Country Club Living - Rafe Cameron

Chapter Thirty-Six - Protector

"Rafe?" Sarah asked, shocked at the sight of her brother outside of Ivy's home.

Rafe bit his gums and cursed in his mind, he should have clicked with the rusted old van outside that his sister and her friends would be inside, but he wasn't thinking about that right now. He was only thinking of Ivy and the fear that she had seen the news had propelled him into a state of panic.

"Is Ivy there?" he asked quickly, bringing his hand to his mouth to bite the skin on his thumb, something he had done so often recently that he drew blood, but he didn't care about that.

Sarah closed the door slightly so Rafe couldn't step inside the house and frowned "Why?"

"I just want to see her" he said

"I thought you didn't care about her?" She quizzed

Rafe sighed "Sarah just let me inside"

"But why?"

"You're like a fucking child just let me in!" He growled, raising his voice at his sister who clenched her jaw and begrudgingly opened up the door.

Rafe pushed his way past his sister and made his way to the stairs before Sarah called over to him and pointed to the downstairs bathroom door where Ivy sat holding her ragged breath on the floor after hearing Rafe's voice. Scared that it was another thing she was imagining, hoping that it wasn't.

The door creaked open and through the crack, Rafe's tall stature peeked inside, his eyes widening when he spotted Ivy on the floor, knowing that his fears had been confirmed and that she had in fact seen the news. Looking at Rafe Ivy's lip wobbled, and tears began to fill her honey-coloured eyes as he bent down and wrapped his strong arms around her as she let her emotions spill onto Rafe's grey Ralph Lauren t-shirt leaving a small damp mark. They didn't say anything to one another, there was nothing that they could say that would make the situation they were in better. All Ivy wanted was to be held, and all Rafe wanted was to hold her.

After a while, Ivy finally spoke, clearing her throat she sniffled into Rafe's shoulder "There were other girls"

Rafe's heart sank at how guilty she sounded; he knew she would blame herself for this despite none of it being her fault "This isn't your fault" he mumbled into her still damp curls

"But I feel like it is. If I didn't talk to him at midsummers or if I just let you walk me to my car..." she started

He stopped her before she could continue, pulling back and looking at her tear-stained face "Ivy. This is not your fault, no matter how many different scenarios you put yourself in this guy was a dangerous creep, you are not responsible for his actions and you're not responsible for mine, I did what I had to do so you, and no other girl would get hurt"

The crying girl pressed the heel of her palm into her eyes in an attempt to stop the tears flowing and pushed herself up from off the ground, taking hold of the marble sink again and taking a few deep breaths before running cold water to splash on her face. She didn't look in the mirror, too scared of what image she might see this time. When she was finished she looked back up at Rafe who had a towel in his hand for her to dry her face, Ivy gave him a small smile and began to wonder what things would've been like if it hadn't been for all the drama and mind games this summer. Now that she was going to college in just over 12 hours she was going to have to get used to the scenarios because that's all they would be. Just figments of her imagination that she had conjured up to escape the cruel reality of the truth. Because in her head she could imagine she and Rafe had a summer filled with love and cute dates, trips on the boat and kisses under sunsets when really it was filled with lies, sneaking around in backseats, betrayal, jealousy and to top it off murder. But as she sat there patting her face dry watching Rafe look over her with a concerned look on his face she pretended that the fake version she had imagined was real and for a moment. She believed it.