CASTAWAY ⚓ R.C, J.M

E I G H T

"Hmm, no thank you."

He nodded and walked off to the counter. Harley spun around and placed her hands on the back of his seat facing the others.

She smiled sweetly at them all. "It was lovely meeting all of you properly and it was cool that you didn't mind me crashing your plans."

"Who minds a pretty girl joining their group for the afternoon," Kelce shrugged.

"Any time you want to ditch those Pogues, let us know, we'll save you." Topper offered casually.

Harley bit her cheek and chuckled awkwardly. "I don't get why you guys don't like each other. You're rich and they're not, so? They're just as great as you guys, they're so lovely and funny."

The boys recoiled and grimaced as if they tasted something so sharply bitter on their tongues.

"We're not the same," Jamie gagged.

"Not even similar," Topper shook his head. He leant forward on the table clasping his hands together and stared straight at Harley. "They're criminals and low lifes. We have morals."

That couldn't be true. The Pogues were so great and so caring. Mr Routledge himself was the best in Harley's eyes. Topper must have been exaggerating his distaste for the other side to sway her mind.

"Ready?" Rafe appeared behind Harley with two to-go cups.

She nodded, "Yeah." She glanced back at the boys and waved showing off a gleaming smile. "Bye. See you all another time."

They all exchanged goodbyes and nods watching the two disappear through the restaurant doors.

"Someone's thirsty," Harley joked motioning towards the white cups.

"One's for you actually. I know you didn't want anything, but you should really try this fruit smoothie. I got you a medium one."

Rafe handed one over, not missing the warm and grateful expression over Harley's face.

"Thank you."

He watched as she took a small sip through her straw. Her features melted into bliss as she hummed in delight.

"This is really good." She sucked in more, her cheeks hollowing to draw out a lot of the delicious smoithie. "Like really good. What is it?"

"It's the Coral Reef smoothie. My annoying, little sister always goes on about it."

"I don't blame her. I think I'm in love with this."

Rafe led Harley to a silver convertible that caught her eye. It looked sleek and quite pricey, the chrome wheels gleaning in the early evening light.

"Is this yours?"

Rafe could see Harley practically bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement and interest in his car. That made him smile proudly.

"Yeah. Sweet right?"

"Yes!" She rushed forward a little, but caught herself and tried to mellow out. "So cool."

Rafe chuckled and opened the passenger door for her to slide in. The first thing she noticed was the feel of the interior and how pristine everything looked. Evidently, Rafe had expensive taste.

Harley's fingertips trailed over the plush, red leather seats, then the shiny centre console and all of it's buttons and dials.

"You like cars?" Rafe questioned as he got in and started up the car. The vehicle purred to life.

"Well," Harley sat back and analysed the car. She couldn't tell if she just liked this car because of the way it looked or if she was genuinely interested in cars. "I really like this one."