Toxic: A Rafe Cameron Story

16.

I walk out on the deck just as the guys pull up to the dock. I know I'm going to get yelled at.

"Cassie, what the hell!" JJ yells and jumps out of the boat.

I start walking to meet them halfway down the yard.

"I'm sorry guys."

"Where were you?" John B asks.

"I had a rough night, I completely forgot about today."

"A rough night, why?" Pope asks.

"Because of Rafe I assume." Kie says rolling her eyes.

"Rafe? What about Rafe?" JJ says.

"Nothing JJ, it wasn't about him" I sigh.

"When is it not Cassie." Kie says and my heart stings.

"What is going on Cassie. You've been sneaking around and being all weird lately."

"I-" I begin to say but Kie cuts me off.

"She's been hanging out with Rafe all the time. How do you guys not realize that?" Kie says.

"Kie! I wasn't with Rafe last night!" I yell. I know that I was but that wasn't the reason I didn't go out with them.

"When I came home last night my parents were here. That's who you seen leave this morning. I didn't ditch you guys today to hang out with Rafe." I yell.

All of their faces fall. Kie reaches out but I step back. I turn around and start walking back to the house. I can't believe Kie did that.

"Cass wait! I'm sorry." Kie yells but I ignore her and slam the door. I go straight to my bedroom and lock the door.

I hear all their footsteps run into the house when I sit back on my bed.

"Cass. Come out please." Kie says knocking on my door.

"No. Can you please just leave me alone." I huff.

She doesn't respond, I hear her walk back to the living room and sit down.

"What the hell is happening with her and Rafe?" JJ says.

"I'm not saying anymore." Kie says.

"Come on Kie." Pope says.

"That's for her to tell you herself. She's fine, you don't have to worry about her, that's all I'm saying." She says.

"How do you know she's fine? She's with RAFE Cameron." JJ says.

I roll my eyes and hop off my bed. I throw a couple things in a bag and jump out my window. I pick up my bike and start riding to Rafe's place.

I can't believe Kie would throw me under the bus like that. I can understand that they aren't happy that I'm with Rafe, but I am happy and shouldn't that be the important thing?

***

"Rafe, I'm sorry." I say when I get to his bedroom.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Kie told the guys that we've been hanging out. I totally forgot about our boat plans for today because of my parents and when they got to my place I tried to explain what happened and she freaked out and blamed it on me hanging out with you." I explain.

"So they know." He says.

"Yes." I say. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have even told Kie but it's hard to lie to her, she knows me too well."

"It doesn't matter." Rafe shrugs. "I guess they were going to find out eventually."

"I'm just glad you're not angry." I sigh.

"You packed a bag?" He says looking down by my feet.

"Yeah, I wasn't really thinking, I just wanted to get away from them. They weren't very happy, they just need to cool down."

"Let's go."

"Where?" I ask.

He pulls out a bag and starts throwing some clothes in.

"Rafe, what are you doing?"

"Come on, let's go to Charleston." He says.

"Charleston, why?" I ask.

"To get away from everybody, we can spend the weekend there and nobody has to know. We won't have to sneak around." He says. I smile slightly.

"Okay." I shrug. "Let's do it."

He grabs my hand and starts racing down the hallway and the stairs. He grabs his keys to the rover and throws our bags in the backseat.

"This was a quick decision. I don't even know what I have packed." I say.

"I'll buy you anything you need." He says as he starts up the vehicle.

He starts driving us out of town and it feels thrilling. I've never left the group before without them knowing exactly where I was going and who I was going to be with.

***

The drive felt extremely quick, time flies when Rafe and I are together. I still can't believe that we are at this point, going from pure enemies to whatever we are right now.

"This is where we will stay." Rafe says as he pulls up to a hotel.

"It looks nice." I say.

He parks the rover and takes our bags out from the back seat.

We start walking toward the hotel, a group of girls are coming out and Rafe catches their eye immediately. I look up at him but he's not looking in their direction.

"Hey Rafe." One of the girls practically drools when we pass by. The others in complete awe. Rafe doesn't say a word and continues walking.

"People know you here?" I say when we enter the lobby.

"Yeah." He shrugs.

He starts talking to the man at the counter and I look around. Another few girls are freaking out like Rafe is some sort of celebrity. A couple girls are staring at me like they want to kill me. Either these girls have slept with Rafe and is jealous, or they want to sleep with him, and is jealous that I am.

"Okay let's go." Rafe says. He starts walking toward the stairs, completely ignoring the looks he is getting.

I follow him up the stairs and into a room. He drops the bags on the floor and sits on the bed.

"It's so nice." I say looking around the room.

"Yeah, I used to stay here a lot." He replies.

I decide not to ask why and just nod my head.

"You seem pretty popular over here." I say.

"Half of those girls I haven't even spoken to before." He says.

I nod along as he continues his story. I practically zone out, even though he's saying he haven't talked to them, they act like they know so much about him. I really hope this doesn't ruin our trip. I was hoping that nobody would notice us, at all.