope says. "Pope, I took the fall for you, man. Know how much money I owe you because of you?" JJ says.
"I'm gonna pay you back, and I didn't ask you to do that!" Pope says. "I just did. Pay it back. Right here, right now, by myself." JJ shouts.
"You know what." JJ starts. He grabs the bag from the van. "That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Go off by myself." JJ skins the back over his shoulder walking away from the group.
"JJ." Pope calls out. "Just let him go." Sarah says as John B stop him from following the blonde.
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The five of us sat at an empty table at The Wreck. Pope stood a little bit away from us looking out at the marsh.
"Look, he'll come around, all right? It's... he's doing a JJ thing." John B assures. "You think he'll go home?" Kiara asked. "There's about a zero percent chance that JJ goes home." Pope answers.
I pout my lips. "I don't understand." I say, leaning my elbows on the table. "Why wouldn't he go home?" I asked.
Kiara looks between the boys before turning to me. "JJ's dad, Luke." She starts. "He beats him." She says.
My suddenly aches. "I-I-." I stuttered. "How come I didn't know this?" I asked, looking at the Pogues. "JJ doesn't talk about it much. Same way you don't talk about your parents." John B says.
"What happened with your parents." Sarah asked, her brows knit together. I look over at the blonde. "Um...I was in an accident a few month ago with them. They were killed by a drunk driver." I pout my lips.
"Oh, Phoebe, I'm sorry." Sarah apologizes. She rubs her hands up my arms in a soothing man. "I'm fine. Mike and Anna are making me go to therapy next week." I says.
"Okay" Pope speaks, breaking the sad tension. "It's too dangerous to pawn this thing off piecemeal. So our best bet is to go down there and get the rest of it. Bring it all up at once. Put it in a safe or vault or something. I don't know. Just until we can find someone who won't rip us off." Pope demands.
     "I can go figure it out all tonight, get it done, and we can be out there tomorrow morning." Pope explains. John B nods. "All right, let's do it." He agreed.
    "What about that thing with my dad?" Sarah asked her boyfriend. "Shit." John B cursed. "What thing?" Pope asked. "I have to go fishing with Ward." John B answers.
    "You can't get 400 mil 'cause you're gonna go kill fish?" Kiara scoffed. "Tell him you have plans?" I says. "Look, I have to go." John B shrugs. "Dude, blow it off." Pope snaps. "Just make something up!" Kiara says, growing annoyed.
     "Look, I-I have to, okay? He... he saved me, all right? 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." John B reassures.
    "Fine. Fine, go fishing." Pope agrees. "And at least JJ will probably have washed up by then." Kiara sighs.
    "Whatever." I breathed. "I'm gonna head on in the back. I've got a shift in a few minutes and Lucy rush is about to start." I say, jumping out of my chair. I pull my locs into a ponytail.
     "Okay, I'll see you back home, Be." Kiara says leaving from the table. Pope, Sarah, and John B follow.
    "Come on, I'll drive you two home." John B says to Pope and Kiara as the four of them leave the restaurant.
      I head in the back towards the kitchen. I pull my apron on around my waist before washing my hands at the staff sink.
     I feel my phone buzz from my back pocket. My wet hands pull the device from shorts. A message from Rafe is displayed on the screen.
     I catch myself smile at the phone as I open the message. My lips immediately pull into a thin line.
 
"Did you and the Pogues steal money from Barry's place?" - Rafe
    
    "Shit." I cursed. The lunch staff begin to show up for their shifts piling into the kitchen. I shut the phone off, ignoring the text.
    "Focus, Be." I say to myself. I let take in a large breath before exhaling.
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     The restaurant was busy especially for a Wednesday afternoon. I ran around the table taking orders and bring the correct meals to the tables. I only had one hour left for my shift before I could head home.
    "Phoebe!" I hear my name being called out. I look towards the voice. Rafe quickly struts in pulling my arm.
     "I've been calling you. Why haven't you answered?" He asked, clearly upset. I roll my eyes. "Rafe, look around." I say, gesturing to the customers. "I haven't answered because I'm at work." I explain to the Kook.
    "I bet if it was JJ who called; you would have answered." He mumbles under his breath. "Greens not a good color in you. It washes you out." I sassed, walking around him to hand grab the order from the counter. I walk through the sliding door to reach for the plate.
    Rafe follows me, but I stop him. "Read the sign." I say, pointing to the sign above the door. "Employees only." I smirk.
     I balance the plate in y hand taking the order to the back table. Rafe continues to follow me around the restaurant.
    "Barry came to me, okay." Rafe starts. "Here's the Po Boy Sandwich with the side of Fried Shrimp." I smile at the man at the table who happily takes his plate.
    "Can we talk about this later, Rafe?" I asked. "No." Rafe says. "What are you and those Pogues doing, huh. It's bad enough that John B's got my sister wrapped up in all this. But you two?" He exclaims.
    "Look, Rafe." I sigh, pulling him toward the back of the restaurant we're most of the tables were empty.
     "My friends and I were just chilling when Barry came out of nowhere with a gun ready to rob us." I explained.
     Rafe blinks several time. "Wait he robbed you?" He says. "Why did he do that? Did he say anything?" Rafe asked.
    "I don't know, Rafe." I lied. "He's just some crazy drug dealer." I lied again. "Listen, Phoebe." Rafe says. His steps closer to me. His body towers over mine.
    "Me and you both know that Barry is a crazy motherfucker." He starts. "And I'm going to be the one to take him down if he messes with you again. Okay." Rafe breathes.
    "I'm a proactive type of person. I get shit done." He says, pointing to his chest. I furrow my brows watching his eyes closely.
    My hands grab his chin. Pulling his face closer to mine. "You're full of shit." I spat. "You're pupils are dilated." I say, smacking his face away.
    "It was barely a line." He starts. I scoff, walking away. Rafe roughly grabs my arm spinning me around.
    "Let go of me." I warn. "Let go of you?" He questioned. I yank my arm out his grip. "Let go of me!" I demanded.
    "You're not a: Proactive type of person, Rafe." I say using air quoted. "You're an addict." I said. "Come talk to me when you're sober." I tell the Kook before walk off towards the kitchen.