"He was different than anyone else, more rough and less polite in the best aspects. Being with him was like my own personal punishment, and my best gift all at once."
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"What the hell?" I pushed his arms off of myself, placing my hands on my chest to shove him away. Rafe's back met the door, causing a harsh thud and he played it off like nothing before stepping my direction to grab me again.
"K, stop," I fought his grasp, before he shook me to gain my attention. "K, stop!"
I became still, looking up at him, "You can't be just saying this shit out loud at a party. Especially, at a party in figure 8." His face became dark, looking down at my own.
"You're always so worried about what people think," I scoffed, moving out of his grasp and sitting on the mattress. Anything would've been better than being stuck in a room with Rafe.
"That's not it, Khali, you know that." He pointed at me, and his ring glistened against the dim lamp light in the room. The music muffled our conversation, shaking the walls of the house and adding just that much more tension to the room.
"So, what is it?" I snapped, leaning back on the bed and using my arms to support myself. His silence after that bothered me, "What is it, Rafe?"
"You have no idea," he laughed humorlessly, blowing air from his mouth and running another hand through his hair. "Barry? You saw what happened at the club, yeah?"
I nodded simply, looking away from him finally and sighing myself. God knows what would happen to JJ, if Barry found out it was him. I shut my eyes, not wanting to think of JJ, who had been through more than enough already.
"Yeah, think of that times ten," He stopped his pace, leaning against the door of the room.
"So, does he know?"
He looked at me dazed, before nodding and I leaned forward to place my face in my hands. "Fuck."
"He already talked to me about it... and he knows, K. He knows it was the pogues. I mean, my ass is grass if he doesn't get that money back, K." He began rambling, a new look of worry that I hadn't seen much washed over him.
"So, that's why you're so hellbent on getting that money back to him," I rolled my tongue against my bottom lip, finally clicking the pieces of the puzzle and being disappointed with the result.
He stopped rambling, to look at me confused, "Huh?"
"'Cause you're scared it'll bite you in the ass... not sarah."
"That's not the point, K. He'll get to all of us, not just me."
"But you don't care about that, do you? You're Rafe. I mean, you only really care about yourself."
"Stop doing that, stop." He pushed himself off the door, moving forward towards me and grabbing me once again. "I'm just taking care of business, the way it should be."
There was a cut in our anger, a brief moment where it all stopped and I found myself in a pool of confusion. A part of me almost felt... bad. He didn't seem to be okay, maybe more stressed than anything and the way his hair was frazzled made it that much more obvious. All the way down to the way he hadn't gone to fix his ring back to its original position, showed how distracted he was and it made me feel sympathy for a brief moment.
