Exhale, Outer Banks [ 1 ]

010. MIDSUMMERS

TW: sexual assault (attempted?)

Cordelia knocks on the front door of the Carrera household, impatiently waiting for somebody to answer. JJ just dropped her off and, not wanting to deal with Kie's questioning or anything, he quickly sped off.

The door swings open to reveal the older pogue girl. Kie's jaw drops at the sight of Cordelia who weakly smiles at her.

"Oh, my God. What happened? Are you okay?" Kie asks, inspecting the younger girl's injuries.

"It's, uh... it's nothing." Cordelia attempts to brush off.

"Was it your dad?" Kie asks. Cordelia simply looks down, nervously messing with her rings which gives Kie her answer. "Fucking asshole." She seethes.

"Can we just, like... get ready for this stupid, soul sucking event?" Cordelia asks.

"I'm gonna clean your cuts up first, okay?" Kie says and the blonde nods. Kie gently brings Cordelia into the house, shutting the door after her.

After dealing with the cuts and covering all of the visible bruises up with makeup, they started getting ready for Midsummers.

"Okay, I have to get the flower crowns from my mom's room and talk to her. You good?" Kie asks her friend.

"Yeah, go on." Cordelia assures, managing a small smile. Kie leaves and Cordelia turns back to the mirror, finishing up her lip gloss.

The blonde quietly sighs as she puts in the earrings Kie's loaning her. She observes the cuts on her face -- both from Rafe and Luke -- and wishes they weren't there. Cordelia frowns, really wishing she wasn't going to be stuck around kooks all night especially when all she wants to do is curl up in a ball and sleep for a decade.

But as long as she sticks to Kie or Pope, who she knows is working there, she knows she'll manage to somewhat survive the night.

Cordelia looks up when she hears footsteps, looking in the mirror to find Kie walking in with a flower crown on top of her head, another one in her hands.

"Here you go." Kie places the flower crown on Cordelia's head, placing a few bobby pins to help keep it in place. "And now we can go have fake fun at a big party while people suffer miles away." The curly haired girl sarcastically smiles.

+++

After getting to Midsummers, the two girls quickly separate from Kie's parents and easily find Pope with his back turned to them as he deals with some seafood.

"Excuse me, sir, do we have to shuck these ourselves?" Kie asks in a British accent. Pope rolls his eyes, turning, but softens when he realizes it's his two friends. "Cause it might mess up my costume."

"We wouldn't want that now, would we?" Pope asks, him and Kie doing the pogue handshake. "That accent was bad.

"Yeah, it was. I was gonna let it go." Kie says. Pope's smile drops when he gets a good look at Cordelia's face.

"Holy, shit." He gasps. "Wha-- did you run into Rafe again?" He asks.

"No. N-No, not Rafe. Just, um... you know, supposed loving parental figure." Cordelia says. Pope frowns and Cordelia forces a small smile. "It's fine. I'm fine. I don't want to talk about it."

"You ever seen this many kooks in one place?" Kie asks, helping change the subject, earning an appreciative smile from Cordelia.

"Yeah. Last year." Pope says.

"We're in the lion's den." Kie says.

"Exactly. Hey, have you heard from JJ?" Pope asks.

"No. He'll be all right, though. He's got the survival instincts of a cockroach." Kie says.