Disarm / Rafe Cameron

12. Burn Out in the Freezing Cold

"I'm fine Sarah, seriously. Thanks." she broke her gaze into the house to give Sarah one more weak smile before slipping inside with a gaggle of kook boys that had just arrived. They must've been popular, because several people on the inside cheered and held up their drinks. Layne scrunched up her nose and searched the crowd for Rafe, or someone that could tell her where he went. Every time she asked somebody, they just shrugged and shook their heads. The room reeked of body odor, weed, and liquor, and there were kids skinny dipping in the pool outside. Layne spotted the one boy she had messed with a few weeks prior, and he looked as though he had seen a ghost. He was probably terrified of her now, and he looked around to make sure Rafe wasn't nearby.

"Have you seen Rafe?" she asked him, clearly oblivious to the fact of who he was. When he opened his mouth to respond, Layne felt her heart drop to her stomach when she realized. He closed his mouth almost immediately and just shook his head. Layne pushed by him and walked toward Kelce, one of Rafe's annoying friends, who was currently chatting up a curly red head. She incessantly tapped on his arm, until the girl noticed her and nodded her head towards Layne.

Kelce turned around and his eyes widened. "Shit, Layne. What's up, girl?" he moved to side hug her, and she didn't return it. "Have you seen Rafe?"

He blew air out of his mouth like he was deep in thought. "Uh—nah. I mean, he came in here all mad and went upstairs with some people." Layne knew what that meant. He was doing drugs. He had promised he was going to stop, but Layne knew better. She knew what he was, and sometimes Layne believed she knew him better than he knew himself. She pushed past Kelce, even after he tried to stop her, and stormed up the stairs.

Opening the first door she saw, there was a couple making out on a bed, and she quickly shut the door behind her when they started yelling. Kelce had run up the stairs after her, hoping to stop her, but she kept swinging open doors until she reached the one at the end of the hallway, and saw Rafe bumping a line off a small mirror. "Layne!" Kelce yelled out, running up behind her and seeing the scene. "Shit." he muttered, and Rafe looked up, his nose slightly bleeding as he coughed viciously. One of the kook girls, Layne believed her name to be Delaney, had her head over his shoulder, and laughed slightly.

"Oh fuck." Delaney chuckled, and Layne scrunched up her face in disgust. She was about to cry again, standing shaking in the door frame, trying to find words, but they were all caught in a lump in her throat. "What the fuck?" she choked out, her lip trembling. Rafe stumbled, trying to hide the cocaine, and tried to get up, tripping over his feet.

"Layne..." he muttered, inching towards her, but Layne backed up into Kelce, turning on her heels to run down the stairs.

"The fuck Kelce?" Rafe spat, pushing his friend harshly by the chest. He followed her down the steps, reaching for her arm when they reached the bottom of the steps. Everyone downstairs had turn to look at them, save for the people who were too fucked up to care. "Layne—"

"Let go of me." she pushed him away, and a few people echoed laughter from around them. She felt embarrassed, so much so that she started crying a bit more, viciously wiping away the tears that fell from her face. "Don't act like this, cmon. It was just—it was just a little, I'm not gonna...fuck, can we go outside and talk about this?" he had come in closer to her, because he didn't want anyone around him to hear that he was being vulnerable. He grabbed her arm again and Layne shoved him away. He started to look so angry Layne was getting scared again and thought back to the last time she was at a kook party and he had his hand around her throat.