I'll Come Running

Chapter 6

Jessie lay on the guest bed of the Chateau that night thinking about their insane plan. She had rehearsed it in her head from front to back and back to front. There was only enough money for a one-way ticket to the Bahamas, meaning Jessie would be going alone. She knew she could handle it, she had been an adult long before the legal age ever declared her one, but still, when it came to Rafe she was so unsure of herself. After all their history, she couldn't help but be nervous to see him. What did he look like? Was he still strung out on coke? Does he even still think about her? Sarah seemed pretty confident that he did. That did not make her feel much better though. She wanted him to forget her, and she wanted to forget him. After years of no contact and she still hadn't mastered that.

As Jessie had all these thoughts racing through her head, she couldn't help but think back to when she first met Rafe.

***

It was a typical Friday night at the Island Club, where Jessie was waitressing for two years already at eighteen years old, thanks to Sheriff Peterkin. Peterkin got her this job to hopefully keep her out of trouble, but that never worked. She still partied hard.

This particular Friday night was different, as Jessie had convinced all the other Pogues to throw a party at the Island Club after they closed. They were all patiently waiting for quitting time so they could throw the rager of the year, filled with Pogues, Kooks, tourons, any teenager that was interested pretty much.

The Island Club finally closed and the party began. As more and more people began to show up that's when the karaoke started. The Island Club was perfect for this considering they had a stage and sound system that was typically used for much more upscale events than this one.

After a few drinks to get her loose, Jessie finally decided to take a stab at karaoke, playing "Still Into You" by Paramore. She danced around the stage without a care in the world in her denim shorts and hot pink bikini top.

What she didn't know is that Rafe Cameron and his friends decided to show up right about that time, and although Rafe had seen plenty of Jessie working at the Island Club, this time it was different. As he sipped on his drink from the back of the room he couldn't help but keep his eyes on her the whole time she was up on stage. He could tell she was singing and dancing like nobody was watching. That's all the eighteen year old wanted, but as the eventual successor of the biggest business on the island, he knew he would never be able to have that. For the rest of his life it would be meetings, midsummers, and every other formal event you could think of. He hated the thought. He wanted what Jessie had.

As Jessie came off the stage, sweaty and a little drunk, she went back up behind the bar to help herself another drink, on the house of course. She didn't pay any attention to the very tall, built, wallflower standing right next to her, eyeing her up and down. Rafe, standing right beside her, couldn't help but speak up.

"Look like you were having fun up there?" Rafe said with a smile on his face.

Jessie turned and looked at who was speaking to her, and she couldn't believe it. Her look of euphoria quickly turned into a look of disgust. She eyed Rafe up and down.

"Bet you wouldn't know about that would ya?" She sassed back to him as she turned her body towards him and rested her arm up on the bar waiting for him to respond.

Her confidence intimidated him. She was so... intoxicatingly self-absorbed. But it wasn't because she wanted to be, it's because she had to be. Despite Rafe not knowing anything about Jessie, he could still feel that this confidence was all a front to show that she couldn't possibly get hurt. He understood the front. He played that role from a much different perspective. As his thoughts were racing he forgot to respond.