tidal wave

• chapter twenty four •

"Then the rest will come too" Bre looked at her Mom empathetically.

"I thought I was doing the right thing. Being strong for you guys but I was wrong. I should've been there for you, and let someone be there for me" Laurel admitted. Bre understood her Mom for the first time in a while.

"Mom, do you forgive me?" Bre said crying.

"Yes! Do you forgive me?" Laurel asked crying as well as they pulled one another into a hug.

"Of course I do" Bre cried into her mom's shoulder which is what she needed the whole time. The two women cried on the porch of the summer house, And a sigh of relief waved over the rest of the group. As they knew there might be an ounce of hope now that Laurel was on board.

"I need to shower" Bre said pulling away from Laurel. She smelt herself and knew she needed to wash the hangover off.

"Yeah, you do, if you go get dressed I'll speak to the others" Laurel kissed Bre on the forehead before heading into the kitchen to speak to the others. Bre headed to her room to see clothes laid out on her bed. It was her dungarees and one of Conrad's baggy tees. Bre smiled before grabbing her washbag and going to shower. The shower was like a new sense of life for her. She did her usual skincare and french braided her hair too.

"Belly! What's going on?" Bre asked coming downstairs to them all cleaning up.

"Oh shit, Mom has called Julia over and she's gonna get the house back," Belly said ecstatically.

"She's gonna try to anyway" Jeremiah smiled from behind her. Bre looked around the house trying to find someone to help and her eyes landed on Conrad.

He was currently clearing up all the bags of rubbish, so she knew it would be an easy job to get done first.

"Need a hand?" Bre smiled, Conrad nodded handing her an empty bag to fill. They had settled into scooping the rubbish up in silence.

Bre didn't know what to say and she could barely remember what was said last night let alone him hearing Bre and Laurel's argument.

"Eww there's liquid leaking from this one" Bre said seeing the bag drip from the bottom. Conrad laughed helping her put it into another bag.

"Reminds me of when Keegan threw up in your bin, and it was all water" Conrad laughed, all Bre could think was how good it was to hear him laugh.

"The smell never went, I had to get a new bin" Bre laughed, even though Conrad and Bre hadn't visited each other an awful lot at College. The few times they had it was a good time and many of their good memories were of each other.

"Are you gonna room with them next year?" Conrad asked, Bre had forgotten about college since coming back to Cousins so it was nice to focus on something other than the summer house.

"Uh yeah, Keegan, Hattie and I signed a lease a few months back. It's just a small house but it's better than the dorms" Bre laughed, she was excited to deck the house out with cute decorations.

"Sounds like you've got it all figured out" Conrad's face fell as he said it, it wasn't that she was moving on without him that hurt it was the dreams and conversations that they'd had when he was applying and he knew none of that would happen now. Bre had a million thoughts and words spiralling around her head, and she wanted to tell him every single one. But she was having an issue saying them.

"Aunt Julia is here" Conrad said whipping his head round to the door where she'd just entered.

Bre was left standing with the garbage bags and Conrad went to stand with the others. It had never occurred to her to ask about Conrad's application, one because she didn't want the answer and she'd truly forgotten about it.

All of the kids had taken the time while Laurel and Julia were talking on the dock to gather in the kitchen. But Bre she was sitting on the stairs. After everything that had happened, more than ever she needed a win.

"What's up banana?" Steven said smiling. He had squished himself to sit next to Bre.

"Yo" Bre joked, she was more than tired, everything from last summer to this year was catching up to her.

"You are so hungover" Steven laughed not noticing Bre's face fall.

"Do you think Mom was right about what she said? I did leave you all" Bre admitted, even though she and Laurel had made up her words were still buried in her brain somewhere.

"No, she was angry. I mean you went to college, I'm gonna be leaving her and belly in a couple of months. You have to grow up at some point" Steven said taking Bre's hand in his.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you this year, my little stevo" Bre laughed. Both the older siblings hadn't called each other these names in years.

Bre and Steven joined the others in the kitchen. It didn't go unnoticed by Conrad that Bre seemed more lighter than before. And he smiled to himself. He just wished more than anything for her to be that comfortable around him again.