𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑰𝑳𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝑶𝑭 𝑺𝑨𝑳𝑻𝑾𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑹
✸ 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝘅 ───
a very thin line
🍉☀️🌸 ﾟ･ׂׂૢ࿐
BELLY was starting to grow sick and tired of seeing Vivica in her house. She really wished she could hate her.
She didn't want to like the girl, but when Vivica would come in after time at the beach or in the pool with Jermeiah and ask Belly what flavor kool-aid she wanted or if she'd like a sandwich too, she just couldn't make herself hate her. Annoyingly, Vivica alway made the kool-aid perfectly sweet, too.
The month of June had bled into July in the blink of an eye and her presence was still unwavering, and everyone in the summer house seemed to absolutely adore it but Belly.
She knew it was selfish to think, but she wanted to still be the only girl around. The summer house was her place, and now it felt like Vivica was invading it. Between her and Nicole, Belly didn't know how much longer she could just ignore the sour sensations in her gut.
The feeling was no different when she found Vivica waiting at the front door in her surfing gear, a board leaning against her body.
Vivica hadn't been expecting the younger girl to open the door, but she was more than happy when she did.
"Hey! Is Connie here? We're supposed to go surfing, but he wasn't answering my texts." She asked, her tone light and cheery, matching perfectly with her pearly smile.
When Belly's smile dissipated, she already knew the answer.
"Uh, no actually, he's out sailing." She said with a sympathetic look. At least now Belly knew that she wasn't the only one Conrad had been blowing off lately. "I'm sorry."
Vivica pitched her head back and groaned at the sky. Once finished with her dramatics, she looked at Belly and asked, "Can I be real with you for a second?"
Belly shrugged and nodded, so Vivica continued.
"What the fuck is wrong with him?" She asked loudly and with a shake of her head, her words dissolving into laughter at the end, which Belly couldn't help but join in on.
"I mean seriously, this kid used to practically drag me to the beach to get practice in and now I can't even get him to step foot on the sand." She sighed.
Belly found it funny that Vivica called Conrad kid even though he was a whole year older, and wondered if she ever had enough nerve to do it in front of him.
"Well, believe me, you're not the only one he's been acting weird around. He's been pretty closed off all summer." Belly assured her, sticking a hand in the back pocket of her denim shorts.
"Then at least I know it's not me." She shrugged. "I guess I'll just have to go by myself; sorry for bothering you."
"Wait, no." Belly stopped her, leaning a little closer out of the doorframe. She felt this sudden surge of guilt that she couldn't explain. Maybe it was because Belly hated to be the bearer of bad news no matter what it was, or maybe it was because she felt awful about every bad thing she'd thought about Vivica's sweet character.
"Would you wanna uh, hang with me? I mean, I'm no pro surfer or anything, but I could use some help painting my nails."
At the question, Vivica's face lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Oh my gosh, I would love to!" She grinned, stepping into the house when Belly welcomed her in, her surfboard abandoned at the doorstep.
At the giddiness of the older girl's response, all doubt that Belly had when inviting her in was swept away. She'd only ever heard good things about Vivica, ( excluding a couple of crude comments from Gigi that she was instructed to ignore ) whether they were from her brother or Cam or Jeremiah. Nobody ever had something bad to say about her, so she wanted to know what she was all about outside of courtesy encounters around the house.
Within minutes, the two girls had a whole makeshift nail salon set up on the living room coffee table, complete with an array of color choices and an LED lamp for drying. Top-notch stuff.
The house was empty excluding them and Susannah and Laurel, who were out at the back together talking about "who knows what" as Belly put it.
"I can't believe you do them yourself. I mean seriously, this shit is hard." Belly mused as Vivica brushed a ruby red polish across her nails, referring to the girl's own dark blue ones.
"It takes practice, believe me. But it's a lot of fun once you get the hang of it." Vivica chuckled, having explained her whole process to Belly as they set things up.
"You surf, you play tennis, you've got killer nail painting skills; is there anything you can't do?" Belly asked her with a laugh.
Vivica pretended to ponder the question for a moment, tapping her chin before answering.
"Dancing." She nodded definitely, her lips pursed together in a thin line. "Like, girl, you should've seen me last year at the deb ball rehearsals. It was almost criminal."
Belly belted out a laugh at that, almost smudging the wet paint on her nails.
"Well, I'm not the greatest dancer myself. Heaven knows how I'm gonna embarrass myself at this thing." She remarked.
"Speaking of the ball, have you asked Cam to be your escort yet?" Vivica asked in a tone that was teasing, nudging the girl in the arm. Belly didn't have to know how much she didn't want them to go together, and it was going to stay that way.
Belly's expression faltered, and Vivuca started regretting ever bringing him up in the first place.
"No, I haven't. It feels like every time I plan on asking, something comes up and gets in the way. It's like the world doesn't want me to go with him or something." She explained with a shrug.
Vivica knew the feeling. Last year she had missed every opportunity she had to ask him to be her escort until it was too late and she found herself in a hole she couldn't climb out of, one that she'd dug herself.
"I shouldn't have said anything, you guys are friends. I'm sorry." Belly then apologized, waving her hand in the air like it would brush away her words from existence.
"No, no, I totally get it." Vivica assured her, taking her hand back to apply more nail polish. "Just don't wait too long, okay? I made that mistake last year and it was a whole fiasco. I wouldn't want you going through the same thing."
"You mean . . like when Conrad blew you off as an escort?" Belly asked quietly, careful with her words. Maybe she shouldn't have brought him up.
"You know about that?" Vivica asked, interest officially piqued. How often did these people talk about her?
"Yeah, Susannah yelled at him for like, twenty minutes straight when she found out last summer." Belly said with an awkward chuckle, unable to hide her amusement at the memory.
"No she didn't!" Vivica cried with laughter. Belly nodded and laughed along, and Vivica buried her face in the palms of her hands to express a dramatic groan.
"I swear the situation wasn't as bad as it seemed, everything worked out fine. And I was totally being dramatic about it in the moment." Vivica explained, capping one of the bottles of polish.
"You know, Connie actually tried getting Jere to take me last year." She added after a brief pause. As much fun as she was having with Belly, she knew she had to fit in a mention of Jeremiah somewhere. Just for a reaction, or maybe just so she could say she did if he asked— a justification of her presence.
She studied over Belly's face for a reaction; a twitch of her brow or catch in her voice, but there was nothing. Did she really not care that he was dating somebody else?
"Really? I take it that didn't happen." Belly responded, sticking her nails underneath the lamp as Vivica motioned for her to do.
"Not at all." The girl said with a chuckle. "He was so against it, and back then I thought it was because of me. That's why I was kinda surprised when he asked me out this summer."
"I wasn't, honestly." Belly admitted. The girl across from her gave her a look of confusion, and she clarified, "Surprised, I mean."
"Your name always kinda floated around the house because of Conrad, and every time you were brought up he always had something to say. Oh, and don't even get me started on the way he'd look at you if you ever came over." Belly told her with a lighthearted laugh.
The more she had thought about it, the more and more memories of Vivica came to Belly until there were so many that she was surprised that she'd forgotten who the girl was back at the start of summer.
Vivica felt something inside her burn, like she'd been struck in the heart by a firework. Was that true?
Jeremiah liked Belly, couldn't she see that? Whatever she was thinking about him and Vivuca was unbelievable wrong— fake. That's what it all was: fake. She had to remember that.
Before she could ask any follow up questions or even ponder the subject for more than five seconds, the girls' attention was stolen by the creaking of the front door as it opened.
"Speak of the devil." Belly chirped to Vivica when Jeremiah walked in the house, an armful of grocery bags in tow. "Hey."
"Hey Bells," The boy quipped, turning back around from closing the door and then seeing the familiar face of his fake girlfriend sitting in the room. "And hello to you, sunshine."
Vivica offered a cute smile and wave that almost melted Jeremiah's heart, though he wouldn't admit it.
"Need any help there?" She asked him, nodding down to the armful of grocery bags he carried.
"Nah, I'm all good." He shook his head, disappearing into the kitchen to deposit the groceries and soon returning.
"When'd you get here?" Jeremiah asked as he took a seat by the coffee table, his eyes scanning over the colorful array of polish bottles on its surface.
"Uh . ." Vivica checked the time on her phone before answering, and only then did she realize how long she and Belly had been talking. "Almost two hours."
"Shit, if I'd known that I would've come home a lot sooner." Jeremiah remarked with a smile.
"And if you had you would've been kicked out. This is girl time." Belly told him, sticking her hands up in the air and wiggling her fingers to show off her freshly done nails.
"Oh that's what's going on here?" The boy laughed, pointing around the room. "Girl time?"
"Girl time." Vivica nodded, deadpanned. "One must either paint their nails or leave."
Jeremiah leaned forward in his chair, his elbows resting on his knees. His face inched closer to her and he asked, "Are you telling me you're gonna kick me out of my own living room?"
"That is exactly what I'm telling you." She nodded. "Unless you want your nails painted."
Although he knew she was joking, Jeremiah found that he didn't want to leave. The sight of Vivica and Belly getting along like this made his heart warm and his smile widen.
His eyes glanced over to the nail polish bottles littered around the table, and the corner of his lips quirked up.
"I mean . . ." He began, dragging the word out.
"No way— will you actually let me paint your nails?" Vivica asked him, smacking a hand down on his knee, a newfound sense of excitement hitting her. With that twinkle in her eyes, Jeremiah wasn't sure there was much he wouldn't let her do.
"Why not." He sighed, moving from his seat in the chair to between the two girls on the floor, sitting with his legs crossed.
After a very necessary moment of squealing, Vivica reached across the table and grabbed onto Belly's hand.
"What color are we thinking?" She asked eagerly, that same sparkle still in her eyes.
Belly squeezed her hand before releasing it and picking up a bottle of brilliant blue polish.
"I think this one has got Jere written all over it." She suggested, showing off the color. "And you guys can match."
Jeremiah's eyes drifted to the aforementioned color on Vivica's nails, smiling as he found a shimmery dark blue that looked like the ocean's waves, but somehow better.
"Um, absolutely." Vivica agreed, and Belly happily passed over the bottle. The former took it gladly, twisting off the cap and getting to work.
She took Jeremiah's hand softly in hers, holding it still as she painted the color across his short nails. It wasn't as easy as it had been with Belly, but she made do.
Halfway through his first hand, the boy squirmed and the polish leaked onto his cuticle, causing Vivica to shout an incoherency at him.
"You're supposed to stay still, Jere." Belly remarked, flicking the side of the boy's head as Vivica attempted to wipe away the stray varnish.
"I am! She's being dramatic." He defended himself, shrugging his shoulders and therefore not at all being still.
"Jeremiah!" Vivica chided, holding his hand with a stronger grip in an attempt to make him stay still as she continued. "And I am not dramatic. You just don't know how to be still for more than five minutes."
"Do too." He argued at her. "Gotta say though, I've never see you this focused. Like, ever."
A shallow chuckle escaped at the end of his sentence, the sound bringing a smile to Vivica's face.
"That's because this is important, obviously." She told him, finishing up the nail on his pinky finger. "Can't have my boy walking around with wonky nail polish."
Jeremiah could do nothing but smile at her as she pushed his hand underneath the LED lamp, taking his other hand afterwards and beginning painting.
For the first time in his life, Jeremiah forgot Belly was even in the room. Something as silly as this girl painting his nails had him utterly captivated, and he relished in the feeling.
Done with the second hand quicker than the first, his hands were quickly swapped for the spot underneath the lamp. Vivica then added a top coat to his nails, her and Belly chattering on about their favorite movies and bantering about which love interest was better in some romcom.
Once the lamp went dark after Jeremiah's final turn in the light, Vivica told him he could pull his hand out and switched the lamp off.
"All done." She grinned, holding her nails up beside his. "You like it?"
"They actually look pretty cool." Jeremiah admitted. Not that he would do it again himself, but if it meant another half hour of Vivica grinning and intently holding his hand, he would.
"How long 'til I can actually use my hands again, though?" He questioned, tapping the pads of his fingers on the tabletop.
"They should be fine now. That's what the lamp's for." Vivica shrugged. "Yours are all good, aren't they, Bells?"
Belly patted the top of one of her nails to check and nodded, "Yeah, all good."
Jeremiah mimicked her actions and found his nails dry as well, which brought a dangerous smile to his face. Clearly, he had an idea. And even clearer, somebody else wasn't going to like it.
"Perfect." He said, standing up. Pretending to stretch his limbs after sitting down for so long, he rose a brow at his pretend girlfriend. "What's with the suit, by the way, Viv? Doesn't look like the proper attire for nail salon duty."
"What?" Vivica asked in a joking tone as she rose from the floor as well, giving him a spin so that he could see the entirety of her swim shirt and board shorts. "You don't like it?"
"Nah nah nah, I didn't say that, now." He told her, shaking his hands in the air to accompany his denial.
Truly, in their teenage world of booty shorts and bikinis, her outfit was a fashion atrocity. But in Jeremiah's world, it was vogue-worthy.
"If you must know, I was supposed to go surfing with Con, but he bailed on me. Can't really complain now, though, because I got to spend time with Belly." She explained.
"Who, by the way, I like more." She added in a loud whisper to the girl who was wrangling together the nail polish supplies. Belly chuckled and whisper-shouted back, "I like you more, too!"
"So you were expecting to get in the water today, then?" Jeremiah inquired strangely after the girls finished laughing, taking a slow step closer to Vivica.
"Yes . . ." She answered slowly, narrowing her eyes at the boy and his suspicious demeanor. "But now I at least don't have to worry about my hair—!"
Her sentence was interrupted by a girlish yelp that escaped her throat as Jeremiah scooped her up in one swift movement, pulling her feet off of the floor and into the air.
"Jeremiah!" She screamed as he held her tightly to his chest, bridal style, with his arms securely hooked underneath her thighs and back.
He took off out the back door and before she could even squall any more protests, she was shocked with the cold sting of her back meeting the surface of the pool.
She plunged underwater, just barely holding her breathe in time as to not inhale chlorine water into her lungs.
When her head popped back above the surface, her ears were met with the beautiful sound of Jeremiah's laughter.
Pushing her hair from her face and water out of her eyes, Vivica gasped, "You think this is funny?"
She swam to the side of the pool, resting her arms on the ledge in front of the giggling boy.
"Very." He confirmed. "You're all dressed and ready for a swim, I couldn't let Con's lame ass keep you from that."
"Well maybe next time you should come surfing with me instead. I know you wouldn't stand me up." She told, peering up at him through wet lashes.
"Stand you up?" He scoffed. "Never."
He was standing dangerously close to the ledge of the pool. Vivica just needed him to come just that much closer and she could get her payback.
"Well, I think you need some redemption." She told him, continuing the conversation as she savored the coolness of the water. "'Cause last time I saw you surf, you were like, fifteen and you sucked."
"Oh, I sucked?" He asked challengingly, taking that step closer to her. "I recall you getting your foot cut by a big ass seashell and having to get carried back here to stop the bleeding."
Okay, so that was true. Vivica remembered the event like it was yesterday, because it had been the first time she met Jeremiah and Susannah. Beforehand, she and Conrad met at the beach and anywhere else to hang out, until his younger brother asked to tag along.
"Yeah, well, at least I caught my wave." She retorted. As Jeremiah opened his mouth to argue in the name of his fifteen year old self, she leaned up on the ledge of the pool and wrapped her arms around his ankles, pulling forward with all her strength.
With a high-pitched yelp, the boy lost his balance and tumbled into the water, almost falling on Vivica in the meanwhile.
When he resurfaced, his hand's immediately found Vivica's sides, pulling her away from the ledge and closer to him.
The water was the only thing separating them as she floated closer to him, his face now right in front of hers. His blue eyes were curtained by water droplet-covered eyelashes, his sun-kissed skin flushing pink.
He looked at her for a little too long for his own good, and it messed with both their heads.
A moment like this made it seem like they could actually be something. Something real.
Laurel and Susannah were down on the dock and Belly was inside— nobody could see them. No one would know if they dropped the act then and pushed away from each other, splashing water in one another's faces like they would've done the summer before.
But neither of them wanted to be like they were the summer before. They didn't even want to be like they were a month ago.
Jeremiah's thoughts betrayed him as for a split second, he let his eyes fall down from Vivica's to her lips. There was a sheen to them that the water had brought, but he forced his eyes back up before it could disappear.
Vivica caught him. She didn't like when he gave her that look— the same look he'd had on his face the night of Belly's birthday, weeks ago now, when he was drunk. Because that look suggested that there was something between them other than pool water and oxygen. Something that only they could see.
Or maybe it was everyone else that could see it and not them.
The two were startled into backing away from each other when they heard Susannah's voice.
"You two are just the cutest." She mused. When Vivica turned around, she found the woman standing there with her phone in camera-mode, doing what all mothers did and capturing a moment without her child's knowledge.
"Mom." Jeremiah groaned, though his laugh told them that he was far from bothered.
"What?" She asked him in the same manner. "I like seeing my son happy, sue me."
She stuck her arms out in a what can you do? motion, laughing at her son's eye roll turned chuckle as Vivica thoroughly enjoyed Jeremiah's embarrassment.
"I'll leave you two, but I have just one question first." Susannah promised, before looking directly to Vivica. "I'm still going to be seeing you and Anika at the Fourth of July party, aren't I?"
Vivica smiled brightly at the woman and nodded. "We wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Great. You two have fun." Susannah left the two with a kind wave, heading inside to talk with Belly.
"You know the debs are coming to the party too, right?" Jeremiah asked once his mom was gone.
Vivica turned back to him and nodded. "I expected they would. But Cam will be there too, so I'll survive."
Jeremiah's smile fell slightly at the mention of Cam. He knew the guy would've been brought up at some point, but for a minute there, he was thinking that she'd forgotten about him. Wishful thinking.
"Yeah. Still, I know you don't like them very much." He said in a loud fake-whisper, leaning his face forward slightly and using the humorous action to cover up his disappointment.
Vivica rolled her eyes theatrically and shrugged. "They're not all bad. Nicole seems to be tolerant towards me now she knows I don't like Con, and Shayla and Belly I've always been cool with."
"I'm not gonna lie, before today I didn't think Belly liked me all that much." She added.
That was an insane idea, he thought. How could somebody not like her?
"Don't be ridiculous. I think she was just getting used to you being around." He said, his voice soft and sincere.
"She probably shouldn't . ." Vivica mumbled, not meeting his eyes. Then, she looked at him with an unfamiliar expression, one that he couldn't read like he normally could. "I get why you like her, though. She's really great."
"Yeah," He muttered with a small smile. "She's a really great friend."
Friend. Yeah, right.
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