GUILTY | CONRAD FISHER

you have to talk, lovebirds.

"Wait," Steven stood up too. There was an expression of horror on his face. "Erik is gone?" they nodded. "But...Why didn't you tell...me?"

It wasn't about Steven, of course, it was about his relationships with the elder Haden. Erik loved his son's best friend, he used to treat him like the second son. And Steven, himself, looked up at the man, he respected him so much, he was fond of discuss random things with him.

And the fact that his friends said nothing about his sickness, about his death, was too much. Edwards and Haden understood that, so, they were listening to his hysterical speech without interrupting him. They knew they were guilty, he had all rights to be offended by them.

"How dare you, guys?" he asked finally. "I'm so sorry, you had to deal with that all by yourself," tears were running down his cheeks.

He got closer to the pair of his friends and hugged them. Hugged the way he had never done, like it was their last hug. The boy was sobbing right in their shoulders, and Sara tried to calm him down by reminding him about one of the breath techniques.

"How it happened?" he asked between the cries.

"We learnt about it right on Christmas Eve. He was sick, incurably."

"You didn't say anything because you didn't want that to come true," Conrad spoke for the first time after they heard the news. Sara nodded in understanding, she remembered that only the two of them knew about Susannah.

Jeremiah glanced at his brother with the mix of confusion, sadness and anger, even. Belly watched the older brother thoughtfully, too. "What do you mean?" Conrad shook his head. "Tell me."

"I didn't mean anything particular, I voiced an assumption."

"It wasn't 'assumption', brother," the boy hissed. "You knew exactly what you were talking about."

Conrad raised his voice. "I didn't mean anything particular, idiot." He turned his head to the trio of crying teens. "I'm really sorry for your lost, guys. I...I appreciate your trust, thank you for telling us."

"Is it anything we can help with?" Jeremiah was still mad with his brother but he didn't let emotions control him.

"Actually," Theo began. "We wanted to ask you to act as usual. No long faces, no moping, no..."

"We want to have a beautiful summer. We're trapped in sadness back at home. Here we can...forget."

The four of their friends started to nodding in agreement. They tried to understand, to imagine how hard it was for the couple, so, they wanted to do anything they could to cheer them up.

Sara took Theo's hand and tried to smile. "Don't you wanna practice before the volleyball tournament next week?"

Nobody could say "no" to Sara, she used it in full. She took Belly upstairs to find some clothes for a change for both of them.

Most of the time, they kept silence in the room. Only Conklin praised the girl, she remembered her that what they did was right.

Sara was glad that Belly was there for her to convince Edwards that their move was right.

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Drawing had always had a special place in Sara's heart. Every time she felt something too strong, when she was too angry or sad, or confused, or happy, the girl wanted to capture her emotions. She wanted to have things that would remind her about the condition she was during particular life eras.

Sara knew that her family would like every single thing she could make, even, if it was, obviously, the worst drawing they had ever seen. So, after spending the whole night painting the sight she had on the Cousins beach, she didn't head towards Edwards, firstly, she came to Susannah. She knew about the portraits thing and thought that, maybe, Sara could recieve a dose of critique from someone else on the side. Someone unbiased enough, someone, whose opinion, really, could make her less insecure.