Swim Until You Love Me

Part XI

"Dude, if it's not our business, then it's no one's."

He wheeled around. "What?" he said, his eyes narrowed. "You haven't even talked to me in two months. Don't act like you care."

I was done with his shit. "It's not like you care about what I have to say, anyways. I got tired of being your trauma dump truck. I got tired of fucking mediating your relationship all the time, only for you to never fix anything, never try hard enough. You dumped her on prom night, Conrad. That is beyond shitty," I yelled.

He deflated. "Dad is selling the house," he said.

Shit.

"What?" Steven said.

Conrad nodded. "I've been trying to save it. He sent movers yesterday. I sent them away."

Silence took over the house as we absorbed the information.

I shook my head. "That won't help, it'll just make him madder. We need to make big, lasting moves," I said, looking at Steven, grinning.

He nodded, catching the hint. He had gotten better at that. "I'll call," he said.

"Call who?" Conrad asked.

"The big guns," I grinned. He still looked confused. I rolled my eyes. "Mom."

*****

I was swimming in the pool when Jeremiah walked up and sat down by the edge of the swimming pool.

"Hey," he said. He looked- different. Good different.

"Hey," I said back. Then it hit me. "Did you cut your hair?"

He touched his hair. "Yeah, a little bit. I'm surprised you noticed."

I shrugged. "When did you get here? Where's Belly?" I asked, doing a somersault and pushing myself off the edge of the pool with my legs.

"Just now. And she's inside," he said.

When I came back to his end that he added, "You've gotten better."

I nodded. "Swim team's been going pretty hard the past year."

"There's no food in the house," he said abruptly.

I grinned to myself.

"Wanna go buy some?" I asked. "I'll tell you everything that happened with Conrad." He nodded.

*****

"So Laurel's coming up?" he asked, as we walked down the aisles of the supermarket. I nodded.

"I can't believe Conrad didn't tell me Dad was selling the house."

"What can I say? He's weird." I shrugged.

"You've been weird too," he said.

My breath caught. "What?"

"Since last summer. Is it just mom?" he asked.

I didn't know what to say. So I kept quiet.

He sighed. "Do you wanna have a party?"

I turned to look at him. He was eyeing up the cartons of beer on the other side of the supermarket. They looked tempting.

"Mom's coming up tonight," I said.

"Oh right," he said.

"Plus, we still have to convince Conrad to go back to college and give those exams," I said. I still picked up two six-packs though.

*****

We were sitting on the floor of the family room, drinking beer and watching old home movies.

I made sure not to let Belly drink this time. The happiness in the room right now was fragile. Drunk Belly was extremely likely to fuck it up.

"Truth or dare?" she asked me.

"Truth," I said. I was way too comfortable to get up to do a dare.

Belly giggled. "So, Madi. Where were you at Steven's going away party?"

I glared at her. Two years ago, Noah, Steven's best friend, and I had thrown Steven a little going away party for college. I had hooked up with a guy and was missing towards the end of the party. Steven had been furious. Belly had a rough idea of what had happened that night.

"Umm- I hooked up with Josh Martinez," I said.

"What?!" Steven said. "Ugh. I can't believe you."

"Sorry."

"Wait, Josh Martinez from Sacred Heart?" Jeremiah asked. I nodded.

"How do you know him?" I asked.

"I went to prom there in junior year."

"Alright Conrad, truth or dare?" I asked.

"Truth," he said.

"Tell me everything Nicole said about me," I said, not even hesitating.

He laughed. "When I asked her about her beef with you, she said that you didn't have a grip on reality and were probably the fakest person she'd ever met." My eyes widened.

"And she said that Eric cheated because he was probably bored with you. Also, I'm pretty sure she incinerated your clothes from that day," he added.

"Bitch," I said.

"I can't believe you were still with her after she told you that," Jeremiah said.

Conrad rolled his eyes. "Alright Jere, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

Conrad grinned. "Alright what really happened with you and Mara?" He asked.

"Whose Mara?" I asked.

"Jere's girlfriend," Conrad said.

"You have a girlfriend?" I asked him, slightly hurt. I was half-drunk, I bet it showed too.

"Ex-girlfriend. We broke up. She's going to school at Tulane, and I'm staying around here. We decided there's no point in staying together." He glared at Conrad and then glanced back at me. "And we've always been off and on. She's crazy."

"Wait, that's it?" Conrad asked looking disappointed. "I thought there'd be more."

"What in the world is going on here?" I heard mom's voice.

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A/n

So that was part 11. Hope you liked it!