The Girl In The Shadow || Outerbanks || Pope Heyward & Cleo Anderson

11.

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"..do you want to talk about it?" Rafe quietly asked after a while, glancing at Valera, who was sitting next to him on the couch, the tv remote in her hand as she flipped through channels.

Valera didn't reply right away. She let out a deep sighed, leaning back against the couch.

"Am I selfish?" Valera questioned, turning her head to look at him.

Rafe Scoffed, "No. Did Sarah call you selfish?"

Valera shrugged, "Maybe she was right, you know? I was trying to keep my friends to myself and away from Sarah."

"Val, you are the least selfish person I know, whatever Sarah said, she's wrong, she doesn't know shit." Rafe told her, and Valera let out a small chuckle,

"That's what I told her." Rafe grinned a little before he sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Our lives suck." He muttered to himself, but Valera heard.

She frowned, and it was true. Their lives did suck. "Why don't we just leave and never come back?"

Rafe looked at her, "You mean just runaway?"

Valera shrugged, "it's not running away if you want to start somewhere new, you're old enough, wheezie and I can go with you, and the three of us can just start over, make our lives less miserable."

Rafe huffed out a laugh , "it won't be that easy, I mean, yeah, dad won't notice us gone, but we're gonna need money, like lots of it. We can't extacly steal from dad without him noticing cause that's what he notices, his precious money, and Sarah,"

He sighed, "I thought about it before, you know? I thought about just taking you and wheezie and running away, starting somewhere new, something far away where nobody knows us or dad."

Valera wanted nothing more than to escape her life, leaving everything and everyone behind.

Nobody needed her. Nobody wanted her. Her friends got who they wanted.

Dawn can come with her since he's old enough and he could make his music without his old man breathing down his neck, saying music isn't a profession.

Dawn said he had a younger brother. Maybe he could come to.

"Rafe.." rafe hummed in response, "I'm gonna tell you something, but promise you won't freak?"

Rafe scoffed ,"I don't freak, val."

Valera turned to face him, "I know where we can get some money, money that would last us long enough."

"What are you talking about?" Rafe asked, sitting up,

"Gold. I'm talking about gold, Rafe, my friends...the pogues and I were searching for it, and they found it, I don't know where, but they couldn't get it all..."

Valera just told everything to Rafe. She knew she shouldn't have told him about the gold, but maybe, if they got some of the gold, they could leave outerbanks and never return.

Maybe she was selfish. Maybe Sarah was right, but now, all she wants is to leave outerbanks and never come back.

🌊

Rafe didn't say much after Valera had told him about the gold. Truth was, Ward already knew, and he told Rafe about it because he wanted Rafe to help him, but Rafe didn't know that Valera was involved.

He should've known since she was always hanging out with the pogues, but Rafe wanted that gold.

If he could get the gold, then he could give Valera the one thing she wanted.