Golden Hearts | Rafe Cameron [1]

11

11

June 9

The rain pours outside my window into my room. The sound of pattering and the scent of summer rain drift in from my slightly open balcony door. Due to the rain, it's cooler outside today compared to other days, but it still feels quite nice. I don't have big plans today besides working at our surf shop again. Hopefully, I'll be without Rafe today, but you never know now that apparently we're dating.

I step out of my room and continue along the long corridor leading to the stairs. But when I hear footsteps behind me, I turn around to see who it is, and then I see it's my brother, Nathan, walking behind me with something in his hand that looks like a newspaper. His steps are determined and loud. Even his facial expression doesn't look cheerful. Quite the opposite.He probably knows about me and Rafe now...

"What in the hell is this?" he says loudly, stopping in front of me and holding out a newspaper. I didn't know my brother read newspapers. I look at the newspaper, which is written by Outer Banks News, and at the bottom of the front page, I see a picture of me and Rafe at the country club with the little headline next to it, are they dating?

Are they dating?

The sentence echoes in my head. Who took a picture of us and why? Who submitted this to the newspaper because of course obx news wants such boring news as nothing ever happens on this island to write about. Now someone has sneakily photographed us, and the rumor has probably spread very quickly.

"Please don't tell me it's true," my brother says, sighing as he puts one hand over his face. "It can't be true. It can't be true".

What should I say? He'll think we want to date. So all I say is,

"Ask Dad," before hurrying down the stairs before Nathan catches up with me, even though I hear him calling after me. I try to ignore him as best I can. It's my dad and Ward who came up with this idea, so they're the ones who have to explain it to Nathan.

The rain is still pouring outside so I keep running even though I've left the house and hurry to the surf shop. I'm all wet when I enter the warmth, but it'll probably dry pretty quickly anyway. I find it hard to shake off that they wrote about us in the newspaper. I know, of course, that our families have great power on the island. But who would want to send it to the newspaper? It just feels so wrong. People usually don't care so much about our lives. It was mostly at school and parties, but not as much otherwise.

My thoughts cling to me, and I almost don't notice that JJ Maybank suddenly stands in front of me on the other side of the counter.

"Hey, earth to Adeline," he says, waving his hands in front of my face, which makes me look at him.

"Sorry," I say briefly.

"It's okay. I would like to buy some of that oil you can use to clean your surfboard," he says, smiling. Our eyes meet, and for some reason, I can feel his gaze on me even as I turn behind the counter to fetch one of those oils. And my gut feeling was right, because when I turn around to hand him the oil, he's still standing there staring at me. Which makes me a little uncomfortable.

"Is something wrong?" I ask, placing the oil on the counter.

"No.." he says slowly, then shakes his head. "No, everything's perfect."

"That's good then, that'll be $5," I say.

"So cheap? It's always so expensive here since you always have such good quality stuff," JJ says, raising his fingers to make that sign when he says such  good quality. I roll my eyes.

"Ha-ha, very funny".

"Is it true that you're dating him?" JJ asks then, pointing at the newspaper that I apparently accidentally placed on the counter in front of me. Great. It's like I want people to see. But what should I answer?

"Uhh.."

"Yes, it's true, Maybank," I hear another voice say, and when I look up, I see Rafe coming in through the door. Why don't I notice when people come into the store today? JJ turns around in surprise and looks at Rafe as if he's some kind of monster. He almost looks a little scared of him.

"Congratulations, I guess," JJ says, looking up at me. Rafe stands next to me behind the counter, putting his arm around my shoulder and pulling me closer to him. So now suddenly he wants to play? Or is he just doing this to annoy JJ? Because if there's anything Rafe hates more than anything else, even more than me, it's the Pogues.

"Thank you so much," Rafe says, smiling. "Aren't you going to pay?"

"Oh, right," JJ says quickly, fumbling in his pockets to find the money. It takes a few seconds, and we all stand in awkward silence, and I almost start to feel a little worried for him, but thankfully he takes out money from his pocket. JJ holds out the money to me, and I'm about to reach for it when Rafe stops me and takes it instead. Still with that exaggerated extreme smile.

"You can keep the change," he says quickly.

"No, you take it. You need it extra much over there where you live. Especially when your dad spends money on-"

"Rafe. That's enough," I say, looking at Rafe with a straight face, which he just gives me an irritated look back for.

"You two don't seem to like each other much though," JJ says.

"Don't we?" Rafe says with a tone in his voice that almost makes me a little worried about what he's going to do now. I feel Rafe's hand on my cheek and jaw, and the next moment he moves my head so that I'm looking straight at him. Then his lips touch mine, and I don't know where to go, so I just freeze.

"Okay, that's enough," I hear JJ say. Rafe continues to kiss me even though I'm sure we've both heard that JJ has left. There's something that makes me not want to stop either. Is it because he's actually attractive and if he hadn't had that awful personality, maybe I would have actually liked it? Or is it because he refuses to stop?

"Woah," I hear someone say, which makes both of us break out of the kiss, and when I turn to the person behind the counter, I see it's Wheezie, Rafe's little sister, standing there looking at us with a surprised expression. Rafe lets go of me immediately and goes over to his sister.

"You didn't see anything, okay?" he says, putting his hands on her shoulders to really show that it's important that no one knows what just happened. Even though everyone already knows we're dating. But it's not for real.

"Weren't you two supposed to hate each other?" Wheezie says, looking first at Rafe and then at me. However, I'm not sure what to say and let Rafe handle this situation.

"Just... go home," Rafe says, waving her to leave the store.

"Dad asked me to get some stuff, but I'll let you two continue with whatever you were doing.. I'll just..." Wheezie says awkwardly, lifting two boxes from the floor along the wall and hurries out of the store.

Now it's just us left. I stand in silence where I've been standing the whole time, unsure of what to do. Waiting for Rafe to say something. Anything to end this awkward situation. But of course, he says nothing so I clear my throat.

"I'll continue with my work, I guess," I say, looking at the clock. It's half past eleven.

"Yeah, right," Rafe says, looking at me before he starts walking towards the door. Before he closes the door behind him, he looks at me once more, and there's something in his gaze that feels different, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

____________________________________A/N: Things are happening!!