Your hands were shaking as you turned towards your car, they were shaking so badly you were having difficulty getting the key into the lock. It didn’t help that your vision was clouded with unshed tears. You couldn’t believe what tonight had turned into. You take a deep breath, trying to calm yourself down. It’s so silent, you listen, wondering if you’ll hear the sound of Rafe’s footsteps coming after you, if you’ll feel his hand grasp your arm stopping your from leaving. But it stays silent, all you can hear is your shaky breathing, the blood pumping in your body.

Your hand presses against the door when you finally get your driver’s door unlocked. The car pings, breaking up the silence and it’s like a wake up call. Why were you running off? Rafe had his chance to say everything he’d wanted, while you’d just stood there in shock. You deserved to have your say too. You turn around, your hair whipping against your face, to see Rafe still standing in the spot you’d left him in.

“You know what Rafe? You are a hypocrite! You say I’m selfish? You are every bit as selfish as me! Everything that you do is about you or for you. You didn’t bother to try and help me” your chest rises and falls rapidly, as you yell at him. It was the habit of a lifetime, yelling at him. “You used me every bit as much as I used you. But at least I was honest about it!”

You want to continue, you want to scream and yell until everything is laid bare between the both of you. Yes, the way the two of you had gotten together in the first place hasn’t been conventional. You’d both recognized that you were in the position to offer each other something. You were the pretty, trophy girlfriend that he could trot out to social events, to prove to his dad that he had his act together, that he was stable. You’d kept his secrets when he fell off the wagon, you’d cleaned up his messes.

But what had you really gotten out of it? You thought dating the Rafe Cameron, the biggest Kook in the Outer Banks would give you security. But it hadn’t because he’d never been that for you. He’d let his friends talk down about you, let them leer at you and make the kinds of comments about you that made you absolutely sick to your stomach. A guy that cared like Rafe had started to claim he did for you, wouldn’t let his friends view you as a toy that he would eventually pass around to the group. He’d stand up for your honour, he’d make it clear that you were his. But he was too selfish to care about your feelings. He couldn’t be that man.

“You knew who I was when we started this thing.” He says coldly, still frozen in that spot. He can see that you’re hurt. That the argument tonight had gone too far. But he didn’t know how to tell you he regretted how he’d treated you. Regret wasn’t an emotion he was used to. Caring for someone wasn’t something he was used to. You’d forced him to realize a lot of things about himself and his feelings tonight, and he didn’t like the new feelings. He didn’t like the guilt. It pissed him off.

“Why are you still here? I told you to leave. I don’t know what else you expect from me” he spits out at you, his eyes darkening.