invisible string

ii. the reeling

"Hey, I'm Nicole."

Belly stared blankly at the girl in front of her. The girl who'd just been wrapped up in Conrad's arms. She wasn't any less pretty than the first time Belly saw her. Her waist length braids were wrapped in tiny golden bands and up close she could see the pale blue of her eyes. Belly felt a sudden awareness of the bruise blossoming along her cheekbone, and the makeup that had been wiped clean off her face in an attempt to mask the tears caused by the impact of the cue. Jeremiah winces seeing her trace the purple stain.

"I'm sorry, about the-" He trails off. "Sorry."

Belly smiles at her old friend, and reaches out to poke his cheek.

"No worries, Jerebear."

For a moment Belly sees that old grin of his break out. And then, just as quickly, it's gone. A slight frown starts to crease between his eyebrows, a line Belly fights the urge to reach out and smooth away, like how he used to tug her lips up into a smile when they were little kids. She almost does, on impulse, but before she can raise her hand, his face goes blank, and he's staring off into the distance again. Not looking at her. Belly wants to pull his attention back to her, to do something to get those eyes back on her . And then-

"So. Belly." Conrad clears his throat. Not looking at his brother. "What are you doing here?"

"Shayla planned out this whole trip, and it sounded kind of amazing. So." Belly shrugs.

Nicole's eyes light up with recognition.

"Wait. The girl from before? She's Shayla Wang?"

"You know her?"

"Forever ago. God, we used to be best friends back when we were like eight. I haven't seen her in forever." She talks mostly to Conrad, but the last part she aims into the crowd, craning her neck to find the girl.

Belly scans the crowd with her, eyes catching on her friend leading Cam through the crowd, their hands full with fresh drinks.

"She's just coming over."

Nicole follows Belly's gaze, squeals and immediately runs over to her old friend. The boys in the crowd seem to part automatically for the girl. She's the kind of pretty where that's the normal for her.

"Girlfriend?" Belly asks, forcing a teasing note into her voice to hide the bitterness. She doesn't have any right to it. They broke up. They've been broken up for a year. If they were ever even together at all. 

Conrad opens his mouth, taken aback. He closes it, fixes his face, and then opens it again to say something but she cuts him off.

"So what about you?" She turns, directing her next words to Jere. "What are you guys doing here?"

"My boy here needs cheering up!" Steven cheers, wrapping his arm around Conrad. "Had to get him to quit moping somehow."

"Moping?"

"He's being dramatic." Conrad shakes his head.

"Sure," scoffs Jere. A crease forms across Conrad's forehead at the remark, but Steven laughs and it vanishes.

Nicole, Shayla and Cam finally arrive at the table with the drinks, the girls with their arms linked as they catch up. Cam makes eye contact with Belly, rolling his eyes playfully at how quickly the old friendship has been rekindled, and a small smile tugs at her lips.

"No. Way." Jere grins. "Cam Cameron? Cam the man? My guy!"

"Still sticking with that?" Cam groans.

"Aw come on Cammy. You know you love it." Jere wraps the boy up in a hug and the surprise on Cam's face sparks a laugh from Belly.

"As long as you don't start singing Summer Lovin' again," sighs Cam as Jere finally puts him down, and a wild look takes up in Jere's eyes.

"You shouldn't have given him that idea." Belly pinches Cam gently and he settles his arm around her, placing a fresh beer in her hand.

"I regret it already."

"You're dating again?" Jere asks, sounding surprised, sending Belly's group into a fit of manic laughter.

"Dating!" Taylor wheezes. "Belly and Cam! Dating!"

"Oh yeah," Cam says, between the laughs racking his body. "Isabel's my girlfriend."

"What ?" Steven asks. "What's so funny?"

"Guys. I'm gay. "

For a second the group goes quiet, and then they're all laughing again, Belly shaking so hard her beer starts to spill onto Cam, and he lets out a high pitched shriek, setting them off in more hyena cackles.

The bar floods out onto the streets, people heading off to other clubs and parties after closing, but Belly yawns and tucks her head into Taylor's shoulder.

"We should probably start to head back to the hostel. " Shayla smiles at the boys, and pulls Nicole in for one last hug.

"Yeah. Us too. Bye, Shayla." Steven smiles back.

"Aw, goodnight to you too, Stevie." Belly teases, and he glares at her, a red flush creeping up his neck.

Back at the Hostel they creep into the main dorm after showering so they can skip the morning rush to beat the other guests. The room is already brightening with early light as the group pad over to their respective beds, three curtains forming walls and a door with another two between the beds pulled back to create one big room for the four of them. Belly yawns again as she wraps herself up in the duvet, smiling as she hears Cam and Taylor's stifled giggles. She plugs her phone in to charge and pauses for a moment. On the home screen she keeps a roll of photos in a widget like a locket. Currently it displays an image of her and her boys at the beach house. Susannah's beach house. She taps the image, taking in the memory. Steven gives an awkward thumbs up, Conrad stares broodingly into the camera, and her and Jere are looking at each other - he's doing a blue steel like impression of Conrad's expression and she's laughing, one hand hiding her smile, the other on his shoulder to support herself. She zooms in on the two of them for a moment, smiling, and then a sudden sense of cold washes over her. With the memories so distant, and Conrad right there, she'd barely noticed it. He'd been so different tonight. She tries to call back any jokes he made, silly impressions and impromptu performances and draws blank. He'd spent most of the night staring blankly at the wall and speaking just enough to keep up the conversation. On a quick impulse she pulls up Messages on her phone, scrolling through to find Jeremiah, and for a moment she smiles again at the last text, "lov u bells". It must have been from forever ago. She loved it when he called her Bells. She tapped out a quick message and before she could change her mind hit send.

▬▬▬ MESSAGE TO: jerebear🧸 ▬▬▬

bells🪸

it was good to see u tonight jerebear 🫶🏻🧸

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

She pauses, almost expecting a bubble of ellipses to appear, or rather hoping. But when nothing happens, clicks her phone off , turning to sleep in the near darkness.