"Jere!!" I whisper-yell.
"Aadfjhvajrhg."
"Jeremiah Fisher get up off my floor right this instant!" I decided to use my mom-voice on him.
"What?" Jeremiah says groggily. I've missed that morning voice.
"What are you doing sleeping on my floor?"
"You fell asleep, so I carried you up here and I was too tired to make it back to my room," He shrugs like it's no big deal.
"You are pathetic!" I say. I'm not sure why but I think it has to do with how hard I'm blushing right now and how badly I was Jeremiah to not notice.
"You're blushing~"
"No, I'm not!" I say, as I cover my face with my pillow, totally blushing.
"C'mon, M'lady. Let us find some breakfast." Jeremiah holds his hand out for me to take. I take it and we make our way downstairs, not letting go.
"I smell muffins!" Jeremiah calls when we walk into the kitchen.
"They're for the open house," Belly informs us. When we walk in further, we see Skye and Julia in the kitchen too.
Conrad walks in dripping wet, probably out surfing.
"Heyyy I told you I wanted to go surfing with you!" Jere exclaims.
"You were too busy passed out on Cassie's floor," Connie says, giving me a smile. I smile sheepishly back at him. Conrad then turns to Julia, "When did you guys get here?"
"In the morning. You boys should get on the road, beat the traffic back to Boston." Aunt Julia says.
"There's no chance. We're staying for the open house." Conrad says with finality.
Apparently, Julia doesn't pick up on his tone, "Oh nononono, I can't have a bunch of teenagers chasing everybody away. Call your father because this isn't an Aunt Julia problem."
"Except it is! Because you are the problem," Connie has always been the type of person to pick a fight before talking over something. It's his strong suit.
"I don't have time for this," Julia says, gesturing towards all of us.
"Conrad, she's still your family," Belly says, trying to talk some sense into Conrad.
"Then why is she doing this to us?"
"This is hard for her too!" Skye butts in.
"Really? Seems like she's doing this whole thing pretty fucking easily," Conrad walks away.
"Do you think your mom would notice if we took a couple muffins?" I ask, trying to ease the tension.
"Go ahead," Skye says without batting an eye.
A loud bang makes us all jump, but we don't care. Sounds like an Aunt Julia problem.
I follow Belly upstairs just to hang out with my sister because we've both been grieving over Susannah and our respective breakups. It's hard to get some girl time in between me comforting her and her comforting me. Taylor barges in demanding a piece of the muffin.
"So, girls, give me the juicy details. Cass what's going on with you and Jere? Belly, how are things with you and Conrad?"
"Ugh, I don't know. He gives me these looks and then he's back to Hostile Conrad." Belly sighs. Then she turns to me with her beady little sister eyes.
"Umm, that look is making me uncomfortable. But me and Jere are good. We aren't fighting. He's been...nice."
"Nice? Give us some substance!" Taylor exclaims.
"Well, what do you want me to say? He's been holding my hand and telling me that he's glad I'm not into other people??"
"YES!" Taylor and Belly yell in unison.
"Oh, okay I'll just say that next time."
"Let's go do some drills by the beach, Bells!" Taylor says, "Volleyball camp is in like 5 days."
"I haven't touched a volleyball in months," Belly says, shaking her head.
"C'mon, Bells. That's exactly why you have to do drills," I tell her.
"I don't know, maybe later."
"Whatever," Taylor says, shrugging her shoulders, giving me a look. We definitely need to get Belly back on track.
We head downstairs when we're all dressed and ready for the open house.
The doorbell rings and I go into the living room while Belly gets it. I flop down next to Steven and Jeremiah playing a shooter game and watch as they shoot each other? Shoot other people? Shoot AI? I have no idea but it's pretty entertaining. I scroll through my phone and prop my feet up on Jeremiah's lap. He looks over at me and smiles before going back to his shooting game. Jeremiah and I get up when we hear Julia yelling about something.
"Hey is everything okay?" Jere asks.
"No, the realtor just got here," Conrad says.
"Oh shit, what are we gonna do?" I ask.
"I dunno what else we can do."
"Well maybe Skye has some information that could help us. If we could get a moment alone with her," Belly suggests.
"Them," Conrad says quietly.
"Right, them," Belly corrects herself.
"Well good luck, those two are inseparable," Jeremiah says defeatedly.
Conrad walks away and Belly leaves saying something about finding Taylor under her breath.
"It'll all work out," I tell Jeremiah.
"Yeah, it fucking better," He mutters.
We all meet in the kitchen about 30 minutes later. Skye is there too. Taylor is complaining about the heat, which I agree is unbearable.
"Aunt Julia says the AC is broken," Belly informs us.
"What?! No way!" Steven says, sarcasm laced in his voice. No one else picks up on it but me, and from the looks of it, Taylor. I guess having an annoyingly smart twin does come in handy sometimes.
Aunt Julia comes in, in a rush, "Today's open house has been canceled. So, I need you all out of the house while I get the AC guy here to do some work. Also, who is the AC guy?"
"Do you want me to look one up for you?" Skye says, being mama's little worker per usual.
"I'm sure Susannah has her preferred technician and four approved backups."
"Great, now we don't have to lie about the black mold to the buyers. Let's go to the beach!" Jeremiah decides, grabbing my hand.
"I'm not leaving," Conrad tells him.
"Come on, Conrad. We won this round, let's just get outta here."
"The mall has good AC," Taylor suggests because, of course she does.
"Cool. Have fun. I didn't ditch finals just to leave this house for the taking-" Con gets cut off.
"Conrad! I'm trying- Straining to get my shit together. You've already ruined my day. The least you can do is get out of my hair for a few hours." Julia speaks up.
Conrad begins to fight back but Belly silences him, "What about the boardwalk?"
"Yeah! The boardwalk, great idea," I agree. So does everyone else.
"You should come with us, Skye!" Belly says.
"Oh umm, sounds very state fair. I think I should just stay with you, right?" They direct the last part to their mom.
"No! It wasn't my favorite, but you might enjoy it."
"I shouldn't just stay with you?" Skye is clearly trying to get out of hanging out with us.
"I'll be fine," Julia says while dialing what I assume to be the AC guy's number.
"Guess I'm coming then!" Skye says.
As we walk to the car, I realize that I still haven't let go of Jeremiah's hand, and I don't think I will. While we walk around the boardwalk me, and Jeremiah slow our pace to be a little behind the others. We laugh and talk about unimportant things, and everything is how it's supposed to be.
"Y'know what else my mom loved? The beach house," We hear Conrad exclaim. We both sigh and hurry to catch up with the others.
"My mom isn't evil, Conrad. And your mom wasn't a saint either," Skye retorts.
"Skye! Have you ever played Shoot Your Shot?" Belly strains to change the topic.
"No and I'm fine keeping it that way."
"Well do you wanna watch me beat Conrad's ass?"
"You could not do that," Conrad tells her.
"I wouldn't hate watching that," Skye says.
"You think you still got it, Conrad?" Belly asks, innocently.
"Please not another great boardwalk showdown!" Steven groans.
Complaints burst out and Taylor explains to Skye, "They used to do this big tournament every year, I would get an in-depth play by play from Bells as soon as she got home."
"Yeah, every year until Belly and Conrad got too competitive. My mom banned us from ever playing again," Steven rolls his eyes.
"Are you down, Jere?" Conrad asks.
"Hell yeah!" Jeremiah says, looking at me with a playful glint in his eyes.
"I should head out," Skye says.
"No, stay!" Conrad tells them.
"Let's start at the arcade because it is hot as balls out here," Steven complains. We head to the arcade and start with laser tag. Belly, Taylor, Skye, and I are all on a team. We have the advantage because we've got one more player.
Belly explains to us that we are doing best of three rounds and Jeremiah catches us off guard by yelling, "Three, two, one, GO!" I obviously target Jeremiah. But in the end of the first round the boys end up winning.
I hear Steven calling out to Taylor and follow his voice. Taylor and I agree she'll be bait and I get Steven out. I'm walking around when I hear Belly scream, "NO!!" The buzzer goes off and I put two and two together. We lost.
"We'll get 'em next time," I say giggling.
"I think we're playing capture the flag next!" Conrad says, playfully punching my arm, "And if I remember correctly-" he then directs his words to Steven. Steven was always the best at capture the flag, I immediately know we're going down.
Jeremiah and I playfully bicker about who did better during laser tag while we wait to regroup at capture the flag.
We all walk in. It seems like Taylor and Steven are going against each other. The secret lovebirds.
"You think I could do it right now?" Steven says already starting to climb.
"You actually can't do that without a harness!" A familiar voice says from behind.
"Cam?!" Belly exclaims.
"Cam Cameron! No way!!" Jeremiah says happily, "Are we in trouble?"
"I mean officially there's no horseplay on or around the rock wall, but unofficially it's the most exciting thing to happen. All day." If I'm being honest, I was kind of sad when Belly broke up with Cam. He was always so sweet.
"What are you doing here? I thought Nicole said you were doing an internship on some fancy whaling boat," Belly asks.
"It fell through," Cam answers kind of dismissively.
"Sorry to hear that," Belly says, matching his sad tone, "This uniform though, super cool. Very official," Belly has always been good at changing subjects of conversation to happier ones.
"Thanks Belly." I look over at Jeremiah but instead watch Conrad's face morph into one of jealousy. Then I meet Jeremiah's eyes as we hold back laughter clearly knowing what is going through Connie's head.
Belly introduces Cam and Skye and Steven cuts her off, "We have some unfinished business!" He says pointing to Taylor.
"Let's go!" Taylor says, bouncing up to meet him.
Taylor and Steven get all situated in their harnesses, "You got this in the bag Taylor!" I cheer. But it is soon very obvious that Taylor does NOT have this in the bag. She is much slower than Steven and he quickly reaches the top.
"Where to next?" Cam asks.
"It's their call," Belly tells him, gesturing to Conrad.
"I don't know about you Bells, but I think it's time...To shoot your shot," Conrad whispers the last part to emit confidence.
"Oh, you're on!" Belly says, matching his confidence.
It is a very heated game, both with competitiveness and what looks like romantic tension, but I'm not one to talk. It ends with Belly dominating Conrad. Taylor and I cheer and jump up and down, pulling Skye over to celebrate with us. When things mellow out Taylor and Belly practice some volleyball spikes with the basketball. Conrad says something about a prize, but I'm not listening because Jeremiah pulled me into a side hug, and I can smell his familiar scent.
"We finally get to pick, and I choose...Dancing!" Belly declared. We go back into the arcade; Jeremiah and I take a detour to play the car racing game. Every time we came to the boardwalk it was what we did. It was a super tight race but in the end I won. I jump up and down with my arms in the air. Jeremiah has a fond look on his face as he looks at me, he grabs my hands and I stop jumping. Jere pulls me into a hug and says into my hair, "If I ever try to push you away again, promise you won't let me."
"I promise," I tell him quietly, just loud enough for him to hear. I look up and for a few seconds it seems like he might kiss me, but we're pulled apart by shouts from our friends telling us to get our asses over here. We giggle and make our way over to the dancing game. Belly decides that Skye will be the best out of all of us for this particular game. Jeremiah and Skye get into a little pre-game bickering, and I smile at all of Jere's stupid comebacks. As soon as it starts it is painfully clear that Skye is kicking Jeremiah's ass. Who would've guessed?
"Okay, where to next?" Jeremiah says defeatedly, looking at Belly.
"Follow me!" Belly leads us to the go karts. While Cam Cameron is setting up Belly gives us a pep talk. I tune out most of it thinking of Jeremiah, and how it seems like he likes me. But how can, I be sure?
"Ohhhh you can be as inspirational as you want Belly, we're still gonna kick your ass!" Steven taunts.
"Shut up Steven!" Taylor always knows how to make Steven quiet. I think he loves her.
"Doesn't matter cause Cassie is on our team now," Conrad says.
"Since when?!" I speak up, just as confused as the rest of my team.
"Since now. You guys have had the advantage this whole time, you had an extra teammate. It's our turn to have the advantage!" Jeremiah tells me.
"Oh, how convenient! You only want me on your team now because I'm great at go karts," I roll my eyes.
"You can't do that!" Belly argues.
"Yup, we chose our teams fair and square," I agree with Bells.
"Except it isn't fair. You guys had an extra player," Conrad says, booping Belly's nose.
"Come on!!" Steven says, dragging me away. But I can see Taylor giving me a wink and gesturing to Jere with her head.
When we are out of earshot from everyone else Jeremiah leans in and whispers in my ear, "To be fair, I've always wanted you on our team," He winks at me as he struts away.
"Drivers!!!!! Start. Your. Engines!!!!" Cam says, waving his little flag. Me and Jere are in a two-seater. Connie and Steven are in another one. Belly is in her own kart and Skye and Taylor are together too.
Cam tells us to go and we're off. If I'm being honest, I'm secretly sabotaging my new team. You can take the girl out of the team, but you can't take the team out of the girl. My efforts end up being futile. Looks like poor Belly is gonna have to ride the tower of terror!
"While you guys pick out candy, I'm gonna go check out the rides," I tell everybody. As much as I like fair games, I like the rides way more. There's a fair that comes near our house every fall and I always go with some friends but the rides at Cousins are by far superior.
"I'll come with you!" Jeremiah tells me, putting the bag he picked up back where he found it. We walk around going on as many rides as we can. Jeremiah screams on all of them and I just laugh at him.
We're about to get in line when I see a familiar face, "Mark, hey!!" I call out. Mark sees me and starts walking over.
"Hey! Long time no see, how have you been?"
"I've been okay, it's been a hectic couple of months," I look over to Jere as I say that and see his jaw set in place, he looks kind of angry? "How are you? Pick which University you're going to yet?"
"Yup, I'm going to Washington State!" Mark seems to pick up on Jeremiah's weird energy, "Well I should head out, Willow is waiting for me by the car. We should catch up sometime?"
"Yeah totally! Tell Willow I said hi," I say with a smile. When Mark is out of earshot I nudge Jeremiah, "What's up?"
"You still talk to him?"
"Yeah, we text sometimes. Mark and I are friends."
"He doesn't try to make a move on you, does he?" The butterflies in my stomach roar to life. Jeremiah wasn't angry, he was jealous.
"No but even if he did it wouldn't matter. You and I aren't together anymore."
"Yeah, but you know we're meant for each other. It was just a break."
"I know, I'm sorry."
Jeremiah grabs my face, "You don't have to apologize. It's my fault, I shouldn't have let you go."
"You needed to take care of Susannah," I whisper.
"I could've done that and been with you at the same time."
"It's fine," I say, wiping my face, I hadn't realized I was crying, "We can't change the past."
"No, we can't but," Jeremiah pauses, "Will you let me take you out on a date when this is all over?"
My face grows hot, I should be immune to this, "Uh- Um, yes?!"
Jeremiah smiles like he knows what he does to me, "Good."
"Good?"
"Good."
Everyone looks up at the tower of terror in fear while Belly stands in line. I just laugh at them. Jeremiah squeezes my hand as we watch Belly start her journey up to the tippy top, she looks terrified. The ride locks in at the top and a few seconds later it drops at full speed. Belly screams at the top of her lungs until the ride slowly comes to a stop.
We make our way back to the house, Cam somehow got roped in to coming back with us. But I don't mind, he's one of the sweetest kids on the planet. We're all giggling when we get out of the car. Little do we know what lies up ahead.
We walk in the house and all our good feelings are immediately shut down. As we walk further and further our dread collectively deepens and deepens.
"What the fuck!" Jeremiah yells angrily. I can't blame him. I want to scream at the top of my lungs. The house is completely empty. This sacred space where I've spent the happiest moments of my life is stripped away of all memories, everything that would've insinuated we had ever been here in our lives.