"And lastly, that's Madison, or Mads, my little sister who is also trying to climb up the broken lifeguard tower. We're only a year apart. When she's not doing some odd job for extra cash she is on the HMS Pogue with the rest of us. Most loyal perso...
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John B stared at his sister as she sat on top of an old oil drum, spinning a butterfly knife around in her hands over and over again. He hadn't heard their conversation earlier, he made sure to go down to the dock to make sure he didn't overhear anything that would scar him for life, but it was even getting weird for him to see them like this. All he knew was that his best friend stormed out the front door and his sister held up in her room until it was time to go.
He wasn't the only one that noticed she was on edge, in fact they all did, but it was Kiara who spoke up, "You really think that's a good idea?"
Madison was so lost in thought she hadn't even heard her. This was going to be a good thing. This had to be a good thing. She wasn't happy that JJ called a meeting with Limbrey and that asshole that always seemed to be attached to her at the hip like some leech. But now that she was thinking clearly, now that she had that ounce of courage she had been missing before, maybe JJ was right. This meeting was going to be a good thing. They would get a copy of the tape, if Limbrey had it, and Madison was going to do everything in her power to make sure that the old cripple didn't leave with the key. This was going to be a good thing. This had to be a good thing. JJ was even smart enough to plan the meeting behind Geechie's out on the deck this way if things went south Madison could drown the bitch. This was going to work. This was going to be a good thing. God why was she taking so long? This was going to work. It had to work. Why wasn't she here yet?
"Mads?" John B tried to get her attention when she didn't answer and if she hadn't been smart enough to put her sunglasses on he would have been able to see how dilated her eyes were. Instead, he figured the attitude shift was because of whatever happened between her and JJ. "Hey, you good?"
And that's when JJ saw it, the quick, unconscious, sniff as she stared at the wooden slats on the deck, her hand on autopilot as she spun the knife as fast as the thoughts were running through her mind. The others weren't as used to dealing with drug abuse as he was, hell, he had grown up around it from the moment he learned how to walk, so he wasn't surprised they had missed it. Although, even if he hadn't he would have still noticed, he knew Madison better than anyone.
He felt like another wave had come crashing down on him as he clenched his jaw in anger. An anger towards her for using again, anger towards Kelce for making it so easy for her to give into temptation, but mostly angry at himself for walking away from her again. He had been so wrapped up in his doubts, so sure she was going to finally admit that he had been right all along and that she wanted to be with a Kook, with someone that could give her everything he couldn't, that he took the easy way out. He walked away instead of fighting through it to fix it because that was where the true vulnerability was and as much as he loved her, as much as he was in love with her, that was still a part of him that he kept hidden from the world. But would it have made a difference if he stayed? Would he have noticed sooner if he wasn't so wrapped up in his own shit?
