𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟗

CHAPTER NINETEEN there's a first time for everything

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I HEARD A faint knock sound against the wall of my room- or rather the room I was just staying in. Ever since Rafe had gone M.I.A, Ward let me move into one of the guest bedrooms. Having a bedroom to myself was peaceful, but it did get pretty lonely at times.

Apart from when Wheezie would come chill with me, which I'm guessing was now one of those times.

"Can I come in?" she knocked again, making my assumptions clear.

"'Course you can, Wheeze."

Over the short time I had been staying at Tannyhill, Wheezie seemed to be one of the only people to ever provide me company out of the whole family. Despite only knowing me for a week, I could tell she viewed me as a sister- and I viewed her as a younger version of myself.

I always wished to have a sister. However, with my parents having me unexpectedly when they were still young themselves, it was always clear that I was to be their only child.

I had a lot of admiration for Wheezie and Sarah's relationship. Even though I strongly disliked her, it was clear that she was a good older sister and that Wheezie was lucky to have her. I couldn't lie and say I wasn't jealous of their bond.

Sometimes I even found myself being jealous of Wheezie.

"Can you help me with my necklace?" she walked over to the mirror I was sitting in front of. "I can't get the back."

"Here." I shuffled away from the wall, providing enough space for the girl to sit down.

"I'm not annoying you, am I?" she asked. "Sarah's gone to Chapel Hill with John B, and Rose has already shut me down."

The news of Sarah and John B hanging out made me pause in shock. Apart from JJ and myself, John B was the next person I knew who hated Kooks as much as we did.

Especially the Camerons.

"Ward let Sarah go to Chapel Hill with the guy he fired?"

"That's the thing, he doesn't know." she smirked, excited to be gossiping with me as I was with her. "He thinks she's staying over at Scarlet's."

"Her and John B, huh." I nodded.

I wonder if the other Pogues knew about his little rendezvous.

"Right? It's so weird! I mean, one second she's with Topper. The next second, she's slumming it with the Druthers boy."

"God, I hope I'm not next." I joked, making the girl laugh.

I moved her braid over her shoulder, taking her necklace in my hands. My fingers grazed over the engraving on the locket, the gold feeling expensive to the touch. If it simply felt expensive, I couldn't imagine how much it actually costs.

"W plus L." I read out the letters on the necklace, placing it around her neck. "Does little Wheeze have a boyfriend of her own?"

"No I don't." she replied bluntly.

"Yes, you do!" I teased. "I wanna know all about him. Is he tall? Attractive?"

"He doesn't exist."

"Do you love him? Is Wheezie in love?" I gasped playfully, resting my head on her shoulders as I observed her reaction in the mirror.

"God, Cami. That's gross." she chuckled, shaking her head. "My mom got me this necklace."

My head buried in my palms out of embarrassment, the pair of us breaking out into laughter. I knew Rafe's mom would send him books, but I totally ruled out the possibility that she sent stuff to her other kids too.

"So the W stands for Wheezie, right? And the L?"

"Wheezie plus Lisa." she toyed with the locket.

"Her name's pretty." I smiled, taking the hair tie out of her hair.

"She's pretty."

"Guessing she looks a bit like you then." I ruffled her hair over her shoulders, letting the waves sit on top of her floral sundress.

"I wish." she flattened her lips. "I miss her a lot, y'know."

I went silent for a second as I was reminded of how much I missed May. With all the phone calls and payments I had been making to the hospital, there wasn't a single time where I was allowed to speak to her. If Charleston wasn't so far, I would've definitely been by her side 24/7.

Unfortunately, that was out of the books.

"I miss my mom too." I let out a soft sigh.

"I heard what happened with her, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. She's strong, she'll make it through." I reassured her, also convincing myself in the process.

"Looks like we both take after our moms."

"Wait," I paused, realising what Wheezie knew. "you know about my mom?"

"Yeah, why?" she turned to face me.

"Who told you?"

"I'm not a rat." the girl grinned, keeping me on my toes with how she knew about my situation.

"Was it Rafe?" I asked, making her smile grow wider.

Of course.

"You and him seem pretty close." she tucked her hair behind her ear, something I noticed she would do when she was scheming.

"No we're not." I shook my head, trying to play off her words.

"That dress is nice, isn't it? Guessing he picked it out from June's" she mentioned the name of the store on the mainland, making me realise just how conniving she was.

"What if I bought it myself?"

"With what money?" she asked sarcastically.

"Fuck you, Wheeze." I pushed her softly, seeing as she continued laughing at me.

The sudden sound of footsteps from across the hall made me and Wheezie turn our heads sharply. Noah rested his body against the door frame, playing with the cuff links on his shirt.

He was wearing a light grey suit paired with a powder blue shirt, unbuttoned slightly to reveal a silver chain resting on his collarbone. The colour of his suit accented his opal-coloured eyes, which were focused sharply on my dress.

"Hope I'm not interrupting your little gossip session." he smirked.

"What do you want, Noah?" Wheezie groaned, clearly out of distaste for her cousin.

"Isn't Spongebob on at this time? Swear that's your favourite cartoon." he glanced down at his watch, the silver matching his chain.

"I'm 13, not 3. Besides, me and Camille are in the middle of a conversation."

"Not anymore." his eyes returned onto me, running up and down my body. "I'd like to speak to her myself, so get out."

"Asshole." she whispered once standing up, her insult causing me to giggle.

"Something funny, Louisa?" he ruffled her hair, lightly shoving her out of the door.

"Your stupid chain. You look like one of those idiots from The Wolf of Wall Street."

I furrowed my eyebrows at her mention of the movie, never having expected a girl like Wheezie to have watched it. However, now that she mentioned it, I could definitely see Noah's resemblance to Jordan Belfort.

"At least those idiots were rich as fuck. You're not gonna be rich with your little lemonade stands, kid." he shouted down the hallway, only to be ignored by the girl.

"Y'all done?" I chuckled, interested in what he wanted from me.

"I'm sorry 'bout Louisa." he ran his hand through his hair, part of his shirt lifting to reveal the waistband of his Calvin Kleins. "Nothing quite like a 13 year old girl, is there?"

"That makes you sound like a pedophile." I blinked, watching the boy rub his jaw to hide his smirk.

"Sure got an attitude on you. Rafe always liked his girls bold."

How many people in this goddamned family knew about me and Rafe?

"Not Rafe's girl." I replied bluntly, staring back at the body in the doorframe; noticing that he was moving toward where I had been sitting.

"That ring on your hand says otherwise."

My eyes shot down to my left hand, seeing the signet ring resting on my finger. I had completely forgotten to ever take it off, which now made me realise why the Camerons were so suspicious of me and Rafe.

All the ring did was remind me of last Saturday. Now that the boy I spent that day with didn't care for me, I didn't care to keep the ring. I pulled the gold band off my finger, placing it on the desk beside me.

"What ring?" I tilted my head, looking back at Noah.

"I see how it is." he nodded.

"You wanted to talk to me about something," I resumed. "so talk."

He sat down on the bed, patting the comforter beside him as a request for me to move. I pulled my dress down as I stood up, sitting myself down next to him. I made sure to keep a safe distance away from him, considering we had just met a few hours ago.

If he was anything like his cousin, dealing with him for the rest of the night would be like walking on eggshells.

"It's not necessarily talking, more doing." Noah reached into his suit pocket, pulling out a small baggie of white powder.

He dangled the bag between his index finger and thumb, laughing as he noticed the shock in my face. Although I had done a fair share of drugs in my lifetime, coke was a rich people drug- so clearly I had never taken any.

"Rose is making meatloaf. If you wanna survive dinner, this is your best friend."

"I've never done coke."

"Don't tell me you're a Mary." he shook his head, laughing to himself.

"A Mary?" I questioned.

"A virgin. Drug virgin." he corrected, shortly after realising how inappropriate his first sentence sounded.

"I've done weed. Not coke though, that's Kook shit."

He used his hand to open the small bag, shaking all the powder down to the bottom. He used his other hand to push a few stray hairs out of his face, running his fingers through the sandy brown strands.

"Fair enough." he said, nodding a few times.

"How bad is this meatloaf?" I changed the subject, referring back to his previous mention of Rose's cooking.

"This bad." he pointed to the rather large mound of coke on his finger, knocking it back into his nostril almost straight away.

His face scrunched up as his body processed the drug, the powder seeming to shock his entire system. Another finger of his dived back into the baggie, picking up a smaller pile of powder.

"Dinner's ready in 5, it's now or never." he looked at his Rolex, the watch hands reading 7:55pm.

Noah brought the powder up to my nose, checking back for one final look of reassurance. Plugging my left nostril, I used my other hand to guide his. I tilted my head back as I snorted the drug, a burning feeling hitting me straight away.

The pad of his thumb swiped along my upper lip, wiping off the excess powder. The rest of his fingers trailed to the back of my head, tangling themselves in my hair. He brought his thumb down to my bottom lip, slightly prying my mouth open.

"Must say, Camille, you're surprising me." he tilted my head upwards, holding me a mere few inches away from his face.

"See you at dinner." he whispered, a mischievous smirk painting across his face before he left the room.

It hadn't even started yet, but this dinner was bound to kill me by the end of the night.