Right Now | Rafe Cameron

10: coffee and water.

TEN

coffee and water.

She'd fallen asleep on his shoulder, despite the ride over to her apartment being only a few blocks away. Her panic attack had taken everything out of her.

When she finally woke up, she was lying on the soft mattress of her bed. As she opened her eyes gently and swallowed, she could feel the raspiness in her throat from her frantic breathing and it dawned upon her what had happened. She sat up and sure enough, in the armchair next to her bed sat a slumped Rafe, sleeping with his hands clasped resting on his chest.

She leaned over to grab her purse, that he'd neatly placed on her bed stand, and lit up her phone.

Uma

Where did you go?

Is everything ok?

*3 missed calls from Uma*

Nvm Rafe says he took you home

I'll see you tomorrow x

Percy

Did you leave?

If you did I'll never forgive you

Unless you're off getting some

Billie Routledge are you with Rafe?

Uma says so

Excellent

Never mind, continue

She didn't have the energy to respond to all of that. They'd be fine. It was six in the morning and she knew she needed more sleep. But how could she fall back to sleep with him sitting there and not talk to him about what happened. Say thank you first, and then deal with everything else afterwards. Oh, god. Everything else. She felt her heartbeat increase again and had to take a few deep breaths with her hand on her chest to calm down.

"Billie?" Rafe woke up and rushed to her side. "Billie, breathe." He grasped her hand and clenched it tight. She did as he said and opened her eyes after a while, once she didn't feel her heartbeat in her ears anymore. Billie looked at Rafe, and his genuinely worried expression. His eyebrows were furrowed, his eyes scanning her face with concern. Once he saw she was okay, he released his grip on her hand and backed away.

"I need to talk to you," Billie said silently. Rafe nodded.

"I know. I need to talk to you too," he sighed. "But I think you should sleep first. I'll still be here when you wake up," he said but paused. "Unless you want me to go?"

"No, stay," Billie said firmly. "Please," she added and laid down after Rafe nodded slowly and sat back down in his chair. She fell asleep within a minute.

***

Billie woke up to her phone ringing viciously on her bedside table. With a groan she reached over and swiped the green button to answer.

"Hello?" she said and put a hand on her closed eyes.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" Sarah said with a chuckle. Billie could hear the waves of the ocean and laughter in the background. Sarah must've been at work, the surf-shack.

"No, no, you're okay," Billie lied and sat up slowly.

"Liar, I know you were out partying yesterday. Gave your brother a bit of a scare when he thought you were out partying with Rafe," she joked. Billie hitched her breath and looked around the room. Rafe. He wasn't there.