imagine whatever you'd like!
❪ # SIX ❫ ⋆⑅˚₊
CONRAD WAS bored as Tabitha had left with Belly for the tea. He had just gotten back from surfing and tried sneaking away from him mom, but she noticed him anyway.
"Honey!" Susannah called. "Hey, hon?"
Conrad sighed as he had almost made it up the steps. "Yeah?"
"Would you change and meet me out back? I want to paint your portrait first." She asked her eldest son while her eyes went back down to reading Laurel's book.
"Why me?"
"'Cause everyone else had things to do." She sassed.
Conrad rolled his eyes and began waking towards his mother, "I have things to do, too, Mom."
"I think you can spare a few hours for your mother, hmm?"
He was tempted to roll his eyes once again and he just deeply sighed. "Sure."
"Great. I'll see you outside in ten?"
Conrad nodded and gave a a quick smile. "See you there."
"Put in something nice."
...
AS BELLY and Tabitha got out of the car for the tea, Tabitha thanked Laurel for driving her.
"It's no problem." Laurie smiled at the Milton girl.
"Thanks, Mom." Belly quickly said, wanting this to be over already.
"Sure." As the two girls walk towards to club, Laurel watches them, "Belly?" She calls. "I just want you to know that if you decide you hate it or if the girls are mean or even if the food is bad, you can text me. Either of you." She looked at the two girls intensely. "I promise I won't say 'I told you so.'"
"I'll be fine." Belly promised.
"Me too, Ms. Park." Tabitha smiled.
"Humor me? Use our code phrase, and I'll be right there."
"Mom." Belly mumbled, embarrassed Tabitha was watching her and her mother converse.
Tabitha just watched with a smiled on a her face, wishing she could have what Laurel and Belly had with her own mother. But she can't.
"You remember it from when you were little, right?"
"Lemon Jelly Belly." The two women said at the same time. Tabitha let out a slight chuckle. She thought it was adorable.
"Have fun. Also, Tabitha, please call me Laurel." She smiled.
"Okay, Laurel." Tabitha smiled and sent a wave to the women as began to start the car.
Both Belly and Tabitha began walking away from the car and noticed Jeremiah walking towards them with towels in his hands.
"Hey." Belly called out to him, but he didn't respond. "Jeremiah." She chuckled.
He looked over and saw the two girls standing and smiling in front of him. "Oh — oh... my God. Belly, I didn't even recognize you guys. Hey Tabby."
"Hey Jere." She gave the blond a friendly smile.
"Tell me the truth." Belly started with a sigh. "Um... do I look like a fool?"
"Um..." Jeremiah hummed with pursed lips then chuckled. "Um... no! Yo — you look good. You too, Tabitha. You look amazing."
Tabitha gave him a big smiles and waved her hand at him. "Oh, stop" She said in a joking manner.
"Let me walk you guys over."
The three teenagers arrive at the tea, to realize they're late.
Tabitha suddenly feels like everyone is watching her and she slightly moves her hand over her body.
Snapping the girl out of her own mind, Jeremiah taps her shoulder. "And this is Tabitha Milton, my future sister-in-law."
"They're late." Paige says, eyeing the teens.
"I—I am so sorry." Belly says.
"We deeply apologize, it will never happen again." Tabitha says with a slight furrow to her eyebrows.
"You two are at table two."
"You two will be fine." Jeremiah says, more so toward Tabitha since he knows how she can sometimes feel extremely self-conscious, then he runs out of the room with one of the cookies.
"Ready?" Tabitha asks the younger girl next to her.
"Ready as I'll ever be." Belly sighs as they make their way over to table two.
The two sit down and simultaneously give the rest of the girls an awkward 'hello'.
As Belly makes conversation with Shayla, Tabitha is wrapped in conversation with Nicole.
"Hey." Nicole says, giving the Milton girl a sweet smile. "You're Tabitha, right?"
"Yeah." Tabitha awkwardly chuckles.
"Conrad never shuts up about you. Swear, last year, you were all he talked about during the deb."
"Oh! You're Nicole! Conrad had some things to say about you, too."
"All good things, I hope."
"Of course. He told me we would get along."
"He told me the same thing." Nicole and Tabitha both slightly laugh and continue a small conversation.
...
BACK AT home, Susannah is slightly painting Conrad and the dock.
"So," She starts. "How's Tabitha?"
Conrad lets out a deep sigh, "Mom, can we not do this. Like, no—no you asked me to come sit for this portrait and I'm here, and I'm sitting, and I'm more than happy to be here. But can we not make this like a bonding experience, please."
"Well, excuse me for trying to connect with my son before he leaves for a year." Susannah chuckles lightly.
Susannah lets out a sigh as she watches her eldest son. "Tabitha looked really nice in her new dress. She said she wanted you to see her in it."
As soon as the last sentence left her mouth, Conrad suddenly felt guilty. Tabitha really wanted to be a debutante and he's not putting in one-hundred percent. He didn't even see her before she left for the tea like she asked him to. Right then, he decided he's going to make this summer the best summer she's ever had.
Getting him out of his train of thought, his mother began speaking again, "Look, if you want to spend your summer moping around, locked in your room with Tabitha, I can't stop you, but... no more sleeping till two o-clock, no more day drinking. I want you doing something productive. You're getting a job."
"Sure."
"Great." Conrad believed she was don't talking, but she wasn't. "This is the first time Tabitha's came to Cousins with us and I don't want you ruining that for her. She was so excited that she could finally join us this summer and I just want her to have a good time."
"Me too, mom."
"Now sit still," Susannah laughs, gaining a smile from Conrad. "Sit up."
...
❝I TOLD my mom the only way I would do this is if i could bring my girlfriend, cause I thought it would be a deal killer, but the club has been surprisingly chill about the whole thing." Marisa explained to the table of girls.
"I'm honestly shocked." Dara interjected.
"Literally, Dara, I was expecting a conversion camp to spring out of the bushes. No. Lesbians and debutantes are, like, a completely juxtaposing idea."
"Yeah, but Cousins likes to pretend to be woke. Trust me, My family deals with it constantly." Nicole said while nudging Tabitha who sat beside her.
"This things we do for college applications." Marisa said.
"It's insane." Tabitha mumbled.
"Don't worry, Marisa. You'll get in everywhere." Shayla reassured the girl.
"Wait. Where are you applying?" Nelly questions.
"You know, the usual. Every Ivy minus Cornell."
"Ithaca is so bleak." Gigi widens her eyes as she spoke making the girls laugh, including Tabitha.
"What about you?"
"Oh," Nicole says, taking over for Belly. "Belly's only a sophomore. Right? That's what Conrad mentioned."
"Yeah, I—I'll be a junior in the fall." Belly says.
"Oh." Marisa's eyes dart over to Tabitha who took a sip of her drink. "And you? You're a senior, right?"
"Um, yeah. I'm going to Colombia. My top two were Stanford, but I got waitlisted, and Princeton, very... expensive." Tabitha answers, whispering her last word. "I got a scholarship to Columbia, and it's still a great school." She rambles.
The girls nods silently then begin to change the topic. "Is this your guy's first summer in Cousins?" Dara asks.
"No, I've been coming here for my entire life."
"This is my first time here." Tabitha simply says.
"Yeah, Belly's like family friends with Conrad and Jeremiah."
Gigi's head shoots up at the mention of the blond Fisher. "Uh, so are you and Jeremiah, like, a—a thing or are you gonna take him to the ball?
"Um..." Belly mumbles with food in her mouth.
"Oh, my God, back off, Geeg. They're like basically related, okay? You have nothing to worry about."
"I'm not worried."
"Yeah, sure."
"Keep telling yourself that, babe."
"Gigi has had this thing for Jeremiah..."
"Ever since he got abs?" Shayla interrupts Nicole. "Relax. I'm not interested in Jeremiah Fisher."
"Yeah, and you're noticing his abs?" Gigi sasses.
"She's too busy eye-fucking the waiter." Marisa jokes.
"Dude, that's Belly brother."
"Tabitha, why are you in Cousins this summer?" Dara asks with a slight smirk present on her face.
"Oh, um... Susannah asked me to tag along this year. Also, me and Conrad are — dating and he's always talked about being me along to Cousins."
"Oh my God! Finally." Nicole says with a huge smile of her face. "He wouldn't shut up about you last year. I'm happy he finally got the balls to ask you out."
"Yeah." She chuckles, thinking of her boyfriend.
"When did he ask?"
"Right when he got back from Cousins." As Tabitha explained to the girl her relationship with Conrad, Belly was shooting daggers at the Milton girl. She was filled up with jealousy and couldn't help but wonder how this summer would be if Tabitha wasn't here.
"So, what's it like to live with Jeremiah and Conrad?" Dara asks with a smile of her face. "Conrad's so mysterious."
"Hello, debutantes."
JULES RAMBLES
ੈ✩‧₊˚ authors note:
— longer one because i've been gone for so long i deeeeply apologize
— don't forget to vote and comment!! 🫶🏽
WORD COUNT:
1645
published:
sunday, february 25th!