This is Me Trying ⭑ Rafe Cameron

eighteen

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
[18]
song: sad girl by lana del rey

It was common these days that Cassie found herself snooping around in medicine cabinets the second things didn't feel right.

Because a lot of things weren't feeling right. And she found it was much easier to just cover up those feelings than face them.

Something for the motion sickness is what she told herself when she swallowed a few pills in the bathroom mirror.

It was that feeling of being unwanted, or a burden, that just kept controlling her, and she wasn't sure what it was she was doing to keep being thought of in this way. And now, she has a powerful man, who in the past had gone to the extremes to cover up his own crimes, afraid that her knowing he was alive put his escape at risk. She felt like a sitting duck. Paranoid now with the idea of what Ward would do.

She was about to leave, about to make another attempt down the hall when Wheezie walked in. "Rose wanted me to bring you something to eat." She says, walking in with a tray of breakfast foods.

Cassie lifts her head up from the table, where she's had her her face buried in her crossed arms for who knows how long. "Have you seen Rafe?" She asks, as the girl sits the tray down and takes a casual seat across from Cassie in the booth.

She shakes her head, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a deck of playing cards. "I think he's with the captain."

Cassie rubs her tired eyes with a nod. "Right." She gets out.

"Do you want to play War now?" Wheezie asks, mixing up the cards in her hands.

Cassie blinked a few times, her mind struggling to keep up with how fast the girl was shuffling the deck. She wanted to say no, she wanted to go find Rafe and find out why he kept disappearing. But her eyelids were tired and heavy, and the food smelled so good, she'd be lying if she said she even wanted to move.

"Sure." She spoke eventually.

Wheezie perked up, beginning to deal out the cards between the two. "Sarah can play with us too when she wakes up." She says.

Cassie began to nod as she picked up the cards Wheezie dealt, but stopped when she registered what it was she said. "Sarah's here?"

"Mhm." Wheezie nodded. "She's been asleep all morning, though. Rose won't let me see her 'cause she said she doesn't feel good."

"Oh." Cassie responded, organizing the cards in her hand. She started to move on, started to think about the game she was about to play, but something was telling her there was more to this story. "Wait— so, she's just leaving the island? Just like that?"

"I mean, yeah." Wheezie shrugged it off.

"Hm."

"Are you ready?" Wheezie asks, thumbing a card in her hand.

Cassie's mind was on Sarah now, and John B. Wondering if maybe something had happened that made Sarah want to get away too. But she nodded anyways, putting a card face up in front of her at the same time as Wheezie.

"Yes!" Wheezie says excitedly as scoops the two cards into her own deck.

Cassie turns her face toward the window besides them, squinting her eyes at the harsh sun reflecting off the ocean. "I'm actually—" she starts, but blinks a few times as she feels a head rush coming on. "I think I'm gonna go find Rafe."