𝐣 𝐞 𝐚 𝐥 𝐨 𝐮 𝐬 - 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬

0.1

 ACT I

"AMBER, LONG TIME NO SEE!" The girl whipped her blonde hair at the sound of the familiar voice, automatically standing up.

"You're so dramatic, Rafe." She rolled her eyes playfully as she held her arms open for a hug.

Currently, she was in her backyard sunbathing on one of the first days of summer, "Not that I don't enjoy your company, but what are you doing here?" Amber asked as she removed the sunglasses from her face and let them rest atop her head.

"Kelce is throwing a party later." He smiled down at the girl as she let out a sigh, going back to laying on her lounge chair by the pool.

"Did you seriously come to my house to let me know Kelce is throwing a party?" She asked, letting her sunglasses fall back to cover her eyes which had been squinting from the suns rays. "Chill, Livingston. We're neighbors so it's not like I went out of my way to get here."

Letting out a sigh of defeat the girl threw a bottle of tanning oil at the boy before patting the seat besides her, "Get a tan Rafe, you look like you need one." She smiled up at the boy as he shook his head.

"You trust me, right?" Rafe asked, setting the tanning oil on the seat while standing above Amber. To her dismay, he was now blocking the sun from hitting her body, "Yes, but you're blocking the sun so move." She hummed, attempting to kick Rafe away from her.

Rafe, not even budging because she was barely using any of her strength, just smiled down at her before picking her up from under the knees and quickly throwing her into the pool. Before she could even react her body had already hit the water, causing her to go under.

"Don't worry A, the sun is still hitting your body from there I'm sure you'll catch a tan in no time." Rafe winked at her as she emerged, swimming towards him and purposely splashing him in the process.

She quickly climbed out the pool and as soon as her feet met the ground once again she automatically tried to push Rafe in, which had failed seeing as all it did was make Rafe move a few feet back. He began laughing as he lifted her up over his shoulders, running to nowhere in particular. The laughing however, quickly died down when they were met with an all too familiar voice, "Amber," her father called out. Immediately, Rafe set her on the ground, turning to face the girls father who stood emotionless before seeing the boy, "Rafe, didn't know you'd be coming over today." He smiled once he noticed the familiar face.

Rafe put his hands in the pockets of his shorts, "Just came to invite her to a party tonight." Luis simply nodded at the boy as he looked him over, "Watch over her. I'll see you later, son." He told the boy before walking off, not even bothering to say a word to his daughter. Amber could swear her life on it, her father liked Rafe more than he did either of his children.

"I swear to god he treats you more like his own child than he does me." Amber rolled her eyes, starting to walk past the boy and he couldn't help but admire her figure. "Stop staring at my ass and come inside." Amber joked once she realized Rafe wasn't directly on her tail, not knowing there was truth behind the sentence that left her lips.

"Not my fault you're hot." Rafe spoke as he jogged inside the house, but shut himself up once his eyes landed on Ambers mother who stood in the middle of the kitchen.

Stacie couldn't help but laugh at the boys comment before speaking, "Not her fault, but it is mine." The sentence left Rafe's cheeks red and Amber couldn't help but let a giggle fall from her lips at the sight of it as her mother left the kitchen, not wanting to embarrass the boy any further.

"I love your parents." Rafe spoke truthfully, heading over to her fridge.

In all honesty, he always did enjoy the presence of the Livingston's as opposed to that of his own family. Of course he loved his father and sisters, but majority of the time his father was putting too much pressure on him for what he deemed as the dumbest of things. Unlike his own father, Amber's was much more easy going on the boy and loved him as if he were his own. He looked at Rafe like he was the son he never had seeing as his own would spend time with dirty pogues rather than kooks. Amber, however, couldn't care less as long as her brother didn't get himself into too much trouble. She may not have completely understood why he thought the pogue life was better, but she wanted her brother to be happy even if that did mean he'd spend most of his nights on the cut.

"So, who's coming to the party, besides us?" Amber asked, propping herself to sit up on the counter with the boy now standing between her legs.

"Topper along with his cousin who's here for the summer, Sarah, Kelce, a few tourists, seniors and some others." Rafe told her, but in all honesty he couldn't care less about who was to attend as long as he got to hangout with the Livingston girl. Amber on the other hand didn't care where or who she was with as long as she was having fun, which was something she always made sure of.

"Wanna' go on a boat ride?" Rafe asked the girl with a smile on his face. She immediately nodded, jumping off the counter as Rafe stepped back and heading towards her fathers office to get his boat keys.

"Dad?" She knocked on his door upon entering the dimly lit office, "What do you need, A?" Luis had an annoyed look on his face, but Amber just shrugged it off not wanting to think too much into it.

"Can Rafe and I use your boat?" She asked quietly and he immediately nodded before speaking up, "Make sure Rafe drives the boat, I don't need anything happening." She nodded and shortly after, Rafe and the girl were walking down the docks.

The pair had now been in the boat for about two hours and decided to let the anchor down whilst they were in the center of the marsh, "This is practically pogue central, Amber." Rafe rolled his eyes as he looked around. He couldn't help but wonder why the girl decided to lead the boat this way rather than literally any other direction.

"So? It's not like we need to talk to any of them." She crossed her arms, looking at the boy that stood in front of her.

"Speak of the devils." Rafe nodded towards a smaller boat whilst he unscrewed a bottle of Belvedere Vodka, "Amber?" The girl heard the all too familiar voice of her brother, Mikael, whom she hadn't seen in four days due to John B.

"Is that my brother?" Amber asked Rafe, not even bothering to turn around because she already knew the answer.

"Yes, along with his little Pogue friends," Rafe scoffed, downing a shot of the clear drink "Mikael," The lighter blonde let out a sigh, going to the lower deck of her father's boat to be greeted with several of the Pogues as well as her younger brother.

"Nice to see you too, sis." Mikael rolled his eyes while the rest practically glared her way. Besides John B, that is, "Hey guys." Amber gave one of her signature smiles, nodding at the group who seemed to be missing a member, "Where's Kiara?" She asked as she rose a brow. Freshman year Kiara had befriended the kooks and to say the least, it didn't end all too well for the girl.

Amber always attempted to make amends, but Kiara didn't bother to listen to a word that ever came out her mouth. She didn't like the Kooks a bit and Amber was the literal Kook princess. As for her brother, Mikael, he's the only kook Kiara could ever tolerate as she never truly considered him one. Sure, he was rich and had stuck up, snobby parents, but he was the complete opposite. Much like herself, he didn't dress nor act the part. But as much as he spent time on the cut, majority of Figure Eight still wanted to befriend him.

word count: 1559
-rewritten-

a/n:

decided to work on rewriting the parts of the story I had written last year because I genuinely hate it. It's not so different & if you're new the chapters do get so much longer and better as the story progresses

have a beautiful day <3