Drowning » Rafe Cameron & JJ Maybank

020

(chapter twenty)

Mature content
Reader discretion advised

The first thing Clara and the cleaner, Esther, decided before they started cleaning was to say goodbye to the rugs all around the house. The ones on the ground, over the tables and side tables. They were what made the house gather so much dust.

Now they were in the backyard, waiting for whatever destiny Richard would give them.

The second one was to take all the boxes from Alice's room and open them so the air could take away the smell of mold, then they dumped all the covers on the washing machine. Richard also said that the heavier ones would go to the cleaner, so they were along with the other things on the backyard. Along with the pillows.

It was a very tiring day of cleaning, washing the floor and bathroom. They cleaned the fridge and rewashed the dishes.

Clara dared to say that in the end she never saw her grandmother's house so clean before.

She brought the boxes back to the room, this time taking her time in taking off the dust from the books in her own pace while Esther continued downstairs.

One thing Clara could tell was that her grandmother was a researcher, all of ther books were very annotated and she had many, many diaries.

There were pages, copies of old books. Mainly ones she remembered borrowing two years ago about the sank boat Royal Merchant. A very popular story all around the world, but mainly in Outerbanks.

Taking a few of the diaries out, she brought them to her bedroom, making a mental note she would read them later on.

"Hey, girl, there's a pretty boy at the door lookin' for you," Esther called from her door, as Clara tilted her head, then it clicked.

"Oh, thank you!" She smiled, taking her bag and skipping a few steps of the stairs as she went to the front door. There stood Rafe, his eyes moving around the street, and he turned when the door opened. "Hey, you."

"Hey, pretty girl," he smiled back, watching her hand him the bag.

"Here's your things," the boy took the bag, as she stepped back so he could enter the house. The smell of cleaning supplies hit his nose immediatly, and she walked to the kitchen. "Do you want any juice-"

She stopped mid sentence when she opened the fridge, finding it empty, so she sighed. "There's no juice, maybe water?" And when she turned on the register no drinkable water came from it, so she sighed again, dropping the glass on the sink again. "There's no water."

Rafe smiled amused at her actions. "I'm fine, thank you."

Clara passed her hands on her face as she shook her head. "I really need to go groceries shopping, oh my Gods-"

"Clara, it's fine. You just moved here, I don't expect it to be completely arranged," he said putting the backpack on the table as he reach out to put his hands on her waist.

"I'm all over the place. I knew this would be a little different from when my mother travelled, but everywhere I look it's like it's missing something," she stressed, dropping her head and letting her forehead rest on his shoulder as he laughed. "It's not funny."

"It is a little bit," he replied, pulling back and looking on her tired eyes. "But everything is working out, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then it's okay," he reassured, and Clara nodded. "C'mon, give me a tour."

"Ah, there's not much..." she moved her hand around the kitchen, pointing to the backyard and laundry room, then they went back to the living room.