LITTLE SECRET | RAFE CAMERON

02: 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶

Alice's head fell against the edge of the bathtub as she muttered a groaning "fuck" under her breath.

Sitting on the cold bathroom floor, she felt the nausea ravage her, yet she hadn't thrown up. She made a mental note to never trust Sarah and her stupid drinks again.

Rafe sat on the bathroom floor just like her. His body leaning against the closed bathroom door, watching over her as if he was her personal nurse or some shit.

The annoyed expression on his face made her roll her eyes. „you know, you don't have to be here"

He pressed his tongue against his cheek, pushing out a weary huff as he leant forward and leaned his arms on his propped knees, „Oh yeah, cause' you're so good at taking care of yourself, huh?"

„What's that supposed to mean?" She furrowed her brows.

He shrugged, but she could tell that something was burning on the tip of his tongue. Something only an asshole like him would come up with.

„I overheard Sarah talking..." He began, pausing for a second to take in the sight of her. Her sitting on his bathroom floor with that wasted expression on her face, which slowly faded into a tensed one as he said his next words. „...about cheating boyfriend's and stuff."

She knew where he was going with this, feeling her heart aching in her chest by the bare thought of it.

„You took good care of yourself by getting involved with that dirty Pogue, didn't you, princess?"

Her vision blurred from the tears welling up in her eyes. She hated crying in front of others, especially in front of someone like Rafe.

Well, but he was still somehow right.

She shouldn't have gotten involved with that boy and yet her own mind fooled her into thinking it was true love.

„I'm not blaming you, but getting cheated on doesn't sound like taking care of yourself" He laughed spitefully. „this is what happens when you deal with the other side of the island, Kook princess cheated on by a Pogue, fuck that sounds-„

Before he even finished his sentence, she rushed over to the toilet bowl.

It felt like her throat was tightening, like everything inside her was spinning. The heat in her head shot a sharp pain through her as she threw up everything she had consumed during the night.

The loss of control over her body made her tremble all over, miserable in her pretty short blue dress.

With a sigh, Rafe shifted away from the door and crouched down next to her. „Yeah, get it all out" He pulled her hair out of her face, holding it tightly with one hand as the other one caressed her back.

„Fuck you" She spat under her breath.

When she finally had nothing left to vomit, she fell back against the hard bathtub.

She looked up at him with glassy eyes, her mascara smeared and her expression so weak that he swallowed hard for a moment as he met her gaze.

The sight momentarily made his mind wander elsewhere.

„You know..." He took a deep breath. „...I knew he would hurt you sooner or later"

Her eyes followed him wordlessly as he stood, staring motionlessly at the hand he held out to help her up and set her on the edge of the bathtub.

Rafe grabbed a fresh towel and soaked it under the tap, turning to her.

He carefully lifted her chin and stroked her face with the wet towel.

„Look at you Alice, someone like JJ could never handle you" He said, removing the black mascara from around her eyes.

„Oh, but you could?" She huffed weakly.

He threw the towel into the laundry basket with a chuckle and rummaged around in the cupboard under his sink until he found a hair tie.

„I already am" He carefully pulled her hair together, holding it in a ponytail and pulling the hair tie around it. „and now get up and brush your teeth, you need some sleep"

„You want me to brush them with my finger?"

„Cabinet above the sink" He said and left her alone in his bathroom.

With a snarl, she stood up and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked as if she had risen from the dead, her skin pale and her eyelids heavy.

God, she hated the way she looked.

When she opened the closet, she was more than surprised by the tidiness inside, but keeping it tidy wasn't much of a challenge since it was pretty much empty. There were a few perfumes, a cup with his toothpaste and toothbrush in it, shaving things, hair gel and just all the stuff she had seen in her older brother's bathroom, but one thing was very different.

Between all those impersonal things, she noticed that small grey box which brought back a handful of memories.

She carefully took it out, looking down at the two words written in her handwriting.

From Alice.

She took the lid off and felt an emptiness fill her in a matter of seconds.

Without a word, she looked down at the golden ring and the colorful birthday card underneath it.

It was her last birthday gift for him, before everything kinda...changed.

At the beginning of last year, they were still friends. Alice often visited the Camerons because Sarah had been her best friend since first grade.

It felt like they had grown up together. They had known each other for as long as they could remember.

And that's how Alice and Rafe met.

When they were little, all she knew about him was that he was different from the boys at her school. As a little girl, she thought they were weird, but to her, Rafe...wasn't one of the weird boys.

And the older they got, the more he became one of her friends and not just Sarah's older brother.

And of course, Rafe had invited her to his eighteenth birthday, and she wanted to get him something special. She chose the gold ring when she first saw it in the jewelry store, and he actually wore it a lot until things changed between them.

It was somewhere around last year when the rest of winter had passed by. During this time he slowly but surely put some distance between them.

And after all the time that had passed since then, Alice still had no clue what the actual reason for it was.