CRUEL SUMMER

24: Homeless

THE GROUP arrived back to the Beach House, as they all walked slowly towards the building, all of their bodies tired from the fun day they had. Via hadn't had that much fun in a while, and she would consider herself to be feeling happy- which she hadn't felt in a long time.

The group walked into the house, though it was different: no furniture, no paintings, no picture frames, no couches... no anything. Everything was gone. Everything was taken by Aunt Julia, who Via had forgotten existed for the past few hours of her life.

Olivia rushed into every room in panic. All of what was left of Susannah had been taken away from her. Her mother's memories were in this house; it was as if her mom had died again.

Her chest tightened, as she ran back down the stairs to find her brothers. Everybody's happy moods had been taken away in an instant, as the teenagers stood in a gathering, reflecting upon the houses' emptiness.

Belly noticed Via's body language first, walking up to her cautiously and tucking Via's hair behind her ears. She spoke softly, though she sounded upset too, "Breathe, Livy. Okay?" She watched as Via breathed deeply, "It's okay-"

"What the fuck, Julia?" Conrad's voice snapped from the kitchen, as the group followed him to see Julia stood in the kitchen, packing more things away in boxes.

"I'm sorry. This must be such a shock." Julia replied, "I spoke to your father this afternoon, and he and I decided it would be for the best not to drag this out any longer than necessary."

"I don't give a shit what the two of you decided on." Conrad snapped, "You had no right to touch anything in this house!"

"Everything is in storage." Julia reassured, "I made sure that everyone was very careful with every single thing. I'm just doing what I have to do to sell this house-"

"Do you know how stupid this is?" Via raised her voice, "You-You are fucked!"

Steven placed his hand on Via's shoulder, "Breathe, Ollie-"

"Stop." Via pulled away, as she continued to shout, "We are now homeless because of you. We have nowhere to fucking go!"

"Enough!" Julia warned, "You're not the only one who's hurting here. And I'm not the one you should be angry with. Your mother could've warned you that this was gonna happen. She just wanted to make me the bad, as usual."

Via yelled, "Because you are the bad guy!"

"You know, it sucks that our grandfather loved her more than you, but I'm not surprised." Conrad raised his voice, before storming out of the kitchen.

Julia stood in silence, as Jeremiah glared at the women deeply. If looks could kill, she would be dead. Jeremiah was never usually angry, but when he was it was silent, which was scarier in Via's opinion.

Following Jeremiah, Via stormed out, causing Belly and Taylor to leave too.

Skye tried to speak, "Belly, I-"

"Don't fucking go near them." Evie warned, shoving Skye backwards as she followed everybody outside. 

Conrad paced up and down outside, trying to call his dad as he spoke out loud, "Of course, dad did nothing to stop her."

Jeremiah asked, "Connie, what can he do?"

"Jere!" Conrad shouted, "He doesn't care about us!" He paused, shoving his phone back into his pocket, "And, of course, he's not answering any of my fucking calls."

Skye cautiously opened the front door to walk outside, as Evie's eyes quickly darted to Via, who had already began storming up to them. Via raised her voice, "Did you know about this?"

Jeremiah placed his hand on Via's chest, trying to stop her from walking, "Ollie, easy."

"No, no, I'm serious!" Via pulled away, "I'm serious, did you know about this?"

"I-I didn't know." Skye defended quickly, raising their hands in surrender, "I swear I would have told you."

"Really? Because I haven't seen you in ten years." Via argued, "Would a day at the boardwalk have been long enough for you to make you betray your mom?"

Skye explained, "Listen, I know we don't know each other very well, but I would never sideswipe you like this."

"Livy, come on." Belly reassured, "They're telling the truth."

Jeremiah added, "We can't just leave. The house hasn't been sold yet, we still have a chance."

"A slim one." Skye explained, "I mean, full disclosure, Mom's realtor is expecting multiple cash offers, all over asking, no contingencies."

Steven nodded sarcastically, "Thank you, Skye, for that bleak as fuck assessment."

"We have bigger concerns." Evie added, "Like, where the fuck are we gonna sleep tonight?"

Belly suggested, "I think there are some sleeping bags in the garage."

"I'm not sleeping in this house." Conrad said stubbornly.

Jeremiah placed his hand on Connie's shoulder, "You don't have to, alright?"

"Okay, we'll, hotels are usually all booked up around this time of year." Belly explained.

Cam cleared his throat, "I feel like I should go. And I'd totally invite you guys to come stay with me, but it's a pretty small place, so.."

"Yeah." Taylor agreed, "Maybe we should go, too."

Jere sighed, "Don't go yet. I know a place we can crash for the night."

Jeremiah lead the group to the Country Club, which was empty at this time of night, his plan involving them crashing there until the morning. He repeatedly scanned his keycard to get inside, but it declined every time.

Via rolled her eyes, "Are you scanning it right?"

"There's no other way to scan a keycard, Ollie." Jeremiah replied, "It's not working-"

"Not a great plan." Skye smirked to them self, as Via and Jeremiah both turned around to glare at them. They continued, "It's from Avengers. RDJ?"

Cam laughed, "I understood that reference."

"It's not really the time to be cracking fucking jokes, Skye." Via smiled sarcastically, "If you're getting bored, go home. Nobody's stopping you."

Cam sighed, before changing the subject, "We can try my mom's keycard. She works at the restaurant here, so..."

Belly questioned, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, she works the most random hours so it won't raise any red flags." Cam explained, "As long as we won't make a mess, we'll be okay."