JJ's biggest flaw was his recklessness, and his bad ideas. Honestly, that didn't seem that bad to Bexley.
Rafe's biggest flaw? Jealousy. Pure, uncontrolled jealousy.
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tw: manipulation, heavy toxicity, gaslighting, slight emotional abuse
Have you ever been terrified out of your fucking mind?
Bexley had. A few times.
She didn't know it, but fear had become normal for her in ways it never did for other people.
Not jump scare fear. Not horror movie fear. Not walking home in the dark fear.
She'd become accustomed to real, deep, genuine terror.
Her first experiences of it were when her mom would send her to sleep on the beach by her house when men came over, back when Bexley was just a child. She'd been dumb and watched the movie Jaws, and was sure a shark would jump onto land and eat her.
Then, she'd get scared when her mom finally let Bexley stay in her room when men came over. Because some of the men themselves were scary. And some of them hit her mom.
And then, on a rare occasion, one of them brought a gun and threatened to kill her mom for some minor payment dispute. That was terrifying.
That was also one of the first memories Bexley had of speaking to Susan. Yes, the sheriff came over as a friend quiet a few times before this, but nothing stuck out in the young girl's memory as much as when she was being questioned at thirteen years old about how her mom ended up with a bullet in her wall.
True fear came again when Bexley's mom got kidnapped. And then, when her mom was found, terror struck because Bexley thought she was going to die. And then in the same month, Bexley's father found out that he wasn't her real father, and he left, and Bexley was terrified that she'd be alone, forever. Another instance where Susan came to her rescue, taking her in.
Bexley wished she got used to being scared. She always heard traumic incidents make you tougher, but that didn't happen for her.
Bexley was terrified whenever Barry threatened her and her mom. And Bexley had been terrified when JJ Maybank pulled a gun at the beach.
There were so many things in the world that could hurt her. Her mom always told her that every man would try to take advantage of her eventually if she wasn't careful enough. Things were always hard in Bexley's life. Things were always scary.
But no one ever had, and no one ever would, scare her in the way Rafe Cameron did.
He was crazy before they started dating. And everyone knew it too. He was the kind of boy to beat the shit out of people for looking at him the wrong way. He was the kind of violent man that made it easy for everyone to believe he tried to kill his ex girlfriend for cheating on him.
In all honesty, Bexley was now absolutely positive Rafe had done nothing to Amber, despite the rumors, for a multitude of reason. The main one being if he had snapped and tried to kill Amber for simply breaking up with him...he would have done the same thing to Bexley a long time ago.
