Plastic Hearts ✸ Rafe Cameron [ english ]

iv. rafe cameron's image losses

𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 ——— pleasing a storm
rafe cameron's image losses ——— 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫

✤

          IT WAS STARTING TO GET SUSPICIOUS. And it wasn't because Rafe hadn't spoken for a good ten minutes, because all he could think about was the string bag that had fallen right under my feet just a few minutes ago. Things started to get suspicious because we were driving in total darkness, through some wilderness and in a direction I didn't know.

"Cameron? Where are you actually going?" Rafe took his eyes off the road and looked at me, furrowing his eyebrows. There was a kind of cloudiness to his gaze, which only confirmed my belief that he was in desperate need of filling the void in his sober body. "Ahead?" he replied.

Mhm. Well, yes, that explains a lot.

"And when... you stop somewhere?" Without taking his eyes off me, he replied, "When you tell me where to go"

I couldn't help myself, my hand wandered up on its own, and I slapped my forehead with it. What an imbecile. "Are you making fun of me?"

"And you of me, Lopez?" he finally raised his voice, which frightened me a bit.

"You know what? it doesn't matter" I replied equally irritated, "Just stop somewhere and let's get it over with"

After a while, the car was already at the side of the road, and there was an uncomfortable silence inside. And it was very uncomfortable. I was sure that Cameron was waiting for me to start talking, but I didn't really feel like doing it. Not that I didn't know what to say.

"So?" Cameron finally asked.

"What an idiot you are, Rafe.... You wanted to talk to me, so talk"

"I was curious ... what you actually had planned for yourself," he finally replied, scratching the back of his neck and wandering off somewhere with his eyes.

"Oh, you know..." I took air in my lungs and tried to somehow put a sentence together. I thought like that for a long while, until I finally started playing with my fingers. It wasn't that difficult. I give you money, and you take me to some kook parties. So why couldn't it pass my lips? "You give me cash, and I take you to kook parties"

It was only after a while that my own words echoed in my head. I had another urge to slap my forehead, but I shook off the idea for fear of getting a bruise. Instead, I grunted — perhaps too loudly — and looked in Rafe's direction. "I mean..."

Cameron was staring at the steering wheel with his mischievous grin on his lips. Once again I felt that this was not something I should be doing. "On the contrary," he interrupted me before I had a chance to finish my sentence" I see. And where did you get that kind of money?"