Golden Hearts | Rafe Cameron [1]

33

July 1

It's evening, and our parents have been preparing food for hours now. We're all gathered around the big dining table on the patio. It's a cozy summer evening, but the mosquitoes are going crazy.

Sarah and I are sitting next to each other, with Wheezie sitting on the other side of me. Rafe is sitting in front of me next to Nathan. We're constantly trying to avoid making eye contact, and it's quite difficult because every time I look up, I still meet his gaze.

"Tomorrow, we're planning to go to the beach to spend some time together as families. We don't often get the chance to do things like this, so we thought it would be very nice to have a family activity," my mom says as she eats.

"Why can't we just choose what we want to do ourselves instead?" Nathan asks, clearly not interested in going to the beach. He's not someone who enjoys swimming.

"Nathan, this is so we can have some time together. Even if you don't think it sounds like a lot of fun, you still need to come along," my mom says, a little irritated with her son.

"We'll see," Nathan says, sighing loudly, which disappointingly catches my dad's attention.

"I think it sounds lovely," Sarah says, which makes my mom and Rose smile.

"It's good that someone is grateful around here at least," Rose says, smiling at Sarah.

"Now we're well into summer, and you two have been dating for quite a while. Seems to be going really well for you," Ward says, looking at me and Rafe. Rafe rolls his eyes as soon as they start talking about us.

"Yes, we're glad that you seem to take this seriously," my mom says.

"How long are we even going to keep this up?" Rafe suddenly asks.

"Until you start college," my dad says. "There, you're welcome to find someone new or something else."

I sigh loudly. There's still a long way to go in the summer, and based on what Rafe and I have done so far, I'm not sure if we'll be able to part ways at the end of the summer when we start college. At least if we continue like this, not fighting.

After we finish eating, we all help with the dishes before we're all forced to gather at the dinner table again to play several board games. The first game we play is a word-guessing game where one person has to guess a word that another person has chosen.

"Adeline, it's your turn to guess the word that Rafe has chosen," my mom says, and Rafe picks up a card. He seems completely uninterested but still does as my mom says and holds up the card in front of him. He meets my gaze to signal that I can start guessing.

"What's the theme?" I ask, with a cold tone in my voice and my arms crossed, which clearly gets a reaction from the others.

"Animals," Rafe says blankly.

"A little more emotion, please. What is this?" Wheezie says, causing Rafe to glance at her.

"Is it a land animal?" I ask.

"Yes," Rafe sighs.

"Is it big?"

"Just guess any animal," Rafe says irritably.

"Show some respect, Rafe," Ward says.

"Giraffe?" I ask. "You never said if it was big or not."

"As if I have the energy to answer that. No, it's not a damn giraffe," Rafe says.

Suddenly, I start laughing. He seems so extremely mad that it almost becomes comical. The others look at me wondering, especially Rafe, who looks like he could kill me at any moment.