✗ | 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 ; rafe cameron

NINE

"Okay, okay. Relax, Kie. Let's just take a breather for a moment." Iris gestured towards herself and took deep breaths for Kiara to follow. Kiara just took a whole 10 minutes complaining about Midsummers, since her parents are forcing her to go.

"Wait. You are coming tonight, right?" Kiara stopped pacing in her tracks to look at Iris.

Iris sighed. "Yeah, unfortunately. Please don't leave me though." She looked up at Kie, practically begging.

Kie laughed. "Of course. My mom might murder me if I don't go anyways."

"Yay." Iris said, sarcastically and unenthusiastically. "The bourgeoisie commoners won this time again."

~

Later that night when Iris arrived at the Midsummer's celebration, she saw her brother alone and decided to the opportunity to confront him.

"Oh my god, you look so familiar! Wait, what was your name again?" Iris held up her finger to stop him from further interrupting her. "No, wait, don't tell me. Rowan? Ryan? No, it's Riley! Riley Stratford, right? That's right! You know it's been so long, I almost forgot you existed."

"Jesus, Ris. Can you not do this for one night? And plus, I have my reasons from being away from home all the damn time." Riley just rolled his eyes at Iris.

"Do any of those reasons include running away and hanging out with your friends 24/7?"

"You're the one to talk." Iris knew that Riley was somehow right. She knew was never really home or at least trying to take care of the things she had to do at home.

"I'm not having this conversation right now." Iris just sighed and walked away from her brother. Though, when she turned around she just so happened to bump into the people she wanted to see the least. Topper, Kelce and Rafe.

"Hey, sweetheart. How's your day going?" Rafe gently grabbed Iris' shoulders to turn her around to face her brother again, before slinging his arm around her again. Iris sighed in disappointment and decided to just stick with it.

"Geez, Rafe. Might wanna keep your thingy in your pants for tonight, or else-" Riley was soon cut off by Rafe, who was still holding onto his sister.

"Or else what, Riles? Can't stop me. Not my fault your sister..." Rafe trailed off and shifted his gaze towards Iris. She looked back at him, but he got the message that she wasn't having it today (or any day for that matter), and he just backed off and put his hands up in surrender.

Iris walked away without saying anything and went to go find something else to do, instead of being around Rafe.

"Ris!" She heard a quiet voice call out to her from a far. She turned around to be faced with a good friend, also known as Pope.

"Heyward! Surprising seeing you here. Which brings me to ask, what are you doing here?" The two quickly greeted each other with a quick hug.

"Me and my dad are actually just working out here for the nigh-" He was cut off by another familiar voice. This time, it belonged to JJ.

"Stratford! Fancy meeting you here!" JJ took Iris into a hug before she could even react. Though, she looked at him disbelief. He was just arrested earlier that day and now he's acting like nothing happened.

Iris just stood there, looking at her blond friend whom looked beat up. She broke the awkward silence after moments."So, like are we just not gonna address the fact that you were arrested today or are you gonna just stand there like an idiot?"

"Geez, Ris. Have a spirit for once." JJ callously ignored the topic and patted the girl on the back for reassurement.

Iris observed that Pope quickly got tense. "Hey, uh, I don't think we should be talking to you right now. Or, uh, we might just end up dead by the end of the night." Pope gestured towards behind Iris, causing the girl and JJ to turn around, only to find the Rafe Cameron glaring at them from a nearby window.

"Well, I guess that's my cue to leave. Gotta go pretend being a waiter longer before I get caught." JJ patted Iris on the back again before leaving. Iris was gonna turn back to Pope but he already ran off and was back to work.

"Great. Just great." Iris muttered time herself before heading back inside the building, only to face the one and only Rafe Cameron again. "Jesus, can't get of me can you?" She sneakily smiled at the tall boy who hovered above her with his baby blue suit.

"No, I can't." He smiled at her before changing the topic. "What were you and those dirty Pogues discussing just now?" He signalled his head subtly to the place where he had just spotted them talking.

"Oh, um." Iris hesitated. She had no idea what stupid excuse she had to make up right now. She started fidgeting with her hands as she came up with a dumb reason, trying to outsmart Rafe. "They were just trying to get this drink sample they tried out?" Iris tried to say it as a solid statement, but it just came out questionable.

"Oh, okay. Well, just don't get too friendly with them. Or else they might just fuck up your boat." Rafe said sternly as his face fell to a serious one. Iris sported JJ chatting with a random man from afar, before her expression changed into a confused one.

"Wait, what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Iris asked, completely oblivious. She then remembered earlier that day when Kie had told her about when JJ got arrested for destruction of property or something. She never really understood what happened.

"What I mean is that, don't get too caught up in their business. Shit might get rough." Rafe said before walking away, leaving the girl all alone.

"Literally no one wants me to include in things. What was the point of coming back home?" The girl shrugged in defeat, trying to laugh it off. She didn't really care, but she felt like people were somehow getting her involved in things but never actually involved in the things. It made no sense.

Meanwhile, when Riley and Iris circled the whole area, as adults came up to them, starting up small talk about their dad. Once in a while, they would just bring up their dead mom and that's when Iris would just leave abruptly, leaving Riley to deal with it. Iris didn't want to hear about her mom, they might just bring up the harsh backstory that she swore off to never hear again.

Sometime in the party, Iris left her brother, completely losing guard of him. As she sat down on a nearby wooden bench, a ruckus was soon to be heard nearby.

"I'm actually gonna down that." JJ was being held by security. Iris immediately rose from her seat to seat what was going on.

JJ was getting escorted out of the party. But soon, Rafe and the others came out after him, Iris quickly ran over to them.

"What's going on?" She said, keeping her eyes on JJ, who just didn't keep his mouth shut.

"Just taking care of business." He said to her. "Can we go to your place?" Iris was tired and didn't want to argue, so she just accepted as she made her way to her brother to tell him that she was leaving early.

"Go home with Kelce or Topper or something, since you prefer them over our home." She said, with Riley just shrugging in agreement.

The whole car ride in Iris' car back to their house was just dead silent.

a/n:
shit might go down
in the next chapter but
like this whole book is
already shit, so like 👁👄👁

i might just scrap this story lol