Chapter 37 Old Friends, New Ghosts
Rafe’s POV
I was halfway through dragging my gear bag down the hallway when I heard a familiar voice yelling my name from the front door.
“Yo, Navarro! So you still ugly as hell or did the academy finally fix that face?”
Who the fuck just said that to me?
I froze, turning around so fast I nearly dropped my bag. There he was — Derek “D-Rock” Callahan — standing in the middle of the hallway with his duffel bag hung over one shoulder, that same annoying smirk he had since childhood tugging at the corner of his lips.
Same messy brown hair, same stupid gap-toothed smile he’d had since we were eight years old, and he lost his front tooth trying to skateboard off my step-dad’s rooftop.
“No fucking way!” A humourless laughter tore out of me as I dropped my bag, closing the distance between us in three strides. We collided in one of those back-slapping bro hugs that probably looked ridiculous to anyone watching. “They actually let your dumb ass in? I thought this academy had standards.”
Derek pulled back slightly, punching my shoulder hard enough that pain shot through me instantly.
“Standards? Bro, I’m the standard, Captain of the best high school team in the state last year. Storm practically begged me to come…said they needed some real talent to carry your sorry ass.”
A breathless laughter tore out of me on hearing Derek utter those words. “Carry me? I’m sure you clearly remember that the last time we played together I humiliated you so bad you walked out without looking back. Not even once.”
“Shut the fuck up, that was one time and the puck had a mind of its own!” Derek snapped back, the expression on his face turning into something a bit serious now. “Dude, remember when we were twelve and you tried to impress that girl at the pond by doing a slapshot? Puck went straight into old man Henderson’s windshield…we ran so fast I thought my lungs were gonna explode.”
“Please don’t remind me of that.” I scoffed, rubbing the back of my neck. “My step-dad grounded me for a month. Made me wash his stupid expensive cars every weekend for the rest of the summer while you fucking stood there each time you came, eating popsicles and laughing your ass off.”
“Best summer ever!” Derek said, sliding his arm around my shoulders as we started walking toward the dorm wing. “Hey! Do you also remember the time we snuck into the old mill and you swore you saw a ghost? It turned out it was just a raccoon with a plastic bag on its head…bro you wailed like a little bitch!”
“Fuck you, Derek!” I snapped back, shoving him sideways in annoyance. “That thing looked demonic, and last time I checked, you were the one who pissed your pants off when it chased us.”
“Bullshit, I was strategically retreating,” Derek shot back, sliding his arm over my shoulder again. We kept talking about our childhood experiences as I guided him to his assigned room — the one right down the hall from Shawn and me.
For the first time in weeks, the constant knot in my chest loosened a little. Derek had been my best friend since kindergarten. We’d practically survived every fucking challenge life shoved in our faces, and he was the one person who knew me before all the drama with Shawn…before everything got so fucking complicated.
“Seriously though,” Derek’s voice cut through my haze of thoughts as we reached his door, “this place looks sick, much better than our old rink back in junior hockey. You still hogging the net like a greedy bastard during practice?”
“Only when the defense sucks,” I replied quickly. “Which is most days…and you better not embarrass me out there, D-Rock. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”
Derek snorted. “Reputation? The only reputation you have is being the guy who once tried to fight a vending machine because it ate his last quarter. Fucking pussy!”
We were both laughing when my phone suddenly vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out, the sound of our laughter still echoing through the hallway— until I saw the screen.
What the—!
Unknown number.
My smile faded instantly. The joy from seeing Derek gone in a heartbeat as I stared at the glowing screen, my thumb hovering over whether to pick up the call or not.
“You good, man?” Derek asked, noticing the shift in my mood.
“Yeah, bro… probably just some random number calling,” I answered anyway, pressing the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
For a moment, there was no response on the other end. Until—
“Rafe. Glad you picked up.” A smooth, familiar voice echoed through the line.
Holy shit!
Kai?
No…no…this can’t be possible!
How on earth did he get my number anyway?
“What do you want?” I asked, forcing my voice to remain calm even though I was already boiling underneath.
“Relax, little brother.” A soft laughter ripped out of him, echoing loudly through the phone. “ I’m not calling to start shit, alright? I just want to make peace. Come to my house tonight…we need to talk…just you and me. No drama.”
I stood there frozen, the phone still pressed to my ear tightly. Derek was watching me with raised eyebrows, clearly sensing something was off.
“Peace?” I scoffed. “You want peace after being the worst step-brother anyone could ever ask for?”
“Exactly. After everything I’ve done to you and your mum…I… I think it’s time we cleared the air.” He paused for a moment. “Come to my place tonight. You know the address.”
“I—“
The line went dead before I could finish the sentence. I lowered the phone slowly, staring at the blank screen in utter disbelief.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I muttered under my breath. Just when things felt like they might settle down — Shawn and I finally reconnecting in the car, the intense make-up sex that left us both raw and vulnerable.
This fucking bastard had to resurface.
“Hey!”
Derek dropped a hand on my shoulder, his voice snapping me back to reality. “Bro, you look like you just got called to the principal’s office. Who was that? Ex-girlfriend or something?”
“It’s…it’s nothing important,” I replied, forcing out a laugh that sounded fake even to my own ears. Derek studied me for a second, then shrugged with that easy grin of his.
“Well, whatever it is, you know I’ve got your back. We survived the raccoon ghost together…so we can survive whatever this is.”
I nodded, sliding the phone back into my pocket. “Yeah. Thanks, man.”
But as we pushed open the door to his new room and started unpacking his stuff, my mind was already racing ahead to tonight. Kai wanted “peace.”
But in all my experience being his step-brother, Kai’s version of peace usually came with a price…
And I had no idea if I was ready for whatever it was.