Country Club Living - Rafe Cameron

Chapter Twelve - The Van Der Lins

At 12'oclock sharp on a warm Saturday in late July, The Van Der Lin family arrived outside the Rutherford's summer home in Kildare. The family inside had been up since early hours in the morning making sure everything was prepared and that the house was spotless for their guests. Ivy however spent the morning trying not to vomit due to the nerves in her stomach. She still hadn't decided yet how she was going to tell Trevor about the kiss and the more she thought about it the more her stomach churned. When her mother had eventually gotten her to get ready she complained of having food poisoning to which her mother rolled her eyes and hurried her up the stairs. Now as she waited in the entryway while her father helped bring in the bags from outside and her mother chatted with Mary, Trevor's mother, she was sure she was about to bring up the contents of her stomach.

Trevor entered the large home with a smile plastered on his face. He ran right up to Ivy and wrapped his arms around her, picking her up with ease and spinning her around - Not the greatest for someone already feeling nauseous – Ivy gave him a feeble hug back and asked to be put down.

"What's wrong babe? You seem down. I thought you'd be excited" Trevor asked

"I am!" Ivy partially lied "I just feel pretty crappy today"

"Do you want an antacid dear?" Mary chimed

Ivy shook her head gently and forced a smile towards her boyfriend's mother.

"I've missed you so much" Trevor said sweetly

"Me too" Ivy replied weakly.

Once the family was all caught up with one another they had decided to retreat to the backyard to enjoy lunch by the pool in the sun. Ivy politely declined and said she was going upstairs for a nap in hopes it would make her feel better. Trevor looked slightly hurt, his first time seeing her in months and it seemed like she didn't even want him there.

When Ivy trudged up the stairs she entered her bare looking bedroom and placed her back to the wooden door, sliding down it and sighing dramatically. Despite having days to think of what to say she couldn't for the life of her dream up a conversation that didn't end in tears, either Trevor's or hers and with time ticking and a very confused blonde boy sitting by her pool she knew she had to come up with something sooner or later.

In the house adjacent, Rafe scrolled aimlessly through his phone, liking pictures, and scrolling past the ones that didn't include a girl he at least deemed a 9. This was the Rafe Cameron that everyone knew, not the one that had been around the past week. Thinking about a girl he didn't even like and trying to catch a quick glance of her whenever he could, after just one kiss, if his friends knew about this they would have laughed their asses off at him. He went to his messages and typed in the name of a girl he had an on and off fling with named Ava. 

@rafecameron_

Nobody's gonna be in my house later. Pick you up at 5?

@AvaFischer1

Sure. You know the address

This was sure to get Rafe out of his slump and get the previous week out of his head. Ava always managed to do that for him. He decided to get ready and go for a run to clear his head, swapping his sweatpants for a pair of shorts in an attempt to combat the warm weather and pulling his t-shirt over his head, opting to go shirtless. He pulled his running shoes on and put his air pods in, slipping his phone into his pocket and jogging down the stairs. When he exited Tanneyhill he noticed a car parked outside the Rutherford house and stood for a minute pretending to choose a playlist for his run as his eyes darted back and forth from his phone to the driveway. When two blonde heads and a grey one popped out of the car Rafe knew this would have been Trevor and his family. He glared at the family he did not know and took off running.

Ivy woke up around an hour and a half after she went to sleep. Sweating profusely as her curly mane stuck to the pillow beneath her. She grumbled at the uncomfortable heat and flung herself out of her covers, desperately seeking any refuge from the heat she opened up her balcony doors and headed out into the sticky summer air. A water bottle sat beside her bed and Ivy grabbed it, sipping at the lukewarm water in an attempt to quench her dehydration. Scooping her hair up off of her neck and tying it on top of her head she sighed, taking a seat on the balcony area. As she looked over the garden wall into the Cameron household she soon spotted the boy that had created her problems getting back from what looked like a run. He took off his cap and ran a hand through his damp hair leaving a few strands on either side to fall down around his face. He exhaled and Ivy watched as his chest rose and fell, although she was far away she could see there was a sheen of sweat on his ab muscles and she felt unable to look away. Although he repulsed her, the one thing Ivy could not deny about Rafe Cameron was that he was incredibly attractive. She watched as he opened the door to his home and slammed it behind him. Clearly frustrated over something. Ivy stood up and rolled her neck around, feeling stiff from her sleep and returned to her bedroom, making her bed, and heading for a shower before getting dressed to face her boyfriends family once more.

Rafe snuck up the stairs, not wanting to converse with anyone in his home. He was almost to his room when Sarah walked by and noticed his scowl.

"What's wrong with you today big brother?" she teased

Rafe squinted his eyes at his younger sister and stuck his middle finger up toward her.

"Ooh moody, not like you" Sarah mocked

With his hand on his doorknob, he puffed air out of his nostrils and opened up the door. Closing the door in Sarah's face.

"Good talk!" she yelled from the other side of the thick wood as Rafe shook his head and headed for his bathroom to go for a shower.

The Cameron family were going for dinner at the club that night, however, Rafe had decided to fake an illness, today was a spot of heatstroke. He was going to have to make a stockpile of ailments he could choose from to get out of these dinners for the rest of the summer if Ivy was serious about him staying away. He didn't particularly want to obey her orders but to keep himself from getting involved in fights with her boyfriend he decided, for the time being, he would stay back, and anyway. He did make her cheat, staying back from dinner was the least he could do, despite wanting nothing more than to sit across from her and her perfect partner and let Ivy's guilty conscience eat away at her. He wondered when she would tell him if she would even tell him at all and how it would all unfold. He definitely wanted a front-row seat for that, but for now, he wrapped a towel around his waist and looked at himself in the mirror, his shoulders were slightly burnt, and he had a faint smattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose. He let his wet hair fall to both sides of his face, not bothering to put any product in knowing his hair always ended up messy after a night with Ava anyway. Throwing on some cologne and a pair of grey sweatpants he retreated back to his bedroom and tidied up slightly, putting his clothes away and the dirty ones in his laundry basket, finding a few rolled-up bills amongst the piles and pocketing them. When his room was looking semi-decent he sat down on the made bed and turned on his Xbox for a few games as he waited for his family to leave the house.

Ivy sat beside her boyfriend, eyeing his hand on her thigh, and feeling the sickness from earlier return, she shifted her legs and Trevor's hand fell.

"Sorry, it's just so hot today!" she said apologetically

The two families were dressed up and ready to go for dinner at the club. Ivy had managed to keep her cool, but she knew she would have to tell Trevor sooner or later. Her guilt was chewing away at her and she knew she would crack. It was just a case of when.