HAPPY PLACE ╱ CONRAD FISHER

THINK OF YOUR M*****F****** HAPPY PLACE

for kate
because despite my constant conrad slander,
you love me and understand that they're all annoying anyway—and because you (rightfully) whack jeremiah back

For as long as Conrad could remember (or more so what he was willing himself to remember when his brain wasn't muddled down with alcohol or high off weed), he and Cousins native Charlie Efron were the best of friends. From the first moment Conrad stepped foot into the beach town that was Cousins at the tender yet hyper age of six, the two were pretty much inseparable and attached at the hip.

Every summer, the two would go off on their own to surf the white-blue tides and go out on the town and explore every nook and cranny, leaving no stone unturned. There'd be the occasional party where they would see the lights shimmer in the rings of their irises, and the nightly family dinner where Charlie would help Susannah and Laurel around the kitchen, with Conrad admiring from the breakfast table because he could only cook enough to fend for himself. It couldn't have been more perfect—Charlie blended right into this little corner of Conrad's world.

Only this time, Conrad has been off the heels of a serious relationship and having Charlie in his blurry peripheral gives him more of a headache than his skull-splitting hangovers. Conrad swears that it isn't Charlie himself, but rather the squashed-down, illicit memories that manage to slip in between the cracks when he's had just a little too much to drink.

So what happens when they both start college and end up sharing a dorm room on top of that before they both go back to Cousins for what could possibly be their last summer together ever?

CHARLIE ray EFRON ╱ archie renaux

with
JEREMIAH FISHER ╱ curran walters
JASPER WILDE ╱ felix mallard

AO3 TAGS.
family dynamics, the inherent romanticism of playing wordscapes together in lieu of a morning crossword puzzle, flip-flopping between s1 and s2

Warnings.
underage drinking, bad coping mechanisms, drug use, sexual themes, partying, foul language, angst, major character death

please heed these warnings with caution and take care of yourself ! i promise smut isn't worth risking your mental health !

AUTHOR'S NOTE (SOAPBOX) / 012024

📷 so uh. . .yeah ! welcome again to a fic i thought i would never write but who am i to deny writing about an emotionally constipated young man ¿ i am the ceo of miscommunication after all

📷 recasted jeremiah bc g*vin is a zionist. free palestine. enough said.

     📷  there will be conrad slander and i'm not sorry !!! i understand he's going through it but the way he treats people while he's depressed isn't it and he even acknowledges that when he's apologizing to nicole for stringing her along but then still goes back to acting that way. he's clearly not in the right mindset for a relationship and also needs to sort himself out before starting anything new with belly or anyone for that matter. i feel for him and i empathize but he needs to recognize how his actions can and did hurt the people around him, do better, and then not backtrack once he realizes it

     and to tack on to this, yes, conrad is the endgame but there will be callouts ! there will be arguments ! there will be problems ! there will be nuance ! a plot can't happen if it doesn't have a problem to solve, that is basic storytelling ! i'm saying this bc i don't know if i have to spoon feed some of y'all to help you realize that

     📷 this fic is partially connected to people we meet on vacation and beach read ! you don't have to read the others to understand this one, just know that the characters overlap !

      📷 since you made it this far, have a mini soundtrack—1. hate to be lame (feat. finneas), lizzy mcalpine / 2. guessing, against the current / 3. it's okay if you forget me, astrid s / 4. overkill, holly humberstone / 5. cindy lou who, sabrina carpenter / 6. i can see you (taylor's version), taylor swift / 7. gemini moon, reneé rapp / 8. ceilings, lizzy mcalpine / 9. get him back!, olivia rodrigo / 10. superbloodmoon (feat. d4vd), holly humberstone