Ghost Of You- Jeremiah Fisher

[forty two]

the teens were all around the room, helping Conrad study in different ways, shapes, and forms. with the rate they were moving and the success they had, Katie felt like she was going to throw up with the amount of cheeseburgers she ate. she didn't have the stomach capacity like she used to, but everyone else seemed to be doing just fine with the five cheeseburgers and three fries they ate.

"Katie, come on, we have miles to go before we can stop to sleep." belly said, noticing the girl dozing off in her seat. It only took her another second to realize that everyone else was on the brink of falling asleep. "alright, fine. You know what?"

belly took out her phone, typing something in to whatever app she had opened. she smirked as she pressed the center of her screen, music beginning to play from her speakers. the song "Last Nite" by The Strokes began to play.

"My mom loved this song." Conrad said, recognizing the guitar in the beginning immediately.

"Duh." Belly laughed, "come on!"

"Where?" he asked.

belly grabbed Conrads hand, pulling him up from the inflated seat that he was on. "Dance breaks are essential for all nighters."

"but I don't dance."

Katie let out a defeated sigh as both Steven and Jeremiah came over to her and pulled her up as well. she knew there would be no way of escaping this.

"why do I have to wake up this studying isn't even for me." she complained, although she danced along with them.

Conrad laughed, leaning against the counter as he refused to dance. "think about it this way, you get to sleep the whole way there."

Katie shrugged, dropping her complaint as she looked forward to her sleep in the near future. but, she continued to dance and jump around the kitchen with the four closest people in her life.

they'd done this many times before. a dance party in the kitchen.

Susannah used to start them all the time, blasting whatever the song of the day was and dancing by herself. usually, everyone would join one by one. Jeremiah being first, and Conrad being last.

but they did eventually have to get back to studying, so they had to stop the dancing.

~*~

it was about 2am when everyone had finally gotten to fall asleep, the last ones up being Conrad and belly. like before, Jeremiah and Katie were on the inflatable sharing, and Steven was on another one not too far.

by the time everyone was getting ready to start leaving, Laurel had come back to the house. she was standing in the backyard, staring at the end of the dock where the gazebo was set up.

Katie and Belly had seen her from Belly's bedroom window, the both of them just silently observing.

Laurel was clearly having a flashback to something that happened over there, she looked upset.

"are you ladies ready?" Jeremiah asked as he knocked on the door and came into the room, pulling them away from their focus on Laurel.

"we've got one more thing to do before we go."

~*~

The five teens stood out in the backyard posed together as Laurel stood in front of them with a camera. Every summer, they took a group photo, so they knew that they couldn't stop the tradition just because Susannah wasn't around anymore.

The photo was different than the others.

Katie was stood between Steven and Jeremiah, although she was standing closer to Jeremiah. Actually, she was leaning on him with her head against his chest and a soft smile on her face.