This is Me Trying ⭑ Rafe Cameron

fourteen

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
[14]
song: maintain by vilde

It wasn't long before Rafe's car came around the corner, pulling into the marina parking lot, where Cassie sat on the curb and waited.

She felt silly like this. Waiting for him to come rescue her from a mess she'd put herself in, cheeks tear stained, still wearing this oversized, old work coat over her dress. It felt like she'd lived three lifetimes since the night of the party, but here she was, still wearing that same dress.

He got out of the car after it stopped in front of her, eyebrows narrowed, shaking his head as he spoke. "What's up? What happened?" He asked confusedly.

Cassie was trying very hard to hold it together. But she'd been lying if she said she hadn't spent the past ten minutes sitting here crying.

And when Rafe finally noticed, despite how much she tried to wipe her tears and collect herself, he came out from around the car and quickly walked over to her.

"I'm sorry," she waved it off, embarrassed, but still clearly upset. "I didn't know who else to call."

It was clear Rafe didn't really know what to do, or say, he was kind of observing her like she was some sort of artifact, one that was completely unaware to how much someone was examining every detail of their face.

Cassie continued. "I don't have my car. And I sort of—" she takes a deep breath. "I don't know what to do with myself right now."

Rafe kept his eyes steady on her. "Do you want to stay at Tannyhill tonight?" He eventually asks. It came off as more of a suggestion.

Cassie looked up at him and blinked a few times, for a split second the thought of that felt like it would solve all the world's problems. She hadn't eaten since last night, hadn't slept, or showered, or changed out of these clothes, and her shoes were giving her blisters. And the thought of being alone right now, holed up in her bedroom at her grandma's house, thinking about the events of today. She knew she'd spiral.

So she nodded.

"I'll need to..." she starts thinking. "I need to run home, get a change of clothes and— I don't know. Wipe the makeup off from under my eyes." She says, letting out a slight laugh.

Rafe smiled, and her put a casual arm around her shoulders and pulled her back over to his car. It took Cassie by surprise, it was such a Rafe move. One she'd seen him pull on numerous girls at parties. Where he sweeps them away and claims them as his token girl for the night.

It set her off. It made her second guess everything. She'd forgotten how much of a player he was before all of this. She'd grown so accustomed to stoic, anxious, angry Rafe and forgot he was capable of showing realistic teenage boy emotions.

He opened the door for her, and when she got in, she watched him come around the hood to the driver's seat. What was that? What were they? That wasn't a move you pulled on someone you just had a sort of alliance with. But she didn't think either of them thought of this as only an alliance.

When he brought the car to the front of her grandma's house, for the second time that day, she felt herself looking over to the trashcans her dad previously hid behind. Maybe she was hoping to see him back there, maybe she was hoping she'd never see him again, she wasn't sure yet.