This is Me Trying ⭑ Rafe Cameron

twenty nine

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
[29]
song: i'm so afraid by fleetwood mac

Cassie snuck off with the excuse of her grandma wanting her to come home for the day, that she'd grown worried when she hadn't seen her in a while, a last-effect of going missing for over a month.

It seemed to have worked, everyone nodding understandably as Cassie sent everyone a goodbye, and told JJ she'd talk to her grandma about his moving in. To which he waved her off and told her not to. She would anyway.

It was music that got her through the anxiety-filled drive to Tannyhill. An old Connie Smith CD played, one she'd found in her grandma's glovebox. She white-knuckled the steering wheel, afraid that any moment she'd get a call from one of her friends, asking her where she was really going. Or worse, she'd look in the rear view mirror and find Big John on her tail.

When Cassie pulled past the gates into Tannyhill, Rafe was walking out of the house. As she brought her car to a slow, he gestured to roll her window down, so she did.

"We'll take the Jeep." He says, squinting his eyes from the sun as he looked around his property.

"Why?" Cassie narrowed her eyebrows.

"If people see us I'll take the blame." He says. "You can't get caught already. You're the inside-man."

She wished his tone held more cadence of a joke, it would've made her feel more at-ease. But he was very serious about all of this, and maybe that was for the best. Someone had to know what they were doing. And clearly, Cassie wasn't used to sneaking around behind people's backs, and avoiding the threat of death.

"Don't..." Cassie started to climb out of her car after turning off the engine. "Put it like that."

Rafe was already in the car as Cassie got in the passenger seat. He was about to start driving, when she started messing around with the car radio, clicking buttons and trying to find a way to put in the CD she'd brought from her car.

"What are you doing?" Rafe asks, almost annoyed.

Cassie focused ahead, leaning forward to try and read what the tiny buttons meant. "It—" she squints her eyes. "It makes me feel better."

Rafe takes the CD from her hands, examining it. Mostly just confused. "Okay?" He says, shaking his head and handing it back to her.

After Rafe started driving, and Cassie got the music back up and running, he spoke again. "Where am I going?"

"Oh." Cassie says, realizing she never explained anything to him. "1917 Sun Seed Drive. It's just off the North Harbor."

Rafe nodded, then glanced over at Cassie, as she picked at her fingernails, and kept her gaze focused straight ahead out the window. "What?"

She looked at him, and then back to the road, shaking her head.

He looked at her again. "Why are you acting weird?"

Cassie clenched her jaw. "I feel like I'm doing something wrong."

Rafe shrugged. "Like you messed up the address?"