If My Heart Was a House

Rafe laid in bed not wanting to get up, but knew he had to. He looked at his alarm clock seeing that it was 7:00 am and school started at 8:00 am, he slowly got out of bed. He hadn't realized how sore he was until he stood up, as he brought his hand to his face, hissing at the bruises on his skin. He sighed walking out of his room to the hallway bathroom to take a shower.

He was not looking forward to going to school that today. Or any day of the week, at the moment all he wanted to do was go back to sleep and slip back into his dream-world. Where he didn't have to worry about Juliette's boyfriend, or her getting hurt. Or what people were going to say about his black-eye and busted lip. The only thing that made Rafe feel better was thinking about the fact that Jerk-face was sporting the same injuries.



Rafe was somewhat glad that he didn't have any classes with Juliette for that day. Of course he'd want to see her, but he didn't want her worrying about him. When he got to school, he quickly went inside to avoid her and walked into where his first class was held. Which just so happened to have Juliette's boyfriend as one of the classmates. But as Rafe walked to his seat, he was happy to see that Jerk-face wasn't there, which made him smile a little as he sat down.

His afternoon classes were just as annoying as the others, he had a splitting headache and he forgot to bring any aspirin. He knew that Juliette would most likely have some, she was like a walking pharmacy. She had a full out first-aid kit in her bag at all times, another one of her, You-never-know things. Rafe smiled as he walked down the hall to his last class. He couldn't wait to see her. He hadn't realize how much he liked seeing her during the day at school, until he actually took the time to intentionally avoid her.

Rafe liked the last class he had of the day, Photography. He was hoping to develop the picture he took of Juliette. To go with the many other pictures he had of her. She always happened to be the focus of his work, but that was because they were always together. At least that was his excuse. She was kind of like his crash-test-dummy, he would test out certain lighting and settings when taking pictures of her, and see which he liked better. He didn't really work all that well though, because he tended to like all of the pictures he took of her.



When Rafe walked into his home he left out a loud sigh as he dropped his tattered backpack by the door, and placed his keys in the little wooden bowl his grandfather always used. He went into the kitchen and opened the fridge to get a soda, popping it open he took a big gulp and started to make his way up the stairs. But when he got to the third step he heard knocking. As he walked towards the door he couldn't help repeating, Please, don't be Juliette. Please, don't be Juliette, in his head.

And when he opened the door of course that's who it was. "Jules," he breathed not really able to make eye contact with her.

"Rafe! Oh thank God you're okay, I was worried. When I didn't see you at school, I thought, I don't know I just thought something had happened."

"Jules, how many times do have to tell you that you worry too much?" he smiled.

"Right, but look at you!" she exclaimed motioning to his face.

"It's not as bad as it looks," he mumbled watching her walk inside.

"Did you put ice or something like frozen corn on your eye?" she asked walking to the kitchen.

"Yes, I did." He answered shutting the door and following after her.

"Yeah, but you probably only held it there for like what? Two minutes?" she asked while wrapping some ice in an old hand towel.

"Nooo," he replied, obviously lying as he followed her with his eyes as she walked up to him and motion for him to take seat at the small, wooden kitchen table. Rafe rolled his eyes and sat down, "Jules, I'm fine I swear."

"Hey," she said her voice barely over a whisper as she gently put the ice on his swollen, black, and blue eye.

"Hey to you," he forced a smile.

"Are you okay?" he heard her ask, her hands gesturing towards his face.

"I'm fine, Jules," he try to assure her.

She glared at him. "Well, you don't look fine. Does it hurt much?" she asked bringing to her hand up to his eye like she wanted to soothe it, to take all the pain away.

"Not too much," he murmured taking her other hand in his.

"I haven't seen Jerk-face lately," Juliette stated with obvious disappointment.

"What you want to yell at him, or congratulate him?" Rafe regretted saying that the moment it came out of his mouth.

Juliette stared at him and he half wanted her to get mad and storm off, that way he wouldn't have to face the hurt look on her face. He didn't get his wish though.

"I can't believe you just said that." She sounded breathless, like she was truly shocked. "Why do you think I came to your house? To cheer him on?" she paused, but not long enough for him to answer. "I went to your house," she shifted her feet. "To stop him, but I was too late. I told him not to go, well I tried to tell him but he hung up on me before I got the chance."

Rafe wanted to try and joke and say, Oh, so he does that hanging up thing a lot, huh? But he didn't have it in him. Instead he stared at the chipped, linoleum floor of his kitchen and mentally slapped himself. Which ironically started to make his swollen face throb, along with his pounding head.

"So, no Rafe, I don't want to congratulate him. I want to see if there are any spots left where I can hit him."

Rafe wasn't expecting that. Juliette never encouraged violence, so fact that she even wanted to hit someone, especially her boyfriend, when she despised domestic abuse, meant that she had to be enraged. Which was something, Rafe was not used to.

He shook his head looking down at his feet. "What? she asked him.

"Nothing," he smiled still shaking his head. She glared at him. "It's nothing," he paused looking away from her. "You're just amazing," he mumbled. "That's all."

Juliette couldn't help but blush a little at that, and she was praying, hoping, and wishing Rafe couldn't tell. She was so mad at her Jerk-face of a boyfriend. But she was even more mad at herself. What he did to Rafe was her fault, and she knew something like this was going to happen. She knew how much her boyfriend hated Rafe. And Rafe didn't like him much either, but he would never go to his house and beat the crap out of him.

She was actually quite proud of Rafe, for defending himself. Not that she had ever doubted that he couldn't. But she was a least glad about the fact that Rafe was able to fight back and not get even more injured than he did.

As Juliette looked at all the physical damage Jerk-face left, she noticed that Rafe was favoring his left ankle. He had his feet flat on the floor when he first sat down. But then he crossed them at the ankle and he deliberately and gently rested his left ankle on top of his right. She watched him a little longer and when she saw him shift and saw the very slight pinch to his face as he cringed, she sighed loudly.

"Rafe Christopher," she scolded.

His head shot up and he glanced at her, looking away quickly knowing that he was in trouble for something. Juliette groaned, "I swear, you could be half dead and I wouldn't know," she stared at him. "Because you wouldn't tell me, you wouldn't complain at all!" she exclaimed.

Juliette stood there staring at him, waiting.

"What is it now?" he groaned and watched while Juliette knelt down on the floor. "What are you-Sss," he hissed as she moved his pant leg out the way to look at his ankle.

"Have you been walking on this all day?" she asked while still glaring at him.

"So what if I have?" he grumbled trying to his hurt ankle away from her.

"Rafe. Please."

He stopped moving and let her look at his injury. It didn't hurt that bad, his head felt worse. But he couldn't help liking the feel of her touching his skin, well except when she pressed too hard on the bruises. That didn't feel very nice, and he let be known by hissing and glaring at her.

"Oh, stop being a baby!" she scolded. "It's your fault for walking on a sprained ankle. Especially when it wasn't even wrapped up!" she glared at him some more and then grabbed his hand.

"What are you doing?" he asked her as she tried to put his arm around her.

"I'm trying to get you stand up so I can help you to the bathroom," she said while putting her arm around his waist. "Come on, a little help would be nice."

Rafe stood up and let Juliette help him, as much as he didn't really want her to, he didn't seem to be able to say no to her either. When they made it to her requested destination, Juliette motioned for Rafe to sit on the edge of the tub while she got the needed supplies out from under the sink.

"You know you don't need to do this, right?" he asked from his perch on the cold bathtub.

"Whatever you say, Rafe, you know I'm still going to do it anyway. So why not just sit and look pretty, while wrap up your ankle like you should have?" She smiled cheekily at him.

Rafe smiled back with out even thinking, "Whatever you say, Jules."

Juliette rolled her eyes, put the lid down on the toilet and took a seat. "Can you gave me your ankle please?" she asked holding out her hand. Rafe balanced himself and then gently placed his leg on Juliette's lap. "Thank you," she murmured glancing at him and getting to work, taking off his shoe and sock and looking his ankle over more closely. She then started to unroll an ace bandage and wrap it around from the top of the ankle where it met his leg, all the way past the heel of his foot. Using the little silver, hooks to keep it in place.

Rafe for some reason was very embarrassed the whole time she was tending to him. He didn't know if it was because he was vulnerable, or if it were simply because Juliette was just touching him so gently. He still felt ridiculous either way, and a big part of him (the part where his ego resided) wanted to get out of the bathroom and as far from Juliette as possible right now. But another part, almost just as big, if not bigger, never wanted her stop.

"Okay," Juliette startled him when she spoke. "You're all set. Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" she smiled taking his leg gently and then just as gently placing his foot on the floor.

"No, not at all bad." Rafe heard himself say.

It was like he was watching this from outside of his body, like he didn't have control over what he was doing at all. And then he suddenly got the urge to kiss her. He had felt like kissing Juliette before, but it was never this strong or sharp of a feeling. Rafe just smiled at her, already used to wanting do something like kissing Juliette and not acting on it.

He slowing rose up from the his seat on the edge of the bathtub and started to make his way out of the bathroom. Where he could breathe without thinking about kissing a girl he knew didn't want him.

Rafe saw that the ice from earlier was melting on the kitchen table right where Juliette left it. Picking up the damp towel Rafe took the ice out as he walked over to the sink, putting them on the counter so that he could wring out the water. His grandmother used to always use the towels like the one in his hand to clean the kitchen. Rafe took some more ice out of the freezer to replace the ones that already melted, he re-wrapped the ice and sat back down at the table. He then slowing brought the homemade icepack to his eye and sighed.

"I'm glad you've finally started to listen to me," Juliette smiled.

He slightly nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah."

"Does your ankle feel any better?"

He turned to face her as she walked over to the fridge to get a drink. "Yes, thank you," he said staring intently at her.

"You're welcome," she replied. "Is this yours?" she asked holding a half empty coke.

Taking it from her he answered, "Oh, yeah, thanks."

"So what are doing?"

Rafe just stared at her confused.

She smiled, "Are we going to watch a movie? Or what?" she asked, walking towards the living room.



They were sitting on the couch watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Rafe was sitting on one side while Juliette was in the middle.

"Johnny Depp is honestly one of the most gorgeous and talented actors ever." Juliette whispered as she stared at the screen.

"He's like, what fifty?" Rafe asked with distaste.

"No, of course not! And even if he was, I wouldn't mind if he still looked like that."

"He could be your father."

"Why would say something like that?" she glared at him.

"I'm just saying." he muttered holding his hands up in mock surrender.

"Well just stop."

Rafe rolled his eyes looking back at the TV.

"Besides, you know you so have a guy-crush on him. You're just too much of wuss to admit." she smirked.

"What? I do not have a guy-crush on him!" he quickly replied. "Where the heck did you get that?"

Juliette just ignored him and kept watching the movie. She knew she was right.