This is Me Trying ⭑ Rafe Cameron

fourteen

She turns to face Rafe. "You can come in?" She suggest.

His eyes linger on her for a second longer than normal before he answered. "Okay."

"Just..." she brought a quick finger to her lips and insinuated to keep his presence on the down low, and he sent her an understanding nod as he followed her up the steps to the porch.

She slowly twisted the knob of the front door, and peaked her head inside first, the tv was unsurprisingly still on, and her grandma, still on the couch, had her back to the door.

Cassie gestured for Rafe to go upstairs first, and when he did, she quickly shut the door behind her, and followed up after him, a smile on her face at the ridiculousness of it.

He waited for her at the top, and she redirected her smile towards him as she continued on and lead the way to her bedroom.

At first, she regretted inviting him in as she opened her door and tried to remember what kind of state she left it in. She wanted to rush inside as fast as she possibly could, and hide away anything that could change the way Rafe thought about her. That made her come off as too juvenile, too girly, not cool enough for him.

And then she felt a bit of pride, having Rafe Cameron in her bedroom, shutting the door behind them quietly and watching as he walked inside and looked around.

His eyes were drawn to the bulletin board above her bed that housed countless pictures. Pictures of her with her mom, with her grandma, her childhood cat. Her and the horse she used to ride in Waco. She followed his gaze to the picture in the middle, a polaroid of her, JJ, Kiara, Pope and John B all standing on the dock at The Chateau.

It was taken on Kiara's birthday, where the five of them spent the day celebrating by getting day-drunk and smoking around a bonfire.

She looked at Rafe, trying to gage his expression. Seeing if it was angry, or vengeful, but it was just empty. Impossible to read.

Cassie took a deep breath, then reached up and took the pin out of the picture, and pulled it off the board. She looked at it for a second, then sat it face down on the desk. "Yeah, need to... redo this." She gestures to the board.

He glances at her. "You don't have to do that."

She shakes her head, walking over to her closet. "Do what?" She asks, though she knew what he was referring to.

"Act like you still don't care about them." He says, he walks over to her bed, and sits down on the edge.

She watched him out of the corner of her eye, and it made her heart skip a beat. "I do care about them." She nods, then takes a moment to think. "I just don't think I'm meant to be involved with them like that anymore. I just— I think they've moved on. And I need to too." She sifted through her closet, pulling out her soft cream knit sweater, and a pair of big denim shorts.

She looked at Rafe, smiled, then gestured for him to turn around.

He gave her a sort of look first, one that made her immediately fill with nerves, one that reminded her that he was a lot better at whatever this was than she was. But he turned around, then spoke. "I've always thought they had this... mob mentality." He starts. "And not just because of everything that happened, just— I mean they abducted my sister. Brainwashed her"