fear love¹ | rafe cameron

twenty-three

I apologized a thousand more times to James for Rafe punching him in the face and when the rest of the kids and he left, I went to the clubhouse to sign out to Sam.
»Have a good day, see you« I said to him, waved and disappeared behind the door which always hit a bell when opening and closing.

I connected my headphones to my phone and just as I was about to turn on the playlist on Spotify that Sarah and I always listened to when we hang out together, I got a message from Pope.

Pope: Where are you?

I pushed up the sleeve of my sweater and looked at my wristwatch to see what time it was. Only then did I understand why Pope had asked me where I was. The argument between Rafe and James had dragged on quite a bit and by now it was already 05:30 pm and I should have been at the dock at John B's thirty minutes ago.

Grace: I'm on my way

Before I started running, I replied to Pope that I was on my way and ran at a fast walking pace through the crowds at the harbor, almost bumping into a mailman.

Arriving at John B I heard my friends talking and the closer I jam to the dock the louder the conversation got. »There she is« JJ welcomed me with open arms.
»I'm sorry guys« I apologized for being late and before hugging everyone and climbing onto the boat, I stopped in front of the boat and hastily gasped for air.

»There was this guy named James and-«
I began to explain, completely out of breath, and propped myself up against the fence of the dock. But somehow I had the feeling that none of my best friends really listened to me, but rather stared at my sweater.

I stopped talking and squinted my eyes slightly, tracking their gaze to my sleeve. The sleeve, which was supposed to be plain dark blue, was covered with bloody drops.
»Oh that, I didn't kill anyone, don't worry« I said relived when I looked at the blood on my Pullover and laughed, but no one joined me

»What the fuck happened?« Sarah asked, and I explained everything to my friends and told them the whole story why James had bled on my sweater and who he actually was.

I told them that he had gotten a ball in the face from other volleyball players and that was the reason for his bloody nose. No one needed to know that Rafe had almost broken his nose, because I didn't like John B's comments.

»Can I get a new one?« I loosened up the conversation and JJ tossed me a dark red hoodie that said "Falcons" in yellow. We've always traded clothes with each other, and I was sure that most of the stuff in my closet wasn't actually my clothes.

I took off the old dirty sweater, then stuffed it into my bag and put the hoodie from JJ over my bikini.

»Fancy Grace« Sarah complimented me, I grinned and made a model pose.
This hoodie was already known to be passed among us and each of us had worn the at least a few times.

»Yeah, okay, stop complimenting each other« JJ muttered and Sarah and I punched him in the arm at the same time. »Shut up« she said and pushed him against the shoulder and laughed.

I entered the boat and as I sat down John B turned the boat on and went through the marsh. »Everybody get ready« JJ made a loud announcement and we all laughed.

When John B found a good place in the marsh to stay for a while and enjoy the remaining evening sun, I dropped the anchor into the water and lay down between Sarah and Kie. While we lay on the edge of the boat and let our feet tumble in the cool water, the guys tried to fish for our dinner today.

It was one of those perfect evenings. The remaining evening sun made the clouds glow in the most beautiful orange and pink tones, seagulls flew over the boat, Kie was humming along to the songs that were playing on the satellite radio and I was sure that Sarah had fallen asleep, because I heard her snoring a little.