TWENTY SIX
a blast from the past (flashback)
"Fuck you, JJ," Billie shouted as she stormed out of the Wreck. Tears were streaming down her face and she was hyperventilating. She looked around for her car and then realised she had gotten there on the back of JJ's motorcycle. "Fuck," she whispered to herself and pulled her fingers through her hair.
"Need a ride?" someone said from inside a car.
"Yeah no thanks." She wasn't that desperate. She wouldn't get into a car with a stranger.
But it wasn't a stranger at all. It was Rafe Cameron. Kook king. He looked smugly at her. She wiped the tears from her cheeks when she saw it was him.
"You can't walk home, it's almost dark," Rafe said and waved his hand towards the sky. The sun was going down. Billie thought of it for a second but shook her head.
"Go away Rafe." He didn't seriously think she'd get in a car with him, did he?
"Alright, suit yourself," he muttered and turned on the ignition.
"Hey Billie, wait," JJ said, coming out of the restaurant. "It's not like that I..." he saw Rafe and his face turned from apologetic and soft to hard and defensive.
At the look of her boyfriend's face, Billie's blood started to boil again. The idea flicked in her head like a dying candle. Rafe was watching her intently with a slight crooked smile on his lips, as if he could imagine what she would do. He would gladly participate in a plot that would make JJ angry.
She looked at him, mouth in a straight line. Then she turned to JJ who was slowly shaking his head in confusion, eyebrows furrowed. She was about to make this so much worse.
She took two steps, opened the passenger door and got into the car. Rafe laughed dryly as she did so.
"Just drive," she said. He did just that, leaving JJ gobsmacked behind, throwing his hat on the pavement in anger.
"What did he do?" Rafe asked after a while, poking his nose in things that weren't his business.
"Doesn't matter... He's just... Ah! Such an idiot," she exclaimed and gesticulated angrily.
"I've been saying that for years," Rafe said with a smirk.
"Shut up Rafe," Billie sighed and looked out the window.
"Do you want me to drop you off at your dad's house?" Rafe changed the subject, seemingly already annoyed with her.
"Could you take me to Tannyhill?" she asked after a while and bit the skin on her thumb. She needed girl talk.
"Woah hey, I was just being nice," Rafe held his hands up. Billie scoffed and gave him a dead stare.
"To Sarah, Rafe."
"Oh," he muttered. "Yeah, sure."
They went silent for a while. Then Billie turned to look at Rafe, when the confusion of the situation hit her.
"Why are you being nice to me?" she said, slightly suspicious. Would he bring her to the meth-heads and leave her there as payment? Or sell her to some trafficking cult? Not everything is a kingpin movie, she reminded herself.
"You'll laugh," Rafe sighed. He gave her an apprehensive look.
"I promise," Billie said. "Unless you're taking me on a date. Then I'll laugh." Rafe chuckled.
"It's an exercise," Rafe started and Billie looked at him with a confused look. "From my therapist."
"I didn't know you saw a therapist," Billie let out, completely surprised. She wouldn't have thought the Camerons believed in therapists, especially not Rafe.
"Yep..." Rafe sighed and then continued. "She said that if I try to spend a little more time with the Pogues I'll see were not that different after all. I chose you because you seem the most normal."
"She sounds like an idiot," Billie said and looked out the window.
"She's okay," Rafe replied gently as he indicated and turned the wheel. Billie looked at him in surprise.
"Anyhow, I don't think luring vulnerable people into your car was what she had in mind," she pointed out.
"Maybe not."
"And?"
"What?"
"What have you learnt?"
"I don't want to kill myself yet."
"There's at least five whole minutes until we get to your house. Have a little faith in me."
"That's true."
***
The next morning, Billie sat on the steps of Tannyhill, waiting for her brother to come pick her up. She fiddled with her keyring absent-mindedly. Feeling a presence behind her, she turned around. Rafe leaned on the doorframe but pushed himself off and walked over to sit next to her on the stairs.
"Is this another experiment?" Billie asked, amused.
"Sure," Rafe smiled gently. "Or maybe I'm just bored." Billie let an amused breath out of her nose and smiled.
"Still weird," she stated.
"Yep."
In that moment, the Twinkie pulled up in the driveway. Out jumped JB and JJ, keeping their cautious eyes peeled on Rafe as they walked up to the house.
"Here comes trouble," Rafe sighed and stood up.
"Is he bothering you, Billie?" John B asked. Billie looked at Rafe who rolled his eyes at the Pogue's remark.
"I'm sorry, aren't you the ones' who pull up at my house?" Rafe pointed at them and tilted his head to the side cockily. "So who's bothering who?"
JJ scoffed at Rafe's comment, watching Billie intently.
"Rafe..." Billie warned. Rafe just smiled smugly. Sometimes it just seemed as though he wanted to start a fight. "Why are you here?" she asked JJ as she jumped off the steps from the house and walked past JJ towards the Twinkie.
"I need to talk to you," he replied and turned his head to look at Rafe, who were still watching them. "Is he obsessed with you or something?"
"Are you serious right now JJ?" Billie spat and sat down in the passenger seat angrily, slamming the door behind her. "Let's go," she beckoned John B who was still staring Rafe down. Rafe had kept his smug, amused face this whole time. He waved to Billie as John B got into the car and reversed out of the driveway.
"Seriously, what's up? Are you fucking him?" JJ asked. Billie inhaled, completely agape.
"JJ..." JB warned, gripping the wheel tighter.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Billie swung around towards the backseat.
"Please guys..." John B tried but was interrupted. He seemed to shrink into his seat.
"I'm not the one who's been fucking other people JJ," Billie shouted.
"What?" John B rumbled. "JJ..." he warned, referring to the understanding that had formed between them when JJ and Billie got together.
"I haven't. It was a misunderstanding," JJ defended himself and leaned forward between the two seats in the front. Billie pushed him back into the backseat.
"That girl hadn't misunderstood anything," she said.
"She... Oh god... It's not like that," JJ pinched the bridge of his nose. "She's a... blast from the past."
"A blast from the..." Billie gasped in disbelief. "Go fuck yourself JJ," she exclaimed as the car stopped and she got out, heading for the Chateau.
"Hey, hey, hey," JJ said, grabbing her arm. "I'm sorry okay? But I haven't done anything. I'd never do anything to hurt you. Okay?" he pleaded softly. John B was watching intently, ready to step in if he needed to shoo his friend away from his sister. "Billie?"
Billie bit her cheek, still deciding if she would accept his apology or torture him a bit longer, but then JJ spoke again.
"You know I... I didn't want to say this for the first time in front of your brother... But..." he let out a frustrated laugh. Billie couldn't help but smile over the words she knew were coming.
"I love you." JJ let a breath out in relief. He'd been wanting to say that for so long. He knew he'd mean it forever. This feeling he got whenever she was around, it was like nothing else. She was his life now. Billie bit her lip, trying so hard to suppress her smile.
"Fine, I forgive you," she said.
"You forgive me?" Hope spread in JJ's eyes, a grin growing on his lips.
"Yes," Billie said and shook her head with a smile. "You're such a loser."
"Yes," JJ exclaimed and circled his arms around Billie's waist.
"And I love you too," Billie said when their lips were almost touching. JJ smiled and grabbed her chin with his hand, pressing his lips against hers. The sweet moment soon started turning into something a bit less PDA when their mouths opened wider, their tongues frantically caressing each other, hands all over the place.
"No, come on guys, at least let me get inside first, god," John B exclaimed in disgust and started running towards the house.
This was how it was supposed to be, right?