it’s nice to have a friend
a/n : it’s finally here! perfect pick part 2!!! sososososo sorry for the wait. irl stuff got in the way of me working on this. again. severely unedited. sorry 🫣
notes : fic can be read as a one shot or connected to perfect pick 2. part 3 tbd. this one is full of rafe fluff!
summary : maybe rafe was a little bit more than just ur best friends brother.
part one | series masterlist | masterlist
there was a period of time between your tenth birthday and your eleventh where you and rafe were actually friends. real friends. almost comparable to the way you and sarah were.
for some reason sleep feels impossible tonight. even though sarah’s deep into her oblivion. even though her ceiling is darkened and even though the room is quiet save for the gentle ticking of the alarm clock on her nightstand.
you decide to blame it on thirst, pulling yourself out of your sleeping bag and carefully slipinhg out her bedroom while walking on the tips of your toes.
you’re familar with the layout of tannyhill. It’s practically been your second home ever since you were born. you’ve had hundreds of sleepovers with sarah and spent many holidays with the cameron’s; your families were just so close.
you make your way towards their kitchen and startle a little when you realize someone else is there,too. you still suck at reading manual clocks but you guess that it’s sometime after midnight.
“ah!” you yelp and the person turns around while agressivly shushing you.
“why are you screaming?” rafe whisper yells as he sets a pint of ice cream onto the island.
“you scared me.” you respond with a much quieter tone, looking down at your feet and avoiding eye contact.
you hear a snicker come from him, “are you wearing unicorn pajamas? aren’t you ten?”
you wrap your arms over your chest, insecurely covering up the horn of the large creature printed into your nightgown.
“isn’t it too late at night to be eating ice cream?” yoy quip back.
rafe gestures to the clock on the wall beside him. “isn’t it past your bedtime?”
you can faintly tell that he rolls his eyes at that, and he brings a spoonful of ice cream up to his lips.
“what flavor it that?” you question, approaching his spot behind the island.
his voice is muffled due to the ice scream still melting in his mouth, “didn’t you say it’s too late to be eating ice cream right now?”
“i’m just asking what flavor, rafe.”
he’s quiet for a moment before responding with a sigh. “chocolate.”
he tells you because he knows it’s your favorite. you’re a chocolate girl through and through- it was the flavor of your birthday cake at your party a couple of weeks ago, as it had been for all your previous birthdays before.
your eyes light up and his chest swells in a weird way he puts off as a delayed brain freeze. “can i have a bite?”
to your surprise he says yes, pulling out a spoon from the drawer besides him and handing it to you. he holds the pint close to you so you can take a scoop, and just when the metal of the utensil touches the cold desert he raises the container up so you can’t reach it.
he’s only a year older than you, but even the slight difference makes him a whole lot taller than you. you hop and chase him all around the kitchen in attempt to retrieve the ice cream and it makes you so angry that he’s having fun in your suffering; almost as much as it makes you feel like you’re gonna melt because he’s having fun. with you.
you let out a huff and stop your chasing, and he finally walks back towards you and let’s you have the pint.
You snatch it out of his grasp, making your way to the kitchen stools with him following closely behind you. he brings his spoon too, and you roll your eyes when he nudges you for some more of the ice cream. you tilt the container in your hands towards him and he digs into it once more.
The lopsided smile he sends you in response is enough to freeze your heart and melt any annoyance you felt towards him.
you knuckles rap against his bedroom door. the same pattern as you’ve been doing for the past 4 months, sneaking out of sarah’s bright pink bedroom and into rafes contrasting blue.
he lets you in and you find solace ontop of his large gaming chair, having unofficially claimed it as your own. rafe let’s you take over it without complaint, lately opting to to settle beside the wall across from you instead of his own seat.
you get tossed a dvd case and you barely catch it. your eyes graze over the cover and take in the title. you let out a huff, “why do we always watch the movie you choose?”
rafe pauses for a split second before responding.
“but it’s the dark knight.”
you throw the case back at him, the plastic hitting his arm. “ouch.” rafe mutters, rubbing at the aggictated skin.
you cross your arms over your chest. “i’m not.”
it’s true, he always manages to convince you to watch what he picks out. but the dark knight is the best action movie ever. can’t you just let it slide one last time?
you glare at him and rafe relents, as he always does when it comes to you. he lets out a sigh and slides his box full of dvds towards you. “fine. find an alternative.”
it seems like you know exactly which movie you want to watch. you pull it out and feed it into the dvd player, grinning.
“why? are you too scared, rafey?”
He scoots on the floor closer next to you. “No. Its just a stupid movie.”
You giggle, pulling his blanket off his bed and wrapping it around your torso. “You’re just a scary cat.” You shrug.
rafe sucks in a tense breath. he knows he can’t get out of this.
“are you sure you won’t pee your pants, rafey.”
he reaches forward and grabs the tv remote, clicking the play button.
(surprisingly, rafe proved you wrong. he did not pee his pants. even if there were multiple close calls. you guys made it to the movie without any accidents, somehow shuffled close together and sharing the same navy throw blanket; a comforting warmth shared between the two as he falls asleep with his cheek on your shoulder. his mother catches the two of you in the morning. snaps a picture with her phone without saying anything, and retreating back to her bedroom with a smile spread across her face)
whenever you had sleepovers at the cameron’s, you’d always be the first one up. even if you were the last one asleep.
okay. you were the second one up, after mrs. cameron.
you had an unspoken sleepover routine. you’d usually be up by seven thirty, and there’d be pancake batter on the griddle for you starting at seven fifteen; always the first to enjoy a fresh stack of mrs.cameron’s signature blueberry pancakes.
you shut the door to sarah’s room, rubbing your eyes as you shuffled towards the kitchen.
“morning, mrs. cameron.” you greet while stifling a yawn. you blink a couple times, adjusting to the absurdly bright room.
it’s not mrs. cameron in the kitchen. instead, you’re met with rafe behind the island, again. pouring whole milk into a bowl of cereal.
“moms still asleep.” he says, words rough on the edges.
you don’t respond, opting to climb onto one of the island stools in silence. you watch his brow furrow as he making sure the perfect ratio of milk falls into his breakfast. the feature is similar to the way his mother forhead wrinkles while she meticulously pours a ladle full of bluberry batter onto the griddle.
“what cereal?” you mumble, shifting so your hands settle between the seat and your legs.
rafe tightens the cap of the milk, then shoved it back into the kitchen aid fridge. “pebbles.”
you open your mouth to ask about the flavor, but he responds before anything comes out.
“cocoa pebbles. you want some?”
you nod, begining to pull yourself off the stool so you can make yourself a bowl. but instead, he pushes his bowl towards you.
“have it. i’ll make another.” he offers with a tight lipped smile.
“thanks,” your heart stutters at the gesture. you take the spoon and swirl the cereal around so the milk can become chocolatey. you take a sip of it, enjoying the sweetness on your tongue.
he makes himself another bowl and brings it to the stool besides you.
“why are you up so early?” you question while he settles onto the seat and he shrugs.
“i guess i just wanted to see you before you left.”
the words almost make you choke on your cocoa puffs, the milk almost pouring out your nostrils. you couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
“you really wanted to be blessed with my obnoxious presence this early in the morning?”
“i don’t think you’re obnoxious, y/n.” rafe confesses, voice quiet as if he wanted you to be the only one to hear.
suddenly, it felt like the necklace which laid under your pajamas was burning a hole on your neck. you pull it out and start playing with its pendent in between your thumb and your index finger.
“i don’t think you’re obnoxious either.” you say, because you don’t know what else would be right to say in the moment. he looks expectantly at you with a soft gaze, eyes flickering from your own iris’s to the silver chain you’ve exposed. his lips curve into a smile which mirrors your own.
“yea.” you confirm, tilting your head towards him with a brightening smile before looking back down at your bowl of now soggy cereal.
“yeah.” he breathes again, bringing his spoon up to his lips to take a bite of his breakfast.
you two remain smiling, even after you’ve departed from tannyhill.
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