Edge of the Dark // Noa Olivar

i. the famous saying

Three more weeks. That's how much longer Joey needed to wait until she could get the stupid ankle monitor off her leg.

She would be thrilled with the idea of having it off if her brother weren't so disgustingly excited for it to be removed. He was literally counting down the days until it was fully gone, so she could get back to making deliveries.

But Joey couldn't do it anymore. She got lucky the first time Beasley caught her, but if it were to happen again, then surely they would give her a much longer sentence or even charge her as an adult.

But Carter didn't understand that.

Or maybe he did, and he just didn't care. All he ever seemed to care about was making money, disregarding her well being as well as their little sister's. Thinking about Kiara pained her deeply. She missed her so much, but whilst she had been sent to juvie during the summer, her brother lost custody of the their younger sibling.

So not only was she stripped away from part of her freedom, having to go straight back home before the clock struck nine every single day, she also couldn't travel outside of their small ass little town to see her.

Joey knew where she was and she was lucky enough to get little updates on Kiara every now and then, but she wanted to see that for herself. She wanted to talk to her face to face, but she couldn't. And it pissed her off that Carter didn't give a single fuck about any of it. He didn't care about her, and he didn't give a shit about Kiara either.

"Listen, try staying out of trouble," he warned, turning on the stove to get it to heat up so he could make himself some scrambled eggs. "You only have three weeks left until Beasley removes that thing off your leg. And then you'll jump right back into where you left off and we'll see if that helps you stop being such a useless fuck."

Right... how could she ever forget how useless she was?

Having the ankle monitor on her leg condemned her to the four walls of her very home. She wasn't allowed to leave and make deliveries at night when the cops eyes were right on her— on her brother.

It set Carter's paranoia higher than it already was and he blamed her for all of it because he had to constantly be extra careful to not get caught with something on him. He also had to provide for Joey now since she couldn't do so herself and that bothered him immensely.

"I won't." She responded, biting back a scoff. He wouldn't like that and Joey wouldn't risk pissing him off further just for her own satisfaction.

"Oh! And If you can, I'd appreciate it if you could keep your distance from Noa." Carter added, glancing back to show her how serious he was being. "She's the reason you're in this situation to begin with. And I can't have her getting you in any more trouble right now. Not when you're so fucking close to having that off."

Joey's jaw clenched. Noa was not the reason for any of it and he knew that. There were only three people she could truly blame for the situation she found herself in, and her ex-girlfriend wasn't one of them. But regardless, he seemed to pinpoint the blame right onto the girl since she happened to be at her apartment when she was arrested.

"I don't need you to tell me who I can and can't be friends with. If I want to talk to her, I will. Simple as that." Joey shot back, eyes narrowed with mild annoyance. "But you honestly don't need to stress about that. I rarely even speak to her as it is."

"Good." He nodded, cracking an egg and letting it drop on the heated pan, the hissing sound of the liquid burning filling the room for a moment before he continued. "I really did like her, to be fairly honest. She was hot. Just sucks that she has such a fuck up of a mom."