𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐖𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐓 (𝐏𝐓. 𝟏)
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𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: rafe x extrovert!reader
𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: when you miss your ferry back home, you cross paths with rafe, who's in the depths of despair and in need of an escape. what's it going to take for you to cheer up the numb rafe cameron and make your voyage back home with nothing but an optimistic attitude and rafe by your side?
𝐂𝐖: profanity, smoking, misogyny, very brief mention of drinking
𝐖𝐂: 2.1k
𝐀/𝐍: this is very much just to set the story off, but i hope you guys enjoy! also, lmk if you want to be tagged in the next parts!
𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐘: Jab We Met, made in 2007.
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rafe didn’t know why he had decided to come. ornate flower arrangements hung around the room, too many pastel colours flooding his vision. he searched for her, scanning the rather large crowd. but when their eyes finally met, he wished he had stayed home. at least there he wasn’t being bombarded by the constant reminder that sofia was engaged.
in true masochistic fashion, he thought he’d make an appearance at sofia’s engagement party. it was a ship he refused to set sail, his grip too strong. because maybe there was a chance. a chance that it wasn’t real and she was still his. but when he saw her fiance’s hand around her waist, his loving eyes lingering on her– a sick feeling settled in his stomach, and he knew he needed to let go. her eyes widened, a mix of sorrow and guilt. sorrow and guilt he didn’t want to see. so, instead of congratulating her and the man who had taken his place, he turned to leave. he had no business being here. he needed to leave. he needed to leave the investors pestering him after he gained ownership of cameron development. he needed to leave this godforsaken town. without another word, rafe left the party. the next ferry to wilmington; that’s where he ended up. weaving his way through people, and settling on a seat next to you. that, he would soon come to realise, would be a very annoying mistake.
you glanced over at the man next to you, who was quite overdressed for a ferry ride, with his well-pressed suit and polished shoes. taking in his slumped shoulders and red-rimmed eyes, you thought wow, that’s depressing. you couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy, who seriously looked like he was going through it. so you did what you did best– made conversation.
“the breeze is so nice today, don’t you think? I’m y/n by the way.” you extended your hand toward him, but he remained still. okay, so not a handshake type of guy. noted. “anyways, what brings you here? i’m going home to my family, you know. i’m so excited. it’s like, the difference between talking through a screen and actually seeing them is so much!” you continued, but he didn’t even glance your way. this didn’t stop you, however. nothing usually stopped you from talking, and it was the same in this case.
you didn’t stop when he gave you a glare so evidently conveying the words shut up, or when he rolled his eyes. you still didn’t stop when he shifted slightly away from you. and, worst of all, you still didn’t stop when he said–
“god, you never shut up, do you?”
“no, not really. my family says i’m a chatterbox, that i’ll talk and talk and- anyways, back to what i was saying. i’m so excited to see him, but i don’t know how to break the news to my family. it’s just like–” your voice was drowned out by rafe’s thoughts, and he kept blocking it out until the ferry had reached charleston. when the ferry docked, he left as if he was being timed. he couldn’t get away faster. you rolled your eyes at his rude behaviour, and you caught something in your peripheral. the man’s wallet. you grabbed it, opening it up to find his license. rafe cameron. the name was familiar, but you didn’t have time to figure out where it was from before you made a beeline for him. he was walking along the beach now, far away from you and your annoying rambles. your voice was ringing in his head, like a mosquito buzzing around in his mind. he swear he could actually hear you yelling out–
“hey! you! you left your wallet on your seat! hey!” you wheezed, bracing yourself, with one hand on your knees and one in the air waving around his wallet, from the extremely long fifty metre run from the ferry to the beach.
rafe turned around, albeit reluctantly, to collect his wallet. he knew the cash in there wasn’t worth anything compared to what he had waiting for him in outer banks. he decided that if he took it, however, you would have to stop pestering him. swiftly, he freed your hands of the heavy leather and turned back around. but when he felt a hand pulling his shoulder back, his irritance doubled as he stumbled to face the annoying owner of said hand.
“what do you want now?” he sighed, running a hand over his face. “i was just wondering if you brought anything else with you? i thought you might have forgotten it since you forgot your wallet.” you said, ignoring his exasperated expression.
“no, i don’t have anything else.” he let out, shoving his wallet into his pant pocket. the wind was harsh today, whirling leaves haphazardly through the air. the sound of it was so deafening that you almost missed your ferry’s horn. almost, but not quite. but what you realised you had missed upon hearing the horn, was your ferry.
“no- no- come back!” you ran, despite your backpack- which you thought was definitely full to the brim with bricks- weighing you down as your legs worked faster than they ever had. in horror, you watched as the ferry went further and further, until it was just a small white shape drifting along the blue of the water. a small white shape that was your only way home tonight, that still held your luggage. how could you be so stupid? it was far too late for the next ferry back to charleston, and ferries weren’t running for the next two days. so yes, that was quite literally your only way home.
“shit.” your hands moved to your hips as you watched helplessly at the nearly-disappeared ferry. you turned to face rafe, who had somehow also disappeared. in the midst of realising that you were stranded in wilmington with a dead phone and no suitcase, you didn’t happen to notice him leave. now, you didn’t even have someone you could talk to. after pacing along the creaking wood of the dock for a silent five minutes, you realised that all you needed was to get to a motel, with no money or way to pay whatsoever. it was now that you wished you’d kept rafe’s far too heavy wallet. your feet led themselves on their own accord as you wandered along the beach, hoping for some form of help. but it was getting dark. people were leaving, and figures became blurrier in the moonlit night.
“lookin’ for something, sweetheart?” a slurred voice called out, followed by loud laughter. you focused your gaze on the source of the sound, a group of men– no younger than you, by the looks of it– who were currently making their way over. you swallowed, backing away and turning on your heel to walk the opposite way.
“come on, don’t be like that. we’re not gonna hurt you, baby.” the rest of them snickered as their friend jogged up to you, following your stride. you averted your gaze, focusing on the plain concrete ahead, ignoring the beer breath sending degrading remark after degrading mark your way. “shit, y’all. she’s a stubborn one. we’ll fix you up, though, won’t we?” you kept walking, hellbent on not reacting, but that went to shit when his grubby hand yanked your shoulder, resulting in your hand leaving a nasty red mark on his face.
he, of course, acted like you had just murdered his whole family, and was set out on doing god knows what to you as his friends jeered him on. you, being the resourceful woman that you were, however, had your eye set on a particularly sharp piece of broken glass lying about a foot away from where you were standing. between a man and contracting some sort of broken glass-borne disease, you’d favour the latter. you quickly picked it up, brandishing it up in front of you.
“i’ll fucking kill you if you touch me again.” you said, waving the green glass closer to the moron who had worsened your already ruined night. he cowered away slightly towards his minions, who were hurling insults and multiple “you’re a fucking psycho!”’s at you. as they moved closer in, you threw the glass at them and ran even faster than you had when you needed to give rafe his wallet back. however, your impromptu run was disrupted when you suddenly collided into rafe, who was somehow more pissed off than he was on the ferry.
“it’s you! oh my lord, what are the chances? i’m sorry about that, by the way, there were some drunk dicks back there and i just needed to get away.” your words came out in pants, all the running catching up to you. “right.” he nodded briefly, giving you a questionable look. his eyes were still slightly red, glistening in the dim light of the streetlight.
“so, um, where are you staying tonight?” your fingers fiddled with a loose thread on your faded shirt as you attempted to reel rafe out of his boring one worded answers. “i don’t think that’s any of your business.” he pulled out a small box from his pocket, which was soon accompanied by a navy blue lighter. the ashy smell of tobacco wafted through the air as he lit a cigarette and brought it to his lips, inhaling. you watched as he leaned against the stone fence separating the beach from the sidewalk, coughing slightly when the pungent smell tickled your throat.
“well, i don’t agree. i can clearly see that you’re going through some shit and you need some help. um, i mean, reassurance. i could also go for some reassurance right now. i missed my ferry home when i returned your wallet to you, and i don’t have a way to get home–” midway through your not-so-subtle spiel on trying to get rafe’s help, he cut you off.
“you’re saying it’s my fault you missed your ferry? if you can clearly see i’m going through something or whatever, why not leave me alone, hm?” he blew the smoke directly in your face, satisfied when you coughed again.
“ok, so i never said it was your fault, and i’m not going to leave you alone because you’re going through something. you’re like, semi-depressed and i don’t want to leave you alone– what if something happens to you?” you waved your hand in the air, attempting to dissipate the smoke barrier between you and him.
“says the woman who just threw a glass shard at a group of men. you should worry about yourself. you don’t know me, and i don’t know you, so leave me the fuck alone.” he continued blowing the smoke directly in your face, much to your displeasure.
“listen here. i’m not leaving, and that’s final. i need to get home, and i’m pretty sure you need to get away from whatever shit has you acting like a brooding little bitch, so why not just come with me? it’s a perfect idea if you think about it. plus, i know you have enough in that fat ass little wallet of yours, so don’t argue that you don’t have money or anything. come on. you need an escape, i need a way home. we can help each other out.” you exhaled at the end of your pitch, snatching the cigarette from between his fingers. “and stop fucking smoking in my face! i have asthma, you idiot.”
he straightened immediately; you dodged his many attempts at getting his cigarette back. “what the fuck is wrong with you? you’re batshit crazy.” he scowled, eventually giving up on his long-gone cig.
“and you’re in need of some fun.” you replied, keeping your voice calm. he was close enough now that you could smell lingering traces of tobacco in his breath. rafe couldn’t believe you. a perfect stranger, asking him to basically fund and accompany her on her way home. an escape, as you called it. isn’t that what rafe wanted anyways? something that could completely rid him of the stresses he had waiting for him back home? on his aimless wandering through the streets of wilmington, he thought about getting back in touch with barry again. being sober wasn’t getting him anywhere, especially now that sofia– his main reason for quitting– wasn’t his. but this, your offer, was tempting him. in truth, he had gotten so lost in his anger and irritance targeted towards you that he very briefly forgot about the current shitshow that was outer banks. besides, you were easy enough to piss off that he wouldn’t get bored. so, after banishing the words consequences, sofia, and investors, from his mind, he found himself saying–
“fine.”
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