𝐧𝐨 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲, 𝐧𝐨 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞- 𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧

1.

    I sprawled out on my towel, stretching my cramped legs until my bare feet brushed against the sand. I groaned at the fiery sensation on my back. I guess I underestimated how much sunscreen I would have to put on. Pulling down my hat until it covered my eyes, I peaked over at the blonde sitting in her chair reading some sort of modeling magazine.

The waves crashed onto the shore heavily, indicating an incoming hurricane. Yet the beach was still packed with people building sand castles and surfing in the water. People's shouts of excitement awoke me from my somewhat nap that felt too good. Although it ended up with sunburn on my back due to laying on my stomach for too long.

I huffed, going to sit up with little effort when I felt a cool and grainy clump fall onto my back. I gasped, turning my head to see a bucket sized clump of sand on my back. I followed the source, glaring up at the face that held a mischievous grin. I almost wanted to kill him.

"Get up. I want the towel." Rafe requested, throwing the bucket to the side.

"It's your fault for not bringing your own towel." Sarah shot at her brother, but her angry expression was replaced with a smile when her boyfriend jogged after his friend not far behind.

"You brought a bucket but not a towel?" My voice was filled with clear annoyance, brushing the sand off of my back the best I could.

"No. I found the bucket." He motioned.

"You took it?"

"Yes. And I'm taking your towel. Get off." Rafe ordered.

Knowing I would have to wash the sand off my back anyways, I stood up and shook off the sand so it purposely fell onto the towel. If I could annoy Rafe in any way possible, I would take it. And this was his doing, therefore I'd make it backfire somehow no matter how big or small.

I looked back at Sarah, hoping she'd get catch the idea of her coming with me. She did, hopping off her chair and voluntarily letting Topper claim it. She placed her magazine down in her bag and skipped down the beach where I waited for her at the edge of the ocean. She felt the water, retreating quickly as if she had never felt water before.

The water was cold. It sent chills through my body the deeper I went. No matter how cold, it felt nice on my sunburnt back. Except Sarah seemed to think the opposite. Her face was scrunched and she tried her best to keep her arms above the water, tip toeing her way over to me.

I chuckled, diving into one of the waves. I resurfaced, running my hands down my soaked hair. Sarah held her breath and dunked down before making her way up again. As soon as she caught her breath, she immediately started a conversation about us taking her dads boat for a ride tomorrow. I agreed, watching Rafe shaking off the sand filled towel. A smile grew on my face.

Unlike Rafe, I actually liked Sarah. She was a good friend when I needed her despite our small age gap. She would come to me for pointers especially questions about boys. We've been friends for years, I was even accepted into a friend group with her and another girl who Sarah was quick to despise by the next year.

The sun beat down for hours and hours until it slowly started sinking beneath the waves. Sarah and I had just picked up some ice cream from a local hut that sat on the beach. My stomach was tan, my back reminded me of the opposite. I pushed my sunglasses further onto my face, licking the mint ice cream sitting on its cone. The air was cooler, but not cool enough to keep the ice cream in place. Topper's was already melting in Sarah's hand.

I stopped in front of my towel, coming in eye contact with Rafe who kept himself up with his hands. His legs were spread onto the towel, too tall for his feet to fit. I handed him his cone, complaining about how much this was an inconvenience to me now that my hands were sticky with chocolate ice cream.

Sarah giggled, sitting on Topper's lap to watch the sunset in front of us. I rolled my eyes, landing on Rafe who was grinning up at me. Reluctantly, he moved his legs to sit criss-cross so I could have the very end of the towel. Maybe I should've taken Sarah's offer on the extra chair she left on her boat. Sharing a towel with Rafe was like sharing a towel with an immature child.

"You didn't say thank you." Rafe whispered, poking my back with his toe.

A child.

I bit back an insult, trying my best to ignore him. The last thing I wanted to do was to give into his demand and actually thank him. "This is my towel."

Just to my luck, of course I would befriend a girl with an asshole brother. He was an obstacle in my way. Maybe it was God sending me a message that males will always aggravate women. I flipped him off for an extra effect, replacing the insult I would love to say out loud.

I was always mad at Topper for the sole purpose he would choose to invite Rafe over Kelce. I grew to hide my reactions around Rafe because I never wanted to give him what he wanted. So he only tried harder to antagonize me.

"It's respect. Did you ever learn that?" Rafe questioned.

"Fuck you, Rafe." I spat, knowing how much he loved to sit back and call me a Pogue just because I 'didn't have manners' around him. He did it before and was lucky enough to hear my parents yelling at me for that kind of behavior.

"You would love that."

I barely felt him shuffle behind me so he could whisper against my ear so Sarah and Topper couldn't hear him.

I scoffed and stood up. "I'll see you tomorrow, Sarah."