-22-

The bonfire, an Outer Banks tradition. It was the same weekend every year. Everyone went. And I mean everyone. After everything that's happened recently, it felt like a break. For about 5 minutes.

"Hey guys!" Stella yelled at them, as they got out the Twinkie.

"Um how many beers down are you?" JJ laughs, hugging her.

"Pfft doesn't matter. " She turns to John B, "How are you? You free man!"

"Good, Good. How did you get here? "

"My aunt dropped me off on her way to her shift. But anyways, cheers to a fun, normal night." She raised her can.

"Cheers!"

"Whoa, JB that girl is seriously checking you out." JJ laughs, and Stella turns around just as she calls out

"Hey derelicts!"

"Hey there she is. That's you. I'm out of here." Says JJ. " You coming Stells?"

"Yeah, I need another anyway." She shakes her empty can, heading over to one of the coolers.

"Right J, what do you fancy?" She turns back around, but he's not there. "Whatever."

Grabbing two mai tais, she makes her way through the crowd, spotting Sarah and Topper , when she accidentally bumps into somebody, "Oh shit, sorry." she looks up, it was a boy. She recognised him but couldn't' remember his name. 

"Stella? Hi." He smiles.

"Hi? How are you?" She asks, hoping he wouldn't catch on to the fact she was struggling to remember him. 

"Good, good."

"Nice."

"How long has it been? Huh? Honestly, I wasn't expecting to run into you here." He tells her, while she tries to politely nod along. "Who are you here with?"

"Um..so many questions" She chuckles, "I'm here with John B and that lot, just topping up." She shows him the drinks.

"Fancy topping up with something a bit more fun?" He reveals a bag of white powders, she quickly glances at his pupils, they were massive. Stella now realised why she couldn't remember his name. 

"I'm okay...Thank you."

"Oh come on, you didn't say no that night and we had so much fun."

She smiles, feeling slightly uncomfortable, "Yeah well I don't do that anymore."

"Do what? Drugs or one night stands?" He asks.

"Um.." She looks around to see that they moved to the outskirts of the party, nearer to the woods, "Drugs."

"So you still do one night stands?" He steps closer.

"Well it's not really a one night stand if you do it more than once." She holds her hand up against his chest, preventing him from getting any closer.

"Shame." He lowers his voice, "Because you're the best I've been with." Stella steps back, feeling his hands either side of her, trapping her against a tree, "Come on, a little round two won't hurt."

"I'm not really in the mood... I'm here with my friends."

"I don't see them." He mumbled against her neck.

"Stop." She tried to push him off, but he didn't budge.

"I missed this." He sighed, as a hand trailed down her body.

"Get off me!" She yelled, swatting his arm but it only made him grip her tighter. "Get off-"

She was cut off as someone pulls him off her.  Stella tries to calm herself down as she looks to see who had helped her.

Rafe. It was Rafe, and he currently was holding the boy up with his collar, "She said stop. So stop." He tells him before dropping him to the ground, and kicking his nose.

Stella cringes at the sound, watching as Rafe goes to kick him again, and again and... she ran up to him, grabbing his arm. "Enough, I think he got the message."

Rafe nudges the body with his foot , before turning to look at her. "Are you okay?" 

"Yeah.. yeah, um thank you." She  nods, following his gaze to see that he was looking at her top, or at least half of it.

"Here."

"Hmm?"

"Here." He hands her his fleece.

"You didn't have to beat him up." She tells him while putting on his fleece.  

"Never liked Jack anyway."  

"Why are you being so nice?" 

"Wow," He half chuckles, "I guess I should've just let him carry on? I hardly call what I did being nice, are your standards really that low?"

"Well if you are planning on just using it against me then, yes. I would rather you just left him to it." She states, wrapping her arms around herself. "What are you even doing here? You're far too old."

"I could say the same to you, aren't you 19, hanging out with a bunch of 17 year olds?"

"At least I have friends here."

"And where were these friends when you needed them? Hmm?" He shrugs looking around." Oh wait yeah, they were getting into another fight."

"Do you want a medal or something?" Stella asks, walking away from him and further into the woods. "Look at you go, actually being a decent human being."

"Where are you going?"

"Anywhere. Just away from all that."

"Hey." He grabs her hand.

"Don't touch me." She raises her voice, pulling away.

"Sorry." He holds his arms up. "Sorry."

"Rafe?" Her voice croaked as she carried on walking. 

"Yeah?"

"You know you said you were going to get clean?"

"Yeah, i'm going to do it. For real this time... I promise."

"Why are you promising me?" Stella asks, stopping. 

"Ettie." Rafe exhales, "We both know who Jack is... what he's like. You're not just asking me that out of the blue, are you?"

"Maybe I am?" She crosses her arms, feeling colder.

"Ettie...." She was avoiding his eyes. "Estella." She glares at him, and despite noticing that they were watering up, he grins. Stella starts walking again.

"So is this where you plan on killing me?" Rafe asks, following her into an opening in the woods, a good distance from everything else.

"You're really making jokes about killing right now?" She sits on a tree stump, placing her head in her hands.

He bites his lip, running his hands through his hair "Yeah. Um shit."

"Well I suppose we all deal with trauma in our own ways? But I thought you were more of a cry to your daddy kind." She whispers, not wanting her voice to crack.

"Well, can't really do that anymore, can I?" He sits down next to her.

"True," She exhales. "How are you coping? How are the daddy issues?"

Rafe was staring at her, she still had tears in her eyes , "I know we shouldn't make jokes about killing but i'm going to kill him." Rafe states.

"Jack?" She asks. "Why wou-"

"Oh Estella for someone so smart, you're being incredibly-"

"Oh shut up!" Tears were dripping down her chin now, and her hands were shaking. "You know what... I want to be alone, just leave me alone. Please."

"No."

She pushes him, but before she can stand up her phone rings.

Kie? Hi

Hey Stells, are you still at the bonfire?

Kinda. Why, are you guys okay?

Yeah, John B's got a black eye but what's new there. We are heading back to his now.

Rafe laughs and Stella covers his mouth.

Oh my god, are you with someone Stella?

Uh. Maybe, so I should probs go, see you tomorrow bye.

Okay. be safe, but don't think about knocking at-

Stella hangs up and sees a smirk on Rafe's face, "I swear if you say anything."

"Anything." He smirks and she rolls her eyes.

"I hate you."

"Feelings mutual."

Stella grits her teeth, glaring at him before speaking, "Did you drive here?" He nods, "Can you take me home?" He nods again, and she gets up, heading back to the bonfire. 

"Are you sure you want to be alone?" He eventually asks.

"Yes. Im sure."

"Okay then."