When you walked into the country club that night, you made a beeline for the bar. Your first year of college had not been treating you well, and you needed a drink. A strong one at that.
Your favorite bartender, a red-headed woman named Joey, was working that night. She made you a vodka soda just like how you liked 'em: more vodka than soda and a shit ton of lime. An underage-drinking staple. But hey, you were only two years away from legality. It wasn't that bad.
You drank it with your younger brother Landon by your side at the bar, watching him refresh Twitter for the status reports of the hockey game happening tonight.
"You want the NHL, Landon?" Joey asked, wiping up a ring of perspiration with a black rag at the now-empty tabletop to his right. "I can change it."
"Yes, Joey, thank you," Landon sighed, pocketing his phone, and swiveled around in his chair towards the TV mounted beside the bar. "Hey," he said abruptly, and you hummed curiously in response. "Rafe is here."
You crunched down onto the ice cube in your mouth, the easy smile on your lips hardening.
"Who is he with?" You ask, not turning to look, and focus in on the stack of paper coasters next to the mixing pads.
"Dunno. Some girl. She has black hair."
The grip on your drink tightens.
"Nice," you say through gritted teeth, gaze never wavering from the coasters.
Yes, Rafe Cameron had a girlfriend. She was some hotshot golfer from Northern Carolina. You saw her in your communications lecture sometimes, sitting in the front row next to her posse of tanned girls with shining smiles and alcohol problems. She had sat next to you on the first day, passing you the syllabus with a snarky look on her face, and you had decided to hate her right then and there. It was a simple hatred, nothing personal, but when she came back to the Outer Banks with Rafe's hand in hers, it got personal.
Rafe was your highschool fling. He used to pick you up from school in his truck and you'd go out to the lighthouse or the beach by his house or his grandparents' summer home fifteen minutes away to hang out, have sex, or smoke. Usually all three. You two dated for nearly 10 months starting at the first semester of your senior year, and then he decided to break it off and focus on being a good son and good employee of his father's. Whatever. Like he actually did anything of the sort— all he'd done while you were at college was hold his hand out to his father and snort coke with your hometown's dealer.
And then he has a girlfriend. A beautiful girlfriend, but you'd never admit it. You wonder if she has a cocaine problem too.
You weren't averse to drugs, no—in fact, you had a J with your breakfast nearly every day. But at least you weren't dropping hundreds of dollars for fifteen minutes of a high every week. And at least you weren't distracting yourself between the legs of a tall black-haired student athlete.
Maybe you were bitter.
"Two more," says a breathless voice at the end of the bar, and you just let your eyes fall closed. Landon slaps at your arm without pulling his eyes from the TV, and you curse at him with a smack back. Asshole.
"Y/N?"
You breathe in through your nose. Okay. Don't act like you recognize him.
You turn towards Rafe, a pleasantly blank look on your face, and purse your lips.
"Hi."
"Hey." His perfectly tan face splits in a grin, and he comes around the corner of the bar towards you two. "Hey, Landon." He daps up your brother, that stupid look still on his face, and just stands and looks at you for a second. He puts his hands on his hips, and your gaze follows them for a second before moving back up to his face, whip-fast. You see him catch it, the corners of his lips tugging up further. He sighs. "I see the Xanax finally caught up to you."
YOU ARE READING
rafe cameron tumblr imagines
Non-Fictioni hate reading on tumblr so im putting all my favourites here