a bellyjere au where shayla, cam, taylor, and belly plan a trip to europe after their first year at college, (shayla's second) and run into steven, conrad, jeremiah, and nicole while there. this is so awkward to write ok lov u bye
stevenshayla b plo...
"So what is it? Because I know it's something, Belly." Taylor asks.
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Shayla says, more to Taylor than me. "But if you do..."
"I know. But it isn't Conrad, okay? And I like Nicole."
"Me too," Shayla smiles.
The door clicks open and Cam peeks through the curtain, arms laden with greasy paper bags and for a moment the line of inquiry is put to an end as we rip open the packages into makeshift plates and scarf down croquetas and calamari.
▬▬▬▬▬▬ INSTAGRAM ▬▬▬▬▬▬
@ngadams
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and yes, we're the flyest
@conradfisher hardest song of all time
↳ @ngadams my fav belieber <3
@shayladwang prettiest ever
@jaylort
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dead inside
@isabellyconklin when the slay is fatal
@camscamera drop dead gorgeous
@shayladwang fatally attracted to you
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ BELLY ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Things at the beach are almost normal. It's almost nine but the beach is so full of people and noise it's hard to believe that. We're on our third round of mojitos and Taylor's campaign to switch to tequila shots is starting to seem more reasonable as Nicole sweeps the floor with us at Bullshit again.
"Ok, I give up. Seriously. How are you cheating?" Steven throws his cards down.
"It's called talent, Steven." She laughs and knocks back the dregs of her drink.
"I don't get it. I seriously don't. Nobody is that good at Bullshit."
"Someone's still not used to losing." Teases Shayla.
"Funny considering his experience." I stick my tongue out at my brother and he flips me off.
"Jere, come on. Let's go in the water." Steven redirects his attention to trying to disturb Jeremiah from his heat-induced siesta on the sand, his face covered by a book.
Jeremiah lets out a disgruntled 'hmph' noise, and Steven kicks sand over his legs.
"Where are we on those shots, Tyler?" Jere asks, and Taylor cheers, pulling him up with her to the bar. He stumbles across the sand to the bar and I watch him. He seems better than earlier. He's not so cold to me. He never talks to me directly, but it feels a little less like he's ignoring me. It almost feels like it's all in my head. Like he's the same old Jeremiah, and I'm just paranoid.
"Isabel, you up for another round?" Nicole shuffles through the cards with a smile.
"Not a chance in hell." I laugh.
We sit in the silence for a moment, Conrad and Steven wrestling in the sand, and Shayla reapplying sunscreen. I breathe in the summer smell of it all. The sugar and mint of the drinks, the hot smell of sand, and salt of sea, all of it. It feels like home. I hear a camera shutter and turn to see Cameron, camera still poised for the shot, like a tennis player's follow through.
"How do I look?" I strike a pose for him and lunge at him when he feigns horror.
Taylor and Jeremiah return with a scratched plastic tray of shots, and glasses of salt and lime, the shot glasses bearing novelty phrases like 'life's a beach'. We each take one and cheers, throwing them back and scrambling to get a lime first after. I read the words emblazoned on mine, 'Shake your patatas' and laugh. I turn to Jeremiah and hand him my glass and he laughs too. I wink at him and shimmies back at me, making me laugh harder. For this moment, here in the sun, everything is perfect.
