𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑻 𝑾𝑨𝑽𝑬𝑺 | 𝐑𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Evelyn Banks

The car ride is silent, nothing but the hum of the car engine is evident in the air as Rafe and I drive away from the Country Club. I glance at him, watching as he picks at his busted knuckles, his eyes focused solely on his hands. I don't know what to say to him yet so I keep quiet, only speaking when I pull down the street leading to Tannyhill.

"You gonna be okay at home?" I question him, finally breaking the silence that started as soon as we left. He hums, barely looking at me as we pull up in front of the house.

"Thanks for driving me home" Rafe says, turning to look over at me in the driver's seat.

"It's okay. It was getting heated back there. It's better if you stall some time before your dad finds out" I say, giving him a small smile before I turn off the car and pull the key out.

"Are you coming inside?" Rafe questions me as he watches me push my door open.

"Yeah, why do you not want me to?" I chuckle, causing him to shake his head as he stutters out an answer.

"No--no, of course I do, I mean yeah it's cool" He says, trying to play off the excitement in his tone. I act oblivious to his tone as I get out of the car, locking it once Rafe's out.

"Besides if I drove this back to the Cut Topper would pop a vein" I chuckle as we walk inside of the house. It's abnormally quiet, usually the TV would be playing in the living room or Wheezie's music would be echoing down the hallways, but it was dead silent.

I lean my back against the kitchen counter, arms folded across my chest as I watch Rafe open the fridge, pulling out a bottle of water as he chugs it down. He offers me one but I decline, my eyes fixated on him as he closes the fridge and leans against it. Rafe finally takes a breather, an unreadable expression clear on his face as his eyes pull away from his hands.

"You look pretty tonight, pink looks good on you" Rafe compliments, a slight grin playing on his lips as his eyes trail from my face and down the dress clad on my body. My face heats up at the feeling of his eyes on me, I hum, trying to play it off cool when I reply.

"You're not too bad yourself, baby blue is definitely your colour" I tease him, a chuckle leaving my lips when he narrows his eyes at me, flipping me off playfully.

I sigh heavily, my eyes catching onto his knuckles that were damaged from when he punched Hayden. I slowly approach him, grasping ahold of his hand as I examine his knuckles. My fingers gently trace over the wounds on his hand, causing Rafe to inhale sharply from the sensation.

"You gonna clean this up?" I question him lowly, he shrugs before answering.

"Probably just wash off the blood and put a bandaid on it-- I don't know" Rafe sighs out, uninterested in trying to properly clean his wounds. Despite the fact they were minor, they still needed to be cleaned. His scars from when he had hit Tristan had barely faded away, it didn't help he busted them again.