𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 | 𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧

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No way. No fucking way.

There was no way that Rafe had been stupid enough to hand over his old ID without a second thought, to let her study it while he'd been too wrapped up in taking his first hit in weeks to notice.

His entire body tensed up as the panic set in.

He looked at Ren, then at the ID, and then back at Ren, schooling his expression into careful neutrality as he tried to keep her from realizing that he was freaking the fuck out.

"It's, uh -- yeah, that's my old fake ID from when I was in high school. Rafe Cameron isn't my real name."

He reached to take the card out of her hand, but she pulled it away before he could. Her gaze felt fucking all-knowing as she stared at him hard enough that he had to fight the urge to cringe.

Rafe didn't want to kill her. He really didn't, not when she was wearing a dress like that, not when she'd smiled at him that morning and been the first person he'd spoken with in weeks who treated him like he was perfectly normal. He figured he could do it if he had to, but he really did not want to.

He prayed that she would drop it, allow him to dismiss it as something insignificant and move on.

"Why'd you respond like that when I called you Rafe, then?"

It took a great deal of will to keep himself from biting out a sharp response as he willed himself to stay calm, to think of something reasonable to reply with. Rafe had never been the best of liars.

"It's my middle name. I go by my middle name, I go by Rafe, but nobody here knew that. Guess it was just shocking to hear," he ground out finally. The lie was disjointed, entirely uncoordinated and way too easy for Ren to pick apart if she tried.

But she just smiled. Handed his ID back to him. Her eyes never left his face as he struggled to fit the card back into his wallet with fingers still shaking from the shock and adrenaline of such a mistake.

"You know," she said after a moment, her voice low enough that he almost couldn't hear her over the music, "I like Rafe better."

"Yeah?" He said, nearly blinded by the relief that flooded him as she dropped the subject.

She nodded, blinking up at him, and a silence settled between them. Not necessarily awkward, but definitely tense. The kind of silence that bordered dangerously close to uncomfortable, should it stretch for too long.

"Well, where did your parents come up with Ren?" Rafe asked finally, the best thing he could come up with shy of getting up and leaving.

Ren shrugged, resting her elbows on the table. "My full name is Loren, because my mom said it was 'classic' and 'timeless'," she emphasized the last words with finger quotes, and he almost laughed at the incredulity on her face, "but my dad thought it was stupid. So they agreed that if Mom chose my name, Dad chose my nickname. He chose Ren."

Rafe rolled his jaw as he sat back. "It's cute," he said, surprising himself as much as her. A crooked smile played at her features, and he could already tell that she was about to say something that would again drag him out of his comfort zone. She'd already done it to him more times in the day they'd met than most people had done to him ever, and he didn't particularly look forward to her doing it again.

Before she could say anything, he held out the tightly-rolled cash to her, tilting his head toward the coke still lined up neatly on the tabletop.

"Ah," she said, accepting it gently, "almost forgot."

Rafe watched as she tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, bending toward the table. She had only consumed about half of the line before she sat back, her cheeks flushing bright red. Ren closed her eyes and leaned her head back for a second, tapping her fingertips against the table as the effects of the cocaine hit her like a train.