what now? | outerbanks

• twelve •

Sarah

    I hear Rafe coming up the stairs, and he's obviously making himself known. "Hello?!" He calls through the house. "I know one of you dirty Pogues is here! I saw the van out back."
    I slowly open the door and step out into the hallway. When he sees me, his eyes glaze over into something I don't recognize. He lets out a sly laugh.
    "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah." He leans against the banister of the stairs. "Back so soon?"
    "Look, Rafe, I really don't want any trouble."
    "Oh, yeah, sure. I bet you didn't want any trouble when you trapped me in the boat? Or when you tried to lose the cross? No trouble, right?" He steps a little closer to me.
    "Rafe, please."
    "No, you know what, Sarah? It's always something with you, you know? You- you hurt me and then act like I'm the bad guy. I'm not the bad guy."
    "What about when you shot me? And when you tried to drown me? What was that? Not the bad guy?" He turns his back to me and paces back and forth, slamming his fist on the wall. "All I came here for was some clothes and stuff. I'll get out of your hair." I shut my bedroom door and brush past him down the stairs. His voice stops me.
    "And Dad? Where's Dad?" I turn around slowly to respond, I can feel the tears welling in my eyes and my face is on fire. "Sarah, what did you do?"
    "Of course you care now. You can't just go on a rampage and start caring as soon as it's convenient to you. He's dead, okay. He's gone, so just- just leave me alone." I wipe the tears and snot off of my face and run down the stairs. He yells after me a couple of times, and I hear him follow me. He grabs my shoulder and yells my name again, but this time, I shove him off of me and push him into the wall. "I said, leave me alone."
    One last tear falls down my cheek and I walk out of the door to the Twinkie. Kie and John B. turn their heads in my direction when they hear the front door slam behind me. Kie gets out of the front seat to take her place in the back, but she stops to talk to me.
    "So?" She asks me.
    "Let's go." I get in the front seat and feel another tear blaze down my face.
    "Did something happen?" John B. places a hand on my thigh as he talks.
    "It's Rafe; of course something happened. Just drive."
    John B. doesn't pester any further, wisely, and drives out of the driveway. I direct him where to go, and I hope I actually remember where this gold guy is. As I direct, my phone starts to ring; it's him.
    "This is Sarah Cameron." Kie sticks her face in between the front seats and puts her ear up to mine trying to hear who's talking. I pull my face from her and mouth "it's the guy." She understands.
    "Hi, yes." He's calling to make sure we can still meet today, that he has another deal coming in later and he doesn't want to waste any time. "Absolutely, mhm. Yeah, we should be there in, um-" I look at John B. for an answer.
    "Ten minutes." He whispers.
    "We should be there in ten minutes. Mhm. Of course, Mr. Smith. Yep." He makes a joke and I laugh. "Yeah, thank you for calling sir." I hang up, and when I look at John B., he looks jealous.
    "Are you jealous, JB? Jealous of the gold dealer?"
    "What? Me? No."
    "Dude, you so are." Kie laughs. She makes kissing faces and sounds from the back of the car and teases for the majority of the ride.
    When we make it to the building, I'm immediately taken back to my childhood. It's strangely nostalgic. I remember my father taking me here when he had deals but no babysitter to watch me. Kie and I get out of the van and stand in front of the doors, preparing ourselves.
    "We got this, right?" I ask her, keeping my eyes trained on the building.
    "Yeah. Yeah, we got this. We were Kooks, just go back to your roots." And with that, we walk in confidently; sunglasses on, purses hung, and lips plumped. Each of us carries a briefcase at our side. We're met at the front desk by a woman.
    "Can I help you?"
    "Hi, yes. I'm Sarah Cameron. We have an appointment with Mr. Smith." The woman at the counter looks up at Kie and me at the sound of my name.
    "Wait, you're those girls. The ones that were stranded on an island. Did you guys ever find that treasure? That's what you were there for, right? Treasure? Or maybe that was someone else. Was that someone else?"
    "No, yeah, that was us." Kie says shyly from behind me.
    "We're actually just here to talk to Mr. Smith, thank you." I give her an almost rude smile and she quickly lets us further into the building, leading us to Mr. Smith's office. When we walk in, he immediately engulfs me in a hug. I make wide eye contact with Kie from behind his back, and she makes the same face back.
    "Sarah Cameron. I remember when you were this big." He pinches his fingers together. "How's Rose doing? I know she must be so glad to have you back."
    "Oh, yeah, she's doing great." I lie, scratching the back of my neck.
    "And you're Mike's daughter, right?'
    "Yes- Yes, sir." Kie stutters awkwardly.
    "I was very sorry I couldn't make it to his and Anna's anniversary party, will you tell them that?"
    "Of course, sir." We make eye contact and try not to laugh knowing that both of us are lying through our teeth.
    "So, I hear you have something for me, is that right?"
    "As long as you have something for us in return." Kie says. She places the two briefcases onto his desk and turns them to face him. He opens them and then shuts them right after.
    "I haven't seen this much gold in one place since, since ever. How did two girls like you stumble upon this?"
    "Oh, you know. The old treasure hunt." I laugh, hoping he'll laugh too and forget to ask more questions.
    "Ah, yes. Same old, same old. Is this all you have?"
    "Oh, no. There's three more in the van."
    "Wow. Three more just like this?"
    "Yep." Kie keeps it short, and I can tell she's trying to get this over with.
    "Alrighty. Let me take this to the back, and I'll come back with a quote in a few minutes. Don't go anywhere."
    "Wouldn't dream of it." She makes a saluting gesture and I giggle under my breath. I'm glad he isn't more curious because I really don't think we'd be able to convince him.
    "Sarah, these slacks are like- totally eating into my stomach. I don't think I can sit here for too much longer. And this lip gloss burns, why does it burn?"
    "Yeah, sorry, they're from like freshman year or something, I'm not sure. We'll leave soon, just be patient." Almost on cue, Mr. Smith walks back into the room with a smug smirk on his face. He looks both of us in the eyes a couple of seconds each.
    "So?" I can't take the suspense, even though I just told Kie to be patient.
    "Thirteen Million."
    "Come again?" Kie's head perks up and I can see more color in her face than I've seen in days.
    "Per case."
    "And that's... sorry, I haven't been in school in a long time." 
    "Sixty-five million." I blurt out. "Sixty-five million."
    "Holy shit!" Kie says, and I kick her shin from under the desk. "Ow!" She whispers to me.
    "Is there an account that would be best to transfer the money into?" Kie looks at me worried as he asks the question, and I know what she's thinking. We're the only ones who actually have bank accounts.
    "Um, yeah. You can split it between our's. Half and half."
    "Okay, I'm gonna have you fill out some paperwork, and then you should be good to go. It should transfer in the next couple of days."
    "Perfect. Thank you." Kie shakes his hand.
    "Oh, and, Mr. Smith? Would you mind keeping this between us for now? We're not really trying to get in the spotlight just yet." He gives me a silent nod. "Thank you, again, Mr. Smith. We really do appreciate it."
    We fill out everything we need to, and Kie wiggles in her seat next to me, obviously excited to get to the rest of the group. Once we finish, we strut out of the building and back to the Twinkie, smiles widening with every step. Stepping out of the building, Kie pokes my side with her knuckle.
    "Holy shit, Holy shit! Sarah!? This is like- holy wow. Can you imagine the look on JJ's face? I mean-"
    "Kie, Kie. We gotta keep this on the DL, okay. Elegant, classy. There are people around."
    "Yeah, yeah. No problem." She clears her voice and turns on a more serious personality. That is, until the van doors shut. "John B. You would not believe."
    "Did everything go alright?" He asks as I buckle into my seat.
    "Maybe." I give him a playful shrug.
    "Just maybe?"
    "Like, sixty-five million maybes!" Kie yells from the back.
    "Holy- Sarah, what?" I turn to face him and nod to let him know she's telling the truth. He kisses me softly and fist-bumps Kie.

Kie

    Back at the Chateau with the others feels like Christmas morning. We've never had this much of anything. Sure, I grew up a Kook, but that was built by my parent for my parents. It never was for me, I never truthfully had any of it. But this? I finally have something of my own.
    "So, uh, where is the money?" JJ asks us.
    "We're having it split between Sarah's bank account and my bank account."
    "Oh, so none for us?" He asks, and I can tell he's almost joking, but sort of serious.
    "JJ, we don't have bank accounts." Pope says, and JJ hits him upside the head.
    "Yeah, and thank God. Who knows what JJ would do with that much bread in his hands." Mumbles Cleo.
    "Yucatán surf-trip." Me and JJ say this at the same time, and look up at each other with wide grins when we realize.
    "Jinx! Pinch, poke, owe me a coke!" I poke the boy on his side and tickle him once while I say it. He laughs, and so do I; and for a moment, it's like we're the only ones there.
    "I'll buy you however many cokes you want, we're Kooks now." JJ winks at me, and kisses my hand in a medieval fashion.
    "To going full Kook?" Cleo asks, shrugging her shoulders.
    John B. confirms back in a joy-filled shout, "To going full Kook!" And we engulf in one big group hug.
    In this moment, I'm taken back to our first year of high school, before any of this mattered. When it was just me and my boys. I love Sarah and Cleo with all of my heart, but I can't help but miss how it was before. Just the four of us, no treasure, no danger, just simple OBX life. Now, it's the six of us, no home, no allies, no protection.
    But right now, standing here in this hug with the best people in the world, I can't ask for anything more. We're all alive, we're all safe. We're right where we're meant to be: together.