"Officers, thank you. It won't happen again. I can promise you that much." I sighed as their mom talked to the cops. Conrad sat on the couch, Belly beside him standing up, Steven was by the stairs and then there's me and Jeremiah standing up. He has an arm wrapped around me making sure I don't fall.
"Tell Mr. Fisher the chief wants to set up a tee time when he gets back in town."
"Of course. Sorry again for all the trouble. Have a good night, Officers."
"How could you be so irresponsible?"
"Mom, it wasn't a big deal. All right? Seriously. The cops were just looking to break up the bonfire."
"Not a big deal?"
"Yes." Steven said walking over to his mom.
"I would say getting picked up by the cops for underage drinking is a big deal, Steven."
"Were- were you guys, you guys smoking tonight?"
"What?" I looked between the guys, Conrad didn't seem fazed by this. "Keep your voice down. Susannah's asleep on the couch."
"Well, I wasn't yelling."
"Well, you-you-you were."
"Just so you know, Laurel, I wasn't drinking tonight, neither was Lila. I was DD, I swear."
"You're the oldest." We all looked at Conrad. "What the hells gotten into you?" Now we look at Belly. "And when did you leave the house without telling anybody? And what in the world are you wearing? And Lyra, what happened to your foot?"
"Okay, lot of questions..."
"It's Taylors."
"And she twisted her ankle."
"It hurts. So can we-'
"And why am I the only one who's not allowed to go out?"
"It's not that you're not allowed, it's that you should have told us you were going. How the hell did you even get there?"
"I walked."
"Jesus. You know better than to walk that far down the beach alone late at night."
"Can you stop treating me like a kid?"
"If you want to be treated like an adult, you need to act like one."
"Then maybe you guys should, too." Conrad spoke up.
"What does that mean?" Conrad stayed silent making us confused on what he meant. "I hope you realize this night could have ended a lot differently if your family wasn't your family."
"We're sorry, Laur."
"Just... go to bed, guys. And put ice on your leg."
"Yes ma'am."
"I'll help you up and then get you an icepack."
"Thanks," He helped me up the stairs and sat me on my bed. I watched him leave before pulling out my phone. 1:20, great. I laid back on my bed sighing.
"You okay?" I looked up seeing Steven.
"No, but I will be. Sorry for ruining your night."
"No, no. I had fun, other than Belly showing up, but.. I met a girl."
"Shayla? She seems sweet."
"She is."
"You know a lot of fights could have been avoided if you'd just let Belly come."
"Lye."
"You weren't fine with me coming too, but you still let me."
"Because Jer-"
"Hey, dude." I smiled lightly at Jere as he sat next to me, I moved my body slightly resting my leg on him. I winced at the coldness sighing against my bed as my leg began to get use to it.
"Seriously, you need to be nicer to her. She's use to hanging out wit you guys."
"Fine, I'll try." I rolled my eyes as he left.
"Hey." I tapped his arm with my foot catching his attention. "How lame is this ball thing?"
"It's not all bad. Not my scene but..."
"Damn there goes me asking you, huh?"
"I wouldn't mind." I smiled at him. "For you."
"Thanks... but I think it'll cut into your flirting with girls and using your lifeguard duties wrong."
"I don't mind. Like I said before... I only want to flirt with you."
"Yeah, sure. I'll believe it when I see it."
"Okay. You should get some sleep." He went to get up but I sat up grabbing his arm.
"Can... can you stay, like old times?" He moved his arm up letting my hand fall to his.
"Sure." He rubbed my knuckles with his thumb. "It is a tradition after all."
"I guess so." He placed my foot down softly before crawling into bed next to me. I smiled as he wrapped his arms around me.
"Goodnight, Lila."
"Goodnight, hun."
--
I woke up to an empty bed, I slowly crawled out it, my foot was feeling a bit better. Still limping a bit. "Do we really heave to be physically sit for our portraits? Can't she just, like, look at a picture on her phone of something?" I smiled walking into the room seeing Jere's back to me. I walked over rubbing his arm gently. "Hey, good morning, Lila." I looked at him as he made eggs, I gave him a little pout. "I already made you some." I smiled as he handed me a plate, Steven looked at him hurt.
"Morning." I kissed his cheek before sitting down at the table. "Thank you."
"She needs to you in the flesh in order to capture your essence. While you're still young and full of hope." Both the boys laugh as I looked at Laurel. "Her words."
"Well, Conrad does not have hope, actually. He's hopeless, but my hangover smoothie.. it cures all."
"Can you please hurry up." I looked at Conrad on the couch.
"Just go back to bed, alright?" I looked back at Steven confused.
"All right, Steven get out."
"oh come on."
"This is a delicate science, and your heavy breathing is gonna break the yolk."
"Okay, okay, okay."
"You know I think the last time Susannah painted us was when we were little. I think it'd be nice to have these portraits for when we're older."
"Old no. When I'm older, I'm sure there'll be, like, like, holograms or something I can watch of myself, you know?" Conrad groaned as Jere turned the blender on.
"Just sit for your portraits. I don't see Conrad complaining." Jere looked at her laughing pouring the smoothie into a cup.
"He'll complain when he's conscious." He tickled my side as he passed bringing the boy his drink. "Hey, here."
"Thank you."
"Come on, man. Hurry your ass up. All right? I can't be late for my first day of work."
"We won't. We're good."
"Come on, man. Ooh! Those old country club boomers are gonna tip me so hard, man, they won't know what hit 'em."
"Steven, I swear." I smiled at Belly as she walked in.
"What?"
"Come on, Laurel. My boy's got to get that bread."
"Thank you."
"Good morning." She sat down next to me making her mom question her.
"Belly, where have you been? Is that a bruise?"
"Um, I-I bumped into someone."
"You bumped into someone?"
"Doesn't look that bad. Um, cereal?"
"Yeah, hit me."
"Sure."
"Oh, my God! Belly is gonna be a debutante. Two for two!" Conrad was up now, Jeremiah looked at me smiling.
"It's really not that big of a deal."
"I'm sorry. Like, Belly? Like, my sister? Like, that thing right there?"
"Shut up, cretin."
"Okay, this is gonna be so much fun. Just you wait. There is, uh... there's the tea, the auction, the ball, of course, the rehearsal. I got to write this down." She gasped we all looked at her concerned. "We need to go shopping." We both laughed at her excitement. It's very contagious.
"This sounds... expensive."
"Oh, don't worry, Laur. It's on me. It was my idea after all, and we still need to style you for your book party, so..."
"Belly, are you sure you want to do this? It doesn't seem very you."
"It's not." Belly looked sad all the sudden, it wasn't hard to tell he hit a nerve.
"Conrad, could you please be a little more supportive? Now, which one of you is gonna be Belly's escort to the ball?"
"Not me. I went last year."
"Yeah, and I swore off balls." Steven laughed at Jere, I frowned a bit, so he was joking last night. "The dances, dude."
"Wow, guys. Stop fighting over me. Um, I'm not going with either of you. I am going to find my own date."
"But, um, now that we mention it... I did tell Lila I'll take her."
"Really? Awe." He looked down at me with a soft smile.
"Wikipedia says debutante balls require instruction in morals and social etiquette."
"I'm going for a swim."
"She could use some etiquette."
"Yeah. No offense, Beck, but I don't feel like a country club is the best place to teach Belly about morals."
"Laur, times have changed. There's a girl debbing this season, and she's bringing her girlfriend as her escort, and the club was fine with it." Jere told her trying to get her on board.
"How very progressive of them."
"Well, hurry up! We have shopping to do."