wicked | rafe cameron

beautiful and smart

"What the fuck is going on, Kelce. Did I forget your birthday or something?", Erin asked.

Kelce led her to one of the bar tables, put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer, overlooking his guests.

His family was here, so was Erins. Along with some friends and business partners of their families, including the Camerons, of course.

He hadn't told a lot of people about his plans. Only Topper, Rafe and Erins mother knew about the small, white jewelry box in his suit pocket.
Everyone else just thought they were invited to an ordinary dinner party.

Champagne was passed around, appetizers were served and people talked about their boring life excitedly.

Kelce's house was large, most of the guests stayed in the garden or on the terrace, a few also strayed into the living room where they made themselves comfortable on the big couch.
Employees meandered between the kooks, busy filling or picking up empty glasses while trying not to bump into anyone.

Kelce really outdid himself with this event, wanting everything to be perfect on his special day.
Simple decoration, soft and pleasant music coming from the white speakers. One dressed fancier than the other, the smell of cigars and sweet alcoholic drinks in the air.

Everything was perfect, until Rafe arrived.

He arrived later than everyone else, wearing a weird fitting suit with his tie all messed up. Strands of hair clinging to his forehead.

When Ward spotted his son, he sighed audibly and excused himself from his friend, walking straight towards Rafe.

"What are you doing? I thought you're staying home.", he asked in a quiet and calm, but strict tone.

Rafe shook his head. "Nah. Nah, I was invited, right? Kelce is my best friend, we're like, real tight, you know?"

Ward furrowed his brows.
"You smell like shit, Rafe. Go home and clean yourself up. You're embarrassing yourself, really."

The grip around his arm tightened, nervous about his son causing a scene in front of the guests and let everyone know how much of a fuck up he was.

"I'm fine, dad.", Rafe mumbled.

Knowing people were watching them, Ward started fixing Rafe's tie and patted his chest with the palm of his hand.

"Have some water and sober up.", he ordered, even though he would've preferred to just throw him off the property so that he wouldn't have to deal with his inconvenience.

Rafe nodded, making his way towards the kitchen where he poured himself a glass of water from the sink.

He wasn't even sure why he was here. He knew what was about to happen, Erin was about to get engaged and it fucking broke him to think about it.

After his seventh line he started thinking about ways to stop this tragedy from happening, was about to call Barry and borrow an automatic gun. Shoot the whole place up, Columbine style.
He could just kill Kelce too, slip some pills into his drink or something. Make him choke on the words will you marry me.

Maybe he would approach the whole thing less violently, intentionally overdosing and dying on Kelces living room carpet or setting the house on fire.

With all these ideas, Rafe still just ended up getting shitfaced at home, wallowing in self pity and hating everyone and everything. But he still decided to go, barely being able to walk nor think.

Rafe wanted to watch Erins reaction looking at the ring, wondered if she would think of him, even if only for a second.
Searching for his eyes, maybe hesitating and imagining what could have been if she said no.