Golden Hearts | Rafe Cameron

54

July 30

I wake up the next day with severe pain in my face, and I look terrible when I see myself in the mirror. Did he have to hit so hard? I can only imagine how much it must hurt for the others since they were hit too.

Today is the day that the others and I are going to a new bathhouse that has opened on the island. An outdoor bathhouse. The first bathhouse ever on this boring island, and I was really excited before, but now I'm not so sure, considering how Rafe treated me yesterday. I have 22 missed calls from him and probably 100 unread texts, but I can't be bothered to care anymore.

I'll just hang out with Sarah or the others at the bathhouse because I know she'll be upset if I don't go. However, I don't know what to say about my face. My dad will be so angry if he sees it, and my mom will be so worried. If my dad finds out it was Rafe, then we're both in serious trouble.

So, I cover it with makeup that I know is waterproof, so I don't have to worry about it showing when we swim.

Sarah texts me that she and Topper are outside in the car waiting for me to come out. So, I grab my beach bag and head out to the driveway where Topper's car is waiting. Rafe and Kelce are going to drive from Kelce's place, so they'll probably get there before us.

I open the car door and sit in the back seat, greeted by Sarah's smile. "Glad you decided to come even though you're upset with Rafe."

"Yeah," I say with a sigh.

"You'll make up soon, just be close to each other for a few minutes and you'll see you'll soon be all over each other again and it'll be a little—"

"We get what you mean, Top," Sarah says. Drive now."

Topper nods and starts the engine before backing out of my driveway. The bath place is on the other side of Figure Eight, so it's nice we can drive instead of walking in the heat since it's a hot day today, and it's nice to get some AC from the car before.

During the drive, I mostly think about Rafe and the fact that he actually hit me yesterday. I'd like to talk to him about it, but I can't forgive him so easily. It's never okay to hit someone, even if it was by accident; he should have been more careful instead. But I guess I'll just try to ignore him today and maybe talk to him later.

Topper parks the car in the lot outside the bathhouse, and we get out. Topper opens the trunk and takes out our bags so we can go to the entrance and pay. It's the first summer the outdoor bathhouse is open, so there are quite a lot of people.

We approach the entrance and are about to pay when Rafe and Kelce come up to us. I meet Rafe's cautious gaze but ignore it. We get in line, waiting to pay. Where Nathan is today, I don't know, but he apparently had other things to do and couldn't come to the bathhouse.

"Five youths, please," Topper says, who's paying.

"Okay, so," the woman says at the cashier who's wearing a swimsuit with shorts over it. I wonder if it's fun to work here. To be able to take a dip in the pool as soon as it gets too hot. Just having to collect payments and watch over kids swimming. Sounds nice.

Inside the bathhouse, there are a lot of people, especially at the children's pool. We find some free sun loungers that we choose and lay down on. My towel is spread over the sun lounger.

"There are a lot of people here today," Sarah says.

"What do you expect? It's new and a hot summer day," Kelce says, shielding his eyes from the sun.

"Yeah, that's true," Sarah says as she takes off her dress, leaving only her bikini. I do the same and feel Rafe's eyes on me, which I try to ignore.

"Shall we take a dip?" Kelce says, already heading to one of the pools. The one with the fewest people and almost no small children because it's very deep, probably the reason why.

Rafe follows him, and we stand there for a few seconds. My face hurts, and the sun burning it doesn't help. "Shall we go too?" Topper asks.

"Yep," Sarah says, taking my hand and giving me a smile. She knows I'm mad at Rafe, and I'm glad she at least seems to understand and accept that I might not want to be around him much today.

When we get to the pool, I see that Kelce and Rafe are already in the water, so I walk around to the other side of the pool with Sarah to avoid them.

"You know you can't ignore him forever, right?" Sarah says behind me as we descend the steps into the pool.

"I know, but I can't just pretend like nothing happened yesterday," I say with a sigh.

"I know, it's tough when things like that happen, but you learn from your mistakes, which is good," Sarah says, swimming up to me. I take a deep breath and dive underwater, resurfacing to feel the warmth of the sun.

Sarah and I swim and chat for the next few minutes until Topper joins Sarah, leaving me alone. Kelce and Rafe swim over to me where I sit with my legs in the water. Rafe sits next to me while Kelce stays in the water. I remain silent.

"I think it's best if I leave you two alone," Kelce says, looking at Rafe and me before swimming away.

I sigh loudly once Kelce leaves us. Of course. We are silent for a while. If Rafe wants to apologize, he has to say it. I'm not going to talk if that's what he wants.

"Addie..." Rafe says. I can feel him looking at me, but I keep my eyes on the happy people in the water in front of me, who I guess are mostly cheerful tourists on vacation.

"You know I didn't mean to hit you last night. You know that, and I would never purposely do that. I love you, and you mean everything to me. I hate that I accidentally hit you. It wasn't intentional. Please stop ignoring me and forgive me," Rafe says.

I say nothing at first. I'm silent to let him continue talking until I feel ready.

"I didn't mean to hit you. You know that too," Rafe says. "But if you're going to keep ignoring me, I'll leave," he says and starts to get up.

"Wait," I say, looking up at him, and he looks down at me with relief. I stand up next to him.

"I'm sorry," I say. "For stepping between you two. It was stupid of me, and I should have expected to get hit by someone if I did that. It was my fault, not yours," I say.

"It's my fault, definitely," Rafe says. "Come on, let's get some ice cream now."

I smile.

A/N: Sorry for not being so active lately but I've been busy because of the eras tour in Stockholm🤭 more chapters will probably be out tomorrow because I'm off school but I have a lot of school work to do :/