College Buddies (Conrad Fisher X OC)

Chapter 9

"Conrad, man, what's going on? What happened?" Steven asked confused about what is happening. 

"Panic attack." Amelia realised running to Conrad to pull him in for a hug. 

"I'm fine. I'll be fine." he tried to argue but Amelia didn't let go she just held him. 

"I'm going to go get Jere." Steven said turning to go back to the house. 

"No. Don't get Jere. It's... I just need a second." Conrad said stopping Steven in his tracks.  

"Is there anything I can do?" Steven asked as he just stood there unsurely. 

Conrad shook his head trying to calm down "I don't know, man." 

"Just talk to him." Amelia instructed. 

"Okay? Just talk about anything. Um, talk, right. Um... Um..." Steven stammered unsurely "The beach. The first time you guys brought me here to surf, man, I was so freaked out. You and Jere had just come back from some fancy surfing camp and you knew all these cool tricks. I felt like such a little kid. But you stayed and paddled with me till we caught a wave together. I thought you were the coolest person in the world." 

"I guess you were wrong about that one." Conrad said. 

"No. You're still the coolest." Steven said.  

Conrad pulled out of Amelia's hold having calmed down now. He just sat there as Amelia walked back and stood next to Steven. 

Steven asked Amelia in a whisper "Does he have these a lot?"

"Yeah. More since Susannah died." Amelia explained. Neither of them noticed Conrad get up and walk over. 

He gave a small smile to Amelia "I'm glad you're here." then he turned to Steven "You too Steven"

"So, you want to tell me what got you all worked up? Or just be bros and pretend this never happened?" Steven asked knowing what Conrad was like. 

He sighed and said "Found out I got into Stanford."

"What? Are you serious?" Amelia exclaimed excitedly. 

"Yeah. My mom had this fantasy about me finding myself on the West Coast."  Conrad said reminiscing. 

"Wait, wait, wait, Connie, this is a good thing, man. No, you've been dreaming about Stanford since you were ten years old." Steven said confused as to why this would cause a panic attack.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know..." he sighed "but things are just starting to get better with Jere, and he's going to Finch in the fall, which is close to Brown, so it just doesn't make sense to transfer anymore..."

"Hey, dude, dude, dude, you don't have to decide this second or anything, okay? Just talk to Jere." Steven advised.  

"He doesn't even know I applied" Conrad said shaking his head.  

"So..." Steven began. 

"Please don't tell him." Conrad pleaded not ready for that confrontation. 

"I... I mean, Stanford's not even an Ivy." Amelia said changing the subject a bit.

Steven caught on to what she was doing "Yeah so fսck 'em, right? Let's go."

Amelia smiled. Some small part of her was happy that he said no so he wouldn't leave her. She wouldn't know what she'd do if Conrad left her. Not that she'd ever tell him that.