This is Me Trying ⭑ Rafe Cameron

twenty eight

"So what? They just let you go?" JJ asked.

Cassie nodded. "Yeah, they made a deal with Rafe eventually, I guess. And so he brought me back to Kildare."

JJ looks at Cassie, eyes narrowed.

"What?" She says, keeping her focus ahead on the road.

"Is he still here?" He asks.

"What do you mean?"

"Is he still in Kildare?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. Probably not." It was odd how easily these lies slipped from her mouth, how casual she sounded, how believable she was. "Nothing happened. We barely talked. He offered to take me home, and that was it."

"Oh, wow, what a nice guy." JJ mocked.

Cassie didn't know why she got the sudden urge to jump to Rafe's defense, when she'd been mocking him in that same way herself. Instead, she just scoffed and laughed it off as they turned onto the muddy road leading to JJ's house.

She waited in the car as he ran in to grab his things, looking around at the mess of the property. The lawn completely overgrown since JJ hadn't been around to mow it.

She pulled her flip-phone out from her pocket, with two missed calls from the number she recognized to be Rafe's. She swallowed harshly,and clicked the red 'delete' button on both.

When Cassie heard a loud crash, and glass shattering, she looked up quickly and out the front of the car to find JJ had smashed a window in. She flung the car door open. "What are you doing?!" She shouted, and when JJ ignored her, and started to climb his way inside through the window, she ran after him. "What the hell?!" She flung her arms out, confused.

JJ fell into the inside of the house, then dusted off his hands. "Yeah, guess Dad didn't think too far ahead on this one." He says. "Shocker."

Cassie blinked a few times, then the yellow piece of paper taped to the front door caught her attention, and she took a step toward it. In big black letters were the words 'EVICTION NOTICE' and below it, was a list of the county's legal rights to take this property from the Maybank's after a series of unpaid bills and lack of care.

She ripped the paper off the door, angrily. "Are you kidding me?!" She yelled, and the door unlocked. JJ opened it for her, and though he shrugged it off like it was nothing, Cassie saw straight through it. "You were a missing person."

JJ shrugs again, then turns back into the house. "Yeah, well, I missed a few bills before I was granted that title too." He spoke, his voice growing quiet as he stepped into his room.

She looked at it, not even wanting to read the total amount due. "What are you gonna do?" She asked.

JJ shoved clothes into a backpack, then walked across the hall into the bathroom. "Dunno. Probably crash at John B's for a while."

Cassie remained by the door. "And then what?" JJ didn't answer, but she heard him as he continued to shove more things into his bag. "JJ you can't just ignore this, I mean, there's—"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it, Cassie." He stepped out of the bathroom and back into the living room, opening up the drawer of the table by the dusty plaid couch, and pulling out a plastic baggy of pre-rolled blunts. "Just wait in the car." JJ had his back to her, an attempt to ensure she wouldn't see it, but she wasn't blind, or stupid.