Outer Banks. It was paradise on Earth for most people, but not for me. I was stuck alone most of the time at home. My dad was a drunk and was always passed out outside the house or somewhere on the island so it was mainly just me. My dad never paid the bills, it was all up to me. I struggled with going to high school and having a job to pay the bills each month, it was hard to juggle.

I was only young and having the role in keeping the house and trying to pass my classes was hard. Although, I was paid good for working at the country club. I did extra jobs on the side for extra cash when I was running low, like helping the rich families. I would babysit, clean or house sit for a few days for the Kooks and it paid well. They didn't care about the money they just gave it away and I gladly took it.

Summer had just ended and I was now having to go back to juggling school and a job once again. I'd woken up around 5am and got ready for my shift at the country club. I showered quickly and threw on my uniform. I had a slow drive there really regretting my life choices of choosing this job. I walked inside through the workers door and went straight to work.
It was busy as usual for only 6am, these people really didn't have a life. The Kooks were forever ordering drink after drink, it was so early on the morning and they had already started on the alcohol.

Then the usual three boys walked in, Rafe, Topper and Kelce. Great, I'd have to serve them.

"Y/n. Your up." My boss shouts.
"Yes, I know. I'm aware, I do this everyday." I sigh.
"They asked especially for you to serve them today. So get to it."

They asked for me? This wasn't going to be good. I grabbed the iPad and apple pencil and walked over to the table. "Good morning. What can I get for you?" I say enthusiastically.
"Just a water please." Topper says.
"Yeah same. Two waters." Kelce adds on staring at the menu, as if he didn't know what's to eat. They all got the same thing everyday yet messed about when you ask for their order.
"I'll have a orange juice." Rafe says. I write it down on the iPad and begin to walk away. Rafe touches my arm and I turn around quickly to stop it.
"Oh and I'll have your number." He smirks.
I smile awkwardly.
"I'm not giving you my number. I have a boyfriend." I say quickly. The first excuse I could think of.
"A boyfriend? That's a new one. Wonder who it could be, possibly one of those Pogues." They all laugh. I just smile and walk away quickly.

I grab their drinks from the fridge and place them on the tray with some glasses of ice. I walk back over and hand each of them their drink. "Have you thought about want food your ordering?" I ask politely.
"Yeah, I'll have the cooked breakfast." Kelce sighs.
"I'll have one too." Topper says quickly.
"I'm not having anything." Rafe smirks.
I smile and walk away again.

I go back to the kitchen and lean against the counters. "They do my head in." I sigh.
"Don't worry about them! They do this to all the girls who work here, they think they can just chat you all up and you will instantly fall for them." The cook says.
"Yeah well it hasn't worked for me. They are just horrible people."
"Agreed." He says handing me a plate of food.
"That was quick."
"They were the first ones to order food so."

I take the food over to the table, place the tray on the table next to theirs to hand each of them their plate of food.
"Do you need anything else?"
"No we don't. But do you?"
"Pardon?"
"You look a little flustered. You sure you don't need a drink? Oh wait, you can't afford one." My fave drops and I just stand there in shock.
I grab the tray and storm off.
"I'm not serving them anymore, someone else take my place. Becky, please take my place." She just nods and walks over to them.
"What happened?" The barman says.
"Rafe asked if I needed anything like a drink cos I looked a little flustered, then said I can't afford one. So I just stormed off, and i know it's not very professional but I didn't what else to do."
"No thats understandable. Becky has taken their table now so your all good."

I stand behind the bar for a while cleaning up before Becky comes back over.
"Their asking for you again. They don't sound too happy."
"Ugh. Why is it always me?"
I walk back over and put a smile on my face.
"You were asking for me?"
"Yes we were. Look I didn't mean what I said. Just heat of the moment things. Anyway, I wanted to know if you wanted to go to a party tonight?"
"Me? Really? Your inviting me to a party?"
"Yeah. For real. My friend Josh wanted me to invite you, it's his party and he wants you there. So say that you will come?"
"Uh yeah sure? I guess I'll go. Where is it?"
"His house, 18 Genevieve Lane at 6. Be there." He says before they all get up and leave. He places some money on the tray along with a note. He winks at me before walking out. I take the tray back to the bar and go into the back to change out my uniform.

"I'm leaving Joe! I'll be back tomorrow morning. Their bill is on the counter." I say before getting my bag to leave.
"Hey, y/n. This was left for you."
"What was?" I walk back to the bar area and see some money and a note left on the tray.
"Oh that? That was what they paid for their food and drinks."
"No they already paid for that when Becky went over, that's for you, it's tips. Read the note."
"It can't be for me?"
"It says your name on it there isn't another y/n here."
I smile and take the note and cash rolled up and leave the building. I walk over to my bike and climb on. I open the note and read:

Y/n right? That's your name? Your invited to that party but it doesn't mean you can talk to me. Joshua wants to get to know you. Don't upset him. His number is at the bottom of the paper.

~Rafe

+1-877-629-4386 (this is the real number for the outer banks visitors centre)

So now I have this random guys number. I put it into my phone and texted 'Hi this is Joshua right?'

I rode to school and stood it against the railing in my usual place. I stood against my the railings of the bike stand and waited for the Pogues to arrive. The Twinkie soon enough came round the corner and parked opposite me.

"Pogues!" I shouted walking over to them.
"Heyy girl!" Kiara shouts consuming me into a hug.

"Hey y/n. You alright?" Pope asks.
"Yeah, work was shit as usual."
"Did they give you any trouble today?" John B asks.
"No not really. Other than Rafe asked if I needed anything like a drink cause I looks flustered then said I can't afford it. I then stormed off and sent Becky to sort them out but she soon came back and said they asked for me again. When I went back over he apologised and said it was 'in the heat of the moment' and invited me to a party tonight."
"Who's party?"
"Someone called Joshua? He gave me his address and number on a piece of paper."
"Let's see it." Sarah asks.
I hand her the piece of paper for her to read.
"That's not Joshua's number." She gets her phone out and begins typing in the number and rings it.

"Hello?" She says.
"Sarah. Why do you want?"
"Rafe?"
"What do you want Sarah?"
"This is your number! Omg, your so sneaky!"
"What do you mean this is my number? Yes I know it is, I am your brother."
"Just been given a piece of paper and it's your number. How sweet."
"Sarah. How did you get that?"
"Y/n gave me it. Remember my best friend? The one your always hitting on."
"I don't hit on her! She's weird. She works at the country club, she serves me everyday I don't like her."
"Ok goodbye Rafe!" she hangs up and laughs.

"Well it's Rafes number."
"That sneaky son of a bitch!"
"I told you. He does hit on you, but you don't realise it! He's mean to you cos he likes you!"
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."
"He does y/n." Kiara sighs.
"That's what he did with me before we dated. He tricked me into messaging him and that's his way of hitting on you, by being horrible."

"Oh shit."
"Yeah oh shit. Rafe Cameron likes you." John B says.
"Aww but y/n is mine." JJ sighs.
Kiara hits his arm making us all laugh.
"Sorry I love you as well." JJ says rubbing his arm making us all laugh.

The bell goes off and we all sigh and walk towards the doors. We r suddenly stopped by the Kooks.

"Your all invited to Joshua's party for some reason. Especially you y/n. He wants you there." Rafe smirks.
"Don't start any trouble." Kelce adds.

I smile at him and they walk off down the corridor.

"So you do like him!" Sarah squeals.
"What? No I don't."
"Oh you so do! It was so obvious!" She smiles.
"Ok ok whatever you say Sarah. John B please take her away." I say pretending to be annoyed.
They all laugh and we go our separate ways. JJ and Kiara one way and John B and Sarah the other, and it was just me and Pope left.

"Hey Pope, what lesson we got first?"
"Mathematics."
"Ugh I hate maths. Did we have any homework?"
"Yeah?"
"We had homework?"
"You didn't do it did you?" He sighs.
"No of course I didn't. I never knew we had any. It's Mrs Johnson, why would I listen to her."
"Y/n. You need to listen that's why your failing."
"You should tutor me Pope! Please."
"No I've told you before I'm too busy tutoring three other students."
"Fine. I'll find someone else then."
I grab his arm and pull him towards my locker. I grab my maths books and we head towards the classroom.

We take our seats one away from the back row and i lay out all my things on my desk. The teacher starts the lesson and I zone out.
"Miss y/l/n, are you paying attention?"
"Sorry Miss."
"What's the answer to question 15?" She stares at me and taps her foot.
"Uh..." I look at Pope and he's scanning through the answers page. I whisper to him, "we are already on question 15!" He nods.

I hear a small voice whisper 56 in my ear so I not so confidently say it.
"That's the correct answer, well done." I smile and turn around to see who gave me the answer.

"Oh hi Rafe, thanks for the answer."
"No problem. Your a bit bad at maths aren't you?"
"What makes you say that?"
"The fact that you zone out every lesson proves you either don't wanna listen or you just know your goin to fail and you don't care."
"It's both." I smile. "Oh hey, your good at maths aren't you?"
"I guess you could say that."
"Will you tutor me?"
"Tutor you?" He smirks.
"Noo! Actually tutor me so I don't fail."
"Oh sure I guess." He smiles slightly.
"Rafe Cameron is smiling? Woah, I must be special." Some people hear what I said and turn around to see. Topper turns to look at him and sees the smile on his face and he chuckles and looks back at the teacher.
"Oh shut up." He says quickly.

"Miss y/l/n and Mr Cameron. Would you care to repeat what I just said?"
"I wasn't listening Miss." Rafe rudely says.
"Of course you weren't and Miss y/l/n?"
"I also wasn't listening. This lesson bores me and I found Mr Cameron way more entertaining."
"Both of you to detention now." She shouts grabbing two slips of paper and writing our names on it. I get up from my desk and grab my things.
"Sorry Pope. I'll see you later, tell the others where I am." He smiles sympathetically.
I walk away from my desk, Rafe following close behind and we grab the slips of paper and walk to detention.

"Miss y/l/n, getting in trouble now are we?" He smirks.
"All thanks to you yeah."
"Well now we have detention so great. Have you ever had detention?"
"Nope."
"Well your in for a treat."
I look at him confused but follow him towards the detention classroom. We walk in and hand our slips in to the teacher in there.
"Mr Cameron." He says writing his name on another bit of paper. "And... y.n? What are you doing in here?" He says shocked. He writes my name down and reads the note Mrs Johnson wrote.

He shakes his head and points to two tables at the back. We walk over and take a seat. I place my bag on the desk and get out my makeup bag. I fix my eyeliner and mascara and add a bit more blush to my cheeks.
"Why are you putting makeup on now?"
"Cause it's come off from working so hard this morning."
"You don't need it though. Your already pretty." He whispers. I smile as say "what was that?"
"Nothing." He says quickly. I smile realising he doesn't know I heard him. We sit through detention talking until dinner. The dinner bell goes and we all rush out towards the cafeteria.

"Hey wait up Rafe." I say chasing after him.
He walks off and leaves me to walk alone. I walk into the cafeteria and see him already sat down staring down at the table, I walk over to the Pogues usual table and see Kiara and Sarah already sat there. I take and seat and say "hey ladies."

"You got detention!" They both shout ad I sit down.
"What how did you know? Oh yeah I told Pope to tell you where I was."
"You were in detention with Rafe!" Kiara shouts.
"Yeah. We got caught talking and not listening in maths and you know how Mrs Johnson is so."
"Your dad is going to kill you when he sees that on ur report."
"He never looks at it anymore and he's never home anyway. Oh, and listen to this. So we were sat in detention and I got my makeup out to fix my eyeliner and mascara and he asked why I was doing my makeup and then he sort of whispered you don't need it. He doesn't know I heard him though."

"Y/n." Kiara sighs.
"What?" I say confused.
"He didn't like you. He's playing you. He is a look after all."
"Kiara! Don't tell her that. I'm going to speak to him and your coming with me." Sarah states grabbing my arm and pulling me away from the table.
"She was pissing me off in so glad your here now. She was proper annoying me about you and Rafe. Why does she care so much they aren't dating anymore and anyway she's with JJ now."
"That's why she was so mad?"
"Yeah she wouldn't stop talking about Rafe that's why JJ, Pope and John B walked off that's why they weren't sat there."

We walked over to the Kooks table and took a seat in front of Rafe and Topper.
"Hey big brother!" Sarah exclaims.
"What do you want Sarah." He says angrily.
"You should know what I want. This is y/n, do you know her?"
"No, never spoken to her in my life. Doesn't she work at the country club?"
"You do know her. Your such a jerk. And yeah she does work there having to deal with your horrible arse every morning cause you treat her like shit."
"Sarah. Let's go."
"No he should respect you in front of his friends. What was it you told me? Oh yeah you got detention because of him as you were talking and then he just left you as soon as you were near people."

His face drops and his other friends begin to laugh.
"I don't know what your laughing about. When you all come round to my house all you talk about is y/n so don't even start."
"Sarah. Just leave."
"Sorry Sarah." Topper says. I smile at Topper and we both get up to leave. I begin to walk away when Sarah stops and turns back around to throw the note he gave me this morning back on the table.
"There's your note you gave y/n this morning with your number on it. Lying prick."

She then grabs my hand and we walk out of the cafeteria to the bathrooms. I climb up onto the counter and we sit and talk for what seemed like forever. A young girl came running in to us, looking scared.
"Hey, are you ok?" I say jumping down from the counter.
"Are you y/n?"
"That's me why?"
"Rafe told me to find you. He wants to speak to you. And he's not happy."
"Oh. He wants to speak to me does he ok. Thank you for telling me you can go back to your friends now sweetie." I say softly. The young girl smiles and runs out the bathroom.
"We going Sarah?"
"Yeah yeah guess so. When the king calls, everyone must follow." She shouts making me laugh.

We walk back over to their table and take a seat again.
"You wanted me?"
"Yeah, I wanted to let you know that you are invited to the party but it's not because of Joshua. It's because of me."
"Ok? You could have just told me that."
"That's all you wanted her here for?" Sarah exclaims.
"Oh and y/n your looking pretty fit today." He smirks.
"Prick." I say smiling holding up my middle finger before getting up.
"Fucking bitch." He mutters under his breathe.
"That's not what you said earlier. Remember? When you said I didn't need makeup and that I'm pretty?"
"I never said that."
"You did you just thought I didn't hear you. I heard everything love."
"Don't call me love!"
"Why? I like it." I smile.

His friends whistle attracting the attention from everyone else. I grab the plate of pasta that's on the table. He stands up knowing what's about the happen.
"Y/n don't you dare."
"Don't I dare what?" I ask with a mischievous look on my face.
I tip the plate and move it forcefully forward making the pasta go flying off the plate. Right into his face.
"For fuck sake y/n." He grabs the little dish of a cream pie and throws it at me hitting me in the face. The cream covering my eyes. I wipe them aggressively smiling at him.
"You look much prettier without it." He smirks.
"Oh really?" I grab a plate of peas from a random table and grab a handful of them. I throw them right at his face.
"Ouch! Why did you throw peas at me!"
Everyone jsut stands and watched this disaster.
"Your asking for it now." He says.
I grab a sauce bottle and so does he. We both spray each other with sauce. My outfit now completely ruined.

"Y/n!" Sarah shouts. "Stop it!"
But it's too late. The principal storms through the doors and everyone scuttles away quickly.
"Mr Cameron and Miss y/l/n! My office now!" We I grab my things and we both walk to the office. Everyone hiding behind the doors just watch us walk away.

"Sarah! Wait for me after school!" I shout before disappearing into the office.
"Take a seat. I'm ringing your parents." She walks into her separate part of the office and we sit there in silence.

I break the silence. "Why are you horrible to me in front of your friends?"
"I don't know."
"You don't have to pretend you hate me you know. Why should they care?"
"Yeah they shouldn't but they do. Your a Pogue and I'm a Kook. We are different. We shouldn't be together."
"It shouldn't be like that." I sigh. We both sit there quietly once again. I reach over to grab a strand of spaghetti out of his hair.
"I kind of ruined your hair. It's a little.. red."
"No worries. I ruined your shirt. It was a nice shirt as well."
"Yeah I guess it was."

We sit there in silence until the principal comes back in.
"Miss y/l/n. There's no answer from your dad. You have two weeks detention and your working in the cafeteria for two weeks. Mr Cameron. Your dad answered and you also have two weeks detention and we agreed that you are to work behind the counter of the cafeteria for a week to learn your lesson. Your both dismissed, leave school property. I expect to see you here tomorrow morning at 7am sharp."
"But Miss I have work until 7:30am, I can't miss my shift!"
"Silence. Figure it out. That's not my problem. If you need to work at such a young age, maybe you should focus more on your studies to be able to get a job so you can survive in the real world. Not my problem your a Pogue."
"There's no need to say that!" Rage exclaims.
"Was I talking to you Mr Cameron? Your lucky your rich, your dad wasn't too pleased with you. Now leave!"

We both get up and leave the office.