TOXIC | A Rafe Cameron Love Story

Chapter 2: A Deal With Ward

9 months earlier...

     "Dad, are you kidding me?"

     "Casey calm down, your father is just trying to help," Lana Grubbs followed behind her daughter, who was marching out to the front porch to confront Scooter.

     Casey ignored her mother's words. "Switching schools halfway through high school? How the hell did you think this would be a good idea?"

     "Casey please," Scooter cracked open a beer to nurse the headache the argument had given him and leaned against the rickety porch railing. "This school will offer you new connections and opportunities to help get you into a good college. You think you've got any chance at all of having a future where we're from? Your mother and I want better for you. Besides, you only have two years of high school left."

     "Exactly! And the last thing I want to do is spend those two years drowning in the hierarchy of the kook academy!" Casey's chest burned with rage.

     Scooter slouched into a rocking chair and shook his head. "You're being dramatic."

     "No, I'm being realistic," Casey's voice became louder as her father's gaze drifted elsewhere. "I've spent my whole life on the cut! Do you think I can just walk in there like I belong? I'll be ripped to shreds, or at best left to rot in obscurity."

     "It's a fine school," he replied plainly.

     "Oh I'm sure it is," Casey scoffed. "A fine school filled with snooty rich kids who think they run the island. I know these kids, dad. They're assholes. Seriously! And they think we're literal trash! I wouldn't be surprised if they dragged me out of their precious academy themselves. I'm just a dirty Pogue to them."

     "Ward offered to pay for your tuition the next two years. All you need to be is grateful." Scooter took a swig of his beer, refusing to look his daughter in the eye as tension rose.

     "I don't care what kind of deal you struck with Ward Cameron! I'm not going!"

     He snapped. "YES YOU ARE!" Scooter hurled his beer bottle at the ground and glass shattered across the weathered wood planks of the porch.

     There was a harsh silence, and Casey instinctively took a step back, startled by her father's sudden outburst. As she watched him clench his jaw, she lost all nerve to argue back.

     "You're going to that school, dammit." Scooter's voice returned to a normal volume, but there was a sharpness to it that made Casey uneasy. "Make friends or don't—hell if I care. Now get inside and finish your chores. I don't want to hear another word about it."

     Casey's head was full of logical objections, but the lump in her throat and pit in her stomach forced her to keep her thoughts to herself. She knew she could win a rational debate, but her father was anything but rational. Seething in anger, Casey turned on her heels and marched down the front steps. Scooter didn't bother to call her back as she stormed down the driveway and disappeared around the corner.

     Arguments like this didn't happen often. Casey didn't let them. She spent most of her childhood nodding her head and bottling up her emotions to avoid the fruitless disagreements. She learned long ago that trying to rationalize with her father only ended in violent outbursts, but the older she got, the harder it was to stay quiet. There were some arguments she couldn't ignore. When these arguments did arise, Casey always disappeared for the night and refused to return home until she could guarantee her father would be gone.

     Casey cut through the tree line and walked along the bank of the marsh, breathing heavily as she replayed the conversation in her head. She knew her father had been working with Ward Cameron lately, but she couldn't fathom why Ward would offer to pay for her schooling. It made absolutely no sense. Casey had only met Ward a few times in passing, and she only knew of his children because they were kook royalty. Casey was a pogue through and through. Even though the kook academy was part of the Outer Banks, Casey had this sick feeling like she was uprooting her entire life and moving to another world. Hell, another universe!

     She decided then and there that she was going to raise hell. Maybe if she caused enough trouble, Ward would pull her funding to save his reputation. She couldn't imagine how angry her father would be if that happened, but the thought gave her a feeling of sick satisfaction. Right now, all she wanted to do was make her father angry—as angry as possible. That seemed to be the only thought calming her down. As Casey trudged through the marsh, water seeping into the toes of her sneakers, she finally came to the clearing at the trailer park, and made her way to a shabby home at the edge of the water.

     People were coming in and out of the dilapidated trailer house, illuminated by a warm porch light that was buzzing with moths. Casey didn't bother knocking, walking right past the people outside and through the front door as though it were her own. Instantly her lungs filled with smoke, and a familiar face emerged from the haze to greet her.

     "Well look who it is," Barry, OBX's local drug dealer smiled, his eyes glazed over as they often were when he wasn't working. "Not used to seeing you here this late, Ace."

     Casey had been friends with Barry for almost 7 years, and as strange as it was, he was probably the most loyal person in her life. Casey was an only child, and she spent her entire life suffering through her father's cruelty alone with no one to talk to or relate to. Barry was the only one who truly knew her situation, and understood her. He didn't offer her pity or a shoulder to cry on, but he was there, and that was all Casey ever needed. In a weird way, he was like a brother to her

     "Looks like I'm going full kook" Casey said, plopping down in a dusty armchair as Barry sat on the couch with a fresh blunt.

     "Now what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" He pulled a lighter from the ashtray on the coffee table, and nodded towards the unopened beer cans on the floor.

     "Ward Cameron is paying for me to join the kook academy," Casey explained with a sigh, scooping up a beer and cracking it open.

     Barry laughed, sticking the joint in his mouth and lighting it up. "Ward Cameron? Why the fuck would he do that?"

     Casey shrugged. "Dad said they worked out a deal. Knowing him, it's probably some sketchy blackmail shit."

     "I'd like to know what kind of dirt your daddy has on Ward," Barry chuckled. He handed her the blunt and she inhaled deeply, closing her eyes as the fumes filled her lungs. She coughed for a minute and then took another hit before handing it back to him. "It's gotta be good if he's paying that much," Barry noted.

     "Who cares?" Casey said bitterly. "I could care less about what happens on figure eight. I can't go to that school. I'll go nuts."

     "Fuck it, embrace that shit," Barry said. "Them kooks are always throwin' money at their problems. Lucky for you, you're the target this time. Take it."

     Casey wasn't convinced. "I don't belong there."

     Barry sucked on his blunt and held his breath, leaning towards her as the smoke slowly steamed from his nose. "Then go drum up some new business for me, Ace."