Golden Hearts | Rafe Cameron [1]

44

July 16

When I wake up, I feel the sunlight from the window blinding me. My head aches, and all I want right now is to go back to sleep and wake up when my headache is gone.

Yet I open my eyes, initially confused about where I am. I hear the bathroom door open, and Rafe walks out with a towel around his waist.

"You're awake," Rafe says, smiling. I'm in Rafe's room. He walks to his wardrobe, picking out clothes. "Do you want to borrow something of mine? Figured you might not want to wander around in party clothes all morning."

I nod, and Rafe tosses me a T-shirt and then some pants that will definitely be too big. "They're old, so they're too short for me," Rafe says.

I change into his clothes, though I could have just borrowed some from Sarah. I grab my phone and see a text from Sarah.

Sarah: girls' night with Kie tonight, want to join? Who took you home from the party, by the way?❤️

Adeline: With Rafe, sounds good❤️

I put my phone down and look up at Rafe, who is now fixing his hair. He turns to me. "How are you feeling after last night?"

"Headache," I say, shrugging. Rafe goes to his drawer beside the bed, pulling out one of the drawers where he retrieves a headache pill and then gives me a glass of water. "You'll need this today."

"Thanks," I say, taking the headache pill.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Rafe asks as he watches me swallow the pill.

"Not much. Probably girls' night with Sarah and Kie," I say.

"Okay, maybe I'll see if the guys want to hang out with me then," Rafe says. "Come on, let's have breakfast."

We head down to the kitchen. The whole house seems empty which is probably why we can roam freely without Ward or Rose noticing that I'm here with Rafe. Rafe brings out lots of ingredients, and I look at him wonderingly about what he has in mind for us to do.

"What are we doing?" I ask.

"Pancakes," he smiles. "You like pancakes, right?"

"Of course," I say, opening the flour package and pouring the right measure into the large bowl in front of us. We help each other to prepare all the ingredients to make a large batter.

I turn to Rafe about to say something when I feel him reach out his finger and put flour on my nose, which makes me react.

"That wasn't nice!" I say laughing and take flour out of the bag to put on Rafe's face, but he manages to evade and takes more flour which he puts on my face. We both laugh loudly, and I still can't manage to throw flour in his face despite my attempts.

Rafe puts his arms around me while we both still laugh as he looks down at me and tucks my hair behind my ears. He brushes off the flour I still have on my face with his thumb before he strokes my cheek with his thumb. We make eye contact, but say nothing. I actually think we stand like that for several minutes. Just staring at each other.

"How long are you going to stare at each other?" Sarah asks, entering the kitchen. Rafe stops looking at me and turns to Sarah with an annoyed look.

"Do you always have to ruin everything?" he asks, letting go of me to fry the pancakes.

"What are you guys doing?" Sarah asks, ignoring his comment.

"Pancakes," I say and smile. "There's some for you too."

Rafe mutters something I can't hear, but it's probably something about Sarah.

"The girls' night is at Kie's place, by the way," Sarah says to me.

"That's perfect," I say and smile.

—

A few hours later, Sarah and I walk up the stairs to Kiara's house. We ring the doorbell, waiting for the door to open. Sarah turns to me.

"It's been a few years since we stood like this," Sarah says, laughing lightly.

"Yeah, you're right," I say, smiling. "But I'm glad we're doing this again."

"I agree, it was so boring without the three of us as a trio, if I'm being completely honest," Sarah says just before the door is opened by a cheerful Kiara in loungewear, which we all have on.

"Welcome!" Kiara says, hugging us both before leading us into her room. Inside, music is playing at a low volume, and she has set up snacks and other things for us.

"I hope this is enough," Kiara says.

"It's perfect, Kie," I say, smiling at her.

We sit down on Kiara's bed and start eating all the snacks Kiara prepared, as well as the ones Sarah and I brought. We talk about everything and laugh a lot. Everything starts to feel like it used to.

"So, kiss, marry, kill," Sarah says with a threatening smile, causing both Kiara and me to nervously but eagerly look at Sarah.

"I'm scared," I say, laughing.

"I'm not starting," Kiara says.

"Kiss, marry, kill: Pope, John B, and JJ," Sarah says, looking at Kiara.

Her expression changes, and she chuckles, "Why did you have to pick them?" she clears her throat, "I guess... JJ kiss, Pope marry, and JB kill. I love them both equally though, just for the game," Kiara says.

"Pope, huh?" teases Sarah, which prompts Kiara to playfully hit Sarah on the leg while I just laugh.

"Addie..." Sarah says, turning to me, laughing.

"Kiss, marry, kill: Rafe, JJ, and Kelce," Sarah says, smiling.

I sigh heavily as I think back to the time JJ kissed me. But I don't want to kill Kelce either. He's actually quite nice, but saying marry to Rafe feels very crazy. Something I could never have said before, but not now either. However, this is just a game so none of this needs to reflect how the future will be.

"Marry Rafe, kiss JJ, kill Kelce," I say quickly to get it over with.

"You seem determined about your choices," Kiara says, laughing. "I mean, you said them so quickly as if you really feel that way."

"Of course she feels that way for real," Sarah says with a teasing grin

"Shut up" I say but still can't help but smile.

The rest of the evening, we spend cooking tacos together with loud music until Kiara's parents come home and think we should lower it. Then we also watch a horror movie together until it starts to get late and we're all very tired.

We're sitting in Kiara's bed again, talking about everything.

"I heard some rumors that you and Rafe stopped dating," Kiara says, which makes me sigh. Those rumors are fake, and it's obviously Ward who spread them.

"That's not true," I say, trying to smile at Kiara so she understands it's okay. Sarah gives me a forgiving smile because she knows how it really is. Nothing I feel like talking about.

—
A/N: This is quite a boring chapter so I'm sorry for that but there'll hopefully be more chapters later today if I have the time! Are you guys watching Eurovision this evening?

//EL