dirty little secrets → rc

16: disappear

A whole week.

7 days 168 hours had passed since I'd seen Rafe Cameron.

The eldest Cameron sibling had seemed to disappear completely, he was never home when I was with Sarah, he was never around my brother, and he was never at the country club or any kook parties.

Which was strange in itself because Rafe Cameron never missed an opportunity to chase the high life. 

He'd seemingly disappeared and in a sense, I was longing to see him, to make sure at least he was okay. 

Why I cared about his well-being baffled me.

You would think being friends with his closest friends would mean I would at least gain some insight into what was happening but no one said a word, at least to me they didn't.

It was an unspoken thing between the boys. They didn't mention his name around me, sometimes it got awkwardly evident they were covering for Rafe through tiny whispers and knowing glances to each other.

But I tried my best to ignore the whole Rafe issue and spent my days relaxing by the pool, swimming in the ocean, and partying my nights away. I even went fishing with JJ and Pope, it was fun to have a sense of normality back.

I had a total of three conversations with my mother spaning over the week, I kept count in my head given the number was so low. 

Only two of those conversations were full of insults no daughter wants to hear from their own mother. 

The other conversation she spent ranting about how my father had met a waitress at the country club and moved to the main island. 

I wish I could say I was surprised or that this wasn't a frequent occurrence but I'd be lying.

I carried on like normal, like Rafe didn't exist. Like my family issues weren't weighing on my mind every waking hour of every day. 

I was just jumping out of the shower seeing steam floating around the room, I stood in front of the mirror wrapping a towel around my body. I opened the door to my bedroom slowly and stepped into the room.

I jumped and let out a loud gasp seeing the back of Rafe's body standing over my desk and looking at something. 

I tightened the grip on my towel hugging it closer to my naked body as he turned around with a picture frame in his hand. 

"You can drop the towel if you want," he said smirking moving closer to the bed and sitting on the edge.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I questioned furrowing my eyebrows and moving my wet hair over to one shoulder. His glance followed my movement until he stared down at the photo in his hand.

"You kept the photos" he muttered looking down at them. I was confused about which photos he was talking about so I walked closer and held out my hand. 

Our fingers brushed as he placed the photo in my hand.

I stared at the photo booth photos as the memories flashed through my mind, the first photo was of Rafe and I smiling sweetly into the camera, the second one was him squishing my cheeks together, then the third was me staring daggers at him but the final one I was kissing Rafe's cheek as he smiled brightly. 

I didn't realize I kept the photos. I'd barely gone through my belongings since being back.

"Do you remember that night?" He asked turning his head to look at me with an unreadable expression "I remember" he added.