This is Me Trying ⭑ Rafe Cameron

thirty five

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
[35]
song: don't you forget it by allah-las

Cassie was more than happy to run errands for Kiara if it meant distracting herself from the other night. She'd spent the past several days in what felt like a depressed haze. The worst part being her inability to wrap her head around her own feelings.

The girl had her insecurities. She always had. And for a while, Rafe made those insecurities go away. He was with her. he'd chosen her. Not one of the pretty Kook girls in their nice cars and yachts. Not Kiara, who'd always been the more confident and outgoing of the pair, always earning more attention at parties.

Rafe made Cassie feel important. Like she had value, and wasn't someone you could just toss to the side. And she knew it was bad to depend on another person to bring out those thoughts of herself, but the damage was already done. He was the only one who found her at a time where she was completely lost.

But now it felt all over. She'd burned her bridges, and she kept telling herself it was for the best. At some point, Rafe was going to get tired of pining after her when she wasn't reciprocating, and move on. But she didn't really understand how much she needed him until he wasn't there.

She spent her days moping around, going to the beach with her grandma who said walking in the sand was good for her arthritis. JJ hadn't been returning her calls, John B was MIA too. She'd heard Sarah was at a Kook party at Mase recently, and Pope and Cleo were busy working.

When she'd gone to The Wreck this morning, to help set up for the Carerra's anniversary party at Kiara's request, she was already out the door.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry— I know you just got here, but could you run by Party City and pick up the balloons? There's a list on the counter." Kiara asked, rushing out the door just as Cassie went through it. "They got twenty-five pounds of crab instead of shrimp—"

"That's a lot of crab." Cassie spoke over Kiara's rambling.

"—so I have to go deal with that." Kiara was out of breath, assumedly from running around her parents restaurant all afternoon.

"Yeah, is Sarah coming?" Cassie asks, turning as Kiara quickly made her way down the path towards her car.

"I don't know, she's not answering her phone." Kiara shrugs, she then lets out a huff of a sigh, and nods at Cassie. "Thank you, you're the best."

Cassie smiled at her, a bit of her stress rubbing off on her as she turned to head inside. Swinging the door open, she poked her head in and greeted Kiara's mom. "Hi Anna."

Anna was a pretty, red headed woman who, for a Kook was always exceptionally kind to Cassie. Kiara's father was friends with Cassie's mother in high school, and she was always reminded by him of how similar they were.

"Oh, hi honey." Anna came around the counter and embraced Cassie in a hug, planting a friendly kiss on the top of her head. "Thank you so much for coming, did Kiara see you?" She gestured out the door.

Cassie nodded. "Yeah, she—" she looked around and picked up the list labeled 'Party City'. "This."

Anna let out a deep sigh, then dug into her back pocket. "Here's my card. Get yourself some lunch too." She hands Cassie her credit card. "Thought I'd have some time to feed you kids but—" she shook her head quickly and huffed, just as frazzled as her daughter.