The Mad Ones², 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙨

04 𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙚 𝙠𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙚𝙣

04
𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙚 𝙠𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙚𝙣

GRAYLIN.
▬▬▬▬▬▬

KHEO STILL HAD TAPE ON HIS NOSE AND MY FRIEND, CHESSA, CONFIRMED MY THEORY THAT IT WAS FROM THE INJURIES HE'D SUSTAINED WHEN RAFE HAD CAVED HIS FACE IN FOR TRYING TO KISS ME THE NIGHT OF GAVIN'S PARTY.

One look at him the next morning when my friends and I all met up at the Island Inn for brunch and I knew we weren't gonna talk about that incident anytime soon. But brushing things under the carpet was what Kheo and I did, even if what we were brushing under the carpet were his confused feelings for me.

The stupid thing was that literally everyone at the table knew something was up between us— even freakin' Topper, who I'd managed to drag out of the house that morning despite the hangover he was nursing from last night's debacle at John B's place.

Gavin kept looking at me whenever Kheo made a joke to see if I laughed or not. Chessa would not stop moving her eyes between us as if trying to see if we were using some sort of discrete body language to talk with each other from opposite sides of the table. And Topper kept sending Kheo dirty looks. Or maybe he was just frowning at the sun behind Kheo because he was hungover, I wasn't sure.

Kelce was the only clueless one of the bunch. He was busy sneaking sips from Chessa's mimosa and ranting about school starting up tomorrow. With the exception of Topper, we were all gonna be seniors in high school now which meant we'd be applying for colleges in the coming months.

As Kelce droned on about how he kept scoring lower and lower every time he retook the SATs, I fidgeted with the ends of my summer dress under the table and replayed everything that'd happened last night in my head. There was so much to unpack and JJ rudely kicking me and the boys off of John B's property was just the tip of the iceberg. Because after we'd all gotten back to Figure Eight, I'd reached out to Rafe, expecting him to call me or at least text me just to let me know he was okay and to wish me goodnight.

But he'd given me nothing. And then after I'd blown up his phone with notifications, becoming that girlfriend who freaked out when she didn't know what her man was up to every minute of his day, someone had finally picked up my call and that someone hadn't been Rafe.

It'd been another girl. Another girl who'd politely informed me that her name was Octavia and that my boyfriend had crashed over at her brother's place for the night. She even volunteered to text me from her phone when he woke up since Rafe's phone was dying and the debate I had with myself between thanking her and grilling her about why she was answering my boyfriend's phone had been a tough one.

I'd settled on the first response, opting to put on a nice act instead of a bitchy one no matter how much I was tempted by the latter.

It was currently half past noon and my phone finally buzzed with a text from Octavia. My hands jumped to the device only to find out that her text read, 'he's still asleep'.

Motherfucker. Wake up. I miss you.

"—no, I don't think he's worried about going back to college, is he Graylin?" Kelce was suddenly asking, and I looked up from my phone with a start.

"Huh?"

"Is Rafe thinking about going back to college anytime soon?" He repeated his question and four pairs of eyes turned in my direction, waiting expectantly for an answer.

"Rafe? Well, he's, um— he told me he wasn't thinking about college this fall, but maybe in the spring, you know?"

"Are you tryna get into Chapel Hill so you can be with him on the off chance he does go back?" Kelce kept me in the hot seat.