What The Future Holds| XO Steven Conklin

Chapter 002 Sounds Very Susannah

"Hey mommy" I reply putting my hair in a slick high pony, her favorite hairstyle on me.

"How was painting my dear?" She says fiddling with her wedding ring.

"I know what you did mom!" I laugh sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Shhh. He's cute, right?" She says smiling.

Her smile is perfect, just like she is. When people say they love their mom I get what they mean. But when I say it it means something different.

I love the person Susannah is. I love her not only because she's my mom but because she's my world, and I don't know what I would do without her in it. Laurel and I agree on that.

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It was around 10 pm and everyone had went to do their thing, besides Conrad and I. Jeremiah, Steven, and Belly went to a party. Mom and Laurel were asleep. That leaves me and my favorite twin brother.

I had went to the pool to swim and saw Conrad with his feet in the water.

"Hey" he said as I dove into the water.

"What's with the joint?" I ask coming up out of the water. I sit next to him on the edge.

I was relived Conrad was here. That meant I could talk to someone out my mothers cancer being back. Jeremiah could never know about this.

"How's she doing?" Conrad asked.

"Better, I think. She has a really good poker face when it comes to us and the cancer."

We left the talking at that. The silence was so loud we didn't feel the need to add to it.

I had gotten up to leave but Conrad stopped me.

"You know you don't always have to look out for me." He said.

"That's what older sisters are for Connie" I replied.

"Yea by like seven minutes!"

"Worst seven minutes of my life" I say kissing his head.
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Susannah and I were laying on our bed watching Belly get ready for a date.

"If anything goes wrong you text me our code word and I will be right there." I say to Belly.

When I was nine and Belly was six we decided that we needed a discreet word to warn each other.

We wanting it to be a combination of our names but celly or ballie didn't sound right, so we went L.N.S (late night swim). It was something Belly and I both enjoyed.

We shove her off to her date and I pick out an outfit for Laurels book party. I loved paired sweaters with dresses maybe even more than Susannah so I went with an olive green sun dress and a cream colored cardigan and my white platform converse because I'm the shortest one in the family.

When we got to Whale Of The Tale I scanned over the vintage book section. My favorite.

Me and Laurel have always bonded over our love of writing, vintage movies, vintage books, and Susannah.

I found a book called Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. I went to buy it then went to find Conrad.

I found him chugging cups of Chardonnay. I tapped his back then took the bottle.

"You must have forgot that I asked you to not drink infront of Jeremiah." I asked

Laurel called his name from the table. In front of her standing was Cleveland Castillo. She motions for Conrad to table and he go's , completely ignoring what I said.