𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐅𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃─𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬

thirteen.

─☼☼☼─

𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝙇𝙊𝙏𝙏𝙀 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙆𝙄𝘼𝙍𝘼 Carrera bickered a lot. From the time the two of them could form full sentences, they always seemed to find something to bicker about. But that was all it was...bickering. 

They had had a handful of fights here and there, but nothing as catastrophic as the one that occurred the night before. 

Everything that had been said that night at the Hawk's Nest before the incident with John B and Topper had clearly been building for years. From the moment Charlotte started dating Rafe, things changed between the two sisters. 

When Kiara and Sarah became friends in their ninth grade year, it was like Charlotte's biggest dream had come true. Her little sister and her boyfriend's little sister...how perfect?

The Carrera girls seemed to finally be on the same page once again after being on different ones for almost two years at that point. 

Rafe hated letting Sarah and Kiara tag along with he and girlfriend, but Charlotte absolutely loved it. 

She invited the two girls almost everywhere her and Rafe went...in fact, it almost caused the couple to break up, Rafe claiming he hadn't spent one minute alone with Charlotte for almost six months. 

He was kind of right, so she dialled back the quad outings and eventually Sarah and Kie's friendship dwindled as well. 

And so it was, Kiara had gone back to Pogue life, leaving her sister on the wrong side of the island. Charlotte acted like she didn't care, I mean she could still hang out with the Pogues whenever she wanted, right?

Not exactly. 

Without so much as saying so, Rafe had barred her from spending too much time on the Cut. He always seemed to find an excuse as to why she needed to be with him rather than them. 

Slowly, Charlotte and Kiara grew apart. They still loved each other, I mean they were each other's only siblings after all...but things had changed. 

That's why this summer had been such a breath of fresh air for Charlotte. She had finally stated to build back her relationship with Kiara and the Pogues. But was she going to let Rafe ruin all of that once again?

No way in hell. 

She understood her sister's anger, but she also recognized that she herself had changed. She could be two things at once...this time she could do that without losing herself to one side entirely. She would make sure of it. 

Charlotte was done with the whole Kooks vs Pogues. This summer she planned to be whoever the hell she wanted to be─neither full Kook nor full Pogue. 

But even if she somewhat agreed with what Kiara was saying, there was no way she was going to be the first to break the stretch of silence the two sisters had fallen into. 

Even after they had sat in the hospital waiting room for hour waiting for news on John B, rejoiced with Pope, JJ and Sarah when it was the best news they could have hoped for, and finally made their way home, still in their Midsummers outfits, Kiara and Charlotte had yet to say a word to each other.