Loveless.

III. Bad Pistol is Back

THREE.     BAD PISTOL IS BACK (MY GUN HAS GONE ROGUE AGAIN!)

You don't get gifts from Rafe Cameron and just fucking forget about them. They are here to stay.

Theodora's got a scar above her left hip bone.

It's a small scar. Only a few inches. It's not very deep. It's thin. She drags her finger over it when she can't think straight. It happens a lot.

She will never understand why she gravitates so much towards the scar. She figures, it's because it was given to her by Rafe. His gifts are always so thoughtful.

Are they not?

The scar had been an accident. It really had been. She'd been younger. Naive. Clueless of the troubles that would wash up as she dug herself a deeper grave without so much of realization. Rafe had just started to tick in his own skin. His own bones too heavy to carry alone.

There was a dinner happening. It was casual. Sarah was at the dining table making Louisa laugh over her pop. Rose been serving up plates of food she hadn't cooked. Tyler was at her side assisting, because of course he was there. Where Theodora went, Tyler went. It's just how they worked. Ward had dragged his son to a corner away from the kitchen, a corner Theo could see clear as glass as she came down the stairs. Her hands slightly damp and smelling of cinnamon apple. That was the soap in Rafe's bathroom.

That soap is gone now.

Lots of old things are.

Ward's words couldn't have even lasted minutes. His hand had been tight on Rafe's jaw, his pink lips squished together as he shook in his skin—like a little boy. Ward yanked his hand away, and with more harsh words he stabbed his finger into his seventeen year old son's chest. He disappeared back into the kitchen like he had never been in front of Rafe, like nothing had happened. Theo was stuck on the stairs, her eyes wide like a baby animal. The scene had reminded her of her own father and older brother, who was gone from the island. She could see Rafe's balled up fists shaking down at his sides. His jaw tight. She let out an uneasy breath and his eyes had slammed up to hers.

Their gazes met like colliding oceans, waves crashing onto one another and drowning everyone out.

Her father hadn't started with his angry fist towards her just yet.

Rafe didn't say anything, he was only looking at Theo and she seemed to already know what was going to happen.

She is his dog. She hadn't always been.

He hadn't been like this last year around this time, but his perspectives had changed. He was a year older to being an adult. His father had changed. Businesses had changed. Anger had changed. Nothing about Theo had changed, and Rafe bathed in that when he could.

Theo watches him climb the stairs and when he meets her at her side, he just keeps going. He doesn't say anything. She can feel the heat coming off his skin. It burns her. She turns around and follows him up the rest of the way and into his room. She wonders if her brother can see them. She wonders what Tyler is thinking if he had seen them. Rafe's muttering, hands tight in his hair. Theo closes the door as quietly as she can.