august
042. the boardwalk
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THE BOARDWALK. One of the best things about Cousins beach. It was the one of five times a year you could eat ungodly amounts of junk food and no one would bat an eye. It was the place where so many people threw up, fell in love or, if you were Jayden and August, practically barred from.
After arriving at the boardwalk, they had all - mainly Taylor - agreed to get ice cream, and now they were all just walking around, trying to figure out what to do next.
August stood behind Taylor and Steven, a huge smile on her face as she watched the two fight over their ice cream.
"You know, I'm kind of a natural introvert." Skye spoke up, "So I can't tell if this place is horrifying, or if it's my lizard brain in action."
"It's fun. I promise."
"Fun?" Jeremiah asked and August walked around the two teenagers who were borderline flirting to go stand next to Jayden, "Because I seem to remember the last time we were here, you were crying. Belly was twelve and Conrad beat her at Shoot Your Shot. And her penalty was to ride the tower of terror."
"Yup..."
"Belly, you were so scared you threw up."
"I was sick!" She tried to defend herself.
"Sick with fear." Conrad added through a mouthful of ice cream, "My mom has to throw out your clothes and carry you home in a caftan."
The memory of a very green looking Belly made everyone laugh.
"Susannah used to force my mom to come here when they were kids." Something told August this wasn't going to end well once Susannah was brought up, "My mom always hated it, but Susannah loved it so much, so..."
"You know what else my mom loved?" Conrad asked, and they all knew what was about to come tumbling from his lips, "The beach house."
The twins looked at each other as Skye stopped walking, clearly fed up with Conrad.
"My moms not evil, Conrad!" They said, "And your mom wasn't a saint."
August's head whipped to the side to stare at Skye in shock, her jaw slight agar. There was no way they said. Especially seeing as Susannah was barely cold.
An awkward silence washed over the group at Skye's words, none of them could grasp why they said that.
Belly being Belly, decided to change the subject, "Skye, have you ever played Shoot Your Shot?"
"No, and I'm- I'm fine keeping it that way."
"Well, do you want to watch me beat Conrad's ass?" Belly asked.
"I would love that." August whispered to Jayden, but of course Conrad heard and looked at her with his head cocked to the side. August caught his eye, a sheepish grin making its way onto her face as she shrugged innocently.
"You could not do that." Conrad denied a second later.
"I wouldn't hate watching that." Skye smiled.
"You think you've still got in, Conrad?" Belly asked as he made an expression as if it would be easy.
"Okay, no, please, not another Great Boardwalk Showdown." Steven begged.
"Why not!" Belly shouted, "Why not!"
"So, they used to do this big tournament on the boardwalk every year when they were kids." Taylor told them, "I would get a, um, a riveting play-by-play as soon as Belly got home."
"Well, yeah. Every year until Belly and Conrad got too competitive And then my mom banned us from ever playing again."
Conrad laughed, "Are you down, Jer?" He asked, turning to his brother.
"Uh... Hell, yeah! Let's do it." He agreed, earning a fist bump from all the guys.
"I should actually head out." Skye told them, never looking up from their ice cream.
"No, you should stay." Conrad cleared his throat, "It's fun."
"It's too late." Belly said anyways, "You're already on my team."
"Fine. You win." They smiled, "But, I don't do high fives. I'm not going to, like, whoop in the air. I don't trash talk. The corners of my mouth might turn up just a little bit, but I'm not going to smile."
Belly was silent for a second, trying to take in everything they were saying, "Deal."
"Deal. So what's the surprise."
"Losers have to buy the winners the biggest bag of candy of their choosing."
"That's such a pussy prize." August complained as Taylor agreed.
"Really? Candy?" She laughed, "No, I mean, can't we think of something, like, sexier?"
Jayden held up his fist, "I agree."
"Candy's always been the prize." Jeremiah reminded them, "I mean it was Belly's choice, obviously."
"Well, fine. Fine. We can play the games, but... we start at the arcade, because it is hot as balls out here."
★・・・・・・★
AFTER SPRINTING INTO THE ACRADE, trying to trip each other up as they went, the teens now stood side-by-side as they walked through the arcade, staring laser tag down as they did so.
They all grabbed a vest when they walked in.
August strapped hers onto her body as Taylor and Belly very dramatically chest bumped, making her laugh for a second until they started to scream.
Immediately after the two girls started to scream, the boys joined in, shouting profanities at the other's, making them do it back.
They did it for another few seconds before both team captains - Belly and Conrad - started screaming at each other way more, leaving Taylor and August no other option than to grab Belly and turn her around.
After calming down, she turned back around, "All right everyone." Belly clapped, "All right. The games are best of five rounds. The first and last rounds, everyone plays. The middle rounds it's a one-on-one competition. So choose your best fighter."
"Probably not going to be me." Skye dismissed, looking down at their gun.
"Hey," Belly said softly, "Don't sell yourself short, all right?" She pulled on Skye's vest, righting it.
"All right, you losers ready?" Jeremiah yelled, "Three. Two. One. Go!"
And with that, they were off, running into the room, and getting into position.
Both teams were positive they would win when really only one could.
August Madden was not good when she wasn't in control, and knowing that in any moment someone could come crashing around the corner, ultimately 'killing' her could have brought her to her knees then and there.
She had her back pressed up against a wall with her gun tightly clutched to her chest. She didn't want to move because she knew someone was standing on the other side. She could hear their low pants as they gasped for air. One wrong move and they were one point down.
And August couldn't have that.
Praying to God, she took a deep breath and put her arm around the corner, shooting the person on the other side. When she heard them shout, she - very stupidly - turned around the corner and threw her hands up in victory as she laughed at a defeated Jeremiah.
Before she could move another inch, back into hiding, her vest buzzed, signalling she'd been shot. August put her hands down, suddenly regretting being cocky. She looked around before finally spotting the person who had shot her.
The next five minutes consisted of August chasing Conrad Fisher around, trying to shoot him - which she did, many times until she got bored and moved on.
After hearing the boys scream and shout about winning, August dropped her gun with a loud groan. Before she could even more again, Jayden stood in front of her with a proud grin on his face.
He started to chant, "We won." in her face, making her push against his chest, resulting in him slamming into the wall behind him as she pushed past to return her gun and vest to the front.
After handing them in, she walked out, standing beside Belly, "Hey, you know what? Don't worry about it. We'll get them next time." She assured them, but the other three just looked at her.
"Get 'em next time"?" Conrad quoted what Belly had just said, making both Taylor and August slow down, "I think we're playing capture the flag next. And if I remember correctly..." He trailed off, pointing to Steven.
"Oh, yes, I got this, bro." Steven smiled widely.
"All, right." Taylor rolled her eyes, "I need a pee break."
August pulled out her phone as she stood by a random machine a few steps ahead of Steven and Belly. She saw she had a missed call from her mom, but before she could swipe up and call her back, her phone was lifted from her hands.
August's eyes went wide as she was met with a smiling Conrad, "Is that a Gilmore Girl's wallpaper?" He asked as August tried - and failed - to snatch her phone from his hands.
Finally grabbing her phone off him she scoffed, "Why are you in business? As far as I can recall you have no right."
"You've gotten mean, August."
She narrowed her eyes, glaring at him, "No, Con, I was just too nice to you."
Conrad blew out a breath, making a face as of that sentence had hurt him - it didn't, not really, they both knew it was true.
August had always been far too kind to him, even when he wasn't to her. She couldn't find it within herself to be mean to him - she didn't have a backbone. But now, after he had hurt her in a way she couldn't fully put into words, there was no way she was going to go back to being all nice right away.
August just shook her head, looking back down at her phone before it was once again snatched, but this time, she was far more happy, because in front of her stood Jayden with an orange flavoured lollipop, which she knew was hers because he hated orange flavoured anything.
"Have I ever told you I loved you?" She asked, grabbing the lollipop from his hands and immediately opening it and popping it into her mouth.
Jayden shrugged, slinging his arm over her shoulder, forcing her to walk towards the rock climbing, "Only every... seven to ten days."
"Well, Jayden Madden, I love you." She smiled happily as they walked in sync.
He gagged, making her roll her eyes, "Gross. Public Displays Of Affection, August? Really? That's disgusting."
"Oh, get a Goddamn life."
The two made small conversation as they walked through the arcade.
They both looked at each other as Skye, Jeremiah and Conrad spoke, deciding to not interrupt it. So, they could walk through them - like that was going to help - and sat down on the little blue seats in front of the rock climbing wall.
It was silent for a moment until Steven busted in, making the two immediately go to their feet, knowing Steven was going to do something stupid.
"You think I can do it right now?" He asked, pointing to the wall
Everyone told him that he should and of course he was up and ready to start the second the words left their mouths.
The boy started to climb the wall until and all too familiar face began to run up to them, "No, no, no, you actually can't do that without a harness..."
Cameron - or Cam Cameron stood in front of them in a uniform.
"Cam?" Belly smiled, shocked to see her off friend.
"Cam Cameron?" Jeremiah questioned.
"No way!"
"Wait..." Jeremiah mumbled, "Are we in trouble."
"Oh, I mean, officially, there's no horseplay on it around the rock wall, but unofficially it's the most exciting thing to happen all day."
Belly walked towards him with a smile, "What are you doing here?" She asked, "I thought Nicole said that you were going to do some internship on a fancy whaling boat."
Cam was silent for a moment. He shook his head slowly, "That fell through."
"I'm sorry to hear that." She apologised, sounding ever so sincere, "This uniform, though. Super cool. Very official."
"Thanks, Belly."
The group went silent for a moment, making August have to hold her breath to not laugh.
Nothing like three of Belly's ex's/flings, whatever, in one room.
The blonde stared down at her shoes as an awkward silence washed over the group. She knew if she looked up and made eye contact with anyone, she would laugh and Belly would probably kill her.
Finally, after a moment, Belly decided to break the silence, "Skye! I forgot you haven't met Cam yet. Skye, this is Cam Cameron. Cam Cameron, this is Skye, Conrad and Jeremiah's cousin."
"Okay!" Steven interrupted, "Well, great catching up with you, seeing you again. Yeah but we have some unfinished business." He pointed towards Taylor who jumped up and down on the spot.
"Let's go!"
"It's you and me now, Tay Tay."
August and Jayden both immediately looked over at each other, both had matching mischievous grins, "Twenty buck says they get together by the end of the week." Jayden whispered, pulling a twenty dollar note from his back pocket.
"Thirty says... something happens today." August put her hand out for him to shake.
"You're on."
Once they were both sadly strapped in and ready to climb, the other teams gathered around them.
"I always knew we'd end up here." Taylor declared dramatically.
Steven laughed, confused as to what she meant, "What? Where?"
"Me beating your ass into the ground." Steven scoffed, but she continued to smile at him.
"Come on, Taylor, you for this in the bag." Belly assured the girl.
"Don't lose to a man, Taylor." August joked, referencing the way it's usually "Don't lose to a woman"
"Bring it home, Steve-O. '' Jeremiah said.
"Take it home."
"First one to the flag wins." Cam told the two teens who looked like they were going to beat each other up in the next few minutes if it didn't start any sooner, "And... Go!"
Steven and Taylor started to climb straight away as the others cheered on for their person. Unfortunately, Steven kind of had an advantage, seeing as he was much taller than Taylor and basically scaled the wall like it was no one's business.
Everyone picked out and critiqued what the two climbing should do, whether it was helping or not, they didn't stop.
Belly was the most enthusiastic, which wasn't surprising. She stood underneath Taylor, practically shouting at her as she flapped her arms around.
August stood closely behind the girl, unable to breath from laughing as she watched Belly hold her head as Taylor's foot slipped from the wall, giving Steven even more leeway to win.
Not even two seconds later, Steven reached up and grabbed the flag, essentially bringing it home.
"Steven wins!!" Cameron cheered as August's face dropped, she really did think Taylor would win.
That was now two things the boys had won against them.
"It's too easy!" Steven bragged, making Taylor roll her eyes.
Taylor began to make her way down, "Shut up!" Once she was down and unharnessed, she walked towards the other three.
"I was so close, babe." She groaned.
Belly rubbed up and down her arm, "Hey, it's okay. Don't worry about it. I love being the underdog. It fuels me."
"So, where to next?" Cam asked as Conrad walked towards them.
Belly gave him a blank look, "It's their call."
"Well, I don't know about you, Belly, but I think it might be time..." With his voice barely above a whisper, he said, "Time to shoot your shot."
"Oh, you're on." Belly said as he pushed past her without sparing her a glance.
kianna speaks
hey... sorry this took so long 🧍🏻♀️ idk how it took me a week.
i decided to split it into two because i felt bad for not updating in ages so... sorry again.