(chapter twenty nine)

It goes without saying that Sarah didn't go back to the chateau that night, and she obviously didn't stay at Tannyhill. She was back at Clara's house, after Topper showed up and pick the two girls up and away from the scene.

The boy had not seen what happened but by the way Sarah cried and the look Clara sent his way, he knew. He helped guide the blonde girl to his jeep, while Clara told the pogues they were going back to her house, in which they all decided it would be for the best.

And after Topper dropped them off, — not without asking if they wanted to grab anything to eat on the way, but the two of them weren't actually hungry — Clara was back on the bed, her arms around the younger girl that had cried herself to sleep. Her puffy eyes and damp face were obvious, but she didn't care.

The thing about Sarah is that she doesn't want people to close, and when they do she bails. But whatever happened in the last few weeks changed her deeply.

Her mind got out her little trance as she stared at the roof of her room when she felt her phone vibrating, and when she accepted the call, it was definitly not what she expected.

"This call is from a person currently in a prison at Kildare Station, inmate Rafe Cameron. If you wish to accept this call say yes, but if you do not wish to accept this call, please hang up now." The robotic voice made Clara close her eyes, as she locked the phone and by default the call ended.

Why now?

Maybe she shouldn't have done that. Rafe probably knew about Ward's death now, and he called her because he needed someone. But her eyes fell down on the blonde girl sleeping on her chest — Clara noticed it was a Cameron sibling thing to want to sleep on top of her — and then she remembered. He tried to kill Sarah. He lied to her, more times than she knew.

And there it goes another night in which the girl had not slept. She couldn't. Everytime Clara thought she would finally sleep, she would wake up five minutes later.

And when the sun started going up Sarah stirred, awaking from her sleep as she was quick to open her eyes and seize where she was. Clara could feel her body relaxing as when the blonde girl inhaled her scent.

"Good morning, Sar," Clara's voice was just above a whisper, as the girl hummed, flexing her arms as she plopped herself on the mattress again, hand still holding the brown haired girl's arm.

"Morning," she creaked back, sighing as she yawned, her free hand going to rub the sleep out of her eyes. And Clara hesitated in asking.

"How are you feeling?"

"I don't know," she confessed, a small frown etched on her face.

"Okay, let's see that wound." Clara decided, propping herself on her elbow as Sarah laid so the girl could see it properly.

Clara took the gauze off, analyzing for a second. It looked dry and clean, so that meant it was healing nicely, so she smiled to herself, tapping the girl on the side where is not hurt and turning to get up.

"Let's go put some food on you, my love." Clara said it as she kept walking, ignoring the black spots in her vision.

Keep Sarah's mind out of it. It was easy said than done, but Clara Campbell decided she wasn't one to give up easily anymore. She thinks.

And Sarah was quick to follow, her own stomach groaning in hunger since neither of them actually ate anything the night before. And the blonde girl loved Clara's food.

When she was putting the scrambled eggs and bacon on the plate, Clara could hear her front door opening and closing, her father's voice ringing through the house. "In the kitchen!"

As she put the plate in front of Sarah, Richard appeared on the doorway, his eyes going over the two girl, and a pity smile appeared on his face.

"Hey, Sarah, how you're doing, sweetheart?" His voice was soft, and the girl smiled tightly.

"I'm going," she answered, taking the fork as she put the eggs in her mouth.

"One step at the time," the man nodded, then he turned to his daughter, holding up a few bags. "I got you some bread, there's also milk and that one juice you like it."

When he put it on the counter, Clara's eyebrows shot up. Inside the plastic bags there was four jugs of apple juice, so she gave Sarah a funny look, then a smile to the man. "Thank you, dad."

"Okay, so, I have a business trip on the main island, and I'll be there for a few days," he explained, taking off his pocket the car keys. "And I will not gonna need my car, so you can have it."

"Really?" The brown haired girl smiled turned bigger, eyes twinkling. She loved to drive, and she missed that a lot.

"Yeah, really. But please, me mindful and take care of it," he pratically begged, and the girl nodded, pulling her father into a hug. "Chris is gonna pick me up here and then I'll go. I will keep you updated."

"Thank you again, dad."

The man kissed the top of her head, then he pulled away from the hug, a honk being heard from outside. "That's my cue. You two have a great day."

He squeezed Sarah's shoulder and then picked up his backpack, closing the front door after he left. And the blonde girl was looking down at her plate.

Sarah was a little jealous of the relationship that Clara had with her father, and she couldn't deny that. Ward was a caring father for the longest, but he was also so distant from their kids. She forgot how many times there would be loud shouting from the man towards Rafe, and she wasn't blind. She knew he prefered her over her other siblings, but he was never really there emotionally.

There was always something holding him back, and now Sarah saw. It was his greed. And that was also his downfall.

And there is was Richard Campbell, that gave up of everything on his life, yet left Clara in which he thought would be the best for her, and when he saw that he was wrong, he was more than ready to welcome the girl into his arms and step up.

He was a real father, it didn't matter what they went through before.

That left a sour taste in her mouth. Ward could never.

So she drank the apple juice from the cup Clara had just given her, and the brown haired girl was happily eating. Her phone — actually Topper's, but she was able to put her phone number on — buzzed in her pocket, and when she took it out it was a message from Rose.

"Could you drop me at Tannyhill?" Sarah asked, making Clara furrow her eyebrows bur have her a short nod.

"Yeah, what for?" Sarah shrugged, putting the phone on the table and turning so the older girl could see. Rose told them Ward left a video for them as a testimony, and she needed to see. "Are you sure?"

The blonde girl bit her lip, but then she nodded so lightly. "Yes."

"Okay," Clara agreed, grabbing the empty plates and putting them on the sink, and after washing she twirled the keys on her fingers. "C'mon."

Clara wasn't used to drive her father's two doors truck, even if she learnt how to drive on it, but it wasn't that difficult. What made it harder for the girl was that Sarah wanted to hold her hand for support, latching onto it as they got closer and closer to the Tannyhill estate.

The brown haired girl felt her heart drop when she parked the car and there it was Wheezie, crying on Rafe's arms as he held his younger sister. He had a soft spot for the youngest Cameron, everyone knew that, but how couldn't they?

However Clara didn't want to see him. Not right now. It was not that way she was expecting to talk to her boyfriend, or what it was left of their relationship.

Sarah tightned the hold on the girl's hand, and Clara gave it a small squeeze. No, that was not the time for her to think about this. Her best friend needed her.

So when she parked the car, and got out to be there to support Sarah, Wheezie left Rafe's hug, running to her sister's arms.

Clara stood there, leaving a kiss on Sarah's hand as she let go, the blonde girl not wasting another second in staying away from Rafe, as she gave him a sour look and got inside the house.

And talking about the boy, he was holding his hand over the other, his tall figure so frail at that moment, as he was trying to stay put on his feet, his red shot electric eyes behind tears as he took a step closer to her.

"Baby..." he managed to say, a voice so broken that it crushed Clara's heart, his hands shaking as he passed them through his face to try to get rid of the unwanted tears.

He stepped closer, his hands slowly finding her wrists and she left him take them, his thumbs caressing her arm as he tried to put himself back onto reality. His body, however, betrayed him as he sniffed again, and this time the tears fell.

Clara couldn't help but bring the boy into a hug, as he laid his head on her shoulder blades like he did many times before, hands circuling her waist. And she held Rafe, her hands going up and down his back.

It was bittersweet. He needed her, even if it was for the last time.

"Shh, it's okay," she soothed, or at least tried to. After a few minutes the boy pulled away, a frown still on his face, when she didn't clean his tears.

"We need to talk," he said it, voice so raspy showed the rough morning he had.

"We do," she nodded, hands now on his biceps, keeping a small but still noticeable distance between them. "But later, okay? You have other things to do it first."

As much as he wanted to argue, he knew she was right. How could she always be right?

"Okay." She gave him a small tight lipped smile, letting go of him as it was Rafe's turn to feel for the first time the cold of where her hands should be.

And she got inside the car, driving away as the boy head back inside to see what his father had left for them as last words.

++++

Sarah had texted her what happened. Ward took the blame for it all, and Clara really wanted to tell her she was surprised, but how could she lie? Everything the man did in his last moments was so very calculated.

It was still a little unsettling the memory of the boat exploding and no pieces of his body appeared floating. But maybe she didn't stay for too long, and it was probably for the best.

She had grown to despise the sight of blood.

And Sarah also told her she was going to talk to John B, and not even five minutes after that another text flashed through the screen.

Rafe:
Can we talk now?
I'm outside

She wanted to reply "it's not like I have pretty much of a choice if you're already here", but she only locked the phone, getting up from her stop on the couch and opening the front door.

Rafe was so tense, the way he was standing, his shoulders just a little rigid. Small details that could go unnoticed by everyone else, but she knew him.

"Come in," the boy nodded, stepping inside the house as she closed the door. Just closed, not locked. And the two stared at each other, hating every single moment of the awkward tension between them.

"I know that Sarah told you things..." he started when he noticed that she didn't know where to start, and the girl closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead of how he decided the conversation would go. "But she's lying to you-"

"Is she, or are you?" Clara cut him off, hand up as a way to stop and Rafe closed his mouth. "Cause honestly, there's at least two other people that can tell me that you in fact did what she told me."

"I did not mean to-!" he yelled out, and Clara flinched. The boy clenched his jaw, closing his eyes and head dropping at that. "I'm not lying, you have to believe me."

He had walked closer to her, voice so soft when his hands went to touch her face.

"I believed you! I did believe in you when you told me you killed Peterkin in self defense. But now, that's so hard to believe, Rafe." She shook his hands off, stepping away from him, but his hands came in contact with her forearms. "But you lied to me, and you continued lying as I was there to lie for you, and clean away your tears."

"Its not like that, you need to understand-"

"You tried to kill Sarah," Clara cut him off once more, a frown on her face as she tried to mantain the cold expression she spent years building up. "Not once, but twice. She's your sister, for fuck's sake!"

"I know! I know that, you think it's not replaying in my head-"

"But you did it and you were going to do it again. And I can't support this," she stared deep in his eyes as they widened a little as she shook his hands off from her arms once more. "So I'm going to say this, and please just listen, okay?"

Clara inhaled, licking her lips in nervousness.

"I love you, Rafe." Clara said, tears gathering in her eyes as the boy tried to take a step closer to her, but she shook her head. "I'm so in love with you. Everything about you."

She cleaned her eyes, looking at Rafe with a strained smile while he held his hand onto the other.

"And I needed you to know that. I wanted you to know that I'll always love you. Away from everyone and everything," she inhaled walking closer to him, resting her hands on his cheeks as she brushed his hair, sniffing when her brown eyes met his electric deep blue ones. "But because I love you, I can't be blind by what you do — what you did."

"Clara-"

"And I can't excuse your actions. Not anymore," the girl took her hands away, leaving a cold on his cheek from where they were, and Rafe wanted to grab her arms to hold it into place. "And I can't be with you. Not after all that."

"Clara, please," he said, holding her face on his hands now, as her eyes never diverged from his. "Please don't do this. Not now."

"I know this is the worst timing, but I can't continue doing it, pretending that everything is okay, when it's not."

"No, Clara, please-" Rafe pressed the heels of his hand on his eyes, trying to keep his thoughts straight.

"You need help, Rafe. Real help," she said with a small voice, scared of his reaction, but he only had tears on his own eyes. "Because I know you can be a better person. I know you. I've seen it. But I can't keep doing this."

"I'll be better, okay? I'll get my shit together," his voice cracked, as he nodded his head. "But don't do this, not now."

"Rafe-" she mumbled, bringing her hand to her eyes.

"I know what I tried to do was wrong, but I did this for my family, for you!" He tried, and the girl let out a sarcastic laugh. "It's true, Clara, I did this for you, for us!"

"Don't put this on me, Rafe, you did this for yourself!"

"No, no! I did this for us, for the future we can still have, please!" He continued, a few tears on his face. "I did what I had to, so please, please, don't leave!"

"Don't make this harder than already is." Her voice faltered.

Clara's heart was hurting, breaking not only hers but Rafe's, but she knew she needed to.

"I know I fucked up. I know that, alright? But I-" He tried again, walking towards her. "You told me you wouldn't leave."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, avoiding looking at him as she opened the front door, eyes trailed on the ground.

Rafe sniffed, angrily wiping away his own tears, leaving a red mark on his cheeks. He stared at the girl — his girlfriend no longer — for just a few seconds more. Hoping she would return his gaze, and when she did he clenched his jaw.

"Whatever," and his voice became cold. Colder than she had ever heard, and it remind her of their fight years before.

Clara could feel his body walking past her as he walked out, his hand snatching the door from her hands as it hit with a bang after him.

And it was the thrid time that summer she again felt like her whole world was crumbling under her feet, as she lowered her body on the ground, her forehead resting on the wood door as she heard the roar of his motorbike disappearing on the street.

After a while she swallowed her sobs, cleaning her tears. It was her decision. It hurt so bad, but she decided that, she had to get her head up and confront her own actions.

So Clara grabbed the car keys a second time that day, one destination in mind. And when she parked, leaving the car, the girl found herself rounding the house and walking up the stairs, not giving a care in the world as she opened the glass door.

"Dude, what the fuck-" Topper jump in fright after door opening with a loud boom, stumbling to grab a shirt as he saw Clara. And when he put it own he saw her red eyes and nose. "Hey, what happened?"

She didn't answer, she just moved foward and pulled the boy into a hug.

Topper froze for a second. It was the first time she was willingly hugging him, but then he felt tears through the material of the shirt, so he reciprocated, wrapping his arms softly on her back and shoulders.

"Who do I need to beat up this time?" He joked, and Clara snorted, shaking her head.

"You would be the one beaten up," Topper took it as an offense, his mouth hanging open.

"Dude..."

With a few more seconds the younger boy could hear her small voice. "I broke up with Rafe."

Topper hummed, hand caressing her shoulder as he pondered an answer. "I owe Kelce $20."

"What?"

"He bet you guys would break up in three months. I gave a little bit of a doubt and I said seven," he explained, as the girl pulled away, her brows pulling together and the boy smiled when he saw she wasn't crying anymore. "He won by close promixity."

"What's up with you guys and betting my love life?" She grabbed a pillow, ready to throw it at him.

He laughed, avoiding being hit as he continued walking to grab the remote.

"C'mon, grandma. Let's put your super hero movies you like so much."

And in fact, after a few hours of Clara and Topper sitting on the pool house couch with the thrid Marvel movie playing on the screen — Iron Man 2, since Topper had never seen any of them in the right order — they heard a small noise on the door, the boy giving the girl a look as she shrugged.

Getting up and opening the door he let out a small smile as he saw Sarah. "Hey, what're you doing here?"

"Is Clara with you? I went to her house and tried to called her but she isn't answering," the blonde girl asked.

"Oh, that might be my fault," Topper scratched his neck, as he took off the girl's phone from his pocket. He didn't want anything else to bother Clara that day, she needed to rest. "Yeah, she's here, come up."

Sarah walked up the steps to the pool house, then seeing a sad Clara still laying on the couch with a few covers over her small frame. Topper noticed that the Cameron girl didn't look much better than his best friend in front of them.

"I'll leave you to it, it's late and we have class tomorrow," Topper said as Clara groaned.

"I'm not going."

"Yes, you are," he replied annoyed back and then turned to Sarah. "You two can crash here if you want. Oh, there's a bonfire tomorrow, we'll go too."

"Am not," Clara denied and Topper rolled his eyes, looking at Sarah with a look that said they were in fact going, and the blonde girl smiled amused.

Watching the boy leave, Sarah pulled the covers so she could see the girl's puffy face and she just laid down besides her and covered herself. The two stayed face to face, and Sarah was the first one to talk.

"I broke up with John B," she confessed, and Clara nodded, looking back and forth between the dirty blonde's eyes. "After... I needed him, and he did nothing."

But you did, Sarah wanted to add. Yet she never did.

"I'm sorry," Clara said sincerely. The brown haired girl had seen how much happier Sarah looked when she was with the Routledge boy, even with the costs that it came with.

"It's not your fault," Sarah sighed, hand going to push the messy brown hair out of the girls face, that also looked so sad.

"I broke up with Rafe."

The silence on the room was so loud as Sarah let the words sink in. She should've guessed that it would happen eventually, but it did not make her feel any better to see her best friend just as broken as three years before.

"I couldn't be with him after..." she trailed out, closing her eyes as she tried to keep in the tears. "It hurts so much."

"Oh, babe," Sarah cooed, pulling the girl into a hug, that she also needed so much as Clara cried on her shoulder. "I know, I know..."

Here's the thing about Clara Campbell. She had never had her heartbroken before.

She never dated anyone, because everyone were not qualified to her standers, but truth be told is that she didn't want people to see how much of a bagage she had.

But Rafe had seen that. He had seen all of it and he didn't leave. He stayed, and Gods, that made her heart beat faster when he returned.

He was her first kiss, her first time and her first love. And now her first heartbreak.

It's not a surprise it would hurt, yet she didn't expect it how much it would be.

What if I told you I had the break up scene ready since november 2022?

It was inevitable, my poor Clafe heart. But don't worry, there's a lot to happen between them still.

I love writing Topper and Clara. One of the healthiest platonic friendships she ever had, and that says a lot.

In case you're wondering how I divide my chapters, most of the time I go by days than by episodes. So next chapter the bonfire will still be episode seven. I just wanted to give a break between the angst and the drama.

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