Taking Care Of You || Rafe Cameron ||

Chapter 9- Marcus

The sound of buzzing on my nightstand wakes me up. It's still dark out and the only source of light comes from my phone, illuminating the room. I pick up my phone and check the time, it's 3am, I look at the name of the caller to see it's Liv.

"Do you have any idea what time it is where I am?" I say quietly trying not to wake up Rafe.

"Ashley..." I hear Liv's sobs coming from the other side of the phone.
"Woah, what's wrong?" I ask sitting up and leaning my head on the headstand.

"Marcus hasn't come home," She whispers while sniffling, Marcus is her older brother of 2 years, also like an older brother to me. Apart from our summer fling last year.

"Wait, what?" I sit up and cross my legs.

"His phone was found in a lake, Ashley..." She begins sobbing again.
"Oh my god," I say at a normal volume tearing up.
"Do you know where he went? Where was he last seen?" My voice cracks and I hold my chest.

"Danny said he left his house to come home at 6pm, it's now 11, we've been searching for him since and we just tracked his phone, it says it's in the lake underneath that bridge we all used to hang out by," Liv weeps and I try my hardest not to cry.

"Ashley?" I hear a groggy voice from the bed next to me, I uncross my legs and sit on the edge of the bed facing away from the boy I just woke up.
"I heard that Ashley," Liv lets out a small laugh through her sobs. "I gotta go find my brother, you snuggle up to Hot Boy, yeah?" She laughs and then sniffles.
"Mhm," I smile slightly as a tear drops down my cheek and Liv hangs up.
I bring the phone away from my ear placing it in my lap.

"Ashley, what happened?" I see that same silhouette from the night of the bonfire out of the corner of my eye. "Woah, you cryin'?" He bends over slightly and then quickly sits next to me on my right.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Rafe looks into my eyes, the blue in his eyes the only visible thing in this pitch-black room. A tear falls down my right cheek and he sees in, his concerned eyes stare into mine as I try to avoid eye contact.

"It's all right," His voice almost comes out as a whisper, he wraps his arm around me, resting it on my left shoulder. He pulls me into him gently and I lean my head on his chest against his navy blue t-shirt.
I sob as we both stare out of the window into the pitch-black ocean, Rafe rubs circles on my shoulder with his thumb as I ball my eyes out.

After a few minutes, my tiredness kicks in and I slowly stop crying, my eyes are so heavy and I can barely keep them open.
I yawn and Rafe notices, he looks at me for the first time since crying.

"You tired?" He says softly and I nod closing my eyes while still leaning on his chest. He slowly backs up on the bed, lifting his legs on top of the cover. He lays down to the left bringing me with him, he lies behind me and I back up into his warm body.

I feel so unusually safe, and I know that he could beat the shit out of me at any second, but I don't care at the moment.

I lay my head on his arm, and he slings his right arm around my waist and places his hand on my stomach. He pulls me in and I scoot back pressing myself against his body. He massages my stomach as he buries his face in my hair and hugs me like a teddy bear.

I rest my arm on top of his and hold the hand on top of my stomach. I sniffle away my tears and Rafe holds me tighter, I smile while closing my eyes for the first time.

I wake to the scent of Rafe's shirt filling my nose, I notice my face is buried in his chest. His left arm is covering my face and his fingers are tangled in my hair. My left arm is slung around his waist, my other arm is wedged underneath his arm under my head.