This is Me Trying ⭑ Rafe Cameron

fifty five

CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE
[55]
song: starburster by fontaines d.c.

The sharp noise of shattering glass rang in her ears.

Cassie was frozen, the chaos around her erupting into an uncontrollable mess of screaming and fighting, and she found herself in the middle of it.

She couldn't even see the end of the aisle anymore. The stained glass crumbled in slow motion, each piece hitting the floor with an echoed thud. It felt like time had stopped, the seconds crawling by like an eternity, yet in truth, barely five had passed.

The world around her seemed to snap back into motion all at once as saw a deputy lunging at her brother. His arm winding around his neck in a tight grip. Without thinking, Cassie moved, her body surging forward, fighting through the crowd to reach him.

She didn't even register Shoupe's hand grabbing her shirt, holding her back for a split second. There was no time for hesitation. She was already diving into the fray, pushing forward, throwing herself into the tide of bodies. It felt like the crowd was trying to swallow her whole. Each push, each shove, each angry cry making her head spin. Bitter words lashed at her ears. Hateful, desperate voices. She felt the sting of spit hitting her face, felt the heat of bodies pressing in from every side. The air was thick with tension and fear. And couldn't tell who was shouting her name, whether it was a boy or a girl, if they were calling out for help, or calling out to stop her.

JJ was on the floor now, a deputy's knee grinding into his back, his hands desperately grasping at the officer's wrist, trying to fight off the chokehold. Cassie screamed his name, her voice shaking with desperation, but it was drowned out by the shouts surrounding her.

Someone had tugged on her braid, yanked her head back, and she didn't even have the volition of glancing behind her to see what it was. She was getting to the other side of that courthouse.

JJ sprang up. He shoved the deputy off him with a force Cassie didn't know he had, and slammed a brutal punch into the officer's jaw. The crowd roared, another wave of chaos surging through the room, some Pogues cheering, others trying to intervene. A burst of movement erupted from the crowd, one of the Pogues tackling another deputy to the floor, the thud of their fall being swallowed by the shouting.

Kiara screamed. "Let go of me! Let go—" she flung her arms out, hard, releasing the grip two deputies had on her.

Cassie ducked under two men from either side of the island, who had started their own separate argument, as they pushed into the aisle to fight it out. She held her arms over her head to avoid their punches. Squeezing past them as quick as she could, until her father suddenly stepped out into the aisle.

Then her father appeared. Luke, face contorted in worry, hands reaching for her as if to pull her back. "Cassie, listen—"

Her eyes widened with such fury that the expression felt complete foreign on her face. Without hesitation, she shoved him back, so hard that he fell back into the aisle, arms gripping onto the seats to keep him from fully toppling over. "I want nothing to do with you!" She spat, her teeth chattering with rage.

He couldn't even get mad at her physical reaction, if he really wanted to, he could have stopped her push. But he let her get it out. He knew he'd done wrong. "I needed the money, I needed—"

Cassie was already moving on, Luke calling after her angrily as he was swarmed into the commotion, his daughter continuing her push down the aisle.

She pushed her way towards the end just in time to see a deputy yank a baton out of his belt, and whip it against JJ's back, sending him flailing to the ground.