six
CHAPTER SIX
[6]
song: a forest by the cure
The curtains add a pink glow to the morning light, a reminder of where he was, who he was with. The floral wallpaper and poster covered walls, the messy dresser with lined up old trophies and nail polish stains. Her room was a clear reflection of her innocence, a peak into her mind and true self, not the front she upholds around everyone else.
Rafe didn't sleep, he wouldn't allow himself to. Too much could happen if he closed his eyes, so with every minute, he planned further.
Summer did. She was turned over on her side. Her cheeks flushed and puffy from the crying, still tear stained from the night before, and her blonde hair a tangled mess as it gently draped over her face.
He admired her as she slept, so completely unaware of everything around her, at peace for only a couple hours until she awoke again. When she did, her bed was empty. The only sign left of Rafe was the smell of his cologne on her sheets.
โ
"Nah, nah, the fuck you want now?"
Rafe takes off his helmet, still sitting on his dirt bike that he'd driven right up to Barry's front yard. Around him was piles of old rusted metal sheets, overgrown weeds and plastic lawn chairs surrounding a slowly burning fire.
Barry let the screen door of his trailer slam shut, a bottle of beer in his hand as he approaches Rafe. "I told you I was done with this shit." He says, his single gold tooth glinting from the sun. "And unless you're back for your usual purchases, I suggest you get the fuck up outta here." The usual purchases in question being drugs.
Rafe swung a bag off of his shoulders and reached in, pulling out a thick stack of cash, and throwing it to Barry.
Barry was taken aback, almost dropping it. "Shit, man." He says, examining it.
"I need them off my back." Rafe says, resting his helmet on the seat as he gets off of his bike.
Barry scoffs. "Wasn't that what last night was for?"
Rafe gives him a stern, serious look. "The knife you hid looks like a kid's toy compared to what we used."
Barry lets out a chuckle, sifting through the stack of cash in his hands. "What'd you want me to do, Country Club? Give 'em the real one? That'd work out well for you."
"And you." Rafe warns.
Barry glances up from the cash for a moment, his smug look faltering just slightly. He then leans back, taking in a deep breath before he crosses his arms in front of him and looking at Rafe. "I don't want any part in your crazy shit."
Rafe scoffs, tilting his head to the side a bit before stepping towards him. "You are apart of it. You were apart of it the moment you killed Holly."
"Fuck, man." He laughs. "You're fucking nuts."
"Come on, you've got nothing, bro. The whole town knows that." Rafe taunts. "Don't you wanna make some money?"
Barry didn't answer, too enamored with the cash Rafe would happily slice from his grip if he didn't cooperate.
Rafe twists his jaw, taking in a shaky breath as an attempt to regain patience. "You don't think I'll take you down with me?" He asks after a moment of silence, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Barry clenched his jaw, the weight of the money in his hands as he considered the stakes. After a moment, he speaks. "The hell else you want me to do?"
โ
Rafe arrived late to the 'memorial', as Celine called it. She'd said the more people they could get in a house all together, the safer they'd feel. A pretentious, out of touch excuse for someone who just wanted to throw another party.
At least the attempt was there. Photos of Tyler, Holly and Noah all hung around the house. People brought written letters and left them by their photos. Flowers, balloons, teddy bears. It was all so incredibly fake. Just someone's way of making themselves feel better about it all.
"Where have you been?" Sarah says, approaching her brother in the entryway, after leaving a group of girls she was previously talking to.
"Stay out of it, Sarah." Rafe responds over the loud music, raising his voice slighty as he ignores his sister, scanning the room for Summer. People were crowded around him wall to wall. Celine must've invited the entire county.
Sarah shakes her head. "You didn't come home last night, again, and you didn't call dad, again. And then he freaks out on me like it's my faultโ"
"I was at Summer's." Rafe cuts her off, finally turning to look at her.
Sarah's mouth turned into an 'O' shape.
"She was freaked out, so I justโ" he shook his head slightly. "Just mind your business, alright?"
Sarah shrugs, catching on now. "Yeah, okay. Jesus." She says, annoyed with his lack of patience.
Topper approaches, a smile on his face as he walks over to Rafe and Sarah. He held his arm out like he was about to go in for high five and a forced hug with Rafe. "Listen man, I'm sorry about lastโ"
Rafe continues on like he wasn't even there, slamming his shoulder into Topper's as he walks past him. He'd kill him now if he could. He could hear his sister yell after himโ calling him a prickโ as he pushed deeper into the crowd.
"Cami, have you seen Summer?" Rafe says, walking into the kitchen and seeing the brunette sat on the counter, mid-laugh.
Camila lets her laughter fade out, as she looks around, her eyebrows narrowing, "Uh, yeah. She was here earlier but I don't know where she went."
"Did she seem..." Rafe searched for words, unsure of the best way to go about it, unsure what to expect from her today.
"Sort of off? Yeah." Camila says. "I think she's finally... you know... processing it all?"
Rafe runs his tongue over his bottom row of teeth, glancing around at everyone else in the kitchen, all invested in their own conversations. "Right." He says, nodding slightly.
"Check upstairs?" She adds, just as Rafe was about to walk on.
He turns and looks at her. What that could be insinuating he didn't like. Camila was innocent in this, giving him an unsure shrug. A friend helping a friend find another friend, nothing more. He lingers in his spot for a moment, his mind quickly beginning to fill with all the worst possible outcomes, and with it, the best ways to deal with all of them.
Rafe leaves, winding through more and more crowds of people. His chest was heavy, an overwhelming feeling of guilt and anger starting to cloud his brain as he made his way up the stairs, passing by numerous couples making out with one another against the walls.
"You seen Summer?" He asks the first person he sees when he gets to the top. The guy shakes his head no, pushing past Rafe to continue on.
Rafe feels his phone buzz in his back pocket, and he pulls it out as he continues to scan the crowds of people.
An unknown number appears on his screen, and with a huff he answers it and brings it to his ear. "What?" He asks, unhappily. Not loud enough for anyone to overhear, but loud enough for Barry to hear over the music.
"How long you want me waiting out here?" He says. "This shit's getting boring."
"It's a good thing you're getting paid hourly." Rafe says, pushing open one of the many doors that lined the hallway and looking inside the room.
"Don't get that way with me, Country Club. I'm the one with the knife." Barry says.
"Yeah, well, I'm the one with the money so unless you want your cut at the end of the nightโ"
"Yeah, yeah." Barry cuts him off. "Hurry it up."
"Just wait for the signal." Rafe feels his eyes roll into the back of his head as he hangs up the phone, wishing he didn't pick such an idiot as his partner in this.
It all would've been significantly easier to do on his own, but if that were the caseโ tonight wouldn't have been able to happen. And with Topper on his back, he needed this to go exactly as planned.
He kicked open another door, putting his phone back into his pocket. He peaks into a bathroom, and finds a group of girls in the midst of holding their friends hair back as she threw up into the toilet.
"Get the fuck out!" One of them snapped, slamming the door back shut in Rafe's face.
He stepped back, letting out a shaky deep breath as he trailed his eyes around the rest of the crowd. "Come on, Summer." He muttered, continuing his way to the last door.
He twists the door knob, but it was locked.
He jiggles it again, harder this time.
He hears laughter from inside the room, and then a series of whispers.
"Summer?" He yells over the music.
The door suddenly opens, and some guy, shirtless, stands in the doorway, keeping it halfway shut. "What's up, man?" He asks, in an accusing tone.
Rafe lets out a small scoff, not in the least bit intimidated by the guy despite how hard he was trying to come off that way. He glances over his head, and the guy starts to shut the door tighter.
Rafe puts his hand up quickly, keeping him from closing it further, sending the guy an unamused smirk. He shoved the door all the way open, knocking the guy out of the way in the process.
Summer sat on the bed inside, unbothered by the commotion and sorting through the bags of pills sat in front of her. She barely glanced up to acknowledge him.
Rafe felt his stomach cave in, heat beginning to rise up from his throat. He turns to the other guy. "Get the fuck out." He says sternly, gesturing out the door.
The guy scoffs in his face. "That's my shitโ"
"Yeah? You'll get it later." Rafe says, picking the guy's shirt up and off the ground before throwing it at him and pushing him out the door.
The music from downstairs was muffled, the sound of the bass acting as a stand-in for his rapidly beating heart. Summer crawled off the bed, like she was getting ready to leave.
Rafe walks up to her, shaking his head confusedly. "The hell are you doing?" He asks, glancing at all the little baggies she was shoving into her pockets, then back to her.
Summer laughs. "What does it look like I'm doing?"
"Do you even know who these are fromโ what's in them?" He says angrily, grabbing some off the bed and shaking them frantically in front of her face.
Summer snatches them from his hands and scowls. "Don't act like you're better than me, please."
She looked like a mess. Already wasted, or high, or both. She'd wiped her cried-off mascara from last night on her cheeks, but left the remnants of it under her eyes. Her face was red, and her skin had a familiar glow from the drinks.
"Sullyโ" Rafe starts, stepping to get in her way as she makes her way to the door.
"God, stop calling me that!" Summer raised her voice. He could smell the alcohol in her breath. "Seriously! You're all over me lately."
Rafe stops, taking a couple breaths before speaking again. He felt his eye twitch. "Was it not you begging me to fuck you last night?" He asked quietly, mocking her.
He regret it as soon as he said it, letting his anger get the best of him. He felt it cloud his brain as soon as he walked up the stairs, expecting to find her like this. It stripped him of all reason.
Summer's lips trembled, staring at him with hateful eyes. She opens her mouth to speakโ but stops when she hears the music stop from downstairs.
"The cops are here!"
A couple of screams, and then frantic footsteps from all over the place, all flooding to the exits, to hiding spots, anywhere.
Summer turns to Rafe, eyes wide and frantic.
This was not what he had planned.
"Come on," He says, quickly turning to the bed and collecting the rest of the baggies. Summer joins him, picking up the ones he didn't, before following him into the bathroom. "Just dump them." He says, throwing them into the toilet.
He glances out the bathroom window, watching as two cop cars pull into the driveway, their red and blue lights flashing inside.
"Fuck!" Summer lets out loudly, as she empties her pockets and drops them into the water. "We have to goโ I took someโ Iโ I'll get in so much shitโ" She let out quickly.
Rafe glances at her before flushing them down the toilet. "You're fine. You're fine." He says, shaking his head. It was always Rafe that kept calm in situations like this. A good balance. She needed someone like him in her life.
"Shit." Summer put her head in her hands, panicking.
Rafe shook his head, grabbing her arms to pull her hands off of her face. "You're fine." He repeats, pulling her out of the bathroom, his hand gently around her wrist. "We're just gonna go out the back, okay?"
Summer shakes her head frantically. "I'm only seventeenโ what are they gonna do to me?!"
The drugs and alcohol were certainly not helping Summer in this. She was forgetting that if she were to get caught, her dad would ensure she'd face absolutely zero consequences. She was forgetting that almost everyone here was underage. And that almost everyone here was just as high, just as drunkโ if not moreโ than she was.
Rafe shook his head, trying to calm her down, he stood in front of her and took a couple deep breaths. "You know I'll take care of you, alright?" He said quietly, studying her to make sure she was really understanding him.
Summer looked up, her eyes wide and bloodshot, but she nodded.
He held onto her hand, and she quickly followed after him as he led her out the bedroom. A couple stragglers rushed past them, to the stairs, or to the bedroom they just left to find a hiding place.
His heart was pounding against his chest. Barry was out there, if they found himโ it was over. All of it.
Rafe continued down the stairs, kicking away empty beer cans that remained on the steps. "Back door!" Kelce said, after coming around the corner and finding Rafe and Summer.
Everyone piled out that one single door, and as Summer tugged on Rafe to get him to follow, he realized the stupidity of it all. He'd forgotten who exactly he was with. The police in Kildare County were mortified of Summer's dad. The girl could get away with murder, and she had no idea.
"Come on," Rafe said, shaking his head as he pulled Summer in the other direction. "They're all gonna go to the back."
Summer didn't have much time to think, but she trusted Rafe. She nodded and followed after him, pushing against the crowd to go out the front door instead of the back with everyone else.
Rafe creaked the door open, squinting at the police lights as they sat in the driveway. Summer stood closely behind Rafe as he thought, trying hard to collect herself, embarrassed and confused.
"Come on, come on," Sarah said, suddenly slipping past Rafe and Summer out the front door. "They're all getting chased in the back!"
Topper and Camila followed after Sarah, and with that, Rafe and Summer too.
As Rafe followed quickly behind, his mind was elsewhere, eyes quickly scanning the nearby trees for that stupid fucking mask. If he was smart, he would've ditched it in the bushes and ran.
Twisting in between parked police cars, and other panicked party-goers, Sarah and Camila found more entertainment in this than anything, both exchanging laughter as they ducked behind cars to stay out of sight.
Summer, however, looked like she'd pass out at any moment, a mix of the drugs, the running, the lights; her world was spinning.
"How many times do I have to tell you kids that there is a curfew in place?" A familiar voice shuts everyone up, and they all turn to find Deputy Shoupe approaching them all, shining a flashlight in their faces. "Come on, you're all better than this."
Sarah holds a hand up, shielding her eyes from the light. Everyone was silent, unsure what to say or do next.
"What do I need to do to make you understand the severity of all this?" Shoupe says, raising his eyebrows impatiently at the silence.
Rafe subtly glanced around at everyone, knowing that if anyone were going to get them out of this, it'd be him. "Sir," he starts, stepping forward. "My sister and her friends just thought it'd be safer if everyone were all together." He says. "I just got here, I was coming to take them home."
Sarah glanced around to Topper and Camila, breathing heavily from the running. She speaks up. "Yeah, we're sorry officer. It got out of hand, butโ"
Shoupe's flashlight flashed over to Summer, catching everyone off guard. Summer squinted, lowering her head out of the harsh light.
He glanced at her, then around to everyone else. "Miss Sullivan." He sighed, disappointedly.
Summer slowly lifted her head up, keeping her hand up to shield the light from her eyes. Rafe was still, afraid that any movement would result in the wrong outcome.
"Have any of you been drinking?" Shoupe says, bringing the light off Summer and to the rest of the group.
Summer and Rafe both let out subtle sighs of relief. "No, sir. Like I said, I just got here to take them all home." Rafe says.
"I'm asking them." Shoupe says, his eyes returning to Summer.
She swallows harshly. "No."
"No." The responses trickled out from the rest of the group.
"And are you under any other influences?" Shoupe asks.
Summer shakes her head, more 'nos' coming from the rest of the group.
Rafe watched as his eyes stayed on Summer. He'd be an idiot to believe her. He'd be an idiot to take her in, too. It was all about which consequences Shoupe would rather face.
"Things have been really hard, Deputy. We're justโ" Topper begins.
"Save it, Mr. Thornton." Shoupe cuts him off. "I'm going to escort you all home, since at this point I believe you're all determined to stay anywhere but there."
Silence over fell the group, then they all nodded, letting out a series of 'thank yous'. "I'm just down the street." Rafe says, gesturing to where his car his parked.
Summer got in the passenger seat, Sarah, Topper, and Camila piling into the back. "What the fuck. How the fuck did we get out of that?!" Camila says as Rafe starts driving.
He glances over to Summer who stayed silent in the front seat, arms crossed over her stomach as she tried to stay calm. Shoupe turns on his police lights, driving slowly ahead of them as he led them home.
Topper laughs, "Don't question itโ just be thankful he didn't make Summer do a breathalyzerโ"
"Shut the fuck up, Top." Rafe says sternly, glancing at him in the mirror.
Topper's mouth shuts, and he sinks back into his seat.
Summer felt disgusting. Like a mess she'd never wanted to become. For only a few minutes, the drugs and alcohol masked her guilt and mourning, but when they faded she was left feeling as she should, like the girl with all the dead friends. And It brought a form of a zombie-like state, a deterioration of all that made Summer, Summer.
"Did Shoupe get someone?" Sarah speaks up from the back.
Summer sat up in her seat, peering forward at Shoupe ahead of them, a figure in the backseat of the cop car.
"Oh shit." Topper snorts. "I saw a couple kids there that in no way looked like they'd be able to outrun these guys."
"Even Shoupe?" Camila joked back.
"Even Shoupe."
Rafe watched carefully as the figure rose from the back and sat still for a couple seconds, then slowly turned around to look out the back window towards them.
A white ghost mask stood out against the dark shadows, and his heart dropped.
"What is that?" Topper asks, sitting up to get a better look.
Summer leaned forward, narrowing her eyes to make sure that's really what she was seeing.
"It looks like a mask, or something..." Camila shakes her head, everyone's eyes starting straight ahead at Shoupe's car.
"Fucking weirdos." Topper says. "Probably some Pogue."
Summer was frozen, a sinking feeling in her stomach as she watched the haunting, plastic expression of the mask ahead of them. A white, long face with three black hollow holes that mimicked two eyes and a mouth.
She looked over to Rafe, whose eyes were just as steady forward as hers.
"Waitโ what the fuck?" Sarah starts.
Summer turns back around to face Shoupe's car.
"Is that a knife?" Sarah continues.
A knot grows in Summers throat, a feeling only described by a hopelessness, a fear that something horrible was about to happen and there was nothing to be done about it.
The silver of the blade shined against the headlights of Rafe's car, and screams erupted as they watched the masked figure plummet it into Shoupe's shoulder.
The red glow of break lights illuminate Rafe's car as Shoupe starts swerving all over the road, as he tries to keep control of the car.
"Stop the car!" Sarah screams from the backseat.
"What the fuck, no!" Topper protests.
"We have to do something!"
"Oh my god..." Summer had her hands clung over her mouth, watching in terror as the knife was yanked out of Shoupe's shoulder, sending him swerving in the other direction.
"Rafe pull over!"
The masked figure wanted them to watch, as it turned around to look at Rafe's car again, he was making sure he still had their attention, before he turned back around, brought the knife to Shoupe's throat, and sliced a horizontal line through it.
Shoupe's car swerved off the road and Rafe drove past it before he slammed on the breaks, the high pitched squeak of the wheels mixing with the screams of terror coming from the backseat.
Everyone flung forward in their seats as the car came to a stop, then fell frozen, processing what had just happened.
"Fucking go!" Topper yelled, glancing behind him at Shoupe's car in the ditch.
Sarah was crying, turning to her boyfriend with wide eyes. "We can't just leave him?! He could stillโ"
"He did not survive that, Sarah, no wayโ we need to go now." Topper scoffs.
Summer turned to Rafe, his eyes were focused forward as he breathed heavily. "Rafe?"
He loved the way she turned to him for safety, for reassurance. Not Camila, her best friend, but him. When he turned to look at her, his heart sank at the pure terror in her eyes, and knew that only he could take that away from her.
"Oh my god." Camila started to sob.
Summer waited for Rafe to speak. He thought quickly, wanting to make sure Barry had enough time to escape. He swallowed harshly before speaking. "I'll go check, alright? I'llโ someone call 911."
"I'm coming with you." Summer says, unbuckling her seatbelt as soon as Rafe did.
He looked at her, his initial reaction was to tell her no, but apart of him wanted her to see it. To see what he planned, to see what he was capable of for her.
"Shoupe?" Rafe yelled hesitantly as the two crept forward. Smoke raised from the crunched engine as the cop car sat crooked in the ditch. The red and blue lights still circling around, illuminating the surrounding area.
The back door was open, and Summer stood closely by Rafe, her head on a swivel as she knew the killer could still be out there.
He knew exactly what she was doing, exactly what she was thinking. But she'd gotten it all wrong, she would never be in danger. She should never feel scared. He'd never let anything happen to her.
As they stepped closer, you could see the blood dripping from the windshield. So much of it, it clouded the glass, you couldn't even see inside to see Shoupe.
Summer let out a cry, squeezing her eyes shut as she turned away. Rafe clenched his jaw, letting his eyes linger on it for a few more moments.
He wrapped his arms around Summer, holding her as she cried, the police lights flickering past them. The sound of approaching sirens filling their ears.
He is a fool to himself, creating a mask of deception that tricked his own conscious brain too. He'd become driven from his back seat, his survival self calling all the shots.
Summer had once shown her those open and loving eyes, the door to his own soul. She touched him with those gentle hands and he was made anew, not as clay, but as if his body were reborn in its most perfect form.
And there was now a deep gratitude in this love, a debt he felt he needed to repay.
a/n
i never know what to write here other than that i hope ur enjoying ๐ซก ๐ซถ
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