ᴍʏ ɢɪʀʟ || ᴄᴏɴʀᴀᴅ ғɪsʜᴇʀ

house

A few hours pass of Conrads smart remarks to Skye, and competitions between all of us with stupid boardwalk games, and eventually we go inside to go rock climbing and play laser tag.

We go up to the rock climbing area, and there's none other than Cam Cameron working there.

"Cam!" I gasp.

He looks at us and laughs, and I run up to him and give him a hug.

"No way! Cam Cameron!" Jeremiah gasps.

"Hi guys!" Cam smiles.

"I didn't know you work here!" Belly smiles. Belly and Cam had remained friends.

"Yeah, I got a job here not too long ago." He says. "I heard about the summer house. I'm sorry."

"We're not giving up on it." Belly smiles.

A few games of laser tag and rock climbing go by, and eventually we start to leave.

"Hey Cam, you wanna come back to the house with us?" Taylor asks.

"Yes, I would love that." Cam smiles.

We all go back out to the cars and get in the same  ones as earlier, but this time Cam is riding with Conrad, Skye, and me.

"How've you been Val?" Cam asks.

"I've been pretty good, what about you?" I smile.

"I've been good." He smiles.

We get back to the house and all go up to the door, and go inside.

Everyone walked in, with Conrad and I walking together in the back.

But my heart dropped when I walked inside.

Everything was gone. All the furniture, every painting, every picture, everything down to the spilled box of toothpicks in the kitchen junk drawer.

The house was empty, and it was like the memories were disappearing. The couch that had years of girls night sleepovers was gone. The dinner table filled with food fights and dinner debates was gone. The shoe rack where we would put our sandy and dirty sandals after hours swimming in the ocean was gone.

My eyes flooded with tears, and I looked at Conrad. The boy who provided me comfort in this house my whole life.

He looks at me, and at this moment something was different. Every time it was either I was the strong one comforting Conrad, or he was the strong one comforting me. But we were both lost in the dark.

"Oh." Julia sighs as she walks in. "You're back."

"Mom, what did you do?" Skye asks quietly.

"The house is sold." Julia says.

"Everything's gone." Jeremiah says quietly.

"Everything is in storage, I made sure not a single thing was broke." Julia assures.

"That's not what's wrong!" Steven scoffs. "You sold Susannah's house and took everything without even telling us!"

"I knew that if I told you that you wouldn't of let it happen!" Julia yells.

"Because it shouldn't happen!" I yell. "I know that you didn't have a good relationship with your dad or Susannah, but selling this house isn't gonna fix things! You're not gonna get closure on your daddy issues for selling your dead sisters house!"

"It was for the best! Hell, I don't even know who you are! This isn't your family, this isn't your issue!" Julia yells at me.

"You do not speak to her that way!" Conrad snaps. "She's more of a family member then you ever will be!"

"Conrad." Belly sighs.

"Are you gonna defend her Bells?" I ask.

"No, it's just..." Belly hesitates.

"Nothing can defend how fucked up this is." Conrad scoffs before waking out the front door.

I look at Jeremiah, before walking back after Conrad.

"Connie?" I ask softly as I walk outside, and see Conrad sitting on the steps with his head in his hands, his breathing was getting faster, he was panicking. He was having a panic attack. I go sit next to him and put my hand on his back. "Follow my breathing Conrad."

I take one of his hands and put it on my chest, so he can feel my breathing.

"Everything's gone Val!" He cries.

"We're not gonna give up yet Conrad." I say calmly. "We're not losing this house."

"It's like my mom was never here!" He sobs.

I look over at a flower bed in the driveway.

"You see that flower bed?" I ask. "Full of roses?"

"Yeah." He chokes.

"I remember when me, you, and Susannah planted those roses. She was trying to teach us how to plant flowers but we kept throwing dirt at each other." I smile.

"She was so mad at first, then realized we were just having fun. It's all she ever wanted." Conrad smiles as he starts to calm down.

"How about that window over there, that faces the kitchen." I say as I look at the window. "What happened there?"

"I was trying to teach my mom how to throw a football, and she accidentally threw it into the window and broke it." He smiles.

"Yeah, your dad was so pissed." I say as we start giggling. "But it's not just about the objects on the house Conrad, it's about the memories held in the walls."

"Thank you Vee." He smiles as he looks at me.

"Of course Connie." I smile.

We look into each other's eyes, then he looks at my lips.

"We know where we're gonna stay tonight." Cam says as he runs out, and sees us sitting on the steps. "Oh i'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt anything I-"

"You didn't interrupt anything." Conrad says before getting up and waking towards Cam, leaving me confused and hurt.