𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 // 𝙟𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙖𝙝 𝙛𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧

[ 𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧 ]

the two started talking about how taylor had kissed steven. stella laughed awkwardly and started backing away. "okay, i'll leave you guys to it."

when both isabel and stella was buckled up and settled in the car, laurel had a sad smile on her face and said, "you know, boys might come and go, but a best friend is once in a lifetime."

what if my best friend is a boy? stella smiled to herself, referring to conrad.

"we have to hold tight to our friendships... because we never know what the future will hold," laurel continued, her voice cracking slightly towards the end.

stella's smile quickly faded, remembering what conrad had told her about susannah. she assumed that laurel knew too. she also assumed that isabel had no idea what was behind laurel's comment. isabel had no idea what was going on with susannah.

stella settled uncomfortably in the backseat of the van. she shook off the unsettling feeling that the thought of her and conrad's secret gave her.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

the fourth of july in cousins is all about traditons. susannah decks out the whole house, the dads come up for the weekend unfortunately, and the boys steam clams and shoot off fireworks.

all the other fourth of julys, stella had spent the most of her time with conrad. well, more than most. they were practically stuck to each other.

but this year was different. yes, they were still best friends. but this year, she had expanded her social bubble. she had always been friends with jeremiah and steven and everyone else. but this year, she had really let them in.

especially jeremiah.

stella sat at the kitchen table with her almost finished bowl of cereal. she took her last bite and glanced over at the curly headed boy sitting next to her at the head of the table.

he's gonna ask if he can have my cereal milk, she thought.

as expected, jeremiah watched her take her last bite and asked, "can i finish your milk?"

"here." she handed her cereal bowl to him. it only had the leftover milk in it.

"mm," he hummed before slurping down the whole thing.

stella let a cringe creep onto her face, almost as if it was painful to watch him drink that.

conrad walked through the room, quickly saying, "yo, i'm gonna go wash the clams. did you get the lighter fluid?"

jeremiah lifted his face out of the cereal bowl and looked around clueslessy before his eyes settled on his brother. "yeah, it's already on the beach," he replied.

conrad whistled, pointing to the door and leaving. everything was chaotic. as soon as conrad had left the room, steven and susannah had entered it.

"are we done with the portrait yet?" he asked with susannah following him closely.

"yeah, for today," she said. she couldn't help but mention, "but you do look good in a dress shirt, steven."

susannah interrupted herself and looked at the two girls sitting at the table. isabel was sitting at the opposite end of the table near andy.

"if belly doesn't hurry up and ask cam to that ball, you should take her," susannah said to steven.

the corners of isabel's mouth turned down. "ew. no way."

"no, no, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. i'm already going with shayla," he stammered, trying his hardest to avoid that sitaution.

laurel walked in at the perfect time to replenish the kitchen cloths. "to the debutante ball?"