tidal wave | rafe cameron

seventeen

with things with jj being normal again, i forced myself to stop sulking in my room when there is still an entire summer left to be enjoyed.

for the first time in what felt like a long time, sarah asked me to hang out. even with the risk of seeing rafe, i agreed.

i still found myself in a tough position when it came to my friendship with sarah and my friendship with kie. things only got worse now that john b and sarah were together.

i know why kie was hurt by sarah dropping her. i mean, i was dropped right with her. but i guess for some reason, i understood both of them. because of that, i was always in the middle. i know sarah feels bad about what happened, and i know kie called the cops on that party.

maybe one day things will be settled. i can only hope for that day.

i got dressed into a black bikini covered by a pair of jean shorts and a big tee shirt. it was hot and sunny as usual and sarah planned on tanning today.

laying out by the pool may still be laying down, but it's much less depressing than laying in bed.

when i arrived at sarah's, she opened the door with a huge grin.

"you're in a good mood," i point out.

"of course!" she replies.

"can i ask why?" i laugh.

she shrugs and skips through the house to the sliding door leading to the backyard.  i shake my head and laugh to myself as i follow her.

we kick off our sandals and i slip out of my clothes before trying to get comfortable in my chair.  though, you can only be so comfortable when you're covered in tanning oil.

i let the sun beat on me in silence for a few minutes.  just squinting hard as i scroll on my phone and trying to relax as much as i can with the possibility of rafe being in the premises.

"so," sarah speaks, "i know you've been kinda m.i.a."

"yeah, i have."

"what the hell happened?" she asks, turning to me with her hand in front of her face, trying to block the sun.

"god," i groan and rub my head.  i really have to get rid of that habit.

"so obviously we were at that party.  rafe was sitting with this girl," sarah then interrupts me.

"do we know her?"

"nope.  tourist."

"gross," she makes a face.

one thing about sarah, she always makes me feel like she cares about my stories.

"so yeah, they're sitting there and then i thought it would be funny to dance with jj."

"no," sarah's jaw drops more and more as i speak.

"so we dance, whatever, you know how jj is.  then rafe and the girl go upstairs."

"no way," she gasps.

"way. and i was drunk and i wanted to be silly and look around and maybe see what was up.  so i went upstairs and, oh my god sarah i could die just thinking about it; they were fucking."

"you walked in on them fucking?" her faces contorts in disgust.

"well, no, thank god.  but i heard it and that was torture enough.  so i'm walking away from the door and rafe walks out and tries to catch me, but i run downstairs.  then i find jj, and we broke our number one rule."

"there was macking?"

"there was macking," i shamefully confirm.

"then they fight, i left, and i've been contemplating all of my life choices since then," i shrug and go back to soaking up the sun.

"holy shit, callie.  i didn't know it was that bad."

"john b seriously didn't tell you anything?" i say as i turn to her.  she's still sitting there with her hand over her face like a visor.

"i mean, jj kinda did but i don't think pope wanted to hear about it."

i pause for a second, "pope? when were you all hanging out?"

she looks up to the right, something she does when she's lying or thinking of a story, "we were just doing this thing for john b's dad."

"what thing?" i ask, i hadn't heard anything about this.

"i don't know, it wasn't that big of a deal.  he's just been more into finding his dad, that's all."

i just don't understand why nobody would say anything.  i didn't know if kie knew about this too, but if she did, i would be even more upset that nobody included me.

"so, have you and rafe talked since?" sarah changes the subject.  even weirder considering i know she would rather talk about john b than me and her brothers weird 'relationship.'

i told her we hadn't and i wasn't really planning on it.  then i shut my eyes and let the sun warm my skin.  i didn't open my mouth again.