SIX ❀ LOVE FEST.
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[italics=flashbacks]
bella's pov:
"it's sold?" i ask julia, standing beside skye in the driveway.
she shakes her head yes as jeremiah says "you-you sold this house in the last 12 hours?"
"yes. to a-a lovely family with three children and some kind of a poodle mix" she says, as she stares at all 7 of us.
jere shakes his head as he says "well it can't just be over."
"it is, uh, i'm gonna need your keys" she asks, putting her hand out for me and my brothers to give her our keys.
we all get out keys off our keychains and hand them to her as conrad says "i'll bet you're really enjoying this."
"mom don't do this" skye says from beside me.
"skye really? i told you three that i was selling the house. you just refused to believe it. and i'm not enjoying it, but i will admit that i'm relieved it's finally over. come on skye" julia says to us, motioning for skye to leave with her.
skye follows her as the rest of us walk back into the house where our stuff is.
when we get back in the house, i'm leaned up against a counter, along with everyone in the kitchen.
a few minutes of silence go by, as skye walks in to join us.
they stand beside jere as they say "um, i'm sorry, i tired to get her to call off the deal."
"it's not your fault skye" belly says to them with a smile.
"i know but she's my mom, so i would get if you guys were angry with me too. i just can't deal with her right now" they say with a sad smile.
"hey, no one's mad at you skye" jere says, giving them a hug.
"so what, we're supposed to go home now?" i hear steven ask.
conrad shakes his head as he replies "no."
"our-our last memory here can't be this. everyone miserable and defeated. i mean, this place deserves a better goodbye than that" belly says, trying to reason with everyone.
"i agree, but what are we gonna do?" i ask her.
"my mom came to the beach house with susannah for the first time after her dad died. and it was supposed to be just the two of them, but susannah hated how empty the house felt, so she decided to throw a huge party. everyone was dancing and drinking, and they went swimming at midnight. and susannah said it was like gatsby or something" she replies.
i hear jere say "so, i say we throw a party."
everyone else agrees as cam cameron says "oh, i love this for us" with a huge grin on his face.
a few hours later, after everyone had showered and gotten dressed for the day, belly, conrad and jere had left the house to get drinks and party supplies.
i was standing in the kitchen with steven, when i got a random call from this kid at my school named lucas.
i answer the phone and i say "um, hello."
steven looks up from his phone at me with furrowed eyebrows, as if to ask "who is that?"
"hey" lucas says to me. "so um, i was just wondering, what are you doing tonight?" he asks me.
"oh, tonight, i'm uh i'm throwing a party at my family's beach house" i admit to him.
"oh, that's awesome bella." he exclaims through the phone. "would you mind uh, would you mind if i came?" he asks. "i mean i was already gonna ask you if you wanted to hang out tonight."
i let out a fake laugh as steven rolls his eyes at me. "um, i don't really care, but i already have a boyfriend."
lucas is about to say something when steven grabs my phone and puts it up in the air.
"what the hell are you doing steven!?" i exclaim to him, reaching on my tiptoes to try and grab my phone.
"hey man, um bella, she'll call you right back, we're on a little bit of a time crunch, so she's gonna have to call you back" he says, still holding the phone away from me.
lucas doesn't answer as steven hangs up on him.
"what the hell was that?" i exclaim, snatching my phone from him.
"he was trying to hit you up, i had to get rid of him" steven explains to me.
"dude!" i say to him. "he was being really nice about it."
he rolls his eyes as he says "yeah but-"
i cut him off as i say "no, whatever jealousy game your playing, stop. i'm with you, not him."
i walk away, leaving him in the kitchen.
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about 30 minute pass, and me and steven are now sitting by the pool with our legs in.
"so we're going retro vibes tonight right?" i ask him, looking down at my phone.
"yeah, that's cool" he says, before adding "i-i would i would come to this. i mean i would at least stop by."
"yeah, same" i say, looking at the invitation. "so i tagged some of the deb girls from last summer. is that okay?"
"yeah, i mean everybody will come, they are the biggest gossips in town" he says with a small laugh. "so everybody will know in no time."
i gasp as i say "we need a playlist!"
steven agrees as he pulls out his phone and says "already made one."
"oh my gosh really! that's awesome" i say, looking through it.
it had taylor swift, which he said he added for me. doja cat, zara larsson, sza, frank ocean, and some other artist.
"this is actually amazing" i admit, looking up at him with a smile.
he smiles back as he says "thanks."
i look back down at his phone as i click on style by taylor swift.
it comes blasting through his phone speaker as i start singing and dancing to it.
"no, no, no, stop!" he exclaims, laughing as he does so.
i keep singing as he takes his phone from me and pauses it.
i gasp as i look up at him. "what! please start it." i bat my eyes at him as i say "please, if you love me."
he rolls his eyes in a playful way as he says "you better be glad i love you."
he clicks play, as i start dancing and singing again. he giggles, staring down at me.
just then, skye comes through the back doors. "hey guys, we're back!"
"ok" i reply to them, before turning to steven and saying "i'm gonna go help them, keep knocking yourself out with this playlist, and keep adding more taylor!"
i get up as he giggles. i love this boy.
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"you look hot" i hear belly say to me, finishing my hair.
"really? you really think so?" i ask her.
"yeah, i mean steven's gonna love it" she says to me with a small giggle.
"so uh, what's going on with you and my brother?" i ask her, getting up from my seat.
she lets out a small laugh as she says "uh, which one?"
"which one? belly really, which one have you been in love with forever?" i say to her, putting on my party outfit.
"i don't know, i mean he's always been it for me, but then there's jere, and i-i just don't know which one to choose" she admits.
"belly" i start, "listen to your heart. don't choose conrad because you feel like you have to. don't choose him because that's how you think the rest of the story goes. but don't choose jeremiah because you feel like you need to either. sometimes love is supposed to be hard and confusing and i-i don't want you to make a mistake by picking the wrong one. i can't loose you bells. so please, listen to your heart."
belly pulls me into a big hug. she pulls away a few minutes later with watery eyes.
"no, no, don't ruin your makeup" i say to her, making her giggle.
after a few minutes we walk down the stairs, to meet everyone at the party.
me and belly walk around, talking to everyone, when we run into the deb girls.
"oh my gosh! hi guys!" i say, pulling each of them into a hug.
we talk about how everyone is for a few minutes before i walk away to find steven.
i find him, and pull him into a quick kiss, him pulling away and talking a photo of me on an old-timey polaroid camera.
i playfully gasp as he says "you look beautiful."
i feel my heart flutter in my chest. "thank you" i say sweetly, as i continue "hey um, i'll be back, skye said they wanted to talk to us, so i'll find you later."
he shakes his head ok, and then i head to find skye and my brothers.
when i do, belly is with them. i grab her hand as we head outside so skye can talk to us.
"guys, so i've been texting with my mom, and she was able to put a condition into the sale. since the buyers are only gonna use this place as a vacation home, they've agreed to let you rent the place for one week every summer" skye explains.
belly and jere start celebrating a little bit at the news, but me and conrad don't.
it would be even more emotionally devastating to only get to stay in the summer house for one week. it would mean no fourth of july, no swimming in the ocean whenever i wanted to, it would hurt even more in every way.
"we get to come back? oh my god skye, this is amazing. oh my god!" jere exclaims to them.
"no it's not" i hear conrad say to everyone. i shake my head in agreement as he continues "you can tell your mom thanks, but no."
"come on conrad, at least hear them out" belly says, trying to reason with him.
"no, it's over guys" i agree with conrad.
"why are you guys the only ones that gets to make this decision?" jere asks, utterly unaware of the fact that it would be hell, living in this house, when it's someone else's.
from beside me, i hear conrad say "jere, we're not gonna pay another family to rent our house."
"this isn't our house anymore" jere argues.
"exactly so let it go" conrad says to him, getting a little mad.
jere scoffs as he says "yeah because you're an expert at that. both of you."
"jere-" belly tries to stop him from what he's about to say.
"no, no, this is the shit that they do. especially him" he says to everyone. "when you don't wanna deal with the fact that things are the way they are, you hurt the other person. you did it with steven" he points at conrad as he says "and with him, when things aren't perfect, instead of trying to fix it, he just decides to throw it away. and it-it's not just the house. you did it to belly too. you came to me, you fսck¡ng begged me for my blessing to be with her."
belly looks up at conrad and says "is that true?"
"jeremiah" i say, trying to stop the fight from brewing.
he looks at me and rolls his eyes as conrad says "jere that was between us."
"yeah, it's fucking true. you know, when shit got tough, he couldn't handle it, and he dropped you" jere snarled at conrad.
i look up at jere as i say "jeremiah stop."
belly then says "don't use me to get to him. i don't wanna be apart of this anymore" as she runs off, skye behind her.
i was about to follow her too as conrad says "way to go, real classy jere."
"you're a real fucking asshole, you know that" jere says, getting in his face.
"grow up jere" conrad says back to him.
"i did grow up!" jere exclaims. "me and bella both did. we watched mom slip away a little bit every single day, while you were at college or with belly or moping around after you screwed that up."
i look up at them as conrad says "jere, you know for a fact that i came home every second i could."
"yeah, but it wasn't everyday" he bites back.
"what, do you want a medal!?" conrad exclaims.
jere scoffs as he says "you know, i looked up to you every day of my life. and when people said that you were better than me, i wouldn't mind because i believed them too. but you're not. now i finally see you for who you really are."
conrad shakes his head as he says "and what's that?"
"a coward" jere spits out. "you're not someone to look up to. you're not even somebody i want to know."
"jeremiah" i say, trying to reason with him. but he doesn't listen, he just walks away from both of us.
"bella, i'm so sorry i wasn't there for you" conrad let's out, tears streaming down his face.
"no, it's not your fault. you had a life. it's ok con" i say back, pulling him in for a hug. letting a few tears fall from my face too.
i soon pull away and wipe the tears from my eyes as i say "i have to go find steven. are you gonna be ok?"
he shakes his head yes, before grabbing my hand and squeezing it, and then letting me go back into the house.
i try to shove everything that happened down with alcohol, which works.
i find steven and i pull him into a hug. "hi pretty girl" he lets out.
"hi" i say back to him. that's when he grabs my hands and drags me into the next room.
when we get there, style by taylor swift starts playing.
he starts shoving people off the dance floor as he says "uh, this is, uh, steven traffic control. if everybody on the dance floor could move to the side."
i giggle as i say "what are you doing?"
"we're dancing" he says as he grabs my hand, dragging me out onto the dance floor.
we start dancing, and when we stop, he pulls me into him.
"you win bella" he says to me.
"win what?" i ask, genuinely confused.
"my heart" he says before continuing "at first i tried, i tried so hard to hide myself from you, because i thought that i wasn't good enough, but i um, i um, i'm absolutely crazy about you."
a small smile appears on his face as i say "i'm crazy about you too."
he starts "i liked you, even when you were just my annoying family friend, like you were always just this person who was around. but last summer, you gave your heart to me, and now you're my favorite person in this entire world."
the smile on my face grows, but is soon wiped away as i hear lucas say my name.
steven turns around and is met by him.
"bro you need to go, bella does not want you here" steven says, putting his hand on lucas's chest.
"i think that's her choice, right bella" lucas says, turning towards me.
"lucas i'm sorry, and like i don't wanna start anything, but i don't like you, and it would actually be better if you left" i admit to him.
just then i see conrad come into the room, and then jere and belly on the other side.
lucas scoffs and says "bella you are such a slut-" but is quickly cut off as steven punches him in the face.
the continue fighting as jeremiah pulls them away from each other.
steven turns around and says "bella" but i run away, tears running down my face.
i run to my bedroom and sit on the floor.
how did everything get so messed up. i wish i could call my mom right now. i wish i could give her one more hug, one more kiss on the cheek. i wish i could see her one last time. but that's not how it works.
i cry myself to sleep, but wake up sick, about 30 minutes later.
i get up and run to the bathroom to throw up. i brush my teeth to get the taste of alcohol and throw up out of my mouth, and after i'm done, i head to the hallway to sit down.
soon after i sit down, i feel someone sit down beside me. i look over to see steven.
"are you ok?" he asks me, reaching down to take my hand.
i shake my head yes as i say "yeah, and i'm sorry that lucas came all the way here, and um, messed things up."
he quickly says "no-no it's ok. i um, i have a question though."
"shoot" i say, telling him to ask me his question.
"why'd he um, why'd he call you a-a, why'd he call you that?" he asks me.
i close my eyes and lean my head against the wall before saying "i um, last year during spring break, me and con and jere were at this party and i got like, black out drunk and made out with him" i take a breath before continuing "so he had a valid reason."
"no. he didn't. just because you made out with him at a party doesn't give him a valid reason to call you a slut. because you're not bella. you're the farthest person from that, that i've ever known" steven says to me, gripping my hand tighter.
i smile a small smile as he says "so uh, what i was saying earlier-"
"what, you take it all back" i force a fake laugh out.
he shakes his head no as he asks "what, do you want me to?" i lean off the wall and sit crisscrossed beside him. "you have to say what you want. it's your move bella."
"you protected me back there" i say, staring up at him.
he leans forward as he says "i'll always protect you."
he looks down to grab my other hand, as i lean into kiss him. he immediately kisses back.
in that moment i realized, that this is the only boy i'd ever love. for the rest of my life, my heart would belong to him.
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