Bruises

Chapter Fifteen

                              Candy Hill

A breeze creates a chilly sensation on my cheeks, my eyes flutter open. Expecting the dry tired feeling on them but it isn't there.
They move around the room, my cheek pressed against a large fluffy pillow, but it isn't the one I've been using.
The recurring ache in the back of my head I've been waking up with isn't there this morning. My eyes don't feel strained and dry and my muscles don't feel weak and out of energy. I feel..rested. Unlike the way I've been feeling from waking up all night long and hardly allowing myself to fall into a deep enough sleep to feel rested.
It takes me moment to realize I'm in Rafes bed.
I sit up, wiping the sleep from my eyes, feeling my stomach sink a bit when I see the other side of the bed is empty and Rafe isn't in the room.

Maybe he got up after I fell asleep and went and slept on the couch downstairs or in the guest room. Maybe I made him too uncomfortable.
Nausea and anxiety bubbles in my stomach as I convince myself within seconds that that's what happened.
I pull my legs up to my my stomach, debating whether I should go back to Sarah's room. I don't know why he made me sleep up here if it made him so uncomfortable, maybe he was just so exhausted that it's all he could think of to do so that he could sleep.
Why am I such a burden?
Even to Rafe, who's always hated my guts and couldn't care less about me, I somehow managed to get to him too.

I hear the door pop open and then Rafe steps in, closing and locking it behind him.
He's already dressed and looks like he's been up for a while, only making my assumption grow.
What time is it even?
He's carrying a plastic bag that looks to be filled with something.

"Did I make you uncomfortable?" I blurt, brining my nails up to my arm and scratching, nervously.
"No?" He says, moving into the bathroom. I hear a door open then something clink before he returns, coming to stand at the end of the bed.
"Oh I thought maybe you got up and slept somewhere else" I tell him.
"No, I slept there all night, I got up earlier" he shrugs before moving over and standing next to the side of the bed, looking down at me.

He reaches down, yanking my arm up.
"Stop doing that" he snaps before setting it down.
I suddenly realize I've scratched my arm raw, through my sleeve.
"I have to go back to Candy Hill" he says, plopping down on the couch and dropping his head back.
I feel a little jump of excitement surge through me.
Maybe he'd let me go with him! I want to go there again, it was so fun the last time I went.
"Oh. Why?"
"Topper wants to return the stupid necklace he got for his whore and get a bracelet instead"
Why does he insist on referring to every female as a whore?
"So why are you going?"
"Because he asked me to?"
Oh, well jeez I didn't know he was so nice.. to Topper..
"You're not that nice" I tell him, kicking the blanket off my legs.
"Thank you"
"Why isn't he going?"
"Why do you ask so many questions?"
"Because I wanna know why?"
He rolls his eyes at me, shaking his head.
"He can't go because he's going to some bullshit event with his family so he asked me to go"
"For how much?" I ask, knowing damn well he wouldn't go all the way to Candy Hill just out of the goodness of his heart.
"You don't think I'm nice enough to do a kind gesture for my friend?" He asks as if he's just the nicest person on the planet.
"Nope, I didn't even know you had nice in you" I smile at him, earning a glare but also a little smile.
"A hundred bucks"
"I knew it!" I jump up, crossing my arms over my chest.

I sure wish I had a hundred bucks to throw around when I didn't want to go somewhere..
He rolls his eyes, standing and stretching his arms above his head. I can see the outline and bulge of his muscles. When did his arms get so massive? I bet he could fight a bull off..
"I bet you could fight a bull off" I blurt
"hUh?"
"Nothing!" I cover my mouth with my hands, my cheeks burning red.
I really need to work on not blurting stuff out..