𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐅𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃─𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬

one hundred six.

─☼☼☼─

A DAY LATER and Charlotte still wanted to kill JJ.

She wasn't sure what had gotten into him lately, but apparently all of his common sense had completely vanished. He was somehow so money hungry he was willing to commit to something as dangerous as this, but yet so reckless when it came to money that he was the first to blow it all. 

She'd barely said a word to him since they'd returned from Goat Island the previous day. She was trying to find the right way to get it into his head that he needed to stop this before he hurt himself. She cared too much to keep watching him go down this path of carelessness...she'd been there before with someone else. 

"Have you talked to Carson at all?" Sarah wondered, pulling Charlotte from her anger-induced trance. 

"Hm?" Charlotte wondered, spinning a bottle cap on the worn wooden counter of the surf shop. The two had been tasked with running the shop while JJ and John B went to talk to their connection at the Coast Guard, and while Kiara, Pope, and Cleo prepped the diving gear.

"Carson," Sarah repeated from behind the register. "Have you talk to him at all since he left?"

"Oh," Charlotte breathed, guilt consuming her considering that was the first time she'd thought of him since he left a day prior. "No. I don't really think he wants anything to do with me."

Sarah gave her a sympathetic look, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Charlotte waved her off, moving to busy herself with the inventory list. "It's for the better."

Sarah turned so she was facing the older girl once again, "What happened between you two anyway?...If you're comfortable telling me."

Charlotte gave her a small smile, as if to say there's nothing she wouldn't feel comfortable telling Sarah. "Your brother happened."

The Cameron girl's face paled. "You saw my brother?"

"No," Charlotte denied. "But Carson did."

"Oh, God." Sarah breathed, likely imagining worst case scenario. "Did Rafe do something to him?"

Checking off another item on the inventory list, Charlotte shook her head. "No, that's the thing...Rafe told him not to break my heart."

Sarah looked utterly shocked, and Charlotte couldn't blame her. The Rafe Cameron they knew would have likely beat Carson's ass and then somehow would have spun the situation so that he was the victim. 

"Wow," Sarah shook her head, "That's...shocking."

"Right?" Charlotte agreed, feeling like the jumbled up thoughts in her head were being understood. She'd come back to the island knowing reconciling with Rafe was near impossible. After all, she came here with her new boyfriend. It had been a year and she had heard nothing from Rafe. No apologies, no begging for her to come back. Truthfully, part of Charlotte felt that Rafe had just moved on from her completely, their six year relationship simply a blip in his memory. But maybe that was what was for the best. Charlotte had never been able to really help him, maybe he needed something new...maybe she had been his problem. 

As quickly as that thought entered her mind, Charlotte shook it out. No, she had done everything she could to help Rafe. He was the problem, not her...right?