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before kiara left for kitty hawk, she spent her time cooped up in her house, rummaging through old boxes. one of them held an amulet, which, according to what we could piece together, had belonged to one of her mom's ancestors.
after a few too many joints and cans of cheap beer, we managed to dig up some half-assed research that claimed it had once belonged to early settlers of the outer banks.
so here we were, on the brink of our next step—heading to a distant island thousands of miles away, with no clue how we were actually going to get there.
it was a journey that involved dodging shoupe one too many times, stealing heyward's truck more times than i'd care to admit (which, by the way, was enough to guarantee us delivery jobs for the rest of our lives), and running from tattooed men who saw us as target practice.
out of all the books we sifted through, we learned that the amulet was a key—one that supposedly unlocked the location of a temple rumored to hold enough riches to let us go full kook. it was a long shot, but we didn't have anything to lose.
my parents were gone most of the summer, on a yacht somewhere off the coast of france. they sent me one text a week, always about how amazing their time was—like i needed a reminder of how little they cared about whether i was even feeding myself breakfast.
i was just glad i was able to spend my summer the way it was meant to be spent, without parents breathing down my neck, although it wasn't something mine ever did much of.
i walked across my expansive front lawn, the bright green grass trimmed to near perfection, and stopped at the edge.
turning around, i faced the blue-and-white shuttered house, full of rooms that served little purpose beyond decoration. looking at it, i felt nothing—empty. much like the house, i had spaces inside me, rooms that should've been filled but never were.
i shoved my hands in my pockets, squinting against the bright afternoon sun, and started walking toward the old, rusted gate at the end of the driveway. there had always been a constant need to find purpose, to prove i mattered—something to reassure me that i didn't need the parents who wouldn't even blink if i hadn't come home in months.
traveling thousands of miles away, with the possibility of never returning, was the only way i could see to finally find that answer.
i crossed the street to tannyhill, where i was supposed to pick up sarah before meeting everyone at the docks. jj, kiara, and john b were off trying to find a boat that would get us there and back safely, while pope and cleo were at a museum tracking down the final piece of the map to locate the temple.
jj hadn't sounded all that convincing when he explained that his cousin "knew a guy who knew a guy" who could hook us up with a boat, so kiara had kindly offered to tag along, just in case the whole plan went to shit.
