HEARTLESS─── RAFE CAMERON [1]

chapter nineteen

He stared at me for a moment, his gaze searching. Then, without another word, he followed me as I led him away from the bonfire and the crowd, toward the edge of the beach where the waves lapped at the shore.

As we walk along the shoreline, the sounds of laughter and music slowly fade into the background. The crashing waves provide a soothing rhythm, and the cool night air brushes against my skin, momentarily clearing my mind from the haze of alcohol.

We find a spot where the sand is soft, and we both sink down onto it, my laughter mixing with the sounds of the ocean. I turn to Rafe, a grin on my lips. "See, this is much better, isn't it?"

Rafe's eyes are dreary in the moonlight. "Quieter," is all he says at first. " I can actually hear myself think."

I scoot a little closer, my shoulder brushing against his. "So, what were you so worked up about back there?"

He sighs, his gaze distant for a moment before he meets my eyes. "It's just...seeing Aaron with Cassie, it bothered me more than I thought it would."

I tilt my head— all an act. "Why would that bother you? It's not like you still have feelings for Cassie, right?" I already know the answer to this question, deep in the bottom of my stomach. I just want him to say it, confirm it, once and for all.

Rafe's eyebrows furrow, his expression conflicted. "No, I do. Obviously. Otherwise we wouldn't be doing this." He shuffles his hands between us.

I breathe out slowly. "Right."

"This whole time I've been trying to prove that I'm over Cassie. But clearly I'm still as fucking in love with her as I was before." He takes a huge swig of his beer, and doesn't stop till he's finished the entire bottle. I stare at him, partly in shock and partly in worry, when I see his fists clenched at his sides.

He growls out, throat hoarse.

"Rafe?" I say, so quietly and tentatively it's lost in the sound of waves and wind.

"What, Lux?" He spits out. 

At this I frown. One moment we were actually talking, getting somewhere. I was understanding him and what he's been thinking in that hollow head of his. And now he's drinking again and turning into the boy I've hated for the last three years.

"Drowning yourself in alcohol isn't going to help anything."

"Alright, Lux. You have all the answers, don't you? What do you suggest?"

"Rafe—" but I don't get to finish my sentence, because a much uglier symphony meets my ears.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here!" I turned, my heart sinking as I saw Aaron standing there, a mocking grin on his face. He was looking at us with a mixture of amusement and disdain.

Immediately, Rafe stands up to level head with Aaron. It gives me no other choice but to stand up too. Rafe's entire body tensed beside me, his hands curling into fists once again. But this time, there was something different in his eyes. A dangerous glint that sent a shiver down my spine. Aaron's smirk widens, his eyes glinting with a dark kind of mischief.

"Hey, Aaron," I greet, trying to keep my tone light.

Aaron's gaze flickers between us, a smirk playing at the corners of his lips. "So, it is true! You two really are dating."

"You already knew that," I say curtly, nostrils flaring.

"Yes," he says flatly. "Yes, I did. But did I really believe it? No, Lux. I didn't."

"Well now you can see," I say in the same curt tone as before. "So you can go."

"I don't know," he says, smirk widening. "I came to find you, Lux. Just because it's been looking increasingly more and more obvious to me that your boyfriend still wants a taste of what he can't have." I furrow my brows at this, but then Aaron nods towards Cassie, who's now talking near the bonfire several yards away with a group of friends.