Outer Banks Imagines ~ JJ and Rafe

Rafe ~ you're not nothing

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The party was buzzing, the music too loud and the air too warm. You needed a break. With your empty cup in hand, you headed to the kitchen for a refill, but as you reached for the punch, voices from the other side of the room caught your attention.

"So, you sleep with her yet?" Kelce's voice rang out over the music.

"Yeah, or is she your girlfriend now?" Topper asks.

"Who?" Rafe asked confused.

"You know, the hot one. Y/N?" Topper reiterates.

"Y/N? Yeah, right," Rafe scoffs, "I'd never go for her."

The words sliced through you. You froze, your heart sinking as the laughter from the group followed. His voice was so casual, so dismissive, like you were nothing more than a passing joke.

Your stomach churned. Before you could process the sting, you felt his gaze land on you. Your eyes met his, and his smirk faltered. He knew you'd heard.

Without a word, you turned and walked out of the kitchen, shoving past the crowd until you found the back door. The moment you stepped outside, the rain soaked you, but you didn't care. You just needed to get away. You didn't know where you were going, only that you couldn't stay there, couldn't face him or anyone else.

"Y/N!" His voice rang out behind you.

You kept walking, ignoring the pounding of his footsteps closing in.

"Stop walking!"

"No one told you to follow me," you snapped, your voice sharp despite the lump in your throat.

"Where are you even going?"

"Why do you care?" You spun around to face him, rain dripping down your face. "You made it perfectly clear you don't."

He was in front of you now, his hair plastered to his forehead, his chest rising and falling as if he'd been running.

"Stop. Just stop it," you said, your voice trembling. "You're an asshole, Rafe Cameron. You're exactly what everyone said you were. I hate—"

Before you could finish, he surged forward, his lips crashing against yours. The kiss was rough, desperate, and full of contradictions. You shoved him back, your chest heaving.

"Stop it!" you yelled, your voice breaking.

But he didn't listen. He kissed you again, this time gripping your arms, holding you close as if he feared you'd slip away.

You pushed him off with all the strength you could muster, your palm striking his cheek in a loud slap.

"Why are you doing this to me?" you demanded, tears mixing with the rain on your cheeks.

He didn't answer. Instead, he pulled you in again, his lips finding yours with an intensity that left you breathless. This time, you didn't fight. You couldn't. The anger, the pain, the longing—they all blurred into something you couldn't name.

You let the rain soak you both, standing there in the storm, tangled in a kiss that felt like both a battle and a surrender.

Rafe's hands slipped from your arms to your waist, holding you steady as the rain poured down, drenching you both. His kiss was insistent, like he was trying to say all the things he couldn't put into words. It was maddening, confusing, and intoxicating all at once.

You broke away, gasping for air, pushing at his chest to create even the smallest bit of space between you. "You can't just... do this, Rafe!" Your voice cracked under the weight of your emotions. "You can't treat me like nothing one minute and then—"

"You're not nothing," he cut you off, his tone fierce. His hands tightened on your waist as if to anchor you to him. "You're everything. That's the problem."

You blinked up at him, caught off guard. The rain streamed down his face, but his blue eyes burned with an intensity that made your breath catch.

"Don't," you whispered, shaking your head. "Don't say things like that when you don't mean them."

"I do mean it," he insisted, his voice dropping lower. "I'm just... I'm a mess, okay? I don't know how to say the right thing, but I know how I feel. And I feel like I'm losing my mind when I'm not near you."

Your heart twisted painfully, but you couldn't let yourself fall into his words. Not yet. "Then why did you say those things? Back there, in the kitchen."

Rafe closed his eyes briefly, exhaling harshly. "I was being stupid. I thought—God, I don't even know what I thought. Maybe I was trying to protect myself, but it was dumb. It was wrong. I didn't mean any of it."

"Do you know how much that hurt, Rafe?" Your voice cracked, raw and vulnerable. "Hearing you talk about me like I was just—just some joke?"

His hands cupped your face gently, his thumbs brushing the raindrops—or maybe tears—off your cheeks. "I swear, you're not a joke to me. You're the only thing that feels real in my life right now. And I keep screwing it up because I don't know how to hold on to something that actually matters."

You stared at him, searching his face for any sign that he was lying, but all you saw was sincerity and a desperation that mirrored your own.

"Rafe," you whispered, your resolve crumbling.

He leaned his forehead against yours, his breath mingling with yours in the damp air. "Please, Y/N. Don't walk away. Not from this. Not from me."

You hesitated, your emotions warring with your logic. But then his lips found yours again, softer this time, and all your walls came crashing down.

You kissed him back, your hands clutching the front of his soaked shirt as if he was the only solid thing keeping you grounded. The rain blurred everything else—the party, the people, the world outside. It was just you and him, tangled in a storm that was both outside and within.

"I hate you," you mumbled against his lips, your voice trembling.

"I know," he murmured back, his lips ghosting over yours in a way that made you shiver. "But I don't care. I'll take whatever you'll give me, even if it's hate."

You pulled back just enough to look at him, your chest heaving. "You're impossible."

"And you're irresistible," he shot back, a small, crooked smile breaking through his intensity.

You shook your head, a reluctant laugh escaping despite yourself. "We're a disaster."

"Maybe," he said, brushing a strand of wet hair from your face. "But we're our disaster."