Kiara and Rafe's Guide to Dating

lesson 7: cover ground-

lesson 7: cover ground— (long awaited)

We are alone, just you and me

Up in your room and our slates are clean

State of Grace - Taylor Swift

The rest of the night was relatively clear until the vodka came out.

JJ found his way to an elevated surface to showcase his back-flip front-flip combo to which Pope cheered on in a state of intoxication.

Someone dragged the other to a dark corner and Rafe and Kiara started making out in-- what they thought was-- secrecy.

No one thought the drinks were hitting them until Sarah and Topper started sob-singing a Taylor Swift song that was playing in the lounge.

Kiara and John B began making plans for the next day between the 6th and 7th shots.

Rafe somehow got roped into showing Wheezie and Fiona his entire photo camera roll after they sprouted an impromptu photoshoot for his birthday.

Eventually, Kiara rescued Rafe from that—in the nick of time—he had just run out of photos Barry had taken of the couple. She pulled him away from the two girls with a sheepishly apologetic smile, Fiona winked.

"Hey," Kiara smiled up at him, she looked so dopey and happy it was ridiculous. And contagious.

"Hi." Rafe said back with an equally silly smile. His head tilted down to look at her, his lips close to hers.

She swayed on her feet. "Are you having fun?"

Rafe nodded, looking back at the surprise birthday party in full swing. Pope was feeding a slice of cake to Sarah who kept protesting but opened her mouth wide.

"Wanna leave?" Kiara asked.

Rafe snorted in relief, "Fuck yeah."

He wrapped his arm around Kiara and they began their Irish exit until JJ caught sight of them leaving and hollered, making everyone hoot out as well.

During their ride back to their hotel the pair had been parched and made plans to hit the ice machine before returning to their room. Together they stumbled to the 3rd floor and argued—not very quietly—about who would be the one to run back to their room to retrieve the ice bucket they had forgotten about. Kiara couldn't find her room key card anywhere, so she suggested that Rafe, as organized as he always is, to use his to retrieve the bucket.

He obviously disagreed and found that logic unfair.

They kept drawing in a game of rock paper scissors (rather they didn't clarify if they would go on shoot or three leading them to forgo the game and argue about which technique makes more sense). So ultimately the consensus was that they would both go back together.

The plan was quickly abandoned as Kiara's face paled once they entered their room and she ran to the bathroom to throw up. Rafe dutifully held her hair back as she vomited into the toilet bowl.

Kiara groaned and allowed the chill of the porcelain to cook her cheek.

Rafe swept his hand to pull back a few stray pieces that fell in front of her face. The corners of her mouth were glossy with spit.

"Just like old times," Rafe murmured as he ran his thumb over the corners of her lips to clean her up.

"I wasn't this bad in high school," Kiara pulled her face up to look at him, her eyebrows knitted in confusion, "Was I?"