Ocean and Alcohol ✘JJ Maybank✘

Agatha

TW: This chapter deals with abandonment and briefly mentions sexual abuse. If these things are damaging to your mental health, please be cautious!

"A storm's coming," Kid said, looking out your window. You looked up at him from your book He was looking dramatic, head resting against the wall, hands laced together in front of him. You knew he was planning a music video out in his head and you tried not to laugh.

"It's more than a storm, Kid," you said with a sigh, turning the page despite not reading a single word on it. "It's hurricane Agatha."

"Are we going to be okay?" He asked, eyes shifting away from the window and toward you. You nodded, eyebrows pinched together.

"Of course we are, Kid," you said. By his downcast eyes, you knew that he didn't really believe you. You set your book down and patted the bed beside you. "Come here."

Kid scurried across the room and jumped up beside you onto the bed. A dull ache pulsed through you, the bruise on your side not yet fully healed. You put an arm around Kid.

"We are going to be fine," you said as firm as you could manage. "This house is well built, sturdy. In the morning, things might look a little haggard, but inside the house we will be perfectly safe."

As you said the words, you thought of all the houses you saw in the cut that were nothing more than shacks. Your heart tightened in your chest thinking about what might happen to them all. Maybe you could convince your dad to let you help in repairs once the storm was over.

But you couldn't think about that now. All that mattered was Kid and making sure that he was safe. Nothing else was more important.

You had been mulling over how to get rich fast without your dad getting suspicious for nearly a week since you were thrown down the stairs. Any practical ideas had yet to pop into your head. Not that it mattered much. You were barely seventeen, almost a whole year until you could even vie for full custody of Kid. Still, your nerves ran wild with bad ideas.

Become an escort. They get rich fast. But that would involve sex or at least something close to it and if you could barely let JJ touch you, how were you going to let a wrinkly old man that smelled like cigars even breathe anywhere near you?

Join a strip club. Just dance, no touching. But there was no guarantee that would get you enough money.

Get another job. You were already exhausted as it was, but getting another job was the only thing that made any logical sense to you. That meant less time with JJ and the Pogues, less time with Kid. What would you be sacrificing by getting a second job? Any chance at a real relationship with JJ, sure. But you would also be distancing yourself from the only family you had ever known. Was it worth it? Leaving Kid at the house even longer just so you could make more money?

A few more fantastical ideas passed through your dreams; join a mob, become a high class thief, murder your dad in the middle of the night and inherit his money, marry fast and marry rich.

You were ten times more inclined to kill your dad than marry any of the rich pricks that lived on Kildare Island, but still, murder was risky and you couldn't chance getting put away and leaving Kid on his own.

Even as you sat beside Kid now, all you could think about was getting him away from your dad. When rain started to pitter against your window, your heart lept at of your chest. Your dad wasn't home yet and if the hurricane hit now....

Death by hurricane. That was a natural cause and it would still mean you could inherit the money. But you were too young. They would still put you both into foster care.