S E V E N
JULIETTE KNEW HE'D BEEN OUT SMOKING AND DRINKING ALL NIGHT WITH HIS FRIENDS. She could tell as soon as he got home at two in the morning, nearly waking the whole house up with the loud, uncaring slam of the front door and the noisy clambering of footsteps up the stairs.
She was buried deep under her covers in the pitch black of the room — she hated sleeping with so much as a night light on — when there was very faint knocking against her door. So faint it was barely noticeable; as though he didn't want to actually wake her. Her back was to the door when she heard it creak open, followed by soft padding of Rafe walking towards her bed.
"Jules," came his quiet, drunken slur. She felt his fingers splay on her arm over her blanket, and then he climbed onto bed with her as he got under the covers. "Hi, baby, I'm home."
Juliette's heart skipped a beat as she kept her breath steady to keep up the pretense that she was still asleep.
His body was warm against hers as his arms encased around her, pulling her comfortably so she was snuggled up to him. He reeked of alcohol and cigarettes — she wondered if he'd started this vice of his when she left. His face was in her hair, lips brushing the back of her neck as he mumbled, "Jules, please don't leave me again."
Her eyes fluttered shut as she relished the moment of what being with Rafe was like once again. The lazy kisses, husky mumbles, wandering hands, smoldering gazes — everything that was Rafe Cameron, Juliette couldn't get enough of.
"I love you," he was murmuring again, half-asleep as he pressed another kiss on her shoulder. "Fuck, if only you knew how much I love you."
I do, Rafe, Julie thought, I do know how much you love me.
She waited until she knew for sure he was asleep. His arms around her got heavy, and his breathing deepened. She slowly twisted in his arms so she was face to face with him, and her stomach flipped at the peacefulness on his face. She brought a hand up, using her pointer finger to gently trace his features from his nose to the curve of his lips. She brushed his bangs off his forehead, then leaned over as she very quietly said, "Rafe?"
"Mm." He barely stirred in his sleep, arms tightening to hold her.
"I love you," she whispered. "I still do." She brushed his lips over his in the barest of kisses and felt an explosion of butterflies in her stomach. "I don't think I can ever stop loving you."
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When Juliette woke up the next morning, Rafe was already gone. She touched the side he slept on, and felt it a little warm. Listening intently, she could hear the shower running on the other side of the hallway, and realized he had just woken up and was taking a shower. She decided to get out of bed and take one as well, getting dressed for the day before going downstairs.
"Hey, kid," a voice called out from the kitchen, and Juliette turned to see her dad making a sandwich.
"Oh, hey, Dad, what's up?" She waddled over to him, purposely staring at his food.
Conrad rolled his eyes before handing her the rest of his sandwich. "Topper came to speak with me and Ward yesterday."
She took a bite off the grilled cheese as she raised an inquisitive brow at him. "Oh, yeah? What'd he say?"
Conrad grabbed one of Rafe's Gatorade from the fridge and twisted the bottle cap off. "He said John B was stealing some of Ward's shit."
"Oh," she said, chomping off another bite. "I thought he was tattling that little stunt Sarah and I pulled."
"What stunt?" Conrad narrowed his eyes at his daughter, taking his baseball cap off and wearing it on reverse.
"So you believe what Topper said?" Juliette changed the topic, nearly demolishing the sandwich. Her father had the attention span of a squirrel.
Conrad snorted. "No, but Ward does."
"Of course Waldo does — he doesn't like Pogues, and John B is no exception." She paused and glanced around her. "Speaking of — where's Ward?"
"You get two guesses."
She sighed loudly, pinching the bridge of her nose. "He's having a little chat with John B, isn't he?"
"Gosh darn, my daughter's a scholar," Conrad crooned in heavy sarcasm, only to receive the finger from Juliette as he laughed and waved her off. "Catch you later, kid."
"Later, Dad."
𓆉
An ice cooler with drinks in her hands, Juliette lugged it down the docks as she tipped her head back to keep her giant floppy hat from falling off. She'd made plans to meet up with Sarah in the Benjamin and laze out on the waters with some drinks. She was about to haul the ice cooler up the stairs of the docks when she heard voices round the corner.
"I'm sorry, that's it?" it was Sarah who called out, and Juliette wondered who she was talking to. "Not a 'Hey, how you doin'?' or 'Kiss my ass'?"
"'Your secret's safe with me'?" Juliette recognized John B's voice as he scoffed at Sarah.
"What secret are — " a pause. "Oh, that secret."
"I just got fired because of you," came John B's frustrated voice through gritted voice.
"Oh, shit," Juliette stage-whispered with a gasp as she quietly set the cooler down and listened in with her hands on her hips.
"And I know you can't imagine that, but some people need jobs so that they can eat."
There was a pause before the sound of crunching chips fell to the floor, and Juliette assumed John B had probably sent Sarah's bag of junk food skittering to the ground.
"What the fuck?" Sarah cried out, obviously in shock, and Juliette realized she didn't know Topper snitched.
"You are exactly who I thought you were, Sarah Cameron," seethed John B, and Juliette heard him stomp away. He rounded the corner, coming to a halt when he saw her standing at the foot of the stairs. "Oh."
"Hi, John B," Juliette said, a sheepish smile on her face after being busted that she overheard their conversation.
"Hi, Julie," he said in a faint voice, his jaw still set from his argument with Sarah. He walked down the stairs, coming next to her as he glanced down at the ice cooler she was carrying with her. He let out a soft sigh as he mumbled, "Here, I got it."
"Oh, that's okay — okay, thank you," she quickly said as he went back up the stairs again to set the cooler at the top then headed back down. She had taken all but one step up when John B called her name.
"Hey, Julie?"
"What's up?" She spun back around to look at him over her shoulder.
"Don't wait too long, okay?" he said slowly, as though he were reluctant to even say something in the first place. At her confusion, he went on, "Don't wait too long to tell him it wasn't his fault on what happened last year. It's been killing him a little more everyday."
Juliette blinked, slightly stunned at what he'd just said. She didn't expect John B to mention JJ right now, but it made sense since they were best friends and practically brothers. Of course John B would look out for him. She nodded and smiled weakly. "I won't."
He gave her a tense smile in return before giving a halfhearted wave and rushing out to continue the act of storming away from Sarah.
Juliette finished lugging the cooler all the way to the Benjamin where she already found Sarah sulking in the corner with her hair blowing in her face. "What an asshole," she grumbled, crossing her arms like a child as she watched Juliette pop open the cooler and asked her to pick a drink.
"Not that," Juliette quickly said, stopping Sarah as she plucked the Dr. Pepper back out and returned it inside.
Sarah made a weird face before choosing a different drink.
It was Rafe's favorite soda — she wanted to have some in the cooler in case they go out on the Benjamin again like that one morning.
"So tell me what happened with John B," Juliette said. "What exactly did he 'steal'," she air-quoted the word with her fingers, "that got him fired?"
Sarah rolled her eyes at the mention of the boy but dived into the story nonetheless. The two continued to talk for hours, spending the rest of the day lazing under the sun and working on their tan until it was getting too dark to see each other.
The next morning, Topper invited Juliette to come along with him and Sarah on his wakesetter — he just wanted to brag his Malibu 24-MXZ. Juliette didn't want to go at first, but eventually gave in because Sarah had already told Rafe that Juliette would be going which led to him saying he'd tag along.
"So where'd you say we'd be cleaning up again?" Juliette asked, passing Sarah her sunglasses as Topper manned the boat.
"Masonboro," came Topper's reply, throwing her a glance over his shoulder. He had one hand on the controls and one around Sarah's waist.
Juliette hummed noncommittally, rapping her knuckles against the side of the boat as she said in a high-pitched voice, "Housekeeping." Suddenly, it seemed like a joke JJ would make with that sense of humor of his.
Rafe snorted, a corner of his lips tugging up to a smirk as though he was trying not to grin. He had his head on Juliette's lap with his eyes closed, he claimed he needed a little bit of rest to ease out on stress — whenever he mentioned stress, she knew it had something to do with his father.
His blond hair tickled her bare thighs — Juliette wanted to run her fingers through them.
"Incoming," Topper coughed out, and Juliette looked over to the left and saw another boat moving past them — her heart stopped.
Her eyes locked with JJ — he was with Kiara, Pope, and John B. Those ice blue eyes never left hers as he stood frozen, his throat bobbing at the sight of her. She wanted to yell out to him then and there — let him know that he shouldn't feel guilty about anything. That it was bound to happen anyways, and that it was all an accident.
"Do we have any Dr. Pepper?" Rafe sat up from where he was laying on Juliette's lap, and then stopping when he realized everyone was staring over at something else. He followed Juliette's line of gaze, seeing JJ as he tensed up.
JJ inhaled sharply when he saw Rafe — the muscle ticking on his jaw as his fingers curled into fists. His eyes flickered from Rafe to Juliette — and she could've sworn she saw a mixture of surprise and hurt in them.
Rafe grunted under his breath, opening his mouth to say something but Juliette swiftly placed a hand on his arm to stop him.
JJ's eyes dropped to where she touched Rafe, and he was so still Juliette didn't think he was breathing. Pope brought a hand on his shoulder as though to check if he was okay, but JJ lightly shrugged it off.
"Rafe, don't," she whispered. She could feel the muscles coil in his arm, as he tried to control himself. "Leave them alone."
The boats finally passed each other — Sarah and Topper pretending they were the only two people who existed. Juliette let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"You don't have to act like you don't see us, bitch," Kiara drawled out at Sarah — the two having bad blood ever since that one birthday party. Juliette hadn't really talked much with Kie, so she didn't know what all happened in her side of the story.
It wasn't until they were long gone did Juliette finally say to Rafe, "I know you're still mad — "
"Mad doesn't even begin to cover how I'm feeling, Jules," he said in a tight voice, trying to keep their conversation hushed so Sarah or Topper wouldn't hear. But the wakesetter was small, Juliette knew they could hear everything.
"I know, but JJ didn't do anything," she said.
Rafe sent her an incredulous look as he let sip a scoff of disbelief. "Didn't do anything?" he repeated, poking his tongue against the inside of his cheek as he grinned sardonically. "The asshole nearly killed you, Jules. "
"No, he didn't. It was an accident, Rafe, it wasn't his fault — "
"Why do you keep defending him?" he cut in, his voice suddenly quiet as he looked away from her. "You're defending him as if you . . . " he didn't finish the sentence.
Sarah and Topper weren't saying a single word as they eavesdropped like the nosy pair they were.
It took a moment before Juliette finally sighed and reached over to take Rafe's hand in hers, his ring cool against her skin. "Let's not fight anymore, okay?" she said, rubbing the pad of her thumb against the back of his hand. She could feel him staring at her as she kept her gaze down at their hands. "I don't like fighting with you — you know that."
A second passed, and Rafe interlocked their fingers together. He brought their conjoined hands up to his face, pressing his lips against her knuckles. His mouth brushed against her skin as he said, "You're right. I'm sorry."
Juliette knew he still blamed JJ for what happened. But in the moment — all she cared about was Rafe being right there next to her. And that JJ was still out there — he was so close yet so far. She needed to find a way to talk to him without Rafe knowing — because he might just kill JJ if he ever found out.
Juliette might have a hold on Rafe and have the ability to sway his decisions, but how he feels for others is way out of her control. There was only so much she could do to get him to calm down from his bad boy façade he'd put up as a guard around his vulnerability from how his father treated him.
But Rafe was still just a boy who needed to be loved. He just needed someone to show that he was still capable of being cared for — and that someone was Juliette. It was always her, and everyone knew that. She was his Jules — he'd give up everything for her: drugs, money, cigarettes, his father's favor. All he wanted was her by his side.
But suddenly with her defending JJ instead of agreeing with him — a small part of him felt as though she didn't want him by hers.