Rogue Wave | Rafe Cameron

15

How had I been? I had lost someone close to me in the last few weeks and wounded up in the midst of the deeper parts of my addiction.

"Good," I replied, sounding less confident than I had wanted, as Pope sat down beside me.

"If you ever need a thing, come here. Got it, K?"

I smiled, picking up my fork and wordlessly thanking him with the bow of my head.

"Now, eat up, Pope. We gotta catering job today up at Figure 8."

"Huh?" Popes furrowed eyebrows gave way to his confusion, and he paused in the middle of his bite.

"Oh yeah, at the Island Club again, Heyward?" I chimed in, setting my fork back down and watching Pope's father nod.

"Eh, it's my day off, but I'd be happy to help out down there," I offered, sending another smile in his direction and sharing a nod with Pope.

Pope and me had scarfed down the food, leaving us barely any time to gather everything we had needed. Once everything was loaded and ready to go, we had started to head out in Heyward's pickup truck.

"She's all good," I slapped down on the side of the trunk, letting them know it was okay to start the drive, before settling myself down against one of the crates.

—

"Who're you guys hosting anyway?" I took a bite out of a crab cake, turning to Pope who wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Cameron's," he clicked his teeth, slamming another one of the crates down on the grass.

"Oh," I suddenly felt uncomfortable to be there, regretting my agreement to come help out.

"Yeah, assholes have us workin' for them, even after all the shit that went down. Fucked up, huh? How they just get to go on drinking and partying, like nothing happened."

I nodded pitifully, feeling my appetite going away and discarding my food in one of the golf courses' trash cans.

"How's he been?" I asked randomly, noticing Pope's confusion as he stepped out of routine with the crates.

"JJ?" he asked warily, as if the topic of him was a sensitive one, which it was and I silently thanked him for that.

"Mhm."

"He's okay... I mean, he's JJ, kinda got up like nothin'." He returned to the crates, finalizing his chore by steadying them upon a rolling table and pushing them away.

I don't know why I had asked about JJ, who I had sworn to keep at a distance. Was it that I liked him still? Well, I didn't feel the same around him anymore and the absence of the butterflies in my stomach pained me, as I imagined it had wilted away to go back in its cocoon.

No, I cared about him. He was... my friend, at a point and, whether or not we were fighting, he would continue to be.

"Hello, everyone! I would like to say a special thank you to," Ward pointed his glass at Heyward, "Heyward for serving some of the best damn food in Kildare tonight!" A whirl of cheers emitted from the crowd, and they raised their glasses in unison.

What a cult.

"Enjoying the party?"

"Well, I was, until you came around," I rebutted, crossing my arms and turning away slightly.

"I mean, I could change your mind—"

Rafe held a hand in his pocket, using his free hand to lift his own glass to his lips as he snuck a glance over to me.

"Stop, Rafe. We already agreed this was a one time thing, not happening again."

"C'mon, who has to know?" He rose an eyebrow, peering down at me from above the lip of his glass.