Coming Home

Chapter 10: What Happened That Night

**March 13th - Six months ago**

As I fastened my gold hoop earrings in my ears, I stared at myself in the mirror. My face was flushed and my cheeks were bright pink, the anxiety I felt evident all over. It had been two weeks since I got up the nerve to end things with Rafe. It killed me to do it but I couldn't be with him anymore. The drugs and the anger were just too much and I hated to admit it but my heart had started falling for someone else. I left that part out of the conversation though when I broke up with Rafe. He was strangely calm as I did it, no strange isn't the right word, scarily calm. I had prepared myself for every reaction, anger, yelling, crying, anything but calm and quiet. He barely said ten words to me the entire conversation and by the end of it he just got up and walked away, slamming his patio door shut and leaving me speechless outside.

So when I got the text this afternoon asking me to meet him, I didn't know what to expect.

"Hey T, I know this is weird but can we talk tonight? I didn't know what to say to you the other night but I just have some things I wanna get off my chest. I'm not going to try and change your mind or anything but I just wanna talk. I mean I think you owe me that much after everything. So tonight?"

Was he right? Did I owe him this one last conversation? Before I could really think about it, I found myself replying a simple "yes" to his message. I quickly got a reply that seemed a little strange but I brushed it off.

"Meet me at 17 Valley drive at 8 oclock, one of Rose's properties she's trying to sell. Figured it would be best to talk there to get some privacy."

It wouldn't be the first time Rafe and I had used one of Rose's properties for something other than real estate purposes.

"Seems like a bad idea." Kiara said as she laid sprawled out on my bed.

"Definitely not the best idea but" Rafe's text saying you owe me rang throughout my thoughts adding another layer of guilt on top of me "I think I owe him at least a conversation. He was the first guy I ever said ''I love you too." I say as I throw on an oversized jean jacket over my olive green sweater.

"You did try to have a conversation with him though, and he was like mute the whole time. That's not on you. You have a right to be happy." Kie said as she gathered her school books off the bed.

"Kie, I know I just feel like I owe him this one last thing and then I'm done... You didn't tell JJ I was going tonight, did you?" I ask fearing that I'd make JJ mad at me for this too.

"Do I look stupid? No, of course not. But maybe I should, maybe he'd have a better chance at talking some sense into you."

"Kie please, I'm beating myself up enough as it is, can you stop?" I felt guilty for breaking up with Rafe, guilty for getting feelings for JJ while I was with Rafe, and I didn't need Kiara adding to it.

"Okay sorry, I'm just worried about you. You're not his girlfriend anymore and what if he finds out about JJ? The dude is gonna go psychotic." It's not something I hadn't thought about but I just needed to get through tonight, I can worry about everything else later.

"Well thank you for the reassurance, Kie, I feel so much better now. I'll see ya later." I said, making my annoyance evident as Kiara left my room with a sigh and rolled her eyes. As I looked at my phone it was 7:48. It would only take me five minutes to get to the house so I headed downstairs passing Topper on the way.

"You meeting Rafe?" His question caught me by surprise because I hadn't told him about it.

"Uh yeah how'd you know?"

"He told me he was gonna text you." Rafe and Topper had been best friends for years but sharing relationship details especially about little sisters wasn't usually in their cards.