𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭, conrad fisher

042, the boardwalk

"Sick with fear." Conrad added through a mouthful of ice cream, "My mom has to throw out your clothes and carry you home in a caftan."

The memory of a very green looking Belly made everyone laugh.

"Susannah used to force my mom to come here when they were kids." Something told August this wasn't going to end well once Susannah was brought up, "My mom always hated it, but Susannah loved it so much, so..."

"You know what else my mom loved?" Conrad asked, and they all knew what was about to come tumbling from his lips, "The beach house."

The twins looked at each other as Skye stopped walking, clearly fed up with Conrad.

"My moms not evil, Conrad!" They said, "And your mom wasn't a saint."

August's head whipped to the side to stare at Skye in shock, her jaw slight agar. There was no way they said. Especially seeing as Susannah was barely cold.

An awkward silence washed over the group at Skye's words, none of them could grasp why they said that.

Belly being Belly, decided to change the subject, "Skye, have you ever played Shoot Your Shot?"

"No, and I'm- I'm fine keeping it that way."

"Well, do you want to watch me beat Conrad's ass?" Belly asked.

"I would love that." August whispered to Jayden, but of course Conrad heard and looked at her with his head cocked to the side. August caught his eye, a sheepish grin making its way onto her face as she shrugged innocently.

"You could not do that." Conrad denied a second later.

"I wouldn't hate watching that." Skye smiled.

"You think you've still got in, Conrad?" Belly asked as he made an expression as if it would be easy.

"Okay, no, please, not another Great Boardwalk Showdown." Steven begged.

"Why not!" Belly shouted, "Why not!"

"So, they used to do this big tournament on the boardwalk every year when they were kids." Taylor told them, "I would get a, um, a riveting play-by-play as soon as Belly got home."

"Well, yeah. Every year until Belly and Conrad got too competitive And then my mom banned us from ever playing again."

Conrad laughed, "Are you down, Jer?" He asked, turning to his brother.

"Uh... Hell, yeah! Let's do it." He agreed, earning a fist bump from all the guys.

"I should actually head out." Skye told them, never looking up from their ice cream.

"No, you should stay." Conrad cleared his throat, "It's fun."

"It's too late." Belly said anyways, "You're already on my team."

"Fine. You win." They smiled, "But, I don't do high fives. I'm not going to, like, whoop in the air. I don't trash talk. The corners of my mouth might turn up just a little bit, but I'm not going to smile."

Belly was silent for a second, trying to take in everything they were saying, "Deal."

"Deal. So what's the surprise."

"Losers have to buy the winners the biggest bag of candy of their choosing."

"That's such a pussy prize." August complained as Taylor agreed.

"Really? Candy?" She laughed, "No, I mean, can't we think of something, like, sexier?"

Jayden held up his fist, "I agree."