baby blue • rafe cameron

three

after a trip to the mainland, a stop for dinner at the club, rafe and i arrived back at my house and started painting my room. 

"smooth like butter." he said, running the roller over the pink wall, leaving behind a grey shade. i laughed, pulling my hair up before grabbing my roller. "i think this was a great color gracie." 

"are you ever going to give up on that nickname?" 

"no," he shook his head. 

"can you at least make it different? i don't like gracie." 

"grace?" 

"am i a sixty year old grandma?" i asked. 

"lynn?" he asked as i stopped, debating. 

"sure," i nodded. 

"lynn is is." he threw a smile over his shoulder at me. i let myself smile back, but he was working on the wall so it went unnoticed. i kept thinking, "this is isn't rafe, he's showing me a different side of himself," but had to stop myself every time. if i was going to let him get to know the new me and remove any older versions from his head, i had to do the same. 

this was rafe, he was nice, he cared. he'd rather check up on me and paint my walls than be at some stupid party with his friends, drinking beer. he wasn't just some guy in my friend group that i hung out with sometimes and said we were friends for the sheer simplicity of the relationship, but he was actually my friend. 

i mean, where was topper right now? kelce? hails?

"hey, you're not even painting." rafe laughed, looking over at me as he dipped his roller back in the paint. 

"sorry, i was just thinking." 

"about?"

"thank you for coming to check on me rafe, seriously." i said. "no one else even bothered." 

"you really think i was going to let you come back after two years and just disappear into the population of kildare county?" he asked, smiling. i smiled back, looking down at my feet, kicking my dirty vans against the tarp we had placed down. i let my eyes travel back up, slowly to his. 

"come on, we've got a room to paint lynn." he moved over, behind me. he wrapped his right hand around mine, which was held on to the paint roller, dripping white all over the tarp. he pulled me over to the wall, moving my hand to pushed the roller against the pink walls. "see? there you go?" 

i laughed, pushing him off. 

"i'm a big girl." i said, looking over my shoulder at him. 

"then come on, big girl, do your job. i'm going to check your garage for a step ladder to get the tops of the walls." 

"it should be hung up on the far side, past my dad's truck." i told him, letting him walk out. i moved the roller, accidentally rubbing the paint against the sweatshirt i was wearing. "oh, shit." 

i put the roller down, dropping my sweatshirt to the ground, fixing my tank top over my torso. i dropped my sweats, situating my spandex on my thighs. i grabbed the roller and continued painting the walls before i heard his footsteps come back down the hall. i turned, seeing him walk through the door with the step ladder. 

"this thing so hasn't been touched in like ten years." he said, letting his eyes glide up to me. he paused, clearing his throat. "uh... sorry, i didn't expect you to undress yourself while i was gone, this is a little fast lynn, i just came over to paint the walls." 

i rolled my eyes playfully, "i got paint of my sweatshirt and it was getting hot anyways." 

"well if we're undressing." he moved the step ladder to lean against the wall. he pulled his shirt off, dropping it to the ground, revealing his toned chest. i felt my face heat up before pulling my eyes away.