ROCK BOTTOM ~ Rafe Cameron // OC // JJ Maybank

FORTY NINE.

Three days.

It had taken Rafe three days to find the cross that had been lost for over a century.

It wasn't fair how easily everything always worked out for him.

Ten minutes had passed since Bexley got Rafe's text message.

'I did it, Bex. I found it.'

How was that even possible?

Nobody had seen it for generations. How did Rafe find it so quickly?

Bexley had originally planned to stop at her house, but she changed her mind the moment the text came in. She drove right past the house, not even slowing down as they passed the driveway.

JJ looked over as they did, asking, "Were you still going to stop?"

"No," she said. "I..." She didn't know how to explain things. "I need to talk to Kiara."

JJ became uneasy. He wondered if he'd done something wrong again, and if she was going to go complain about him. "About what?"

Bexley stared ahead, silent.

"...Is everything alright?" he tried again.

"Yes-" She stopped, and suddenly shook her head. "No. No, it's not."

He sat up quickly. "Shit, what happened?"

They were about ten minutes from John B's house. Bexley hit the gas, going faster.

"If-If this is about you catching me with your phone-"

"It's not," she abruptly said.

"I'm sorry about it," he sputtered anyway, so scared that she was lying, that she'd been mad this whole time and if he didn't bring it up it wouldn't get fixed. "I know it was fucked up, and-and it'll never happen again. Kiara just got me so worried, you know? I should've talked to you about it. I should've-"

"Kiara was right," Bexley suddenly blurted out.

He paused. "What?"

"I have to tell you something," Bexley panicked. "But-Please, don't be mad. Swear you won't be mad."

"Oh, Jesus," he mumbled. "What the hell happened?"

She swung around the windy roads fast, on a mission to get to Kiara as soon as possible.

"I did something really, really dumb," she whispered.

"We do that everyday-"

"I'm not joking," Bexley said to him. "I did something stupid, and-and now I'm gonna pay for it. I didn't think it through, and now it's gonna be everyone's problem, and I'm sorry."

"Bexley, I do stupid shit all day, everyday. Whatever you did, there's a way out of it, I promise."

Bexley was becoming worse and worse by the minute. "You can't be mad. You can't. And you're my boyfriend, so-so you have to make sure no one else is mad at me, okay? That's your job. Tell them they can't be mad at me."

"Bex, listen." He put a hand on her leg. "As long as you didn't, like, destroy Pope's cross somehow, no one's gonna care about this stupid thing you did. You're overthinking things, I promise."

"I didn't destroy the cross," she breathed.

"Alright. There we go."

"But...Rafe has it."

JJ blinked. "Who has it?"

John B's house came into view. John B's van was already there, and everyone was unpacking their stuff from it.. Bexley parked as fast as she could, hitting the brakes in a way that jolted JJ in his seat. "Jesus," he muttered. Bexley hurried out of her car.