The Outer Banks, paradise on earth. The sort of place where you either have two jobs, or two houses. Two tribes, one island.
The younger girl survived because of her friends. For them. The first five or six months after her father disappeared were...
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Running wasn't something Olivia Routledge was particularly fond of. In fact, she would go so far as saying she hated it. That being said, she had found herself doing quite a lot of it recently.
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"Go, go, go, go, go!" Despite feeling sick earlier in the day, the girl actually felt some relief running with the wind in her hair. Bags slung onto their backs, the Routledge siblings hopped a fence and made a sharp turn through a cemetery.
John B grabbed a small bike from the backyard of a pal they knew living around there, shouting behind him he would return it soon. Behind him, Liv ran, rolling her eyes as he zoomed up a skate ramp and over a fence, yelling for the kids nearby to stay in school.
"'Scuse me!" Calfs aching, the girl clambered up the skate ramp, using the leverage to hop over the fence behind it.
"You couldn't have let me use the bike? At least you're tall -" Her words came to an abrupt halt as she noticed her brother on the ground bloodied up, none other than Sarah Cameron standing over him.
"Oh shit! What the hell?"
Her brother groaned, looking up at her and then Sarah. "Hey, uh, take me to the hospital?"
The blonde stared. "Right now?"
Liv scoffed. "No shit, obviously right now." The girl sent a dirty look back her way, moving to help John B up off the ground. Liv grabbed him by the arm, dragging him slightly away from the blonde.
"What?" Urgency was clear in his voice.
"There's no way I'm going with her."
Her brother looked at her incredulously. "Why not? We gotta go now, Liv, we gotta-"
The freckled girl shook her head stubbornly, starting to feel a bit panicked at the sound of police sirens nearby.
"I just can't okay? No way I'm getting in a car with a Cameron. John B just trust me, okay?"
For a moment, the boy deliberated dragging her into the car with him. Deciding against it, he looked at her pointedly. "Fine. Go. Go find JJ."
His sister nodded, giving him a quick hug. "Don't do anything stupid." She glanced over at Sarah, waiting impatiently by her car, "And don't get caught or I'll kill you."
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"JJ!" Hazel eyes met blue ones as the girl entered the 'back yard' of the Maybank house. "Hey!"
Not unhappy to see her, but surprised, the blond boy found himself worried. "What is it? You okay princess?" Liv nodded, giving the boy the full rundown on what was going on. Despite her assurance that DCS was just trying to take her to foster care and she didn't need to know how to use a gun to protect herself from them, she found herself watching as he aimed at a teddy bear.
