─☼☼☼─

𝙄𝙏 𝙎𝙀𝙀𝙈𝙀𝘿 𝙏𝙃𝘼𝙏 every pair of eyes at the party followed Charlotte and Rafe as he all but dragged her through the house and toward the front door.

The entire way, Charlotte scowled at him, her face burning in anger as she stomped after him, desperate to be away from the prying eyes and ears so she could tear a strip off of him. 

The moment came the second they were through the front door and away from the crowd.

"Let go of me, Rafe." She snapped, harshly ripping her arm from his grasp. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

He spun on her, and for the first time in two months Charlotte Carrera looked at Rafe Cameron ─ like really looked at him. 

He had lost weight and not in a good way. His skin was paler, eyes emptier. He was a mess. 

And from one look at him, Charlotte could tell that he was fucked out of his mind. 

"You're high." She commented bluntly, a series of emotions washing over her. 

Rafe let out a breathy laugh as he ran a hand over his face. Charlotte couldn't help but look at his bloody knuckles. 

"So what?" He challenged. He dropped his hands, his blue eyes boring into hers. "I think what you're actually trying to say is me is 'thank you.'"

"'Thank you'?" Charlotte echoed in disbelief. "What the fuck am I thanking you for?"

Her ex-boyfriend's face clouded in anger as he lifted his hand. For a moment, Charlotte was afraid he was going to hit her.  Instead, he pointed back toward the house. 

"For saving your ass in there."

A scoff flew from her lips. "I didn't need your help, Rafe. I can handle Caden Koffer perfectly fine on my own."

"Yeah." He challenged, taking a step closer to her. "Sure looked like it, Lottie."

Ice ran through her veins for a moment. "Don't call me that." She bit out. The sound of her nickname on his lips striking up feelings she didn't want to hear. He was the only person on the entire planet who called her that. 

Rafe's face clouded in a smirk as he looked Charlotte up and down, reaching over to push a piece of hair out of her face.. "When did you become such a ungrateful little priss?"

Charlotte shoved his hand away. "Probably about the same time you became a coke head and started fucking half of the island."

Another laugh fell from Rafe's mouth as he turned toward the house for a moment, resting his hands on his heads before turning to face her once again. "You should be grateful for me, Lottie. For everything I did for you."

Cringing at the nickname he refused to stop using, Charlotte shook her head. "Grateful for what, Rafe? Breaking my heart or treating me like absolute shit?"

"YOU BROKE UP WITH ME!" He yelled, shoving his finger in her direction in what could only be deemed an aggressive poke. His voice was so loud and so sudden that Charlotte visibly jumped. 

"You did that." His voice was lower this time, but still full of anger and distaste. 

She didn't want to cry. In fact Charlotte had promised herself never to let Rafe Cameron make her cry again. But she couldn't stop the warm tears that settled in her eyes. 

"Yeah." She whispered. "I broke up with you because you are not the person I fell in love with. I broke up with you because I was fucking scared of you." She hadn't expected to pour all of this out to them, both of them intoxicated and angry, but so be it. 

She threw her hands up. "There, is that what you wanted to hear?"

But apparently it wasn't, because Rafe still had a dark look on his face. "I fucking made you who you were, Charlotte. All this ─" he paused to motion to the house, the party. "─Is because of me."

Charlotte's heart faltered for a moment. "What are you talking about?"

Rafe laughed, and this time it was dark. "Do you really think you'd have so many friends in the Figure Eight if you weren't mine? Really, Lottie? Kensington and Willa...you really think they became friends with you because they liked you. Did they tell you the part where Kensingtin tried to screw me? Did they tell you that? Huh?"

He could surely see the way Charlotte's face fell, but he didn't stop. "And let's not forget that you have as much dirty Pogue in your blood as you do Kook."

That was it. That was her breaking point. 

Before she even knew what she was doing, Charlotte Carrera was slapping Rafe Cameron across the face. Her hand stung as she pulled it away, the loud noise still seeming to hang in the air. 

She had never been a violent person ─ least of all toward Rafe. But that was it. She'd had enough with his gaslighting bullshit. 

"Fuck you, Rafe. I mean it. Fuck you."

It seemed that that was the reaction he was looking for, because as he wiped he corner of his mouth, Rafe Cameron was grinning. 

"It was good to see you, Lottie." He smirked, stepping back toward the house. "I missed you."

And then he was gone and Charlotte was left feeling furious. Furious at herself for hitting Rafe, and furious at him for getting her to that point. 

─☼☼☼─

The door slammed behind Charlotte with enough force to shake the entire house. But she didn't care. Honestly, she wished she could have slammed it even harder. Maybe that would help expel the anger she was currently feeling. 

She had left Topper's house the moment Rafe had disappeared inside. The Carreras and Thorntons lived about a ten minute walk from each other, and Charlotte decided that was how she was going to get home. 

She didn't want to talk to Willa and Kensington. It was no fault of their own...she just didn't want to face them right now. 

Her hopes had been that the walk ─ that took more like thirty minutes in her state─ would have cleared her mind, but in actuality, it just fuelled her anger. 

Kiara was standing at the top of the stairs as Charlotte stumbled up them, her brows furrowed. "What the hell are you doing? You're going to wake up mom and dad!"

Charlotte shot her a quick glance as she mounted the final step. "Who cares." She muttered, making for her bedroom. 

"Charlotte─"

Kiara was cut off as their parents' bedroom door opened quickly, their mother stepping into the hall. "What's going on?"

Charlotte opened her mouth to shoot back a smart remark, but Kiara beat her to it. "Nothing, mom." She assured, grabbing onto her older sister and steering her toward her bedroom. "We're just going to bed."

Anna Carrera seemed too tired to question her daughters any further. So, after quickly bidding them a good night, she was back in her room.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Kiara demanded as she sat Charlotte down on her bed. "You look like shit."

Charlotte agreed that she probably did. 

"Rafe happened." The eldest girl's voice came out in a disdainful whisper. "Just like he always does."

Kiara pushed a piece of loose hair from Charlotte's face. "What did he do to you?"

But Charlotte didn't want to talk about it. Not right now. 

"Nothing." She finally lied. "I just saw him at the party."

Kiara didn't believe Charlotte's words, and she knew it. But neither of them addressed it. 

Instead, Charlotte laid down on her bed, letting out a deep breath. "Tell me something good, Kie."

"What?"

"Tell me a story."

Kiara gave her sister a skeptical look before sitting down on the end of the bed. "Okay." She agreed, her eyes lighting up slightly. "We found something in the Redfield plot at the cemetery...it was from Big John."

Now intrigued, Charlotte sat up. "For John B? What was it?"

Kiara smiled lightly. "A map...and a tape recorder. It was about the Royal Merchant. About where he went."

With her heart clenching slightly for John B, Charlotte looked at her sister. "So you know how to find it?" It was a fair assumption, especially due to the look that Kiara was wearing. 

"Yeah." Her younger sister answered with a small nod. "We stole a drone today. Almost got busted. But know that we know where we need to be looking...I think that we can actually find it."

Charlotte quirked a brow as she looked at her younger sister from where she was laying. "You're really not making it hard for me to be the angel child are you?...Stealing drones and all."

Rolling her eyes, Kie shoved Charlotte's legs. "Angel child? If I remember correctly you're the one who snuck out every single night to go see Rafe when you were in high school. Or let's talk about the time you and him decided to take an impromptu trip to the Bahamas and you neglected to tell mom and dad until you got there. I don't think I've ever seen mom so mad."

A grin came to Charlotte's face as the memory. "Did I do that?" She wondered, feigning mock confusion. 

"Yeah. Angel child my ass."

"Well at least I never asked dad to bail one of my friends out from jail." Charlotte challenged, a clear dig at the events that had happened the day prior. "How mad was he, anyway?"

Kie grimaced. "If he hated the boys before...he really hates them now."

"Poor John B." Charlotte sighed airily as she leaned back on her elbows. 

"I almost got arrested too, you know. Thanks to you, JJ and Pope aka the worst people at keeping watch."

Charlotte smirked at her younger sister as she shrugged. "Every man for himself?"

"And speaking of JJ," Kiara continued. "The boy is seriously heartbroken that you pulled out of this whole thing. I think I saw a tear in his eye when he told us."

"Oh, come on." Charlotte rolled her eyes. "I told him and Pope that I needed to step back. I'm not leaving the treasure hunting team fully. Just taking some personal days."

"Personal days? What is this a corporate job?"

They stared at each other for a moment, their lips wobbling as they attempted to remain quiet, But finally, Charlotte laughed. Which then caused Kiara to laugh. Which then caused their mother to walk into the room with a tired face and angry eyes. 

That made the two girls laugh even harder. 

All that Charlotte could say for sure, was that she was no longer thinking about Rafe. He was the last thing on her mind now. 

─☼☼☼─

𝙖/𝙣

𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧! 𝙞 𝙝𝙤𝙥𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙚𝙣𝙟𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙙 <3