This is Me Trying ⭑ Rafe Cameron

twenty seven

TWENTY SEVEN
[27]
song: charcoal baby by blood orange

"No." Cassie says immediately, as the door to her screened in front porch closes behind her.

Rafe, sitting on his motorbike, holding out an extra helmet for her, shakes his head. "What do you mean no?"

"I'm not getting on that." She shrugs.

Rafe wasn't amused. "Then you shouldn't have stolen my car."

"If you didn't want me to steal your car, then you should've taken me to the station yourself like you said you were going to." Cassie says, crossing her arms, not moving from the porch.

Rafe's shoulders fall, and it looked like he was physically holding himself back from blowing up at her. He closed his eyes and took a breath. "I'm a safe driver." He says.

"I don't care." Cassie had no intention of letting up. "Do you know how many people die on those things? It's stupid—"

"How do you suggest we get around, then?" He cuts her off, too impatient to hear her spiel.

Cassie looked around, thinking. "I'll drive." She nodded, and she turned to go back inside.

She wasn't sure what her true intentions were. Whether the reason she didn't want to get on that bike with him was a problem of safety or not. Or whether her eagerness to drive herself was an issue of control. She figured every interaction she had with Rafe now was going to result in a lot of questions she couldn't answer.

Cassie walked back inside, heading into the kitchen she'd just left, turning the lights back on. "I thought you left." Her grandma spoke from the couch in the living room.

Cassie jumped, expecting her to have gone to bed already, or at least have fallen asleep on the couch by now. She poked her head around the doorway and nodded. "Yeah, hey— can I take the car really fast? I—"

The door swung open, and Rafe walked in, earning both Cassie's and her grandma's attention. He seemed thrown off by the sudden silence in the conversation, looking from Cassie, to her grandma, then back to Cassie.

Cassie clicks her tongue, her mind going blank. "I have to— run errands. Grandma this is—" the room filled with such awkward tension she couldn't even remember his name. "Rafe. Cameron, he—"

Rafe scratched the back of his neck, then gestured at the door he just came in through. "I'll wait outside."

"My late husband worked for your father." Her grandma rose from the couch, Cassie's telepathic pleads for her to just sit down and be silent clearly not working. "I'm so sorry for your loss."

Rafe sends Cassie a glance, then turns to her grandma and nods. "Thank you."

She nods, then she turns to look at Cassie for some sort of explanation as to why he was in their living room.

"Your car?" Cassie raises her eyebrows. "Can I borrow it?"

"Can I ask for what?" She says.

"I told you." Cassie says, eager to get this entire interaction over with as quickly as possible. "There's errands I need to run."