#so this would’ve been like… in part 6 i wanna say? after rafe finds out what ward said to her at midsummers basically

[outerbankies]

new light outtake: just wanna be with you

rewatched high school musical today (we’re all quarantining—don’t judge) and remembered that at one point, i tried to incorporate troy’s romantic little hop thru the truck bed to open gabriella’s door for her into new light. it didn’t work but i found the draft today so here you go besties!

You’re in a funk for the rest of the boat ride, all the way up until Rafe drives you home. Your wrinkled dress sits bunched up in your lap, Rafe sneaking his hand under it to hold your knee on the way to your parents’ house.

He’d let you have your space on the boat after your talk, not pushing it anymore as the two of you tried to act normal around John B and Sarah. They seemed happy to play along, so the vibes weren’t completely ruined. Rafe had tried to show you all day he was there without being overbearing, refilled drinks and forehead kisses and light touches on your shoulders and lower back.

You’re exhausted in more than one way by the time he pulls into to your parents’ driveway. He hops out first and you wait patiently for him to come open your door as he always does, jumping out of your skin when you feel the entire truck move with the weight of your boyfriend hopping into the bed. You watch in the rear view mirror as he crosses over and hops out on your side, grinning ear to ear when he opens your door to your amused gaze.

“That was a little extra,” you giggle, handing him your things as you step down.

“Got you to smile,” he says proudly, a little out of breath.

You just roll your eyes, still smiling as you stand on your tippy toes to give him a peck.

He keeps a hand on your back as you both walk to the door, his touch doing little to settle the knots twisting in your stomach.

“What are you thinking about up here?” he says, rubbing a thumb across your temple as you stand on the front porch.

“He’s not just your father, he’s the man you’re going to work for—”

His groan cuts you off. “I really don’t like where this is going.”

“Can you at least think about it?” you ask.

“What? Think about what?” he says, eyes desperately scanning your face.

“I just want you to make sure you’re not throwing this wrench into your relationship with Ward and your professional future because of some high school fantasy.”

He reels back. “Fantasy? Y/n/n—”

“Just take a day—or a few? Please, for me.” It’s his weakness. He shuts his mouth, even though you can already hear a million reassurances falling off of his lips. You’re hurting him, and you can see it, feel it because you’re hurting yourself too, but it’s what you need to move past this.

“Okay,” he agrees, nodding his head up and down slowly. “Yeah.”

You grab his hand with your free one, stroking a thumb over his knuckles. “Thanks, RC.”

He pulls you into him one more time with an arm around your shoulders, long kisses pressed into your hair like promises. You place your hand where his heart should be, feeling it hammer against his chest. “I’ll talk to you… later?”

“Yep,” you nod, pulling yourself away from him to open your front door.

It’s not until you’re inside, watching from one of the sun room windows as he gets back in his truck, that you wonder if you’d just lost him.

You’re out the door and running down the driveway before you can think twice, coming around the front of his truck to stand on the ledge by the driver’s side. His window’s already rolled down for you. “I like you, so much. Okay?”

Rafe nods, letting you kiss his cheek. Small smile pulling on his lips when he grabs your neck to catch your lips in a kiss too. “I know. Like you too.”

Rafe keeps his hand secure on the back of your neck when you try to step down, keeping you in your spot. Your furrow your eyebrows at him. “I’m gonna talk to him.”

It’s not a question, or a suggestion. You just nod.

“Okay.”

He kisses you one more time, finally letting you step off the platform. “See you soon.”

[outer-bnks]

Two Burning Hearts Are Dared To Break (JJ x OC) Ch. 5

Chapters: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10

In which Elle finds a drunk Rafe on the beach after her fight with JJ and turns to him for comfort.

Warning: mild swearing, mentions of underage drinking, mentions of being drunk/intoxicated

A/N: this gif is something else!!! Drew Starkey deserves more scenes in s2, just saying!! Was really fun to write Rafe as a big softie and explore their history together. Elle doesn’t know that Rafe killed the Sheriff. This chapter gives a little bit more info on Elle’s background and her relationships with the other characters. Also this chapter kind of made me wonder whether Rafe would be a good match for Elle. 

Who should she end up with, JJ, Rafe or Topper? Let me know.

Word count: 2k

She had ended up at the beach at the bottom of her house. It wasn’t a surprise that this is where she’d end up, the water glowing in the moonlight, the waves calmly washing onto the shore. It had been a few hours since she had left JJ’s house, her mind still reeling over what had happened between them. The tears had long gone, but the churning in her stomach felt like it wasn’t ever going to end. Watching her feet as she walked along the water's edge, she heard quiet muttering coming from the beneath the tree line. 

Walking towards the sound cautiously, she caught sight of a figure moving up into a sitting position, “Hello?”, the mystery person sounded. She recognised that voice, sighing at the realisation. 

“Rafe? What’re you doing here?” Elle questioned as she moved to inspect the situation more, his face coming into focus.

“What does it look like?” he responded, arms out wide. Elle remained silent, taking note of his tear-stained face and the slight vulnerability that came through in his voice.

“Want some?” he offered, outstretching his hand holding up an almost empty bottle of whiskey. She shook her head, taking a seat next to him, holding her bent legs close to her chest. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

“What’s up with you?” he asked confusedly.

Keeping her eyes on the water so as to not give her emotions away, she asked “What do you mean?”

“Well aren’t you supposed to be with your Pogue friends in The Cut, instead of sitting here with a kook, drinking Whiskey on Wednesday night?”. He was right. She should be with her friends right now, grieving, sharing memories, eating, Elle would’ve been happy doing anything with them right now. 

She remained quiet, moving her gaze away from the water to her feet in the sand, not able to find the courage to open up to Rafe of all people yet.

“Did something happen?” he asked softly, wary of pressing too hard, after picking up on her defeated body language.

She scoffed, “You could say that”.

He studied her side profile for a minute, “Do you wanna talk about it?”.

Elle let out a short chuckle. Never would she have imagined that she would be sitting next to a drunk Rafe considering telling him about her feelings.

So instead of doing just that, she put her defences up, sarcasm seeping into her tone “As if you care Rafe”.

He sighed, “I know I’ve been a dick-”

“You could say that again”           

“but… things are different now”

“So what, I’m just supposed to forgive and forget all the times you’ve come after us? You, Kelce and Topper have nearly killed us, on more than one occasion”, she snapped, her eyes narrowing to finally look at him.

Rafe swallowed, his throat working at the seriousness in Elle’s tone. And although he was drunk and couldn’t form coherent thoughts, he felt himself sobering up at her words.

“No. You’re not. You shouldn’t forgive me at all. But you’re one of the only people who would actually understand how I feel right now, and it seems to me that you need someone just as much as I do”, his voice quieting at the last part of his sentence.

Elle searched his eyes, for the smallest glimmer of insincerity, silence falling upon them once again.

“It’s just that. Usually when I need someone to talk to, I go to John B. And now that he’s, um, gone, I don’t know who to turn to” she blurted out, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Rafe masked his surprise at her outburst with sympathy, “Can you not talk to the others?”

“Hard to talk to them about the issue when they’re apart of it”, she sighed, twirling with the rings on her right hand. It was one of her nervous habits that she did without realising, along with playing with her earrings. 

His eyebrows raised, finally understanding what she was upset about, “Oh”.

He paused for a minute, trying to gather his sober words amongst his drunk thoughts, “Maybe just give it some time? From what I’ve seen, you guys are like...real friends. That doesn’t just disappear after one fight”.

Elle nodded, his words somewhat comforting her.

They both looked back out to the water, a calmness washing over the both of them.

“Do you ever think that they might still be alive?”, he mumbled, taking another swig from the whiskey bottle.

She sucked in a breath, surprised at his question. Everyone was still too sensitive to talk about John B and Sarah, which made it hard for Elle to process her thoughts and emotions about the whole situation.

It was her turn to study his side profile, watching for any emotions to arise, “Yeah, sometimes. But holding on to that slim possibility, I don’t think it will do us too much good”, she confessed.

He nodded, looking at her quickly before turning back to the water, not wanting to see her reaction when he admitted this. “It was my fault”.

“What?” Elle questioned, her eyebrows furrowing.

“She’s my little sister. I was supposed to protect her. I’m supposed to protect my family”, his tone was rising, his frustration shining through.

She held a calm and steady voice, “Rafe, it’s not your fault.” 

“Yes it is Elle! I’m the reason they got on that damn boat and drove into the storm.”

“Rafe you can’t think like that. You’ll tear yourself apart!”

“A little too late for that”, he scoffed. He ran both hands through his hair before resting his arms back onto the top of his bent knees.

Elle felt an urge to open up to him. To tell him about everything that she was feeling, about her grief and her anger and her loneliness.

She shifted in her position, moving into a crossed legged position. “JJ and I had a fight”.

Rafe waited for her to continue.

“He does this thing, when things become too much for him, he pulls away and tries to shut himself off. Usually you just need to give him time to cool off and he comes back to you. But I don’t know-” Elle shook her head “this time felt different.”

The words that came next didn’t need much preparation, “Well these circumstances are different Elle, he probably just doesn’t know how to cope. I’m sure he’ll come back to you. I doubt he’d ever give you up by choice, that kid’s like in love with you”, he finished, laughing lightly.

Elle laughed, stunned by his response, “What? No he’s not!”.

He shook his head, knowing she’d deny it. “Come on Elle, you’d have to blind- or just stupid, to not be able to see that he is head over heels for you”, he turned, watching as a glimmer of hope flickered in her eyes.

“Nah Rafe, you’re being dramatic”.

“Whatever you wanna believe Elle, but trust me on this,” he paused, maintaining eye contact with for, “if I had someone who cared about me the way that you care about him, I’d never let that go”.

Elle felt her heart swell slightly. Rafe hadn’t been this kind or honest to her, in a long time. She gave him a close-lipped smile, grateful for his words.

Elle watched as the wheels in his head turned, waiting for what question was coming next. Her and Rafe used to be good at this, at sitting and talking and asking each other questions about their lives. 

When Rafe landed on the one he wanted to ask, he turned to her again, his eyes glazed over from his intoxicated state. “Is it fun being a Pogue?”

She took a minute to think about his question,“When you’re a Kook who doesn’t have to worry about money it’s fun. Why do you ask?”

He broke his gaze from her, looking down to the sand, drawing shapes into it with his index finger, “You guys just seem so… carefree?”. His statement came out more like a question.

“I guess. It’s easy for me to be carefree because I come from a privileged background, but uh, for the boys, there’s definitely a lot more to it. Can’t be all that carefree when you have to work 24/7 just to feed yourself and keep a roof over your head”. Her mind flashed back to JJ, the way it always seems to.

He brushed the sand off from his hand, “You know, if I was sober I definitely wouldn’t be saying this but” Elle’s heart quickened for a moment, worried about where this confession was going- “I have a lot of respect for you.”

She couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “Respect? Ever since I left the Kook Academy you’ve bullied the shit out of me”. Although what she had said was of a usually serious topic, Elle kept the smile on her face, amused by this conversation.

Rafe nodded, “I know I know. But leaving this lifestyle to be with people who you actually love, that makes you a far better person than I’ll ever be.” He hoped she wouldn’t question him further, he wasn’t ready to hurt her more than she already seemed to be.

Thankfully, she didn’t, “Never too late to be a good person Rafe”

Moments of silence passed before Rafe sighed addressing the elephant in the room, “I’m sorry. For everything.”

“I’m sorry too,” she responded, sincerity in her tone.

Rafe’s face contorted out of confusion, “What are you sorry for?”

“Well, after everything that happened with Archer, I kind of just... got up and left you guys” she said, bowing her head to look down at the sand.

He understood what she meant. Her departure from their friendship group had been abrupt, but for a good reason. He let out a soft laugh,“I don’t blame you, he was a piece of shit”.

“Yeah he was, but we were friends.” 

“How do you trust people again after what happened with him?’’ he questioned quietly, afraid to open old wounds.

“Rafe we had a shitty relationship, it’s not like he ruined my life entirely” she laughed.

“It was more than a shitty relationship Elle. You didn’t deserve to be treated like that. And I should’ve told you about her as soon as I found out about it all”. Elle detected regret in his words, but the usual anger that she felt when thinking about Archer and her was absent. Even though it was an emotionally draining time for Elle, life seemed so much lighter back then compared to now.

“Can’t argue with that one.” she shot back, adding in a laugh to let him know that she wasn’t angry.

“Rafe-” she paused, unsure if she wanted to know the answer, “how long did you know about them before I found out?”.

“Uhm,” he hesitated, “maybe like 5 months?” he confessed regrettably.

Elle nodded her head slowly, processing his answer.

“If it’s any consolation, I beat the shit out of him for you”

Elle broke out into laughter. “Yeah I don’t doubt that, but thanks, I guess?”

His face broke out into a full smile, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him smile like that, let alone be the reason for it. 

“You’re welcome.”

A cool breeze washed over Elle making her shiver, deciding that now was probably a good time to get drunk Rafe home. “Hey, we should probably get out of here”.

“Yeah you’re right, I can feel my hangover coming already”.

Elle got out her phone, unlocking it and searching for one of the numbers she never thought she’d have to call again after leaving the Academy- Topper Thornton. 

-----

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[starbabyyyy]

Unpredictable

A/N: First off, I would like to thank everyone for the love on my last story, Distraction! I’m so glad people liked it. I really like the idea of JJ having a kook for a love interest, and want to explore more of that in future stories. Here’s a one-shot testing the waters with my idea. I like the idea of the reader not being a pogue and an add-on to the og group, but rather someone entirely new. For some reason, having the reader be a pogue is just cringey to me, lol. Hope you enjoy!

“JJ, if I wanted to go to a rave, I would’ve hopped in a time machine and gone back to the nineties.”

It had been a long day. You had woken up in a great mood, having gone to bed a little earlier than usual. Walking down to the kitchen and seeing your packages you had ordered put you in an even better mood. Your mother announcing that you would be getting lunch together for the first time in what seemed forever due to her busy work schedule had really just been the cherry on top. Things were looking promising.

Arriving at the country club and seeing Rafe Cameron put a damper in your mood. You didn’t spare him a glance as you tried to walk by until your mother stopped and made small talk with him. You crossed your arms and focused your attention on the entrance of the dining area. Thank god you wore your sunglasses today, it saved you from having to make eye contact. You smelled the specialty drinks and appetizers that were saved only for the summer and wanted nothing more than to go in and have a nice lunch with your mom. Linking your arm through hers, you spoke for the first time.

“Good seeing you, we have to go eat now though. Our reservation is waiting,” you gave a tight lipped smile.

“Good seeing you guys too, hope we run into each other more often,” he gave you a wink.

“Do you have something in your eye?” You asked in an innocent tone.

“What? No-”

“You should get that checked out, Rafe. It looked like the whole right side of your face just twitched,” you mocked, annoyed that you couldn’t just sit down and have a nice meal.

“My face is fine, appreciate the concern though. How’s your pogue holding up? Looked like he got into it with-” Rafe started with a smirk.

Stepping closer, you raised your sunglasses and leaned into his face.

“Hey, do you need a tissue or something? Looks like you got something right here,” you tapped underneath your nostril.

Rafe’s face burned bright red.

“Hm, looks white to me. Oh gosh! Mom, do you have a tissue or something?”

“Ah, let me check,” your mom scrambled in her purse looking.

“I’m really fine, Miss-”

“Ah look mom, we embarrassed him. Geez we should really get going now to let him save some face,” you brought up a hand to cover your mouth and whispered loudly to your mom.

“Ah, okay. Tell your parents we said hello, Rafe,” your mom gave a small smile.

“Lay off the powdered donuts, Rafe. Or at least start carrying tissues around,” you gave a wink and led your mom to your long awaited lunch.

After getting scolded a little from your mother, you had a nice lunch. You talked about her schedule, what she had missed on her work trip, more about her business (which, fingers crossed you would inherit eventually), and JJ.

“How is JJ, by the way?”

“He’s good. Annoying and idiotic, but good,” you gave a warm smile at the mention of your favorite blonde.

“Are you going to do something special for your anniversary?”

“Ah geez mom, we’ve only been dating for two months. No need for anything super special just yet,” You took a sip of your drink.

“Y/N darling, you’ve been friends for years.”

“I know, I know, but two months really isn’t that long. What if I plan something and it scares him off? What if he thinks I’m being too serious and fast?”

“I don’t think much scares that boy,” your mom shook her head in amusement.

“You’re right,” you laughed lightly.

“I’m not saying throw a ball, just maybe something nice for the two of you to celebrate together?”

“I’ll think about it,” you stirred the ice around in your drink.

After a nice lunch with your mom, you arrived back home and went into planning mode. Her words had really resonated with you. While it really had only been two months of dating, you and JJ had been friends for a long time. Not best friends or anything, but always friends. Meeting up at parties and walking in the hallways at school together on occasion was really the extent. You had always talked about him to your parents and younger sister with a smile on your face. Your sister was the first one to pick up on the fact that you had a tiny crush, and was there to cheer you on when you texted him one night and asked if he wanted to go out sometime.

That was three months ago, and two months ago he asked you to be his girlfriend. Things couldn’t have gone any better. Did you have almost 6 heart attacks a week from the dumb shit your boyfriend did? Absolutely. But JJ was nothing if not adventurous. That was one of the things you loved about him. 

However, adventurous and unpredictable were two different things.

“Baby, come on! It’ll be fun!�� The blonde said, wrapping an arm around you.

You frowned as the two of you stood outside at the entrance to an abandoned warehouse turned rave party. Neon colors filled the scene as you peered inside. It was a blacklight party which made every color stand out that much more. Loud music blared through the speakers and you felt the beat through your body, like when a car has a really loud and obnoxious base. You crinkled your nose in distaste as you turn your attention to the blonde.

“How did you even find out about this?” You crossed your arms.

“I’ve got connections,” he wiggled his eyebrows at you.

“I’ve got more. Now spill,” your eyes narrowed.

“Y/N, come on. Does it really matter?” He removed his arm from around you.

You supposed that, no, it really didn’t matter. But you were irritated. After you had arrived home from lunch with your mom, you had gone into full plan mode for your two month anniversary. It was in three days, which left you in a time crunch. You knew JJ didn’t feel comfortable around super fancy things, so you decided no to going out to eat at any of your family’s usual spots. 

Would catering be too much? Probably, after all, it wasn’t like you were feeding a crowd. Would he like a picnic? Maybe you could take your mom’s boat, it ran a lot smoother than your dad’s work one-

“Hey, is everything alright?” JJ stood in front of you now.

“Yeah, yeah I’m good,” you snapped out of your thoughts.

“Whatcha thinking about, beautiful?”

Your face flushed. Whenever JJ pulled out the ‘beautiful’ card, you had to use all of your willpower to keep your knees from buckling on you. If someone as beautiful as him thought you were attractive, there had to be some truth to it, right? JJ could say one thing and you’d feel as if you were the most beautiful girl on earth. You already knew you dressed better than ninety percent of them, so his affirmations did nothing short of boosting your ego.

“You,” you answered honestly.

“Good things, I hope?” He gave you a cheeky smile.

“Always good things,” you pushed his shoulder and smiled.

“We don’t have to go in there if you really don’t want to. I just thought it’d be something fun, since you’ve seemed stressed with your mom being gone a lot lately,” he put his hands in his pockets.

You loved him.

“Sorry for being bitchy-” you wrapped your hands around his wrists sticking out of his pockets.

“Don’t be, it’s one of my favorite things about you,” he cut you off.

“This is the part where you say that I’m not bitchy and actually quite nice,” you pouted.

He brought his hand out of his pockets and grabbed your cheeks, pinching them lightly.

“Aw, baby, you are nice. Only to me, but that’s the way I like it,” he grinned down at you.

You laughed and removed his hands from your face, bringing them down to intertwine your fingers with his. 

“I was thinking today-”

“That’s a dangerous thing, baby.”

“I’m serious J,” you looked up at him.

Taking a breath through your nose, you felt your cheeks heat up again and looked to the side.

“I want to do something for our anniversary. I know it’s only been two months, but you really mean a lot to me and so does our relationship and I want to celebrate us. Even if it’s something as small as sharing a piece of cake over at the Cheesecake Factory or buying one from the store or-”

“Y/N,” JJ beamed down at you.

You had never seen him smile so widely.

“What? Is there something else you want to do?” You blinked up at him.

“Baby, all I want is to spend time with you. All the time. Of course I want to do something for our anniversary. I mean, who in their right mind wouldn’t want to celebrate us?” His smile seemed to get brighter by the second.

“Idiots. I mean, we’re pretty awesome,” you joked back.

“Damn right!” He exclaimed.

Wrapping your arms around his torso, you smiled into his chest. What did you do in your past life to deserve your own personal ray of sunshine? You didn’t know, but you did know that you would be eternally grateful. He wrapped his arms back around you and gave a tight squeeze. You both stood there for a couple of moments before you heard a voice.

“Hey, can you, like, move? We’d like to go in,” a group of girls stood behind you.

“Uh, yeah. Sure,” you said, caught off guard.

“Ladies,” JJ stepped with you to the side and swung his arm out towards the entrance.

A few of them blushed and giggled, while the others mumbled to each other. JJ took you to the side out of the way.

“So, what do you wanna do?” He asked.

Looking down at his hand still wrapped around yours, you gave it a gentle squeeze.

“If you really want to go in there…” you started.

Without another word, JJ let out a whoop and proceeded to drag you into the party. With a defeated sigh and a smile, you let him. You had a feeling you might end up regretting this, but as long as you had your sunshine with you, all the dark clouds would go away. When he turned back and gave you that heart stopping smile, you were convinced that you would do whatever he asked you to do. You’d leave your planning for later you decided. Right now, you just wanted to have fun with your man.

Two hours later, you were seated in the emergency room with JJ.

“How many stitches?! Six?!” Your boyfriend exclaimed.

Sighing, you closed your eyes and dropped your head into your hand.

“Listen, Doc, I know I’m no expert or anything, but six sounds like an overreaction,” JJ put his hands up.

How JJ was going to explain what happened was beyond you. After all, how do you explain that you were at a black light party, when you slipped after hearing a dog bark in the woods, and proceeding to claim it was a werewolf? And then slipping once again and hitting your head when it barked again? You shook your head just thinking about it. The craziest part about all of this however, was the fact that JJ was one hundred percent sober.

“Y/N, I swear to god it was a were-”

“Don’t even try it,” you hissed out, looking at him.

“Baby it’s the tru-”

The doctor came back after washing his hands and informed JJ that he had made a mistake.

“10 stitches?! Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!”

Well, there goes your cute anniversary pictures. Shaking your head again, you had a feeling it was going to be a long night.