༄ 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗇 ༄

THALIA DECIDED NOT to go back to John B's house with the Pogues. She wanted to, of course she did, but there was something in the back of her mind telling her to find her father. Thalia didn't know what it was, but she had to find him. Maybe it was the absence of her mother pushing her to connect with her other parents, and when the van passed the street she remembered living on, something clicked.

She skated down the dark streets deep into the cut, hoping her memories that she still had fragments of would lead her home. Thalia knew she was around fourteen when she last spoke to her father. She still saw him all the time, though. The first time Thalia bought cocaine, fresh out of pain meds she had become reliant on, her father was there at her dealer's house. They didn't speak, just bought their drugs on parallel paths.

And then Thalia stepped off her skateboard when she saw the mailbox. She remembered getting a concussion from her father slamming her head into it when she was six. Thalia knew she was in the right place. The lights were on, and Thalia didn't knock. When she stepped into the house, the repressed life she had led rushed back into her in part. "Dad? Are you here?" Thalia asked, hearing rock music playing in the bedroom where her mother had been abused and she had been punched.

Luke Maybank tossed a can of beer to the floor as he tossed open his door. "Carolina. You're back?" Luke was clearly strung out on some kind of narcotic.

"No, I'm not back. I... I just wanted to see how you were doing. And it's Thalia, Dad." Thalia corrected quietly.

"I'll call you whatever the hell I want to, you hear me?" Luke snapped, and everything changed.

Thalia dared to speak back, and her father's fist was in her face, cutting open the skin near her eye. She managed to get away, running out of the house as quickly as she could on her injured leg, skating all the way back to Figure Eight, blood in her eye and down her face. Thalia really hoped no one would be awake when she got in, but Ward was sitting in the kitchen. "You are very late, kid." Ward said with his back to the redhead.

Thalia didn't want to cry. She wiped at her nose. "Sorry. I didn't think you'd wait up." she held her skateboard, trying to sneak up the stairs. When Ward turned around, his eyes widened.

"Hey, hey, wait a second," Ward rose to his feet, capturing Thalia by the shoulders. "Sit down. You're not going anywhere until we stop that bleeding." he instructed.

"No, stop, it's fine." Thalia said, wincing as Ward's finger brushed the large and swollen cut at her eye.

"It's not fine. Who did this?" Ward asked, trying not to be angry. "Tell me who did this, Thalia." he demanded.

But Thalia wouldn't tell him. "I-I got into this fight with some Kook girl. She caught me by surprise, but I got some good hits in. It's really nothing." Thalia said, being forced onto a stool at the kitchen island.

Ward dug around under the sink for a first aid kid, opening it and washing his hands before gathering alcohol wipes and bandages. "It doesn't look like nothing. Why'd you get in a fight in the first place?" the man asked, Thalia slapping his hand as he pressed the alcohol wipe to her broken skin.

"Just an argument that got heated. I'll live." Thalia bit her lip as Ward cleaned the wound. He pressed a few butterfly bandages to the cut before closing up the kit and grabbing some ice from the freezer.

Thalia wiped the blood from her face and took the ice. "You sure you're okay?" Ward's voice followed her as she tried to climb the stairs and go to her room.

She nodded. "Yeah. Thanks, Ward." when she reached her bedroom, Thalia collapsed onto her bed, not having the energy to move. The tears came, so she stuffed her face into her pillow, sobbing silently. He hit her. He hadn't changed. Why had she expected anything different?

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"WHY AM I being forced to do this?" Thalia grumbled, face smushed into her elbows as she sat at the kitchen table, piles of food in front of her. She wasn't hungry, and she was aggravated because her face hurt terribly. It was swollen and bruised now, and she knew the mark from her father's fist wouldn't be going away any time soon.

"You said you would help last week." Sarah said, fixing the straps of her bathing suit.

Thalia furrowed her brows. "I was stoned. It doesn't count." she muttered, red hair sprawled all over her face.

Sarah sighed. "Please? It really won't be that bad." the blonde begged her older cousin, sunglasses in her straight hair.

Sitting up, Thalia rolled her eyes. "Your cunty boyfriend will be there. Of course it'll be that bad." she stood up from the table and went upstairs to change. Sarah didn't really ask Thalia for a lot, so Thalia figured she could spend one morning cleaning up a beach.

Thalia tugged on a bathing suit with a pair of denim shorts and a t-shirt overtop, her converse tied onto her feet. She quickly slicked her hair into a mid-ponytail, stuffing her lighter and a few joints in her back pocket. Peterkin had confiscated her drugs, but she had plenty more in storage. When Thalia walked into the front yard, Topper's jeep was in the driveway, Kelce and Wheezie in the backseat. "Took you long enough." Topper commented, Sarah hitting his chest in warning.

The redhead lit a joint and blew a puff of smoke into Topper's face as she passed him, climbing into the backseat of his jeep. She couldn't believe it, but Thalia wished she was with the Pogues in John B's van right about now. The beach cleanup was pretty miserable, but Thalia endured it. Topper and Sarah came over to Thalia and she heard their conversation about John B. He hadn't mentioned to her that he had been fired over poaching the scuba gear. She figured it meant he didn't blame her.

"Yo. You look thirsty!" Kelce came over to the three with a water bottle filled with some kind of alcohol mix inside it.

Topper took the jar. "Okay, what do we... what do we got here?" he opened the bottle, lurching back as he sniffed it. Oh, my God!" Topper said, Kelce laughing as he drank some of the alcohol.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "That's how we do it, baby!" Kelce said, and Topper handed the bottle to Thalia as Wheezie came over to the four.

She smelled the alcohol, having nearly no reaction to it. "You pussy. This is nothing." Thalia brought the jar to her lips, drinking some of it, the vodka hitting the back of her throat.

Topper coughed and Thalia gave the jar to her cousin. "Come on, Sarah. Let's go." Sarah drank a little bit of the alcohol, a trash bag in her hand.

"What did you do to this?" Sarah laughed, tentatively drinking some more.

"He's not playing around." Topper said as he wiped at his lips.

Then, Wheezie grabbed the bottle from Sarah, bringing it to her lips. "Mm! Mm-mm. Mm-mm." Sarah shouted with her mouth full, Thalia taking the water bottle from her little cousin quickly.

"Really, dummy?" Thalia capped the bottle, flicking Wheezie in the back of the head.

"Since when did you start drinking?" Sarah asked, Wheezie's throat burning from the beverage.

"Since today!" Wheezie answered happily.

Sarah sighed. "Great going, Kelce." she handed the bottle back to Kelce.

Thalia smoothed Wheezie's dark hair. "Let it be known that I did not have anything to do with this." she said, knowing that she always got blamed for things that Rafe, Sarah and Wheezie did.

Then the organizer for the clean-up came over. "You guys got it under control?" he asked the group.

"Yes, sir! It's looking good, sir!" Topper said as Kelce quickly hid his alcoholic concoction.

"Just clearing the stretch out!" Kelce answered.

"Just hydrating! Almost finished!" Sarah spoke as Thalia zipped Kelce's cooler shut, hiding the alcohol before the organizer noticed.

"Great job. Keep it up!" the man said, starting to walk away.

"Thank you! Thank you." Kelce spoke, relieved that he hadn't been caught.

Once the agonizing cleanup was over, everyone who had volunteered to help gathered on the beach, holding hands in a large circle with one of the local pastors in the center. "Just a moment, friends, to acknowledge our blessings. To the big Kahuna..." Thalia couldn't help herself, and she laughed as quietly as she could, hiding her face in Sarah's shoulder.

"Stop." Sarah whispered with a laugh of her own.

"Thank you for the opportunity for us to come out here and restore Masonborough to its virgin glory. Amen." through the applause, Thalia and Sarah laughed, Topper joining them. It was the first time in a long time Sarah and Thalia had actually gotten along. Maybe things were looking up.

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