ONE FOR THE MONEY - rafe cameron

chapter twelve

another day comes around, and gina drives to the cameron's house.

she rings the doorbell, and sarah answers it.
"hey ginny!" sarah gives her a hug.
"hey sarah, how come i haven't seen you around?"
"my family's been busy and needed my help."
"oh, okay." gina thinks about the other day when she spoke to ward.

the two girls walk inside.
"so are you here to see rafe?"
"i'm here to see the both of yous, and wheezie."
"wheezie's at her friends house."
"that's nice."
"yeah, and rafe is in his room."
"okay, do you want to hang out tomorrow?"
"i'd like that." sarah smiles.

-

gina walks up stairs and knocks on rafe's door.
"who is it?" he calls out.
"gina." she hears him get up and rush to the door.
he opens it, and sees gina waiting for him.

"hey baby." a smile grows on his face.
"hi rafe." gina looks up at him.
"come in." he moves over and gina walks inside, she plops on his bed and rafe shuts the door.

"so how come you left me sitting on my bench for half an hour til i came over and got shut down by your father."
"you came over?" he sits next to her.
"yeah." she nods.
"sorry, he didn't tell me you came over."
"what about the part where i waited for you, and got stood up?"
"i didn't mean to."
"then you didn't call or text me for days."
"gina, i know, i didn't mean to do that."

"cause we have an amazing talk, then you ghost me, and the day where you woke up in my bed, topper went back to his mom's house so i was all by myself, again."
"topper left?"
"his mom won custody."
"what do you mean his mom won custody, did his parents get divorced or something?" gina's face drops.
"he didn't tell you?"
"no, he didn't tell me."
"forget i said anything, please."
"gina, i have to see how he's doing."

"he's gonna be pissed i told you."
"but, we have to be there for him."
"we can be, without mentioning it." they get quiet for a second.
"look, i was thinking about going to his house soon, would you want to come? just don't mention the divorce."
rafe hesitates.
"fine."

"now that we got that convered, can you tell me why you ghosted me?"
"i can't, just know that i never wanted to and i really lo-" he quickly stops talking.
"what?"
"like you." gina knew what he was gonna say, and it scared her. they weren't even official yet.
and she didn't want to feel obligated to say it back, since she has trouble with it.

"oh, okay." silence takes over once again, at this point they weren't even looking at each other.

"i really like you too." gina softly says, breaking the awkwardness. rafe looks at her, and smiles ear to ear.

"look, rafe. i'm not ready to say love yet."
"me neither, i understand."
"thank you."

-

after a little while rafe, and gina head over to topper's house.

they texted him they were on their way, and once they got there, topper was waiting outside for them.

"hey guys!" topper daps up rafe and side hugs gina.
"hey top." rafe grins.
"hi topper."

they walk inside and gina looks around.
"haven't seen this place in a while." she states.
"i know, should've invited you."
"so what's up with everything?" rafe asks, and topper gives him a weird look.
"i didn't speak to yous for only like three days, what do you mean- gina you told him!"

gina's eyes widen.
"i'm gonna go to the bathroom." she tries to walk away, but topper stops her.
"you told me you weren't gonna tell anyone."
"it slipped..."
"the word's gonna spread and everyone's going to know about my business!"
"topper, she didn't mean to tell me man."

"rafe get out of this it isn't about you."
rafe puts his hands up as if he's surrendering.
"look, i came to be here for you, you don't have to give me attitude."
"gina, did you tell anyone else?"
"no."
"you sure?"
"yes, top. i only told rafe, and i didn't even mean to he figured it out on his own."
"okay.. okay."
"sorry."
topper looks at rafe then back at gina.
"it's alright. sorry i got so mad, i've just been really stressed lately." he sits down and holds his head.

"what's been going on ever since you came back?"
gina sits next to him.
"i'm pretty sure my mom's an alcoholic now."
rafe and gina share a concerned look.
"saw my dad, he wasn't too happy to see me though."
"why not?"
"he has a new family."
"what?" rafe questions.
"turns out the arguments they had before they got divorced was because he was cheating."
topper's voice starts cracking.
"and he didn't even try to get custody of me, because he has a fiance and kids. my mom didn't want me either, but according to her 'she got stuck with me'."

"aw, top.." gina rubs his back as he holds in his tears.
"both my parents didn't want me, there has to be something wrong with me." he breaks down.
"there's nothing wrong with you." topper falls into gina's arms.
when she looks up at rafe she sees him staring down at topper. she could tell rafe didn't know how to react, most likely cause he never seen topper like this.

"if you ever want to come back to my house you can, my parents love you and would happily take you in." rafe watched gina as she said this, it made him realize how much of a good person she was. he wished he was better at comforting, but never grew up in a peaceful home.

he also realized how soft spoken gina was, how much of a good listener she was, and how much she cared.