Nothing is hidden under the sunlight // JJ

Chapter 21

The salted water was taking Sophie on its veil. She was far away from the others, lost indide her thoughts which now were slowly disappearing. The calmness of the sea life was enchanting. Little fishes were swimming around in groups, the corals and the sea plants were moving as the water was coming and go making them look like dancing. And then there was this infinite blue.

Most people belive that blue reflects sadness but for her it was something else. It reflected calmness, dreaming, hope, strength, it reflected being a human with all the imperfections a human has. It was the main colour for her.

As she was swimming deeper and deeper she felt the need to free herself from the bottles of oxygen on her back. She wanted to taste the salted water, feel the coolness of it on her lips. But she knew really well that if she did something like that the oxygen on the bottles would be spared for nothing.

She felt something biting her leg and then again. She turned to see what was causing her such an annoyance. A smal group of fishes was swimming around her legs. She moved them quickly to get away from the small human eaters.

From afar James was waving her to follow them. She checked for the oxygen. She was running out. Looking at James waved him to continue without her. He made a thumbs up making her realized that he had understood and turned to follow the other boys.

Sophie reached the sea surface. The sunlight fell on her face causing a little smile appear on her face. She carefully removed the mask covering her nose and mouth. She took a deep breath and late it out, then turned her head to face the light blue sky.

After a while resting like that she swam towards the shore where she rapped herself with a towel and after throwing the bottles of oxygen on the sand she left to find Rafe.

Lucky for her she didn't have to wander around in her towel for a long time since she found him on his yard.

"You didn't come... What is going on?"
Sophie sat next to him and crossed her legs onto the chair.

Rafe looked her up and down "Don't wander around like this." And then took his glance away

"That's not answering my question, but I'll take the advice. But now seriously, what's the matter?"

Rafe walked into his house just to face Ward standing on the doorway probably waiting for someone.

"Is everything okay?" Rafe asked. His father was probably waiting for him and he knew that what he was about to tell him was no good.

"Listen here Rafe, the cops have make our house their second police station. And this is not going to end untill they get what they want. Or something that they want. They're still searching for Peterkin's murderer."

Rafe looked at Ward. He knew that there was no way his father taking the blame for him. And he knew that he would choose to save himself than saving his own son. He felt a shiver all over his spine. He was scared. Scared about his future. Scared about Ward's next words.

"All this time I protected both of us. But when the time comes I want you to protect me and Wheezie. She's 14 she can't grew up without a father."

"So as long as you could put the blame on someone else it was fine but now you're asking me to take the blame for something I did in order to protect you?! If it wasn't for you none of this would have happened!"

He was only 20 years old. He had his life in front of him. He couldn't go to jail. He had murdered someone and the punishment for that was a life sentence in prison.

Rafe looked at his cousin. "Nothing... Everything is fine." He tried us much as he could to hold his tears back opening his eyes as much as he could hoping the wind would dry his tears.

"I can't see that. Rafe what's going on? Has that something to do with the police here?" She said raising her hand to touch his shoulder trying to calm him down.

This time he couldn't hold his tears. At the sight of that his cousin stood from the chair where she was sitting and hugged him.

"You're going to hate me too." Rafe said hiding his head on her shoulder. He didn't expect any response and after taking a deep breath he spoke the truth "I killed someone"

Sophie widened her eyes in surprise. But she didn't let go of him. That's what Topper was talking about. He knew it. That's why Rafe was so upset about the cops. Under other circumstances she would've asked why did he do that but she knew that would be not helpful neither for him nor for her.

Her world was starting falling apart. Her brother was taking drugs again. Her cousin was about to be imprisoned. The only ones she could speak to either didn't like her or was obsessed with her. She didn't want to hang out with the Pogues because she blamed them for Sarah. And then is was JJ but she couldn't follow him all the time. It would be really impolite and it would be something like an obsession.

"Can't Ward help you?" she tried to find a solution.

"He prefers sucrificing his own son in order to save his ass." Rafe said laughing as tears were running down his face. "As long as he was blaming John B was fine. Now that he is in edge of self distraction he prefers to make me suffer in order to be safe."

Sophie pulled back to face him. She had tears in her eyes too. She smiled a little "We'll figure it out. I'm sure there's a way to give an end to all this."

"I'm scared. I... I'm only twenty"

"I know. I know..."