' , When It Comes To People Rafe Prefers To Keep A Small Circle Of People He Actually Keeps Close. So

𝖨𝗍'𝗌 𝗍𝗋𝗎𝖾, when it comes to people Rafe prefers to keep a small circle of people he actually keeps close. So far that circle is Topper, Kelce, and his own little sister. Anyone else is just there as a side character, background at best. That includes his own sister, Sarah since they no longer get along.

Georgie has done nothing to Rafe, personally. He just simply had no interest in getting to know anyone else ; he didn't need anyone else looking down on him like he's nothing or worse. Yet as a favor to Topper he's picking her up as she's walking in the rain.

Because sometimes...he can be nice.

❝ Yeah, yeah...❞ he could just say 'you're welcome' but he doesn't. At least not at first. Not until an awkward silence and he glances toward her a few times.

❝ You're welcome. ❞

@borntobebroken

Ending up in a car with her cousin’s best friend honestly hadn’t been part of Georgie’s plans for the evening. She had gotten the sense the eldest Cameron didn’t like her initially, and so she had spent the last three years steering clear of him for Topper’s sake. Her visit had only been meant to last the summer, after all. She had thought she could wait him out.

Then had came the accident that had turned her into a permanent resident of the island. And since she’d already been in the habit of avoiding him, Gigi had just…kept doing it when he was home. Rafe didn’t seem to like many people, so it had been easy enough to stop taking his attitude personally on the rare occasions they did interact after a while. She’d even come to expect it, which made his stopping his car beside her and offering her a lift home before it rained all the more out of character. “Whether you did it for Top or not, I’d have gotten soaked if I had to walk the rest of the way in this. So, thanks.”

In a world that made me feel worthless , you made me feel something. Like I'm finally enough.

...What is that book title...

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, a Rafe Cameron Biography.

Emotionally preparing myself to do replies on Rafe here in a bit...

𝖨𝗇 𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝗈𝗐𝗇 𝗆𝗂𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗒 Rafe couldn't see that Ward had done something to all of his children ; all he could see was the favoritism toward Sarah. Even he saw that Wheezie seemed to be overlooked from time to time though it would seem like Rose had her eyes on her at least. Rafe felt like glass. He felt like everyone saw right through him, like he was never there and if he wasn't careful he'd break.

But he cracked, and cracked more and now here he is broken in front of Sarah. Something he's never let her see before because Ward taught him that emotions were not something a man could show anyone. And if he did he was weak, so when Rafe showed him the broken parts -- he'd be told what he was. And then it would be beaten into him both figuratively and literally. Ward has put his hands on Rafe time and time again when no one was looking. A slap across the face, a hard shove knocking him over ... Every time Rafe opted to numb himself it was not only to drown out the voices in his head that could never hold a conversation that wasn't conflicting ; it was to hide the fact just how much it hurt him to know that despite his words of love and suggestions that he does what he does to build character. They didn't build Rafe into anything other than the monster who would hurt his own sister , who longed to just be seen for the things he does right and not the things he does wrong.

Even when he tries to do right he's undermined and told differently.

Sarah reassures him that he's none of those things and her words while they can't fix it all seem to take the pieces and try to put them back together as best as they can possibly be. He looks up to her as tears stream down his cheeks.

He knows she's terrified of him, he's terrified of himself. But that doesn't stop Rafe from moving from his position and grabbing hold of Sarah around the waist and pulling her in to him, his head falling onto his sister's shoulder.

His voice comes out but he sounds so small in the moment, like a child.

❝ I'm so sorry. ❞

ward had done a wonderful job and ruining his children. from it rafe constant need to prove himself to their father in hopes to get a crumb of appreciation or attention to her intense fear of letting someone close in fear of being a disappointment. their father had worked his ass off for the life they had and however grateful sarah was for the things she had and experienced, she also just wanted freedom. the cameron household was a prison and she had escaped, if only leaving rafe and wheezie behind. the lying, the manipulations, the fake death and kidnapping? ward was no longer the father she wanted but the one she hated and wanted nothing to do with. yet, even though rafe had tried to kill her twice now, she still wanted to fix things if given the chance. to get her brother back and not what he had become.

the scene if front of her shatters her heart within seconds. she had never seen rafe so broken. so vulnerable before. at first, she doesn't know what to do. she hasn't seen rafe cry since they were kids. not since the first time she ever heard ward talk down to him and she comforted him afterwards the best she could at that age. rafe had always been strong. unmoving and withstand everything. it had been why people feared him before.

"you were never stupid or weak." sarah finally starts moving towards him, kneeling on the ground and pulling a hand on his arm. treading lightly in fear of doing the wrong thing. she hadn't expected this fight to turn into this and yet here, they were. "dad is an asshole. he's hurt all of is unexplainable ways. what he said, how he treated you, was never your fault. ward was just...." miserable felt like too little. psychotic felt like too much but honestly? "horrible. vile.i don't know." a shake of her head. "i didn't know it got that bad." she really had been wrapped up in her own world. it also didn't help that most of the time ward was berating and beating rafe without witnesses around.

𝖲𝗁𝖾 𝖽𝗈𝖾𝗌𝗇'𝗍 𝗁𝖺𝗏𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝖺𝗌𝗄 𝗁𝗂𝗆 𝗍𝗐𝗂𝖼𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝗇𝗈𝗍 𝗅𝖾𝗍 𝗀𝗈, he could hold on to Kie forever if she let him. Somehow after everything she has become his pillar in the storm, someone he can hold on to when things start to get too chaotic. He keeps a hold on her, arms wrapped tight as he rests his head against hers. ❝ I won't. ❞ and he means that.

If there is anything he wants to hold on to for the rest of his life , it's this. It's her.

God, of course she feels safer with him closer. He is the man that she's in love with, so it makes sense to her that she feels that way. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders when he leans down and pulls her closer, she buries her face against him. Fuck, she loves him. "Don't let go, okay?" Not for a little bit, not until she says that it's okay to. She just wants to embrace him, hold him in her arms and hope that he feels how she feels for him. @exbourgeois @borntobebroken