Amnesiac

CHAPTER 5

Ward and Rafe fought.

A lot.

Within the past 2 months or so, you'd either somehow missed it or they did a very good job of keeping you in the dark, but it was there. You'd seen the cold looks they'd throw each other occasionally, and you didn't think anything of it. A tiff between father and son? Not unheard of. You'd even hear the angered whispers in his office late at night, Rafe's relaxed drawl bleeding through sometimes.

It was only when you came up the stairs one day did you realize what it was about.

"If it's not the generators then it's the contractors or the gardener," Ward angrily spat. "You like to throw it in my face that I don't trust you when you prove time and time again that I simply can't."

"Dad-."

"Every opportunity I give you to be responsible, to prove yourself, what do you do? You spend the money on gifts for Y/N or you blow it with your friends or snort it up your damn nose!"

Your lips had parted at that, heart dropping for several reasons.

"When I saw how responsible you were being with Y/N, I thought that things would be different now. I thought 'wow, maybe I can finally trust him', but no. You're still the same as you always were."

You backed down a few steps as Ward hurried past, his office door slamming not long after, and you felt frozen. Sarah had said that the way Rafe was around you wasn't who he was with everyone else, and you honestly couldn't decide if that was good...or bad.

By the time you got the courage to move again, Rafe had already made his way to his room. You didn't want him to know that you'd heard, and so you took a moment to gather yourself, schooling your features before pushing his door open. His face was even when you walked in, and he threw you a smile.

You could see the slight strain in his face though, the darkness in his eyes, and you were tempted to ask him what was wrong. You wanted Rafe to know that he could talk to you about anything, but you had quickly learned that Rafe wasn't the type who could so easily talk about his feelings unprovoked. Your discovery of the true nature of his relationship with his dad made you look at both of them in a whole new light.

Once you saw it, you couldn't unsee it, and you wondered how you missed it before.

Rafe's desperation for Ward's approval was almost painful to watch. His lingering gaze as he told Ward he was taking you to the doctor for your check up, the way he'd wait for Ward to say anything as he offered to take care of business for him, the clench of Rafe's jaw whenever Ward flat out ignored his presence altogether.

It made you incredibly sad for him.

And truthfully, maybe that was why you ignored the red flags. The jitteriness, the way he'd brush his fingers under his nose, or Ward even flat out insinuating that Rafe did drugs. There was a large part of you that was understanding of however Rafe chose to cope with his dad's ire. As much as you wanted him to let you inside of his head, you knew better than anyone that was easier said than done. So, you turned a blind eye, hoping he'd come to you when he was ready.

You hadn't expected it to be in the middle of the night when he was drunk out of his mind. Or high. You couldn't tell the difference.

He'd woken you up out of your sleep, stumbling inside in the dark and knocking against his dresser. Your doctor had given you some pain medication for the headaches, and drowsiness was an unfortunate side effect, so these days you found yourself hitting the hay much earlier than Rafe. You languidly turned on the lamp, blinking at the sight of Rafe as he struggled to get his jacket off.