Right Now | Rafe Cameron

26: a blast from the past.

TWENTY SIX

a blast from the past (flashback)

"Fuck you, JJ," Billie shouted as she stormed out of the Wreck. Tears were streaming down her face and she was hyperventilating. She looked around for her car and then realised she had gotten there on the back of JJ's motorcycle. "Fuck," she whispered to herself and pulled her fingers through her hair.

"Need a ride?" someone said from inside a car.

"Yeah no thanks." She wasn't that desperate. She wouldn't get into a car with a stranger.

But it wasn't a stranger at all. It was Rafe Cameron. Kook king. He looked smugly at her. She wiped the tears from her cheeks when she saw it was him.

"You can't walk home, it's almost dark," Rafe said and waved his hand towards the sky. The sun was going down. Billie thought of it for a second but shook her head.

"Go away Rafe." He didn't seriously think she'd get in a car with him, did he?

"Alright, suit yourself," he muttered and turned on the ignition.

"Hey Billie, wait," JJ said, coming out of the restaurant. "It's not like that I..." he saw Rafe and his face turned from apologetic and soft to hard and defensive.

At the look of her boyfriend's face, Billie's blood started to boil again. The idea flicked in her head like a dying candle. Rafe was watching her intently with a slight crooked smile on his lips, as if he could imagine what she would do. He would gladly participate in a plot that would make JJ angry.

She looked at him, mouth in a straight line. Then she turned to JJ who was slowly shaking his head in confusion, eyebrows furrowed. She was about to make this so much worse.

She took two steps, opened the passenger door and got into the car. Rafe laughed dryly as she did so.

"Just drive," she said. He did just that, leaving JJ gobsmacked behind, throwing his hat on the pavement in anger.

"What did he do?" Rafe asked after a while, poking his nose in things that weren't his business.

"Doesn't matter... He's just... Ah! Such an idiot," she exclaimed and gesticulated angrily.

"I've been saying that for years," Rafe said with a smirk.

"Shut up Rafe," Billie sighed and looked out the window.

"Do you want me to drop you off at your dad's house?" Rafe changed the subject, seemingly already annoyed with her.

"Could you take me to Tannyhill?" she asked after a while and bit the skin on her thumb. She needed girl talk.

"Woah hey, I was just being nice," Rafe held his hands up. Billie scoffed and gave him a dead stare.

"To Sarah, Rafe."

"Oh," he muttered. "Yeah, sure."

They went silent for a while. Then Billie turned to look at Rafe, when the confusion of the situation hit her.

"Why are you being nice to me?" she said, slightly suspicious. Would he bring her to the meth-heads and leave her there as payment? Or sell her to some trafficking cult? Not everything is a kingpin movie, she reminded herself.

"You'll laugh," Rafe sighed. He gave her an apprehensive look.

"I promise," Billie said. "Unless you're taking me on a date. Then I'll laugh." Rafe chuckled.