riptide- outer banks

sixty-four | nothing to lose

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After three long, long days of traveling, they were finally back in the Outer Banks. Back to real life. Back to the only place they'd ever really known. They were back and Kori was dreading every second of it. They'd already dropped Sarah off at the chateau, Kiara off at her house, and Logan off at Tannyhill.

And now they were back at a place that hadn't been their home in years.

They hadn't even been back since those first few days after Luke had been arrested. That's how long they'd been gone. That was over a month ago, which meant they had no idea what state the house would be in. Luke had no regard for cleanliness and if it'd really been a month and a half since he'd been there, that meant that the bills hadn't been paid either. Kori could guess that that meant it would look like shit and there would be no power.

Both blondes lifted their gazes to the house as it came into view. It'd been silent the entire time they'd walked and it remained silent as their eyes darted up to the yellow caution tape blocking off the door. JJ rushed up to the sign posted, leaving Kori motionless at the bottom of the steps. She didn't need to move when she already knew what it said.

A breath fell from JJ's mouth as he gestured to the notice and turned to her. "Looks like we gotta be out in three weeks— eviction notice."

Kori just nodded her head, unable to do anything else. "Yeah. Great." She murmured, following her brother's lead as he jotted down the steps and made his way to the back window leading into the kitchen. She went first, pulling herself up and onto the ledge so that she could crawl through the opening. An empty beer can fell to the ground as she accidently kicked it getting off of the kitchen counter.

Almost immediately, she felt nauseous. Luke had left their home an absolute shit-show. She'd never seen the place so disgusting, so filthy. There were cans and cans of beer littering every visible surface and the place reeked of drugs— worse than she'd ever smelt it.

"One new message."

JJ joined her in the kitchen, but didn't stay as she moved over to the answering machine in the corner of the counter. Her brow came together as she clicked one of the buttons, a woman's voice sounding through the thick silence that had settled.

"Luke? Luke, it's CeCe. Crawford." There was a pause as she sighed. "I don't know if you're getting these. You probably are; you're probably ignoring them, but—"

The woman's voice abruptly cut out as Kori deleted the message. Of course they would come home to some crackhead friend of their dad's trying to get in contact with him. It didn't even faze her at this point.

"Typical." Kori murmured.

"Well, your handwriting's drastically improved, Kor."

Kori snapped her head to JJ's, eyes shifting over to the kitchen table he stood at. Then down to the note in his fingertips. She wasted no time in taking the remaining steps to him and ripping the note out of his hands. As her eyes skimmed over it, her face contorted.

JJ,

I'm really sorry, but I can't do it anymore. I can't stay in the obx.

There's nothing left for me here. Dad got arrested and I'm just done.

I'm done with the bullshit. All of it. We lost the gold and the cross, and I just,

I can't stay here. I love you, but I need to do what's best for me. I—

"What the literal shit is this?" Kori questioned, dropping the paper. She couldn't even finish it.