Old Money - Rafe Cameron

Chapter 29

"I told you to go home." Audrey said seriously, but stepped into her room anyway, and sat back at the edge of her bed.

"I know. I know." Rafe followed her and started pacing, his hands up in his head with distress. "I just couldn't leave things how we left it."

Her arms were shaking as her elbows rested on her knees and her fingers tangled in her hair while she was deep in thought. She liked Rafe... she really liked him, but if he was going to keep hurting her and her friends she wasn't going to have it. "I don't know if I can keep doing this." She whispered.

Rafe stopped pacing and turned to look at her. "What?" He asked sadly.

"This rollercoaster." She shook her head. "It's too much."

Rafe quickly walked so he was standing in front of her and reached out a hand to put on her shoulder but quickly retracted it, not wanting to overwhelm her.

He couldn't see her face, she was looking down at the ground, so he crouched on his knees, holding his hands up in surrender. "I know." He whispered. "I didn't know what else to do." He explained. "I couldn't let him talk to you like that."

She picked up her head and wiped the tears off of her cheeks. "You need to understand that JJ is my friend." She took a shaky breath.

A scoff came from his mouth. "Does a friend talk to a friend like that?"

"He was upset at me." She snapped. "Because I'm fucking the guy that's always hated him."

"I hate him because he's your ex-boyfriend." Rafe explained.

"You've hated him long before I was ever with him." She yelled. "You grew up learning to hate him and all of the other pogues. You spent all of high school beating them up, Rafe."

"That's just what we do." He tried to explain and put his hands on her thighs. "It's a friendly rivalry."

"Stop." She said seriously and pushed his hands off of her. "That is such bullshit and you know it."

He let out a shaky breath and looked away from her. "Well, what was I supposed to do? Just let him talk to you like that?"

"I could have handled it fine." She yelled. "If you'd have stayed inside I wouldn't be nearly as upset as I am right now."

He pushed himself off of his knees and yelled, "You'd still find some bullshit reason to be upset with me!" He yelled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She stood up and challenged him, a dangerous look of anger taking over her eyes.

He took some deep breaths and wiped his face. "Nothing. It's not important."

"No, what is it?" She crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side.

He put his hands to his head and explained, "I'm just... JJ was acting way out of line and I was trying to help and you just can't seem to understand that."

"I do! I do understand it... but he's my friend. And I don't appreciate you always beating him up." She choked on her words, picturing JJ back at home with a red eye and Luke seeing it. "I could've handled it." She started to sob and sat back on her bed and put her head in her hands.

"Audrey..." he said slowly, knowing how upset she was.

Her chest was heaving, her vision narrowing again, unsteady breaths caused her whole body to shake. "He doesn't need anyone else in his life hurting him."

Rafe's eyebrows furrowed, trying to figure out what she meant but he shook it away. He put his hands on her shoulders to try to hopefully stop her trembling, but it didn't work.