Country Club Living - Rafe Cameron

Chapter Five - My Druthers

The pounding in Ivy's head would not stop as she got ready for the day ahead. In the shower, she silently prayed for her body to turn to liquid and slide down the drain like some very strange child's cartoon but instead she was met with her still very angry father banging on her door.

"You've got ten minutes" he yelled.

Ivy stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself, letting her hair air dry and sticking a silk bandana around the top of her hair, securing it at the bottom and letting the rest of it hang behind her. She put an emerald bathing suit on to match the bandana and added some small gold accessories before pulling on a pair of denim shorts and a beige linen shirt. Just as her father was about to bang on the door she opened it up. His hand still in the position to knock she pushed by him, sticking on a fake smile.

"I'm sorry about last night dad. I promise I'll try to make up with Rafe today" she smiled sweetly. She had become an expert liar to her father over the years.

He looked at her in confusion and nodded, watching her leave her room and head down the stairs in a chipper mood, a complete 180 from the night before.

On the boat Ivy kept her distance from Rafe, opting to read on a chair on the top deck instead. Sarah lay on the one beside her, quite clearly even more hungover than the Rutherford girl.

"How'd it go with your parents last night?" she asked

"Terrible. I had to apologise to your dad and Rose when I got here, I still need to apologise to Rafe but that can wait" Ivy laughed

Sarah giggled "What so you guys have to like pretend to be friends?"

Ivy fake shuddered "God that's horrifying. I think we just need to be civil around parents to avoid any more nights like last night. My dad doesn't want it looking bad for business"

"Probably a good idea. My dad was so angry that I took the car" Sarah laughed "Rafe didn't get into any trouble though, golden boy"

"Families" Ivy shrugged to which Sarah nodded her head in agreement.

The sun was hot, and Ivy could not for the life of her sit still. While fidgeting in her seat she suddenly became very aware of Rafe's presence. Sarah had gone inside the boat to sleep off some of her hangover and the other members of each family were milling about on the lower areas of the boat leaving Ivy and Rafe the only ones on the top part.

Ivy stared at the pages of her book, reading the same line over three times just waiting for Rafe to move.

"Quite the little show you put on last night" he spoke

She flipped the page and continued to ignore him

"I know you think you're pissing me off by ignoring me but you're not. I know what you're doing" he said taking a seat beside her

And just as before Ivy stayed silent, focusing on the words on the page

"It's rude to ignore someone you know" he said

Ivy looked up from the book for a moment and then quickly returned her eyes to their former place.

Rafe let out a dry chuckle "Alright. Have it your way princess"

He was about to return to the lower deck when Ivy spoke up "Rafe?"

He cocked his head to the side, intrigued as to what she would have to say

"I'm sorry about last night, I got a little too drunk. Call it even and let this all go?" The words stung to say, Ivy would've loved nothing more than to punch him square in the nose, but she had to be smart. "Or at least we could just be civil in front of our families, since they're such good friends and all"

The boy knitted his eyebrows together in confusion before he swiped his tongue along his bottom lip as if he was taking a moment to work this all out in his head.

"You had a meltdown last night," he said taking a step toward her "And now you want us to be friends?"

"Just civil. For the sake of getting my family off my back and yours off of you. You can terrorise me as much as you like when you're with Topper and Kelce but the minute you see your dad or mine we're best buddies. Got it?"

"I just don't see what's in it for me?" he said slowly walking back toward the seated girl

"My dad doesn't convince yours to ship you off to military school, which by the way should have been done a long time ago and you still get to be your awful self to me. And if I do happen to break your nose then that's on me" Ivy spoke calmly

"Okay. You've convinced me, hope you bring these techniques into your lawyering" he said rolling his eyes

"You'll know all about lawyering techniques in a few years" Ivy smiled sweetly as she sat back down and returned to her book

Rafe narrowed his eyes at her, she was now facing away from him, and her legs were stretched out, shining in the sun. Her beige shirt covered her stomach, contrasting with her tanned skin and the emerald two-piece she had on. He noticed that her jewellery was gold and matched the pattern on her headscarf and despite how much he disliked her he couldn't tear his eyes for a moment, he chalked this up to being a guy.

Shaking his head he headed back down to the main part of the boat, trying to be friends with Ivy would be a challenge, even if it was just for show. They had hated each other for so long he didn't even think it was possible, he couldn't even remember why they started to dislike each other. She was bossy and spoke down to him and thought she was better than everyone because she lived on the mainland. He was absolutely certain there was some ulterior motive behind this fake friendship but he just wasn't sure what just yet.