𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒¹ - steven conklin

5. truth hurts

the room was filled with well-dressed girls, who were talking and chuckling softly with each other, sitting at the round tables scattered around the room or near the long table under the windows, taking food from the trays.

"jeremiah, it's always nice to see you" a woman approached them, she was the debutantes' counselor, who took care of every detail about the activities for the girls and the deb ball.

"paige" he kissed her hand. "these are my sister, willow fisher, and the nice lady my mom talked you about, isabel conklin."

"they're late"

"we're so sorry"

"you're at table two" 

"i'm so nervous!" belly whispered to willow. 

"me too!"

her jaw almost dropped when she saw who was sitting and their table: the girl conrad was kissing at the bonfire, and the girl steven was kissing the night before. and her seat was perfectly between them. 

she wanted to run away and hide, but she took a deep breathe and sat at the table.

"hi" she said.

"hi" the girls responded. they were overanalyzing every detail about each other like predators observing their preys.

"is that from the other night?" steven's girl was talking about the bruise. she nodded. the girl took out some makeup products and quickly covered her bruise. "there you go. i'm shayla, by the way"

"thank you. i'm willow"

"fisher? aren't you steven's best friend? he told me about you" she was lovely, willow couldn't blame steven for liking her.

"really? i didn't know you guys were...something"

"yeah, we've been texting each other since the end of the last summer. i really like him. i'm asking him to escort me at the ball. i'm so excited, this all thing is a dream!" willow smiled and listened to shayla until paige draw the attention and talked about how important was for a debutante to have someone to escort them to the ball but also to show everybody how independent they were and bla bla bla, she wasn't really listening.

until that moment, she thought steven was going to escort her, but never actually asked him. and for sure now he was going to the ball with shayla, they were dating.

⭑○◦

the doorbell rang while willow was sitting on the couch eating icecream, still in her nice clothes from the deb's tea. she got up lazily and opened the door.

"bells, cam cameron's here!"

"coming!" she looked beautiful, in her cute outfit with her hair swishing on the back. she kissed willow on the cheek and greeted cam's. 

"have fun! use condoms!" belly flipped her off.

"save me some icecream for later" 

"i hope you won't need it later! cam cameron treat her well or i'll-"

"yeah yeah, goodnight!" belly got in the car and cam drove out of the driveway, heading to the drive-in.

"willy, are you coming with us to the book party?" conrad asked when she appeared in the kitchen.

her mom threw a party for the release of laurel's new book, and everybody in cousins was invited.

"sure, give me five minutes" she got upstairs and changed in that night's work dress, a red long dress, throw in her bag her heels, and put on her converse.

"see you there mom!" willow shouted heading out. the guys were waiting for her in the car.

an hour later, they were sitting on a couch at the library, dying of boredom.

jere was building a tower with all the books he could find, and steven was helping him out.

conrad was drinking every glass of alcoholic drinks he could find, his head resting on willow's shoulder while she was reading laurel's new book, already tired before even starting to work.

they looked sort of desperate.

"where did you say my sister went, little monster?"

"they're at the drive-in" she mumbled. "and no, you're not going there and ruin bells' date with cam cameron"

"his name is cam cameron?"

"can you drive me to work tonight?" she changed subject. 

"oh, i think i have better plans. jere, conrad, we're going to the drive-in!"

"no, no, no, you're not going to ruin bell's date" she put her arm on his chest, trying to stop him.

"i'm already on my way"

"steven, you don't always have to be an asshole" 

"i'm not gonna ruin anything willow, i promise, i just wanna make sure he's not a perv"

"he's not a perv! and for what matters, i could've ruin your date too, steven, yesterday night, but i didn't!" she blurted. "you're awful" she took her tote bag and left. walking to work wasn't a problem.

that night she was pretty nervous, thinking about the guys and belly.
during her shift, one of the waiters came up to her.

"hey, willow"

"hi, harry, how's it going?"

"i'm fine, thanks. i was wondering if next week you'd like to take a boat ride with me at the sunset, my parents are away for the weekend." 

she thought about the idea for a second. she needed an escort for the ball and going for a boat ride seemed exciting. "yeah, sure, i would totally love it"

"i will pick you up at six" he winked and came back to work.

in the back of her mind, she knew why she said yes. she just wanted to prove her brothers she was old enough to date boys and, above all, she wanted to make steven jealous.

⭑○◦

"you cared where i was, who i was with"

belly was fighting with someone when willow got home: conrad.

"no, i didn't. i don't care"

"stop lying!"

"stop being such a baby!"

"oh, and you're such an adult? you spent your saturday night crushing my first date for fun!"

belly rushed outside the kitchen to go upstairs, but as soon as she saw willow, she ran and hugged her, crying.

"i tried to stop them, bells, i swear"

"i hate him" she was mad with conrad, for being so complicated and stubborn and hard to understand. the backyard's door slammed, he went outside.

"you don't hate him" 

"i know" she whispered. "and i hate myself for that"