༄ 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗋𝗍𝗒 ༄

JOHN B, SARAH AND Thalia left the others behind and retreated back to the Cameron mansion on Figure Eight. When they got in, Sarah and John B claimed exhaustion and went to their separate rooms to shower before Ward could talk to them. Thalia tried to do the same, but her mother was waiting for her. "Thalia. Can we talk?" Whitney said from the kitchen. Rose was upstairs with Wheezie, and Rafe had been kicked out, which made Thalia sad.

        Thalia pulled her hood off of her head. "Make it quick. I'm tired." Thalia said with a sigh, glancing once at Ward, who stood at the kitchen island.

        Whitney was seated on a bar stool. "Honey, you know I missed you, right? That I hate leaving you?" Whitney spoke, and Thalia nodded, standing uncomfortably due to the pain in her knee. "I'm gonna stick around for good. I'm getting us a house, we're gonna live together again, far away from your dad. We'll be together, and that's all that matters."

        Ward saw Thalia's face. "Whit, don't get ahead of yourself." the man warned, and Thalia was grateful.

        "I'm not getting ahead of myself, Ward. I'll start looking for properties tomorrow." Whitney snapped.

        Thalia's face fell even more. "How long is this act going to last, Mom? Until you talk to Dad and he beats the shit out of you, but you say it's fine, and then you disappear again?" the redhead spoke. John B and Sarah were listening silently.

        "Thalia–" Ward began, seeing how angry his sister and niece were growing.

        "No, don't even, Ward," Thalia said sharply, and Ward closed his mouth. She turned back to her mother. "No one's believing this, Mom. I haven't trusted you since I was ten. The best thing you can do is stay away from Dad and go. I didn't get a say in you walking out, so I definitely get a say in you walking back in."

        Whitney frowned. "Have you seen Dad? Do you know where he is?" she asked, an almost hopeful twinge to her voice.

        Thalia scoffed. "I'm not telling you where he is. You don't remember the night he almost killed you, Mom, do you? The night you left for two years? I do. I remember it all now. I remember coming home from playing with Rafe and Sarah to see you and Dad fighting over drugs, of all things. He had a gun, and he hit you with it. I got in the way, and he shoved me so hard against the wall that he broke my collarbone," Thalia pulled down the collar of her shirt to show her mother the scar from that awful surgery. "And you just left me with him."

        "Thalia, you know I didn't want to–" Whitney tried.

        "You never want to, Mom, and yet somehow, you always do," Thalia wiped at her eyes and looked at Ward. "Either you get her out by tomorrow or I'm leaving. You had no problem kicking Rafe out, so this should be easy." the redhead said towards her uncle, who was frustrated and silent.

        Thalia stomped up the large staircase, John B and Sarah ducking quickly into Sarah's room so the angry redhead wouldn't catch them lurking. She slammed and locked her bedroom door and showered away the awful evening she had had, trying to think of the positives. They had found the gold, but Thalia was alone. She would always be alone.

        As the night grew later, and Whitney, Ward and Rose's argument simmered away, Thalia laid in her bed, elevating her knee. She had managed to sneak into Rose and Ward's bathroom while they were downstairs and broke into the medicine cabinet, taking as many of her pain pills as she could carry without being suspicious.

        Her knee was feeling better, but she still couldn't even attempt to sleep. Talking about her father was more painful than she thought it was, and reliving those memories was torture. Thalia was still up at 3 a.m. that night, pacing the length of her room, her fingernails between her teeth. She knew how wrong it was, but she needed a fix. She vowed that last time was the last time, but Thalia couldn't trust herself to make it through the night without that fatefully addictive substance. The redhead pulled a baggy t-shirt over her long-sleeve shirt and leggings combo, strapping on her converse and tugging her messy hair into a low bun.

        She knew by now that her aunt, uncle, mother, cousins and John B were asleep throughout the house, so Thalia grabbed her skateboard and slipped out of her window, hitting the road ar away from Figure Eight, towards the deepest parts of the cut. As she skated in the dark, Thalia turned around at least four times, trying to will herself to go home and go to bed. But she couldn't, and she hated herself for it. As Thalia neared Barry's house, she pictured the reactions of her friends, hoping to steer herself in the right direction one last time.

        John B would be disappointed in her. Kie wouldn't understand and she would unintentionally make Thalia feel horrible for her relapse. Sarah would tell her parents. She wasn't a snitch on purpose, but if she found out what Thalia was doing,s he would immediately talk to Ward and Rose to get their help. Sarah would recruit JJ, and together, they would try to help her. JJ and Thalia were new siblings, and they weren't close, but they were getting there.

        But the reaction that would make Thalia's heart shatter was Pope's. She could picture his face, his saddened words asking why she didn't go talk to him instead of buying drugs. Thalia just didn't know why she was the way she was.

        She took a deep breath and popped her skateboard into her hand, limping to Barry, where he sat at a fire on his lawn. It was quiet at his house and Thalia couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing. "Hey there, Little Red. It's a little late for you to be out. Aren't the fancy Cameron's pretty strict these days?" Barry teased with a sigh, leaning back against his lounge chair.

        Thalia's foot rested on her skateboard. "I don't have time for this. I need coke, Barry." her blue eyes were dark, and she was so ashamed of the words she was speaking.

        "You got money?" Barry stoked the fire he sat in front of, grabbing a pouch of cocaine from a bag at his side.

        "Yeah. Same amount, right?" Thalia fished cash out of her wallet, stepping towards Barry.

        Barry nodded. He was about to hand the drugs over to Thalia but he paused. "You sure about this, kid? Once you get started, it's hard to stop." sure, Barry was an awful person, but he didn't want Thalia to end up as a cocaine addict. She was so young, and he wanted to steer her away from the path she was on.

        Thalia gave Barry the money and took the pouch. "This is the last time." she said quietly, turning on her heel and skating away from Barry's crackhouse. As she was leaving his property, Thalia cried. She hated crying so much, thought it made her weak. But Thalia realized something that night as she ingested a copious amount of the addictive substance. She was weak, and she always would be.

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