Rafe didn't consider himself a stalker.
He considered himself someone who carefully gathered information, not in an insane, obsessive kind of way, no, not at all, he was just being proactive. Really, he was just looking out for himself. Because he had a damn lot of enemies, people that were jealous, no doubt, jealous of his wealth and family name and probably the amount of girls that would and had sucked his dick in a heartbeat. Clearly, there was no other reason a guy like Rafe could have any enemies, besides jealousy.
Rafe didn't consider himself a stalker. But it so happened that Rafe found himself in a position in which he had to watch out, always had to gather information and carefully store it inside of his little kook brain, which was kind of hard, considering how much his drug habits fucked with his memory. But he managed pretty well.
It was a Wednesday afternoon, the sun up as high as Rafe himself by the side of his pool, burning down merciless on his shirtless body and Rafe didn't consider it weird, or creepy that he happened to know that Pope Hayward was currently sweating his brains out in a hot classroom. He wasn't a stalker. It was simply that Topper had maths club too, had to go because his mother told him to, like helping out at the soup kitchen, cleaning trash from the beaches, whatever it took to make the perfect son she needed. Rafe and Kelce made fun of him for it plenty. Precisely every Wednesday, when Topper had to decline any invitation to hang out and smoke or have a few drinks at the island club because he had Maths club. And he just had happened to mention towards Rafe once, that Pope was in that club too. So it wasn't weird for Rafe to know that Pope was occupied as of right now.
In the same way it sure as hell couldn't be considered stalking that Rafe knew where JJ Maybank was in this very second, too. Because JJ simply did lawn work for Kelces neighbors and Kelce had send Rafe a snap earlier, complaining about the loud lawn mower, asking Rafe if he could drop by and escape the noise to hang out in the quiet shadow of Tanneyhill. Unfortunately, Rafe had to decline the offer. He was busy.
Although, some people wouldn't consider tanning at the pool with a Mai Tai by his side being particularly busy. But Rafe was busy, not stalking, no, just watching out for John B to turn up. Which should happen, any time soon. Rafe thought, his father cut his workers too much slack. Told the Rutledge kid to come in for work "whenever he wanted"; it just needed to be finished by tomorrow morning when Ward wanted to take the Druthers out. If Ward had given John B an exact time instead, at which he was supposed to work, this would've been easier. Rafe wouldn't have had to wait around like a stalker although he probably would've anyways, hoping for John B to show up late and report it to his father then, but you couldn't be late for a time that wasn't defined.
John B did show up, late, by Rafes measures and walked by the pool on his way to the Druthers, saluting Rafe as he saw him in one of the lounge chairs. "Afternoon, sir", he said mockingly and Rafe wrinkled his nose, pressing his lips into a thin line not answering as John B crossed the yard, his walk so light, vivid, like he couldn't care less about spending his afternoons working rather than blowing daddy's money. Rafe waited until John B had disappeared at the dock, not in a stalker kind of way, before he jumped up, feeling dizzy. Being stoned and laying in the sun for too long wasn't the best combination.
He got inside, quickly taking a cold shower to wake himself up, throwing on a random outfit, totally random, no planning whatsoever, just coincidentally slipping into the beige shirt Sarah got him for his birthday saying girls liked these kind of clothes with a wink and some random pants, his favorite, putting on some perfume, not too much, it was supposed to be random after all. He messed with his hair for a minute, felt it would look like he tried to hard and simply put on a backwards cap before he slipped into his shoes and rushed down the stairs.
A quick glance at the boat assured him John B was still busy, and he knew Pope was still in school and JJ occupied as well, just happened to know, in a totally non stalker way and Rafe hopped into his truck and drove down to the Wreck.
Now, Rafe really couldn't be considered a stalker. Because he truly had no idea where Kiara was, at that moment of time. She might help her parents at the Wreck. Or she was at home, doing whatever girls do, maybe down at the beach, hitting the waves. Maybe she was visiting another friend or she was hanging out at the chateau while the boys were working. Rafe had no way of knowing where Kiara was on that particular Wednesday afternoon and it's not like he tried too hard finding out, that would've been creepy.
He went inside of the restaurant, fresh ventilated air hitting him as he entered from the pressing pre summer break heat outside and he casually strolled over to a table in the corner by the windows from where you could glance outside but also watch the other guests and the bar, in a totally non stalker way.
Rafe happened to be lucky. Kiara wasn't surfing or saving turtles or what the fuck ever, she was helping her parents at the restaurant today, walking out of the kitchen carrying two full plates. Her hair was up in a high ponytail, strands of it falling into her face, her babyhair clinging onto her sweaty temples. She looked exhausted, stressed, kinda hot. An apron over her tank top, green bikini strap around her neck and she saw Rafe right away. Rafe knew that she saw him, because she furrowed her eyebrows deeply and the corners of her mouth, that had been raised in a customer service smile, dropped.
She carefully put the smile back on as she walked over to a table, setting down the plates, saying nice things in her sweet voice, smiling, nodding, then turning around and snap. Ice cold again. She got over to Rafes table with a few quick steps, her hands on her hips, her face blank.
"What the hell do you want", she spat.
"Well, I haven't looked at the menu yet but uh, I think I'll take a beer. Cold one", Rafe answered calmly. He didn't avoid Kiaras furious gaze and looked her straight into her eyes.
"What do you want here", she just asked.
"Eat. This is a restaurant, right?", Rafe said, one of his eyebrows raised in amusement.
"What is the matter with you, Rafe", Kiara said and cautiously looked around. She didn't want to get too loud, sound too mean because the guest around couldn't know of the asshole Rafe was. She had to contain herself and upkeep at least some sense of politeness.
"I'm hungry", Rafe shrugged and leaned back in his chair, a faint smile on his lips.
"Too bad, we actually just ran out of food. Go to literally any other of the hundred restaurants on the island", Kiara said, her voice still snappy and she kept her face straight, already turning around to walk off, hoping Rafe would be gone when she'd come back out.
"A beer", Rafe just yelled after her, grinning to himself as Kiara disappeared through the door behind the bar.
"Dad", she said, her Father busy with a few pans on the stove. "Can you kick someone out?"
Her Father immediately stopped what he was doing to turn towards his daughter. "What happened? Was someone mean to you?"
"Well", Kiara thought. "Not exactly. But I still want him out of the restaurant"
Her Father chuckled . "Kiara, honey, you can't just kick anyone out you don't like, how are we supposed to do business like that, huh?"
Kiara just shrugged her shoulders. "I don't care"
"Let me tell you a secret while these eggs burn black", her Father said, resting his hand at her shoulder. "I don't like half of the people that come here. If not more. You just gotta put on a smile and serve them and get over it. Then after work, feel free to talk as much shit about them as you want"
Kiara frowned. But there were already full plates stacking at the counter she had to give out and they weren't going to serve themselves so she had to walk back out. She quickly took care of the other customers, feeling Rafe staring at her the entire time until she walked by Rafes table.
"Ey", Rafe got her attention. He held his hand up in a obnoxious way and bend his fingers to wave her over. "Bring me the beer with the cap on, alright, I don't want you to spit in it"
Kiara sighed. "Too bad, I was really planning on it", she snapped back and Rafe grinned.
"Yeah, I figured", he said and Kiara couldn't process what the hell was supposed to be so funny about her hating him. She got him the beer, cap on, and sat it down at his table, opening in front of his eyes.
"Thanks", Rafe smiled. Kiara gifted him an exaggerated fake smile back, immediately dropping her mouth again and Rafe nodded understandingly. "Bring me the menu, will you?", he said.
"Please", Kiara said, her arms crossed. Rafe just laughed. "It's your job, Kie, I'll say please when I mean it"
Kiara just scoffed, shaking her head as she walked back to the counter, picking up the menu and tossing it at Rafes desk without waiting around to give him any time to say something mean. Switching back to her constumor voice and face when she walked by the other tables was hard.
"Can I get you anything else?", she kindly asked the old couple near Rafe as she walked by. "No thank you sweetie", the woman answered and she strolled back behind the counter, finally having the time to catch her breath inbetween all the trouble, resting her hands at the counter.
She glanced, well, glared over to Rafe, who was studying the menu, not all to close though, looked up instead right into her eyes. Kiara wasn't a girl to get intimidated and she provokingly raised her eyebrow. Rafe put on a smile and held his hand up, bending to fingers to wave her over. Kiara stared back blank. Clearly she'd seen it, she just didn't react.
"Kiara, theres a guest waving over there", her mother said, carrying a stack of dirty plates as he walked by to the dishwasher. Kiara sighed. "Yeah, I see", she said and pushed herself off the counter to get back to Rafe.
"All of this sounds pretty good, what do you recommend", Rafe asked all serious as she stopped at his table. "I recommend you fuck off", Kiara said and Rafe pressed his lips together nodding.
"That's not how you treat a costumer, sweetie", Rafe grinned. Clearly, he had listened to her conversations at the other table. God, as if it wasn't uncomfortable enough that she had to be all fake nice, it was even worse when someone saw her being fake nice.
She pulled the chair at Rafes table and sat down, Rafe being utterly surprised at the gesture. He straightened his back from slouching to face her.
"Whatever evil plan you came here with, carry it out already ", Kiara said. Rafe opened his mouth to protest but Kiara cut in. "And I'm sick of you treating me differently than the boys. Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean you can't beat me up and need to come up with some elaborate scheme of torturing me in my own restaurant. My God Rafe, if you wanna bother me so badly let's go outside and fight, I'm not scared of you"
Rafe had listened intently and smiled a soft little smile as he looked back at Kiara.
"That's too cute, Kiara, that you wanna attempt to fight me but I wouldn't want to hit you. Well, at least not in that way"
Kiara wrinkled her forehead. "What is that even supposed to mean?"
"Means I didn't come here to bother you, alright. There ain't no evil plan"
"But you are bothering me"
"Well, I thought this was a nice place to have a conversation with you without your annoying boyfriends looking to attack me all the time"
Kiara swallowed hard. The thought of Rafe wanting to have a conversation with her was quite abstruse.
"Actually, my boyfriends are dropping by any minute. And I'm sure they have worse things in mind then spitting in your beer when they catch you down here"
"I'm sure they are", Rafe nodded. He didn't seem intimidated at all. Although he sure as hell couldn't win against even two of the pogues. He looked down at the menu again. "I'll take the stew, alright. And Kie, if you actually plan to spit in it, that'd be kind of hot, not gonna lie", he said with a wink and Kiaras face distorted into a frown. "Ew", she said, pushing back the chair and getting up but Rafe wore a self satisfied grin. At least he'd made sure she wouldn't spit into his food now..
There was plenty Kiara could still do though. She rang the order in by her Dad as usual before she went on to serve the other guest, feeling Rafes stares in her back the entire time. Couldn't help but get nervous by time, jittery, not grabbing the plates with the same firmness anymore, seeing the liquid shake in the drinks she was carrying, certain she was gonna crash a tray sooner or later but she couldn't help it. Rafe just sat there, sipping on his beer, his blue eyes following her around the restaurant and Kiara tried to figure it out. What Rafe was planning. Why the fuck he was actually there. Because it sure as hell wasn't to see her, like he claimed.
Kiara decided to strike first. After taking the plate out of the kitchen she sat it down at the counter. She was alone behind the bar, the wreck catastrophically understaffed and she grabbed the salt, taking off the cap and spreading a good amount all over, stirring it in quickly. Her dads infamous stew was most definitely inedible by now.
Kiara decided to bless Rafe with her customer smile this time around and walked over to his table being all nice and polite, setting down the food. "Enjoy the meal", she said enthusiastically and Rafe looked utterly confused as she walked back to the counter.
Kiara rested her hands at the counter to watch Rafe take his first bite. His face as he tasted the salty mess was delightful to look at, tears shooting into his eyes from how salty it was and he swallowed hard, almost choking on the terrible food and washing it down with half of the beer. Kiara couldn't help but smirk watching him and she made no efforts to hide it when Rafe glared over. He was fucking mad, tensing his jaw so hard, you could see the bones sticking out of his cheeks.
She was satisfied with the reaction, going back inside of the kitchen to pick up more plates she had to give out and went on to serve a family table across the restaurant. She didn't notice Rafe immediately taking the chance to get up and carry his plate over to the counter, yelling for Kiaras Father in the kitchen.
He came out looking all stressed and Rafe put on his best performance he'd learned from years at the Country club and living with his Father.
"Do you want me to fucking sue this place for food poisoning, huh? This shit is terrible", Rafe spat as Kiaras Father looked horrified. If there was one thing he could actually pride himself in it was that his food was good. The thought of having fucked up his stew was terrible. He'd probably have to throw the whole pot away.
"Oh no, we're sorry. I don't know how this happened, we're so sorry", he soothed immediately and Kiara saw them by then, Rafe talking to her Father and her heart sunk.
She jogged over as fast as she could.
"Dad, let me take care of this okay I think I messed this up", she stepped in, feeling Rafes cold eyes on her as he calmly watched the scene.
"Yes, please, we're so sorry, I have to check the rest of the stew", Kiaras Father said and fled into the kitchen, lunging towards his pot of stew.
Rafe watched after him, then smiled peacefully down at Kiara, not saying a word.
"Hey, I can get you another plate; is that alright?", Kiara sighed. She couldn't have know Rafe would drag her parents into this immediately.
"No", he said.
"Well..aren't you still hungry", Kiara tried to hide the insecurity in her voice. But God, she'd picked the wrong fight. Rafe was powerful and ruthless and if he wanted to hurt her or her family, he'd find a way. And she didn't even fucking know why he'd come here, probably revenge for something JJ did or just for fun, because Rafe simply liked torturing her.
"Yeah, but I'm going to eat at a different restaurant. Wanna come?", Rafe shrugged his shoulders and my god, could he not look away for a second? Kiaras forehead was covered in deep wrinkles.
"What?", she asked.
"I can pick you up when your shift is over or at home if you wanna change first", Rafe explained, not giving a fuck about Kiaras reaction, acting as if it was in any way appropriate of him to suggest this. Kiara couldn't help but laugh.
"Rafe..what are you asking?", she laughed.
"I'm asking you to have dinner with me, Kie. Something that's not oversalted maybe"
"Are you actually delusional?"
"Uhh", Rafe made and didn't say anything after. Just looked at Kie, as if he still expected a real answer, a yes or no, because apparently her question hadn't been clear enough.
Kiara felt herself getting uncomfortable under Rafes stern gaze and she looked away, down at the register.
"The beer was $3, I won't charge you for the food", she distracted to finally get rid of Rafe and he pulled a couple of rolled up notes from his pocket, picking a $100 note and sliding it across the counter. "Keep the change for tips"
Kiara looked down at the note and up at Rafe, rolling her eyes. "We get it, Rafe, you're rich, okay. But I'm not gonna accept that"
"What? Can I not tip for the outstanding service you provided?", Rafe smiled sweetly.
"You know what, thanks. I'll use this to buy weed for me and JJ", Kiara smiled and put the note away, waiting for Rafe to fuck off.
"Hey, we should smoke sometime", Rafe said, completely ignoring Kiaras attempts to get him mad. "How about now?"
"I'm working", Kiara said and it was bad, because she didn't say no.
"Tonight then? We can hide somewhere, so your boys don't see you fraternizing with the enemy, huh?"
Rafe didn't seem to get it. Didn't seem to get that the last thing Kiara had in mind was smoking a goddamn joint with him.
"What the fuck do you want, Rafe?"
"I'll pick you up at 7, alright"
"No"
"Why not?"
"Because.. I hate you, Rafe, haven't you noticed?"
Rafe pretended to be surprised.
"That hurts. What have I ever done to you, huh?", he asked.
Kiara shrugged. "You've done plenty to my friends, Rafe. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take care of the guests"
Rafe left but he was back at the restaurant at night, slouching in the drivers seat of his truck he'd parked on the side of the road, his eyes resting on the entrance of the wreck, watching people go in and out. Now, if people didn't know he was waiting for Kie, he'd definitely come across like a stalker, but they had a date, well, sort of.
When Kie came out, being let off earlier while her parents closed up the restaurant, Rafe jumped from the truck.
"Hey", he smiled. Kie flinched.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me", she sighed and proactively reached for the keys in her pockets. Rafe was unimpressed, pulling a joint he'd tucked behind his ear and waving it around in the air.
"Let's go somewhere", he suggested, turning around and gesturing at his truck with the joint. Sarah had talked about it to her before, about Rafe being so far removed from reality at times, but Kie doubted that's what this was all about. He wasn't delusional, he was just bored and looking for a reason to fight the pouges.
"Yes!", Kie exclaimed, her hand hurting around the keys. "Home. Me, I'm going to my home and you are going to your home"
Rafe chuckled, taking a step forward. He pretend he was calm, but he wasn't, his feet restlessly grinding into the dusty road. "Kie..", he said, warm, amused almost. "You're trying so hard, huh, to pretend you hate me. Why? For your boys?"
"Yeah, it's called friendship. Have you heard of it?"
Rafe shrugged. "I'm not all too interested in friendship"
Took a moment for Kie to catch herself, scoff and shake her head before she turned around and walked. "Goodnight, Rafe"
She didn't plan on shaking him off that easily, of course not, she immediately pulled out her phone to dial JJ's number while Rafe caught up to her. "So your house then? Okay, let's just take-"
"Hey, JJ!", Kie exclaimed and smiled at Rafe, pressing his lips into a thin line and shaking his head ever so slowly. "Goodnight, Kie", he said and took a step back, his hand innocently in the air.
"Oh, nothing, I'm just walking home", Kie said into the phone with a smile and kept walking.
authors notes
delivering the riara story I promised. I planned to make this a short smutty one shot but then it kind of got out of hand so it'll be a few parts short story. I'm trying to upload all the parts shortly after each other but I'm not gonna post all at once cause I deserve some clout, okay. I'd love to hear what you think about it in the comments or through a vote <3. 09/26/22