riptide- outer banks

115 | proof of what matters most

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JJ was gone.

Pope was in jail.

They were going to lose their home.

Their shop was about to become some stupid club.

Everything they'd worked so damn hard for the past year and a half– gone in hours.

"How are your hands?" John B asked from the front seat.

Kori's eyes remained down. "Fine."

"Cleo?" Sarah prodded.

"She'll live." The brunette announced– as if it'd been some secret. "Hands are gon' scar, but she's lucky. Right hand ain't as bad as da left."

"So what I'm hearing is that I can still swing?"

Logan turned to her, brow tightly drawing together. As he looked at her, he took note of the fact that she'd finally torn her gaze from the floor of the twinkie. She was looking straight ahead, toward the front where John B and Sarah were.

"Who are you–Who are you gonna swing at, Kori? Huh?" John B asked, face contorting at her comment.

"Well, honestly..." She halfheartedly shrugged her shoulders. "Imma start with Top's bitch-ass grandpa. And then, just for the hell of it, I'll run Topper over, too."

John B gripped the steering wheel tighter. "You're not gonna go for Luke?"

Kori's gaze hardened. "And waste my one good swing? Not on his sorry ass." She murmured, turning in her seat as her focus returned to the window.

"You wanna talk about it?" Kiara offered, eyes pinned on her best friend.

"Talk about what, Kie?" Kori asked, remaining where she was. "The fact that my dad sold us all out–sold me out–and now we're gonna lose everything? No, not really."

The silence that followed was all consuming. They were all scared. None of them knew where JJ was and with the whole town looking for him, there was nothing else they could do but go back home. They also collectively knew that Kori was not okay. She'd already had her crashout when she'd gone to see Carrie in Mount Pleasant, but this was different. Her dad had literally taken everything from her, from his own daughter. And he'd left her with nothing.

Plus, now that Pope and JJ were in deep shit, things only felt worse.

The rest of the ride home was quiet, but it hadn't been a long drive. Their minds were racing with the events of today. The decent, the bad, the ugly– it was on the forefronts of their minds. And now they were expected to just go home and go to bed? It wasn't right.

As they pulled to a stop, Sarah turned around in her seat. "Hey, Kor, do you...want some tylenol? You know, for your hands?"

Kori met her caring eyes, head shaking at her. "No, I'm good. Thanks though."

Sarah just nodded. "Yeah."

No one said anything as John B pulled the doors open for them and Kori immediately made a break for the house. It made sense that she didn't want to talk. So they let her go, deciding it best that they wait until morning to talk more about things.

Kori went straight to her room. She didn't bother turning on the light or changing into something more comfortable. Her only concern was climbing on top of her bed and lying down on her back in the dim lighting. She'd forgotten to turn off one of the lamps on Logan's side from earlier, but she didn't really care either. There was too much input in her brain and she didn't know how to process it all.