Good Days •Rafe Cameron•

I Love You

"Did you at least get it on video?" I asked Kiara over the phone. She was recently telling me about the night she had with Pope and JJ; explains the events they just witness.
Ward killed Gavin after they apparently had a heated discussion about the gun Rafe used to kill Peterkin.
I walked around The Wreck locking up for the night as I listened to Kiara speak over phone. "No, JJ knocked over Pope's camera-." She's quickly cut off by JJ. "That's because you stepped on my hand!" He shouts over the phone.
"So where's the gun?" I asked, changing the subject. "It fell down one of the storm drains." Pope says. I can hear him take the phone out of Kie's hand. "We're gonna try to find it tomorrow." He says.
"Okay." I sigh, running my hands through my locs. "Are you coming home tonight, Kie?" I asked my cousin waiting for her to answer. "No, I'm gonna crash at The Chateau." She says.
"Okay, I'll cover for you." I said, locking up the back door to the restaurant. "Thanks, see you tomorrow." She hangs up the phone leaving me alone in my thoughts.
To think, all of this could have been over tonight if it wasn't for Kie stepping on JJ's hand apparently.
I begin to walk towards the dock as I head home. It was only a fifteen minute walk back to the house.
The smell of rain from earlier cleared the air as I tilted my head back and sucked in a sharp breath.
I always loved the smell of rain. The sweet scent of earth was always a fresh delight.
I rubbed my arms as a cold breeze blew against my skin. The September air was becoming crisp now that the season is starting to change from summer to fall.
I didn't notice him until I was finally walking under a lamppost. His tall figure stood across the street as he watched be take slower steps once I realize that he knew that I saw him.
He looked exhausted. Tired of the life he currently is living. "I think you should leave." I spoke. "Please, Be..." Rafe pleaded.
He began to walk over to my side of the street. "What do you want, Rafe?" I asked. I narrow my eyes crossing my arms across my chest. "I just saw my dad." He says. His eyes are filled with tears and his cheeks are stained with old ones.
"Gavin." He starts. "Gavin is-." I cut him off. "I don't want to know." I say. "Honestly, Rafe. I don't know why you keep crawling back into my life." I can feel my chest begin to move up and down as my breathing becomes heavy.
"It's because you love me..." Rafe trails off waiting for me to say something. I look away; staring at the wet ground as I try to avoid eye contact. I suddenly feel his warm hands travel up my arm as the pad of his finger tips dance across my goosebumps.
Slowly moving up; he continues to travel up both my arms, moving past my neck until he's caressing my face. He holds my head in his hands as his thumb rubs my cheek.
He tilts my head up so that he can look at my face. His eyes rapidly move as he blinks several times taking in my features. I do the same.
His are brows are raised as he stares at me with his brooding eyes. His demeanor suddenly comes off as confident. A small, cunning smirk spears.
"You can't say that." I whispered. "What? Why?" He moaned. I grab his hands, pulling them away from my face. Rafe pulls his hands from mine, quickly wrapping them around my waist pulling my closer. I can suddenly smell his cologne. Subtle but enticing. The kind of smell that reminds me of our kiss.
"You know why, Rafe." I start. "You killed the Sheriff. You stabbed me. You're not a good person." I explain.
"Oh, come on." Rafe sighs. "I know you know that last part isn't true. My dad told me how you ran into him this morning. You do think I'm a good person. He says you think I'm special." He smirk gets bigger, growing into a smile.
       "Did I say special? I meant weird." I said, teasingly. "I mean, you're one of the weirdest white boys I've ever met. That's coming from someone who's friends with JJ Maybank." I explain.
      "Stop joking with me." Rafe says. "I'm sorry for hurting you, okay. Can we just go back to being friends?" He asked.
     I roll my eyes. "You're funny." I chuckle. "I can't believe you think it's that easy. If you turn yourself in to the police, then maybe I'll consider being your friend. I'll even visit you in jail. We can talk through those cool phones with the glass barrier." My attitude poured out as looked into his blue eyes.
     "I think Conjugal Visits are more my style." He laughs. I playfully role my eyes. "Good night, Rafe." I say, softy. I finally pull out of his grip around my waist. His hands reach out longingly after me as he continues to watch me walk down the street toward Figure Eight.
"So that's it." Rafe called out, causing me to stop walking. I can hear him approach me from behind. "Please, Be. Look at me." He pleaded. His voice quiet. Not a whisper. Just quiet. Loud enough for me to hear.
I turn around so that I'm facing him. "What, Rafe." I say. "Talk to me. For real. What can I say or do that will make you forgive me?" He asked. He waved his hands around stressed with guilt from stabbing me.
"I do forgive you." I spoke. My brown eyes roamed his face. "What?" He asked. "You're forgiven. But that doesn't mean we can be friends." I explained.
"Maybe we can be more than friends?" He asked. He begins to lean in. I can feel his breath on my face. The hair on the back of my neck rise. The light form the lamppost illuminating my brown skin as I feel his lips graze mine. They barely touched before he moved to my cheek, pressing his lips my skin.
"You can't kiss me." I want to cry. Why am I feeling like this? "I love you, Phoebe." Rafe says.
"Don't....don't say that." I push him back. "You don't get to tell me you love me. Because you don't. You don't love me. You think you do but you don't. I stand up for you. I listen and talk to you. I actually care about you. Everyone talks bad about you. But not me. And that's why you think you love me." I explained.
"I do love you. And no one can tell me otherwise. Not even you. You don't get invalidated my feeling for you. Yes, I love how you stand up for me. But I also love the way you challenge me. You're smart. Stubborn. You're kind but mean as hell at the same time. You're spontaneous. You're strong. You thrive, Be. Everyone likes you." He says.
"I remember seeing you for the first time. I was so focused on JJ and Pope during the movie. I should have been paying more attention to you. I watched you immediately becoming friends with the Pogues. That tells me that you are a likable person. And here I was; being a complete jerk to you at the Midsummers when we danced. I didn't know at that moment. I didn't know that I would be in love with this girl who I barely knew anything about. Just your name. Phoebe." He spoke, confidently. Listing out his infatuations with me.
"Don't say that ever again. Don't tell me that I don't love you. All I need to know is do you love me, too?" He asked.
I choked on my breath as I tried to calm my breathing. "I sympathize with you. I care for you. But no, I don't think I love you." I say.
Rafe's face immediately drops. "Hmm." He hums. "Can I at least walk you home? We live only two streets away from each other." He says. I nod. "Sure."
We walk in silence down the dark street. The only sound echoing is the crashing of small waves from the marsh.
Rafe puts in a code to the gate of the neighborhood taking my hand as the gate opens up. I feel Rafe's eyes on my causing me to lock eyes with him. "What." I giggled. "Gosh, you're beautiful." He states. He rubs his thumb on the back of my hand.
    "How did your parents meet?" Rafe suddenly asked. "Why do you want to know?" I say. He shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know. Just curious." He answers.
     "Well, my mom grew up here in the Outer Banks. She was well known with the locals always helping out tourist. Her and Anna became best friends after Anna started dating Mike.
    There was a hurricane one night. My dad was a tourist. Visiting for the summer with a group of friends before he started college in the fall. My mom worked the old Surf shop downtown.
    Him and his friends ran into the store for cover. He saw my mom. She saw him. And the rest is history. Or was history." I say, correcting my self now that they are no longer alive.
"How long has it been? You know since the...accident?" Rafe asked. "Four month on Sunday." I answered.
"What about your mom?" I asked. Rafe never mentioned his birth mother to me. I've never heard anything about her from Sarah either. I didn't know anything about her.
"Rose?" He questioned. "No, you're birth mother." I say. He shakes his head. "I don't want to talk about her." He dismissed quickly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry. It's just that you don't talk about her. And it must be hard sometimes. But at least you have Rose. She kind of like your mother, right." I comment.
"Rose isn't my mother. She not anything to me. Alright? I didn't come out of her vagina." He snapped.
"You don't have to be an ass about it." I say. Rafe scoffs. "Whatever." He sighs.
We finally make it to my house. The porch light illuminated the big red door. "Your folks home?" Rafe asked. "Yeah. Anna's probably waiting up for me. Most likely to corner me about Kiara's whereabouts." I chuckled.
"Where is she anyway?" Rafe says. "Kie, I mean." He says. "Just...out." I answered. "Do you always cover for her? It's not your job to get her out of trouble." He states.
"Well, we're family. I would do anything for her. Wouldn't you?" I smiled softly looking up into his eyes.
"For Kiara?" He furrowed his brows. I playfully punch his arm, laughing. "No, not Kiara. Sarah and Wheezie." I smile.
"Honestly?" He asked. I nod. "No. Not if it gets me in trouble. I'm the oldest, I don't really have time to get in trouble for other people. My dad already gives me a hard time." He explains.
We're silent for a moment. Just standing in front of my house. Rafe takes both of my hands in his holding on tight. "Is this going to be us from now on?" He asked. "These late nights chats between us. Secretly hanging out in the middle of the night." He says.
"There's nothing going on with us. I hope you know that. I understand you have feeling for me, but we can't. I can't." I say.
"But-." I cut him off. "I have to go Rafe." I pull my hands out of his hands. "Be..." He trails off. "Good night, Rafe." I said, making it final.
I walk up to the porch feeling his eyes on me. Before opening the door I turn back. Giving him a wave as I walk into the house.