chapter forty three
"distraction"

"IS THAT SARAH? IS THAT my Sar-bear!?"

Lynn excitedly beamed as a whistle left her curled lips, easily gaining the attention of her fellow blonde, quite drunk, friend. The two jumped into each other, Lynn strongly and warmly wrapped her arms around Sarah's waist as her familiar strawberry scent flooded her brain.

Scrunching her nose up in Sarah's direction, Lynn flashed a toothy smile towards her best friend. Sarah was drunk, sure — her blonde strands of hair were glued to her face from the sweat of dancing and her mind was pure fuzz from the amount of alcohol she had ingested. But Lynn was different, the happiness and energy radiating from her system was unlike her usual drunk, the amount of physical touch that typical Lynn avoided.

"Lynnie!" Sarah laughed through her nose, more like an exhale of breath air rather than anything else. Her fingertips were still grasping onto Lynn's bumping shoulders with the music, the girl bit down on her lip to contain her laughter. Sarah's face began to even out a bit, and she supportively smiled. "Hey, babe, you alright?"

"Of course I'm alright, in fact," Lynn dramatically raised her index finger into the air, rather close to poking Sarah's eye out but she couldn't even process that. "I'm better than alright. I"m fantastic, I'm really fan-fucking-tastic."

"Oh, I can tell," Sarah forced a smile, but in reality — caution and concern laced her alcohol filled veins as Lynn seemed so unlike herself. "Where's JJ, Lynn? I haven't see him all night, I'm sure he's looking for you."

The carefree and content mindset of Lynn faded as the music seemed to die down, simply only in her head but it was like her thoughts were coming back to life. The smile disappeared, her body stopped swaying with the beat of the song as it decreased into nothingness. Of course it wasn't Sarah's fault that she had brought up JJ, she had broken up with John B the day before — she hadn't heard of her (real) breakup from JJ.

I miss him.

"What happened, Lynnie?" Sarah murmured softly, but she felt as if she didn't even have to in the first place — she already knew the answer from Lynn's reaction. She felt utterly horrible, knowing that it was the riff of her brother flirting with Lynn that put JJ and her in the outs in the first place. "I'm sorry, babe."

Then it snapped back. The music rumbled back to life and gained the attention of her ears, her thoughts retreated back into the shadows as long as the drugs and alcohol rippled throughout her system. Her breathing returned back to before, it didn't feel like she was holding in a breath of tightened air.

"I'm fine," Lynn laughed, a wide smile parted her lips. "I don't need JJ, just like how you don't need John B."

Sarah's face faded at the mention of John B, and if Lynn were her usual self — she would've scolded herself for mentioning the same thing that would prick at her own heart. She blinked a few times, she couldn't feel sorry.

"We need distractions," Lynn replied, an affirmative nod of her head as her eyes scanned the crowd. "I'm dancing, you coming', Sar?"

Sarah's eyes landed on someone else, but then flashed a quick and warm smile towards her drunk best friend as she was already peeling towards the growing crowds of mostly Kooks, "Yeah, give me a minute, Lynnie."

"I'll miss you!" Lynn erupted as she darted towards a few of the people she had met earlier, Raven immediately sparked with the girl.

The smile withdrew from Sarah's face the second that Lynn seemed distracted with other things, and her face glared daggers at a particularly tall figure a few feet away. He was having a conversation with Topper, and she stomped her way over to the two boys — Topper, and Rafe.

"The fuck you give her, asshole?" Sarah growled in a hushed whisper-yell as she tugged on her brothers arm, forcing him to mold his body in her direction. At first, he had pinched eyebrows and confused eyes, but then his eyes landed on Lynn swaying her hips a few yards away. "I'm freakin' talking to you."

"Hey, Raven's the one who brought it up," Rafe defended, aimlessly tossing his arms up into the air. "Look, I wasn't going to be the one stopping her, alright? She said she wanted to do it, so I let her. She's had enough of the controlling shit from JJ, I'm just letting her breath for once."

"Raven Hawke? Yeah, that was your first mistake. You're not her boyfriend, Rafe," Sarah scolded angrily, and then her drunken state slightly shoved the boy a foot or so backwards from both palms. "Leave Evelynn alone, Rafe, I mean it. She's good."

"Oh, and I just fucking ruin everything, don't I?" Rafe snapped back, his aggressive tone of voice had made Sarah flinch back in her once confident state of mind. Rafe clenched his jaw tightly, his eyes going elsewhere in the crowd as he tried clouding his mind with something else of outrage and annoyance. "I'm not leaving her alone, Sarah, I think we both know I can't do that."

"Then you're going to fucking destroy her," snarled Sarah, her upper lip had curled in disgust as she shook her head distastefully. "Hopefully you'll realize how bad you are for her sooner rather than later, because Evelynn Bardot deserves the best and you're not it."

The second that the words had slipped from Sarah's tongue, she had annoyingly swung on her hips and headed towards the bottom of the hill again — just getting an overwhelming feeling that Kiara or Pope would be better help for Lynn right now than Rafe. Topper was quick on her heels, flashing Rafe a sympathetic expression and a simple shrug.

"What was that all about?"

Lynn hummed along with the song as her eyes were squeezed shut, her fingertips had traced Rafe's shoulders as she practically hugged him from behind. She hadn't heard a word other than spotting Sarah dramatically stomping away from the boy, she didn't notice anything else. If she wasn't drunk and high, she probably would've heard the conversation and joined at Sarah's side.

"Nothing," Rafe shook his head as his eyes dropped to the ground, Lynn's touch made him crazy. He glanced over his shoulder to spot Lynn, who had actually given him his jacket back previously when she had gotten overheated while dancing in the sweaty and close crowd of smelly and horny teenagers. She looked beautiful. How did she always look beautiful? "You're beautiful, Evelynn Bardot, you know that?"

Lynn smiled, tucking her face onto Rafe's shoulder as she leaned on his tall frame, her arms were draped around his body from behind, "I think you're beautiful, too, Rafe."

Did she?

"Are you even high?" Lynn slurred the words together accidentally as a sudden wave of exhaustion hit her. "I'm drunk, and high. Are you?"

"Yes, I'm just not obvious with it like you, Evelynn," Rafe responded, he still had his head pinned over his shoulder to peer down at the blonde. "Why?"

"You know that saying, 'drunk words are sober thoughts'?" Lynn questioned into the soft fabric of his jacket, not having the strength to actually make eye contact with the dark blonde. She had sucked in a desperate amount of anxiety-reducing breath, it didn't help much.

Rafe felt as if his breath had gotten caught in the back of his throat, his heart hiccuped, "Of course, Lynn."

"So, what if I said some drunk words that are sober thoughts?" Murmured Lynn.

Rafe slowly tipped on his feet, so that now he would be facing Lynn. The blonde girl hadn't loosened her grip around his waist, warmly tucked into his chest as a smile creaked her lips. He cupped her face with both palms, the sensation felt like tingles tracing every skin cell.

Distraction engulfed her mind for a millisecond. JJ, how different his touch felt compared to the touch of Rafe, how the mere low mumble of her name made her entire heart was to explode on the spot. Why couldn't Rafe make her feel the same? Dread filled her stomach, but she shoved it down — as far down as it could possibly go. Rafe could be JJ, maybe things like that just took time.

I miss him.

"I like you."

Rafe's eyes widened as big as saucers, his palms were still glued to the sides of Lynn's cheeks as they flared up — she couldn't believe the words glided right off her tongue with such ease. Her heart wanted something else, but she couldn't stand being alone — no, she felt as if she couldn't live another day being alone. How fucking pathetic, she felt.

"You like me?" Rafe softly questioned, his voice was so similar to a whisper that even with such close proximity, Lynn wasn't even sure he had said something. "Evelynn Bardot, you like me? Am I dreaming?"

No, I just miss him. You're simply a distraction.

Lynn sheepishly buried her face into Rafe's chest as his nose brushed up against hers, her cheeks blazed with red as she had once again dodged one of his kissing advances. Rafe didn't seem to mind, instead snugly wrapping his arms around her to draw her even closer to him.

I'm a piece of shit.

a/n: last bonfire scene next chapter yeehaw! anyway, i just wanted everyone to know that it's CANON that sarah and lynn danced (grinded) together while 'feel so close' played in the background and they were drunk and def enjoyed it a bit too much.