LITTLE SECRET | RAFE CAMERON

76: 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵

„Look who's finally here" Kelce leaned against his front door frame as Alice walked down the driveway to his house.

The pebbled path crunched under her black high heels as the fabric of her dress - also black - moved with the curves of her body. Her hair straightened down and combed behind her shoulders, her make-up done and her aura...brighter than it had been in the last couple of weeks.

„Shut up, I had to get ready" She grinned back at him as she walked up the stairs with the cakes she just picked up. „you made sure someone will bring Ian here later, right?"

„Yeah, yeah I did..." Kelce scratched the back of his head, following Alice as she carried the cakes into his kitchen. „...'course I did"

„Who?"

„..A friend"

She turned to him with a furrowed brow as Sofia and Jada walked in. „what friend?"

There was a sudden silence in the kitchen.

The three of them exchanged a...certain look with each other, which Alice couldn't read. As if they were having a wordless conversation that she was not supposed to be part of.

„Oh, did you get everything you ordered?" Sofia broke the silence and hurried over to the cake boxes. „chocolate, vanilla-"

„Stop distracting" Alice crossed her arms in front of her chest. „Kelce, what did you do?"

„I didn't know who else to ask" He raised his hands in surrender.

For a moment, she looked at him with even more confusion. She hardly knew Ian's friends - one or two names at most - but she wasn't sure if Kelce knew any of them.

But when it came to Kelce, a few of his friends popped into her head. And there was only one of them that had some sort of connection to Ian.

And to her.

„Oh my god..." She put her hand to her forehead as it dawned on her. „...you invited Rafe"

„Well, I didn't invite him, I just asked him to bring Ian here"

„Oh yeah, and did you tell him to leave after that?"

„No..."

„Sounds like an invitation to me."

„Ali, come on" Jada intervened cautiously. „it's Rafe. We get that you broke up and everything that happened wasn't really great, but he's still kind of...a part of us, isn't he?"

Sofia nodded at Jada's words. „you wouldn't want him sitting home alone while we're all here celebrating Ian's birthday, would you?"

Would she?

Alice wasn't sure. She knew he didn't like being alone, which sometimes didn't seem like it, but being alone probably wasn't good for anyone really. But it wasn't the thought of him being alone that bothered her so much.

It was the fact that she hadn't seen him once since their break-up.

It was almost as if she had forgotten everything.

The way the strands of his hair fell, the way they felt between the tips of her fingers. The sight of his lips, the feel of them on her own skin. The look in his eyes that reached deep into her heart every time.

And she was afraid of exactly that.

She was too afraid that she'd want to feel his hair between her fingers again at the sight of him, feel his lips on her skin and let his eyes look all the way down to her heart without stoping him.

And that fear stuck with her even hours later when she found herself sitting at the kitchen island with a drink in her hand while the house was already overflowing with people.

The house was surrounded by night, the lights inside dimmed, throwing a purple glow on the walls. Colorful balloons on the walls, pungent alcohol in the air and music vibrating across the wooden floor.

But it was quite strange that despite all this, Alice felt as if there was nothing left inside of her.

An emptiness with a slight hint of fear that had spread up to her eyes.

And it wasn't Rafe as a person that scared her, because she knew what kind of person he was somewhere underneath his many layers. It was the fact that no matter what he did, she'd still love him.

„Alice" She heard someone calling for her, which snapped her out of her thoughts. „he's here, he's here"

„Who's here?" Alice threw a look over her shoulder - caught off guard - and spotted Jada running up to her.

„Your brother, now c'mon"

She couldn't even respond properly as Jada had already pulled her from her chair by the hand and dragged her into the crowded hallway of the house, which was buzzing with the sound of all the different voices.

They made her forget who else had brought Ian here in the first place.

R A F E

Leaning against the hood of his car, Rafe took a moment to look at Kelce's house, which was swarming with all those people. Honestly, he hadn't expected anything else, after all it was Ian's birthday and he knew that...Alice knew how to organize these kind of things.

But it made him stay outside for a little longer.

And it wasn't the many people that kept him rooted to his car, but the fact that she was in there somewhere.

Rafe knew he wasn't ready to see her.

At least his head wasn't, because it told him to just get back in his car and drive home. Ian wouldn't be mad at him for leaving his party without even stepping one foot into it, since they had already spent half the day together, but his heart...

His heart told him to throw the cigarette between his fingers to the ground immediately, stomp it out, head into the house and find Alice among all those insignificant people, to apologize to her and never let her go again.

Kiss her, hold her, feel her the way he hadn't been allowed to feel her in the last few weeks because of his stupidity.

But well, he knew it wouldn't work like that. It was his head that played against his own heart.

With a sigh, Rafe breathed the smoke from his lungs out into the dark night. All Kelce had asked him to do was bring Ian here, so his job was done.

He should just leave.

Go back home.

Maybe Wheezie was still up.

They could watch a movie. Play some cards, if she wanted to. Maybe she hadn't eaten yet. They could cook something together.

After all, he didn't even feel like partying tonight.

Rafe threw his cigarette to the ground and killed its light by pushing some of the pebbles over it with his shoe. He stepped away from the hood of his car and glanced back at the house before reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out his car keys.