21.
1322 Words
CHAPTER 21
RINI POV
Screw those arrogant, bossy INFURIATING males!
Well… I eyed the clothes laid neatly on the bed and allowed a small smile. Ok, well maybe Rafe was less arrogant and infuriating but he was still bossy… and considerate.
I checked the clothing size first but since I didn’t own a pair of pants that were brand new I wasn’t entirely sure if this was my size. Crazy how I didn’t know a lot about myself.
I didn’t know my clothing size, I didn’t know my real last name, I didn’t know who my parents were, why I was found wandering the woods alone and the one that made me the saddest? I didn’t even know my own birthday.
No one here had ever told me and it had never been celebrated. In my school paperwork it listed my date of birth with just the year I was born. Not a date, not a goddamn month, nothing. Only Alpha Randolph could have gotten away with that disregard for basic record keeping.
Because I was pathetic and so so sad, every year I picked a different date to celebrate, hoping that if I eventually guessed the right date I would feel it. So far, I hadn’t had any luck.
I cut those depressing thoughts off and dropped my towel. Thankfully Rafe had left my underwear alone so I quickly stepped into a pair and then began pulling the pants on, they were a dark denim skinny jean with a white butterfly embroidered on the front pocket. The shirt was a long sleeve knit sweater in the exact colour of my eyes and clung to my body in a way none of the other clothes I had worn ever had.
God they both fit so well as were so comfortable and almost luxurious on my skin. It was still cold outside so I grabbed Rafe’s old hoodie and pulled that over the top, completing my look with the fuzzy Ugg boots that had been left for me. These also fit perfectly and were so soft there was minimal pain putting them on.
Should I be wearing these shoes to school? No. But if I was giving in on using the crutches then I would damn well wear whatever shoes made it easier for me.
I was worried they would come back in here if I didn’t hurry up so I quickly braided my long hair away from my face and down my neck before shoving the bloody phone into my pocket and opening the door.
Rafe stood there and smiled at me shyly, the crutches in his hands.
“Oh! Um hey, thanks.”
He smiled warmly and offered them to me. As soon as I took them he swept me into his arms like I weighed nothing (which was absolutely not the case) and turned to the stairs.
“Rafe! What are you doing!” I cried out, trying to juggle holding the crutches and clinging to him at the same time.
“I’m not having you hobble up the stairs and risk falling down them.” He told me. “You’ll have to suffer my nearness for a few seconds.”
I didn’t tell him that the only suffering was how good he smelled and looked and knowing that even if he was being so unbelievably nice to me now, I knew as soon as we were public facing that would change.
“You look so pretty,” he murmured against my ear, making me shiver.
“Please, I look like me.”
“I stand by it.”
I blushed a little and didn’t know how to respond. Rafe had always been the kindest to me, the one most likely to actually step in if he saw anyone bullying me or talk his mom into buying me some basic things but he had never been sweet, never complimentary and absolutely never this willingly close to me.
“Have you got your phone?” He asked.
“It’s in my back pocket,” I confirmed.
“Can you text Suzie back? She’s been blowing up all of our phones and it’s annoying as fuck.”
I smiled sheepishly. “I um… haven’t even turned it on.”
He sighed deeply as cool wind brushed past my face. Were we outside already? Jesus how fast did Rafe move?
“I’ll turn it on,” I promised.
“And you’ll use it,” he said firmly. “I want to hear from you if anything happens today or you start to feel any worse.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes Dad.”
Rafe slid me so closely down his body so I actually felt his muscles contract and I moved down them.
“Definitely not your dad, baby girl.”
“Well this is cozy.”
I watched as annoyance rippled over Rafe’s face before he flared over at Lyall.
I got my bearings on the crutches and moved away from Rafe, embarrassed for some bizarre reason.
Once I moved away from Rafe and lifted my gaze I found both Ralph and Lyall staring at me.
“What the f**k are you wearing?” Lyall snapped.
I looked down at my outfit, totally confused.
“Um the clothes you guys told me I had to wear?”
“You may as well be wearing paint the jeans are that tight,” he growled.
“Then look away!” I snapped, furious at the way I felt self conscious in front of them.
“She looks great,” Rafe growled, stepping in front of me.
“Oh she looks something,” Ralph crooned, stalking over.
I got the sense he didn’t mean that as a compliment and I was just about done.
“I don’t need to stand here and be insulted by you. I’m perfectly capable of getting myself to school. Like I said, I’m well aware nothing has changed and this dynamic, so you don’t need to worry about me embarrassing you in front of everyone by deigning to speak to you publicly.”
Rafe placed a gentle hand on my elbow. “Ignore them, ok? We’ll take my car, just you and me.”
“That was not the agreement,” Lyall snarled.
“Look at you baby brother, got your white knight costume on today,” Ralph added, his grin all teeth.
Rafe glared at them both silently and I got the sense they were having a full conversation or more like argument.
Eventually Ralph rolled his eyes and clapped Lyall on the shoulder.
“I detest theatrics, we said we would take the little Rabbit, so let’s stop f*****g around and go so we can be done with this.”
Another silent argument took place for a few more seconds and then Rafe was gently leading me towards Ralph’s cherry red Mustang, opening the door and gently placing me in the back seat.
Wordlessly, Lyall and Ralph got into the front of the car, not bothering to acknowledge me again.
Rafe got into the back seat next to me and slid across so we were pressed against each other, the crutches placed on the far seat.
The engine started with a loud roar and then we were zooming out of the property and on to the road.
A ring tone broke the air and Lyall cursed.
“Text your f*****g friend back. I’m going to kill Silas for giving her our numbers.”
Shit! I totally forgot about Suzie. I scrambled to get my phone of my pocket, twisting so I had better access but ending up half laying on Rafe.
God he smelt good, like smoke and honey.
Not wanting to linger on that, I moved away as fast as I could and powered the phone up.
As soon as it fully activated text after text came through, just an endless echo of ping ping ping.
- Writer
