𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡, obx

16 ... undeniable confession

the cops had arrived at the crime of the scene, after kiara had called them, trying to figure out what had actually happened. ward had cleaned up everything extremely quickly, and apparently he was extremely good at it, because there was no trace that anything had even happened that night. shoupe tried to speak to nalani about it, but she couldn't open her mouth.

she really wanted to. ward deserved to be in prison, just like rafe did, but she couldn't bring herself to admit that. it was her family, the people she loved, and that wrong perception of them just wouldn't go away.

oscar and nalani were sat on the curb of the street, jj's jacket draped over the both of them while they shivered from the cold. oscar felt more than bad for nalani, almost as if her sadness was seeping into him. finding out that your dad and brother were murderers on the same day, seeing your own dad shoot someone would've taken it's toll on anyone, let alone a thirteen year old girl. he had been feeling the sadness a lot, too, but he could tell nalani was feeling it more.

shoupe came out of the building where ward had shot gavin, yelling something incoherent to the teens. oscar and nalani stood up in sync, oscar letting nalani keep jj's jacket, walking over to hear what they were talking about.

"i know you're upset, and i know you think your friend was innocent." shoupe said, holding a finger up to kiara.

"he is!" she yelled back, her voice full of distress.

"but you weren't there!" shoupe argued back, making nalani's heart drop to her stomach for the hundredth time today. "the only actual witnesses who are above ground say the exact opposite, alright? and both of them have a hell of a lot more credibility than any of you right now."

nalani was a witness, she was above ground and she had, at least some, credibility. she could've saved john b and sarah, which would've put rafe and ward in jail, so she could've saved gavin also. everything that was happening to them was a domino reaction from the tarmac, and she could stop it. if she could just work up the courage, she could pick the dominoes back up and place them all back into line.

john b and sarah could come home, the pogues would be happy again. they couldn't have that and it was all her fault.

"i saw your little art project." he continued, "on ward's wall. don't do that again. all right? gonna make things a lot harder on the both of us."

"c'mon." oscar whispered, tilting his head to the side. they began to walk slowly towards kiara's car while ignoring the other's arguing.

both of them hopped into the car, buckling themselves in next to each other. oscar looked over at nalani, noticing how sad she looked. "you can come back to my house, if you want. luke isn't home and i'll just make jj sleep on the couch."

nalani smiled softly, drumming her fingers against her thighs. "are you sure? i'll feel bad banishing jj." she didn't want to go home at all, that was for sure, but she also didn't want to intrude.

"i promise, jj will get over it by tomorrow." he shrugged his shoulders.

"this is the north drain, it should've washed out to the gully." jj explained as they hopped down into the bank, "so, if it got flushed out, it would've been pushed out to, like..." he pointed at the trash floating in the water.

"somewhere in this trash." pope finished.

"correct." jj agreed.

kiara sighed loudly, "oh my god. people who use plastic should be shot."

"okay, personally, i love plastic!" jj said, grabbing a stick off the ground so he could siphon through the trash. "use it everyday. love the stuff."

"yeah, well hopefully you recycle it and don't let it flush into the ocean." she tilted her head to the side, smiling sarcastically.