CHAPTER ELEVEN
[11]
song: eat your young by hozier

Anxiety clawed at Rafe like an insatiable hunger. It wouldn't go away no matter how many pills he took, no matter how many shots he washed them down with.

He'd gotten what he wanted, sure. But was it all worth it? Was it worth this constant fear of being caught? Was it worth the alarm he felt when Summer wasn't near, the terror he felt thinking Barry had gotten to her— all part of some weird, twisted revenge plot? Was she worth it?

"...by Miss Scarlet in the kitchen with a knife."

Rafe walks inside, setting his keys down on the kitchen table, leaning into the sunroom where Summer, Camila and his sister all sat around a board game on the floor.

Summer glances up at him as she hears the door shut, and sends him a soft smile.

Yes.

He blinks a couple times, and rubs his eyes, hoping she wouldn't be able to tell what he was on. He didn't think anyone would still be awake, or else he would've been more careful.

"There's leftovers in the fridge." Sarah says, barley sparing her brother a glance before moving her game piece four squares to the left.

Rafe tried to see how much longer was left in their game. How much longer it would be before Summer snuck her way into his bedroom. He had grown used to her company, to her warmth. To the smell of her hair as she slept on his chest. He didn't like that she was delaying it.

"I'm going to bed." Rafe spoke, then glanced at Summer, his eyebrows raised slightly.

"Night." Summer spoke pleasantly.

Rafe felt a bit of rage rush through his veins. He wasn't sure what it was, really. Drugs, or real emotion, the line was blurred there. He clenched his jaw, then turned to leave.

"And do you mind taking Wheezie to dance in the morning?" Sarah asks. "Dad's teaching me to dock the boat and—"

"That's not my problem." He says, leaving, without giving her the grace of turning back around to face her when he spoke.

"Great, Summer. You pissed him off." Sarah spoke sarcastically.

Summer was still focused on Rafe until he slipped from her view and up the stairs, then whipped her head towards Sarah after she processed her words. "I what?" She says, genuinely confused.

"I think someone has attachment issues." Camila snorted, then gestured towards Summer. "Your turn."

Summer absentmindedly picked up the dice, and rolled for her next turn, still not following. "What did I do?"

"He wants to hang out." Camila says. "Or something. I don't know. He scares me."

Sarah snorts.

"He'll manage." Summer rolls her eyes. But as the girls continue the game, she focuses her gaze on the hallway he just through, longing to be upstairs with him.

Sarah shook the dice in her hands before she rolled it. "So party planning, I talked to Celine and she's getting her brother to buy us kegs and stuff. I'll tell my parents to just go out on the yacht that night so we can have the house for the night, and—" she looks to Summer, waiting for her attention.

When it went quiet, Summer quickly turned back. "Huh? Yes. That sounds great."

Sarah nodded knowingly. "Mhm. How many people do we want to invite?"

"I feel like the smaller the better." Camila says, with a small shrug. "Just so we can manage who comes in and out."

"Lame." Summer responds. "It's my birthday. I want it to feel like an actual party, not a wake."

"That's bold coming from the girl with a stab wound in her stomach." Sarah tosses the dice onto the board.

Summer shrugs it off. "I dare that freak to try it again. I'll be ready this time. No slip-ups."

Camila and Sarah exchange impressed, yet concerned glances. "Ooh." Camila mutters excitedly.

"Miss Scarlet in the library with a..." she thinks for a second as she examines the board. "Candlestick?"

"It's been suspiciously quiet, though." Camila says. "I mean it's been almost a week since he attacked you and Rafe. Maybe you really did kill him? He went and died in the woods somewhere?"

Summer shakes her head, eyes zoned in on the Clue board in front of them. "All I know is I'm ready for all of this to be over, and for Kildare to be normal again."

—

Out on the ocean sat atop a boat felt like the only place Summer felt like she didn't have to constantly be looking over her shoulder. There was no sneaking up on anyone, no random masked-killers hiding in the closets. Just drinks, fresh fruit, and the radio playing as her, Sarah, Camila and Celine tanned at the nose of the boat.

"I mean, Holly and Tyler's death were one offs, right?" Celine says. "That could've been anyone, they have all the reason in the world to be hated by Pogues. But Noah?"

"Friends with Pope, wouldn't hurt a fly, etc. etc." Summer says, leaning up on her elbows. "We've been over this before."

"But Shoupe? What was that for? A threat? A warning?" Celine says, leaning up too.

"It was a crazy person being crazy." Topper says, coming in from the inside cabin with a canned drink for Sarah.

Summer turned around, looking to Rafe who spoke to Kelce on the top deck, by the wheel.

"Thanks." Sarah accepted it from her boyfriend. "I just think we need to remember we're lucky to be alive, and to not push it." She pauses. "I'm looking at you Summer."

The blonde shrugs, pushing her sunglasses off her head and over her eyes. "What'd I do?" She asks, innocently.

Sarah explains to Topper. "Someone's been a bit of an adrenaline junkie ever since the attack."

"You have?" Topper asks.

"Oh yeah," Camila exclaims suddenly. "She bought all this self-defense gear and—"

"I bought pepper spray and a pocket knife, Camila." Summer says.

"You should buy a gun." Topper says, Sarah gives him a look. "I'm serious." He shrugs. "No one fucks with a crazy girl with a gun."

"That's leaning a little too midwest for me, I'll pass." Summer leans back down into the sun, though the stitches in her stomach hurt as she lay back down. 

"How's Rafe? Haven't heard much from him." Celine asks Topper.

Everyone looks up to the top deck, except for Summer, whose eyes were closed as she let the sun warm her face.

"He's..." Topper thinks. "I don't know. I think he's shaken up, been pretty quiet. Distant."

"He better snap out of it for my party." Summer comments.

Camila narrows her eyebrows at her. "Summer." She says, concernedly.

Summer shrugs it off, but in truth, she was mortified. She'd upheld this front since the attack that she was some unstoppable, untouchable force and that she wasn't scared anymore. But all she was doing was saving face, faking it til she makes it. And it seemed to be working in her favor so far, no sign of Ghostface since that night at The Island Club.

The sound of a loud boat engine earned all of their attentions. Summer sat back up and lifted her sunglasses off her eyes, everyone stopping what they were doing to see the metal piece of junk Pogues call a boat swipe past them on the water.

"Fuck off!" Summer heard Kelce yell from the top deck.

The boat rocked as the wave they caused hit them, and Summer peered forward to see John B, Pope, Kiara and JJ all laughing as they went by.

"Do they seriously have nothing better to do?" Camila rolls her eyes.

"Hey Sum, maybe your dad can lock up JJ too? It wouldn't be the first time he put a Maybank in jail." Celine scoffs, watching them begin to turn the boat around.

"Be nice." Sarah says. "They're not actually that bad."

Topper laughs. "Oh, you're defending them now?"

"Defending them from what they haven't done anything?" Sarah responds sharply.

"They're coming back." Summer says.

It was this that made Rafe and Kelce come back to the main level of the yacht, joining the rest of their friends at the nose to watch.

John B brought their boat to a slow stop, not nearly far away enough for Summer's comfort level. "Heard there was a party this weekend." Kiara yelled out.

"Invite only." Celine yells back over the water. "Sorry, Kie. You lost those privileges when you started sleeping with Pogues."

"That's bold coming from the girl who gave the water polo team chlamydia." Kiara says, earning fits of laughter from her friends.

"Just go fuck off to your side of the island." Topper yells.

Summer glances over to Rafe, exchanging glances with him. What they meant? She wasn't sure. In all honesty, she'd been avoiding him.

On the night of the attack, there was a split second Summer thought she might lose him, and it was horrifying. She didn't like it at all. She didn't like the idea that there was someone out there, someone like Rafe, that she was scared to lose. So she thought distance would be the best option.

"Hold on let me just get a head-count," JJ starts pointing to each one of them on the opposite boat, starting with Topper. "Oh, huh—" he says, perplexed. "Looks like you're missing a few."

Kiara put a clasped hand over her mouth, eyes wide. John B had turned around completely to hide his laughter, and Pope was shaking his head in disappointment.

And to no one's surprise Topper and Kelce both tried to jump themselves off the nose of the yacht and into the water, the rest of the group holding them back.

"What are you gonna do, swim after them? They're on a boat. Sit your ass down." Celine laughs, yanking Topper back off the edge.

"Too fucking far!" Kelce yelled, just as the Pogues started their engine back up and made their way on.

Summer got to her feet, her jaw clenched with frustration as she charged her way back inside into the cabin. She couldn't even pull the sliding door fully shut before Rafe had put his arm out and opened it back up again.

She looks at him, letting out a deep huff before he stepped inside and shut it behind him. "What are you doing?" He asked, a mix of worry and frustration in his voice.

"I'm getting another drink." Summer says, walking over to the fridge.

"No, I mean—" Rafe says. "You've barely spoken to me."

"I've been with the girls." Summer shrugs, eyeing the contents inside the fridge.

"For the past week?" Rafe raises his eyebrows. "I thought we were good—" he takes a step closer.

Summer shuts the fridge, a hard seltzer now in her hand as she spins around to face Rafe. "We are good." She says frustratedly. "I'm sorry if my mind hasn't been on maintaining a relationship with you, and instead's been on the fact that we're all being hunted by a masked killer."

Rafe was still, though his eyes were full of rage.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go hang out with Cami, if—" she about laughs in his face as she starts to walk past him. "—if that's okay with you?"

She starts to slide the doors back open. "You're such a brat." He said. It was something he usually said as a joke, something to get a rise out of her, almost flirtatious. But he meant it this time. He was pissed.

Summer looked at him as she slid the door open. "Whatever, Rafe."

—

Rafe sat at the end of the dock, mosquitos flying around the golden lights that sat on the fence every ten feet. Waiting, focused.

He was done messing around. It was now or never. If he didn't act soon, he was gonna lose everything he'd worked so hard for and it would have all been for nothing.

The boats softly hit against the wood as the waves moved around them, their blue lights illuminating the dark water that surrounded.

"We couldn't have met in the middle somewhere?" Barry spoke in a hushed tone, making his way down the dock. "Shit, this like a twenty minute bike ride—"

Rafe picked up the duffel bag at his feet, tossing it over to Barry's, stopping him in his tracks.

He caught it, confused looking at Rafe. "What's this? A reward, or another job?"

Rafe wiped his nose, glancing around the boats for any onlookers as he spoke. "That's five. You'll get the rest after." He spoke. "Thirty grand, like we agreed on."

"Shit." Barry clicked his tongue, his gold tooth shining as he smiled and unzipped the bag.

Rafe wasn't amused, he wasn't proud. But he needed to finish this.

Barry took out a wad of cash and sifted through it with his thumb as he spoke. "So, what's the plan?"

Rafe took a second, coming to terms with his own train of thoughts before he clued Barry in. "Tomorrow night at Tannyhill. It's Summer's birthday."

a/n
not this short ass chapter being the first update in almost whole year 😭 but trust ✋ just had to catch yall up before the real show next chapter ......

also i started a drew starkey fic/au that takes place in the gossip girl universe if u want to read that too ❤️

jane