<You’re my safe haven<3 >
-Chapter Nine: Dinner and a Party
Laurel went to get Steven, Jeremiah, and Beau for Belly’s birthday dinner, she opened Steven’s door only to not see him there, confused she went to Jeremiah’s room. She opened the door noting the empty room, worried she rushed over to Beau’s room. “Beau?” She opened the room to see her eldest son on the hanging hammock chair asleep, then she turned her head to the bed seeing Beau and Jeremiah asleep as well. Jeremiah’s head was on Beau’s chest while Beau’s rested on Jeremiahs, their arms wrapped loosely around each other while Percy Jackson was playing.
The Conklin mother smiled at them softly, she took a picture of the three then one of just Jeremiah and Beau before she quietly walked up to Steven. “Steven, wake up, it’s time for dinner.” She shook her eldest son who yawned and sat up. She then went over to Jeremiah and Beau shaking them awake as they slowly woke up. Jeremiah jumped away from Beau, who sat there confused, rubbing his eyes. “Time for dinner honey.”
Beau nodded, getting up sluggishly, stumbling a bit before he regained his balance. Steven laughed at him as Laurel smiled warmly at them, Jeremiah chuckled as Beau mock laughed at them “Oh ha ha, you’re so funny.” Laurel tried to hold in a laugh but accidentally let it fall out.”Mamaaa” Beau whined looking at his mother as he slipped his converse on. “I’m- I’m sorry” She let out in between her laughs.
Soon enough everyone was down at the table, with the supposed ‘Cam’ that Beau hadn’t met yet. Jeremiah decided to speak up, giving Cameron a hard time. “So, Cam. You mind if I call you Cam Cameron?” Cameron chuckled, placing his fork down, “Mm-hmm. Yeah, man. Feel free. That's funny.” Jeremiah nodded as Belly glared at him, Susannah looked over at Cameron smiling, “I'm glad you're here, Cameron. I know your mom, Denise, from the club. I have heard a lot about you.”
Cameron nodded at her “Thank you so much for having me, Susannah. My mom says hi.” Laurel looked at the boy with a smile, “Cam, have you ever had miyeok-guk before? It's a Korean birthday tradition.” Beau smiled, taking a bite of his food. “Belly told me you're vegetarian, so I didn't put any meat in it.” Laurel told him,, he smiled at her gratefully “Oh thank you, Laurel!”
Jeremiah smirked at him taking a sip of his water, “So why don’t you eat meat, Cam Cameron?” Beau looked up at him, kicking him under the table to make him look over, he shook his head. “Uh, the meat industry is, like, the number one contributor to global warming. And I just, I like animals.” Cameron told him with an awkward smile, Taylor smirked “Just don't come for my leather jacket.” Steven chuckled, “I'm pretty sure you mean pleather.” Beau and Jeremiah both let out ‘ooh’s.
“You know, uh, actually, Belly eats meat. So, you let her kiss you with those lips?” Jeremiah laughed as Beau smacked him “Rem.” He scolded as Belly looked at them. “Guys.” Steven and Conrad laughed at them, Cam chuckled “No, I don't judge people for eating meat. It's just, like, a personal choice. I don't care.” Beau scoffed, “The Vegan teacher should take lessons.” He mumbled, Laurel and Susannah let out a chuckle.
“So you don't mind if, uh, like, her lips touch a dead animal, and then those dead animal lips touch your lips, right? Ow.” Belly harshly kicked Jeremiah’s shin as Cam looked around the table in ignominy, “I don't mind at all. Um, in fact…” Cameron leaned over and kissed Belly evicting a series of mock retching from Jeremiah, Steven, and Beau. “I really didn’t need to see that, Mama where’s the bleach?” Beau fake screeched covering his eyes.
Laurel chuckled at her son, shaking her head “All right. All right, all right. Belly's allowed to kiss, but that's it.” She laughed as Belly groaned in embarrassment, “Mom, please. No. You're so not funny. No more wine for you, okay?” Steven laughed looking at his sister “I'm sorry. I just don't understand why anybody would want to kiss somebody who once fully shat in the bathtub.” Belly blushed in embarrassment while glaring at Steven “I was like two.”
“Two? More like six.”
“Shut up Steven.”
Susannah sighed in remembrance “Ah I remember that. God, that feels like a lifetime ago.” She smiled at Laurel who returned it before Taylor looked up at Steven. “I remember when I visited last summer, and you,” She pointed at Jeremiah. “and you,” Now Conrad. “dared him to pee in the fireplace, and you stunk up the entire house for days. Do you remember that?” Steven groaned as everyone laughed.
Susannah looked at him in shock, “I blamed the neighbor’s cat.” Steven shook his head “We were drunk. We were drunk.” Beau chuckled “On like half a white claw.” Taylor said laughing. Jeremiah’s laughter erupted from him “She got you there.” Beau knocked his leg against Jeremiah’s compelling the boy to face him. “I need to go feed Mr. Quakers, I’ll be right back.” The younger boy nodded watching as the male walked upstairs.
After dinner everyone was ready to head over to Nicole’s, well everyone but Belly and Taylor. So the boy’s headed over to the party first, Beau split up with the group to get something to drink when he bumped into the bonfire girls again. “Oh fuck.” He mumbled, turning away from them and trying to speed walk away. Unfortunately they caught sight of him as soon as he walked out the door, “Oh! Bo-bo! Wait up!” He hurriedly walked through the crowd looking for anyone he would recognize.
“Bo-bo!” Beau heard them call out, he shivered walking around before he ran into Steven who was dancing with Shayla happily, “Oh- hey Beau!” Shayla joyfully looked at her boyfriend's twin who looked at her with a panicked smile. “Hey! Uh- I gotta go.” He awkwardly looked over his shoulder as Steven looked at his brother weirdly, going to say something but Beau had already taken off. They then heard girls calling his name telling him to wait up over the music. Steven worriedly looked in the direction his brother took off in.
Jeremiah was talking to his new found friend Luke while he went to sit down on the couch before he saw Beau walk past him quickly. “I'll hold you to that. Wait Beau?” Jeremiah cut himself off grabbing the boy’s arm, Beau quickly turned toward him, panic evident on his face before his face flooded with relief as he saw it was Jeremiah who had grabbed him, “Jere- oh my god.” He brought the confused younger into a hug.
“Beau? What's wrong?” Beau let out a sigh going to respond getting interrupted by the girls he was running away from, calling him, “Oh! Beau! There you are!” She started walking towards him as Jeremiah looked between them with widened eyes, he took a deep breath as Beau seemed ready to run for his life. Jeremiah’s brain suddenly went on autopilot as he pressed his lips to Beaus, his eyes shut tightly. Beau’s eyes widened in shock as he stood there, Jeremiah Fisher’s lips were on his.
The boy he has been crushing on for forever, is standing right here in front of him, with his lips pressed to his. Beau’s eyes fluttered shut as he softly kissed the boy back. Sydney, the girl who had been following Beau, faltered in her steps watching the two. Luke’s eyes widened from the couch looking at Jeremiah kissing the boy he had been talking to him about earlier, he could have sworn he said they weren’t dating. “That’s so gay.” He muttered, his eyes still watching the two in shock.
Sydney glared at the two in disgust, before scoffing. Jeremiah split from the kiss, turning to look at the girl who had been following Beau throughout almost the entire party. “Oh sorry, did you have something you wanted to say to my boyfriend?” If you could compare Beau’s face to the reddest thing on the planet, Beau would win. Sydney’s eyes twitched, “No.” She held in a snarl as she turned and stomped off.
Luke looked between them before he got up from the couch, “Alright man! Get your man!” He pat Jeremiah on the shoulder before leaving the two. Beau silently sat on the couch, Jeremiah following soon after, “Um-” “So-” They started at the same time, Beau chortled at them. “You go first.” Jeremiah took a deep breath waiting for Beau to start talking. Beau let out a breath, composing himself as he turned to look directly into the younger boy’s eyes, making him falter with a blush.
“Um, so..Oh god.” Beau’s hand shook slightly. “So..I…I like you, like a lot. Like everytime when I’m not with you, my thoughts are bundled up into like this huge ball of ‘Jeremiah’. And even when I am with you my thoughts still trail back to how beautiful you are. When I look at you I understand the difference between cute and beautiful, whenever I look at the ocean I think of the magnificent blue eyes of yours. And I-I understand if you don’t like me back and that you probably just kissed me to help me with Sydney, and that totally fine and if you like, want be to back off then I will gladly do it-”
Beau rambled as his hands shook, Jeremiah blushed as he took a hold of his hands, effectively quieting the boy’s rambling. “Beau.” He smiled and looked into the older’s eye’s. “I like you too…like more than a friend.” Beau let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding, “Then…would you give me the honor of…allowing me …to be your boyfriend?” His face was officially blazing, Jeremiah’s smile widened as he nodded his head. Beau’s face broke out in a smile, he scooted forward. “Um, may I?”
Jeremiah nodded, Beau leaned forward and captured the boy’s lips in his own, both of them moving in sink as Beau wrapped his arm around Jeremiah’s waist pulling the boy closer, the younger wrapping his arms around Beau’s neck deepening the kiss, before the could get any farther Cam Cameron walked up to them, they split quickly before he could notice what they were doing, though it wasn’t hard to tell, their panting, swollen lips, and rosy cheeks told you all you need to know.
Though he didn’t seem to notice these factors as he began to talk, “Hey um, have you guys seen Belly? She left to find Taylor but I haven’t seen her in a while.” He told them Beau cleared his throat, “Um no, no I don’t think so, why whats up?” Cameron looked down in disappointment, “It’s just, my mom wants me home in half an hour and I wanted to wish her a happy birthday and see if she wanted me to drive her home before I had to leave.”
Jeremiah smiled, “Aw that's so sweet of you Cam Cameron, hey how about this, we go outside and play beer pong and if she doesn’t come out in like 10 minutes we can go searching for her.” Cameron looked at him in relief, “Oh but I don’t drink,” Beau smiled at him, “Thank god! Neither do I” Cameron smiled at him before they all went outside. “If it makes you guys feel better I won’t drink either.”
Beau smiled at his boyfriend, woah…he never thought he would be calling Jeremiah Fisher his boyfriend. Beau shook his head, “You don’t have to do that.” Jeremiah shook his head, “Nah, I don’t feel like it tonight.” He blushed under Beaus' gaze, Cameron went to say something before Belly burst out of the house, walking straight towards Cameron as she looked up at him. “Um, hey, can we leave? Like, now?”
“Yeah, um, yeah. Sure, that's cool.” Cameron quickly put down the cup of water he had been drinking, waving goodbye to both Jeremiah and Beau. As they left Steven rushed out of the house, tears pricking his eyes. “Steven?-” Beau was cut off by Steven tackling him in a hug, “I didn't want to! She kissed me!” He sobbed into his brother's shoulder.
Beau and Jeremiah looked at him worriedly, “Steven- what do you mean? What happened?” Steven's body shook with every sob, “Taylor, Taylor kissed me. I swear I didn't want to!” He cried out as Beau and Jeremiahs eyes widened. “Steven, it's okay! You obviously didn't want to and she seemed to have pushed herself on you.” Beau comforted him as Jeremiah placed a comforting hand on the boy's back. “But what about Shayla? She'll feel so betrayed- god I'm a horrible person.” The boy's twin felt his tears soak his shirt. “If you explain to her what happened I'm sure she wouldn't blame you.”
Jeremiah chuckled, “In fact I think she’d try to beat Taylor up…let's not let that happen.” Steven dryly chuckled before he broke the hug with Beau, his eyes bloodshot, dried tear stains on his cheeks. “Can we go home? I don't feel like being here right now..” Beau nodded at the boy and Jeremiah placed a comforting hand on his shoulder with a gentle smile. “Of course man.”
The drive home was quiet other than Jeremiah occasionally cracking a joke to lighten the mood. When they got home, Laurel and Susannah were passed out on the couch, leftover popcorn in front of them along with some sweets. Beau smiled walking over to them and placed a blanket over the both of them softly. “Night mama, night auntie Suzie.” He kissed both of their foreheads before following his brother and boyfriend up the stairs. Steven numbly walked into his room, closing the door as Jeremiah glanced from him to Beau worriedly. “You think he will be okay?”
Beau nodded before a menacing smile appeared on his face, cracking his knuckles as he looked at his boyfriend, “Yeah, but Taylor’s not gonna be soon.” Jeremiah panicked and placed his hands on his boyfriend's shoulders, “Uh, no haha. Let's not try to meddle with this as much as we can, I don't want anyone getting hurt but if Steven needs us we should be there. Okay?”
Beau sighed, dropping his hands, “Fineee.” He whined as Jeremiah chuckled at him, “God, you're so adorable.” He pressed a light kiss to the tip of Beau’s nose. “I'm going to bed, you should do the same.” Beau groaned yet nodded at him “Night Remy '' He walked into his room, closing the door and walking over to Mr. Quakers who perked up at the sight of him. “Mr. Quakers it happened! He kissed me! And he’s my boyfriend.” Mr. Quakers quaked looking at Beau who put food and water in his bowl, opening the crate to allow the duck to roam freely as he wished.
“Night Mr. Quakers.” Beau said as a sudden wave of sleepiness came over him as he fell asleep on his bed with a warm, giddy smile on his face.
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Here you go! As promised a nother chapter while you guys wait for chapters 10-14!
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