༄ 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗋𝗍𝗒－𝗈𝗇𝖾 ༄

WHEN THALIA AWOKE, her high was still lingering, and she regretted it like she always did. Thalia truly meant what she told Barry mere hours before. This was the last time. She forced herself out of her bed and trudged to her bathroom, splashing water into her bloodshot eyes and changing into black denim shorts, a crop top and a blue hoodie.

        Thalia fixed her hair simply in a french braid down her back and shoved her feet into her blue converse. As she tried to leave her room, Thalia couldn't go without one last hit, one last line. She inhaled the cocaine quickly. She was an addict, she just couldn't admit it. Thalia then swallowed more pain pills and took a hit from her vape, stuffing the thing into her back pocket, her bag of coke hidden in her shoe.

        Sarah and John B were outside, and Thalia ignored how odd it was that Ward was watching them from the kitchen. "Where's Mom?" Thalia asked Rose, the woman sitting in the living room.

        Rose looked up. "She was gone this morning." the blonde woman said, typing away on her laptop with a mimosa in her grip.

        Thalia wasn't at all surprised that her mother left without saying goodbye. She was used to it by now, and if she wasn't stoned, she would've cared more. Annoyed, Thalia grabbed her skateboard and walked outside, telling Sarah and John B she would meet them at the Chateau. Thalia needed to decompress, so she skated to the cut, staying far away from Barry's drug house.

        When Thalia made it to John B's house, Kie, JJ and Pope were already there. "Where's John B and Sarah?" Kiara asked instantly.

        Thalia set her skateboard on the back steps of the house. "On their way, I guess. Probably made a stop to make out." she said with an eye roll. In the mere three days John B had been staying at Tannyhill, Thalia had walked into him and Sarah in a heated battle of tongue, and she was permanently scarred.

        JJ and Kie messed around with the Twinkie while they waited for John B and Sarah, and Pope was working on the system to get the rest of the gold out of the well. Thalia gravitated towards him, curious about what he was working on. "Hey." Pope said with a light smile when he noticed her.

        "Hey." Thalia said, tucking the ends of her red hair behind her ears, her french braid messy.

        "John B thinks we can use the gold to pay for you and JJ's restitution." Pope said, looking up from the system he was working on, sketch paper before him with a pencil in his grip.

        Thalia nodded, her blue eyes sticking on him. "That's great." Thalia said, eager to paste on a smile so Pope didn't suspect anything wrong with her.

        But he was somehow able to tell when something wasn't right. "You okay? Is it your mom?" the boy asked tenderly.

        The smile Thalia had been wearing fell slightly. "She's gone. I told her to go, and she listened for once. I don't think she'll be back for a while." Thalia explained, leaning against a tree beside where Pope was working.

        "Is that it?" Pope asked, not believing that her mother was the only thing bothering her. "Nothing else?"

        "That's it." Thalia lied. Pope didn't need to be brought any further into her life. It wasn't worth it, his future needed to be more important than Thalia, but to him, that wasn't the case.

        Pope nodded skeptically. John B and Sarah arrived, and Pope and John B then finished the drawing. When it was done, Thalia took it over to the girls, leaving John B and Pope to start setting everything up. "Here," Thalia passed the paper to Kiara, sitting with her legs crossed in the twinkie. "He said it looked something like this." she explained, stuck between Kie and her cousin.

        "So..." Sarah trailed off, confused.

        Kie held the paper in front of Thalia's face so both her and Sarah could see. "That's 50 feet down, and they're using 100-feet rope. So I guess this little wagon will go... straight to the gold room." Kie cut herself off with a small laugh.

        Sarah giggled. "Who drew this?" she asked brightly.

        Thalia found herself looking away from the drawing and to Pope and John B. "Who do you think?" the redhead spoke. Pope was many things, but an artist was not one of them. When Pope turned and met Thalia's eyes, everything stilled. Thalia, for once, didn't think about doing drugs, or her knee, or anything else that bothered her. She was just looking at Pope.

        Kiara and Sarah noticed how close Pope and Thalia were getting, but they didn't say anything, Sarah knowing that Thalia would distance herself from Pope as soon as she thought people were judging her. It was just the way she worked, always closed off, always anticipating what everyone around her was doing. Thalia wasn't ever able to relax.

        A few minutes later, JJ reappeared with the gold John B had found the night before. "Kie! This better work. We can't pawn this if there's a giant wheat symbol on it." JJ spoke, referring to the plan Thalia had suggested as a joke.

        Kie grabbed a blowtorch. "It's gonna work." she said confidently.

        The three girls left the van, Kie taking the gold and the blowtorch with her. Thalia stopped at JJ's side. "Your face looks better." she commented, pointing at the small remaining scar from their father's attack after they were arrested.

        JJ shrugged. "So does yours," he nodded towards the fading bruise under Thalia's eye. "You been home since?" JJ questioned quietly as they followed Kie and Sarah.

        "It's not my home. It never has been," Thalia snapped without meaning to. She realized her tone when she saw JJ's face and sighed silently. "No, I haven't. You?" Thalia asked her brother, sniffing too many times for it to be casual.

        "No," JJ looked at his sister, seeing her eyes. They weren't normal. He knew something wasn't right. Grabbing her elbow, JJ stilled Thalia. "Are you on drugs?" he whispered. Pope and John B noticed the conversation.

        Thalia stole her arm back. "Why would you ask me that?" Thalia never meant to gaslight people, it just happened when she was trying to cover her tracks. Rafe always saw right through her efforts.

       JJ scoffed. "Your eyes, dumbass. You're on drugs." he deadpanned, trying not to be too loud. He knew the signs of addiction, and he knew how much Thalia smoked, but he never thought she was an addict.

        "Yeah, weed. Nothing else." Thalia lied quickly, walking away from JJ before he could question her further.

        They walked to Kie, who was putting goggles over her eyes. A moment later, the blowtorch was successfully melting the gold in a pot, everyone celebrating. JJ forgot all about his suspicion of his sister, enough to not notice her sneaking away to ingest more cocaine while they waited for the gold to firm up again. The little bag was tucked deep into her shoe, no one would find it.

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