Betty and Jeremiah were laughing. It was strange to hear considering how serious things were inside the house, but the two of them had showed up with food, and Betty had gotten a bit of a kick out of Skye, who had remained in the kitchen, the three of them actually managing to find some humor for a few moments.
Betty had dispersed the food, Belly and Taylor upstairs and awkward, Steven laying in a weird set of pajamas in his room, Conrad staring out the window of his room. Finally she had returned back downstairs to Jeremiah, who greeted her with a smile on his face.
The sound of the doorbell ringing drew their attention, Betty instantly shooting a look to Jeremiah who turned to look at it. She put a hand on his arm, the boy getting the memo that she was going to go get it and that he didn't need to get up. She started towards the door and got to the foyer, the girl seeing that Belly had already answered the door.
"You know, Julia actually decided to cancel. Yeah, it's last minute, but um...she's having some second thoughts." Belly said to the woman at the door, Betty standing back a good bit as she watched the conversation unfold.
"Sorry, who are you?"
"She's my girlfriend, and she's, um, and she's right. The house is not for sale." Conrad appeared out of almost nowhere, his words being the harbinger for a lot of surprise from both Betty and Belly. Conrad caught himself after he had said it, his stomach knotting as he internally cringed.
"Conrad Fisher right? It's nice to see you. I am sorry about your mom." The realtor said, Betty unable to pull her eyes from the scene now that she had heard the terrible slip up.
"Well clearly not too sorry to pass up the opportunity to sell her house." Conrad was quick to strike at the woman, Betty shaking her head a little bit as he said it. This woman was just doing her job, Aunt Julia was the real problem.
"I'm just doing my job." The woman said, Conrad quick to come back.
"Well consider this an unexpected day off."
"Ignore them. Ignore them. There will be an open house today. But there does seem to be a minor problem with the AC. It died." Aunt Julia hurried down the hallway, squeezing between Belly and Conrad as she realtors face soured.
"That is not a minor problem, Julia. It is supposed to hit 95 today." It was like God himself had granted them this miracle, the ACs mysterious death making Betty suspicious. Julia pulled Sandy outside and Conrad shut the door behind them, his face stoic and irritated as he looked to Belly.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call you my girlfriend." They hadn't turned around yet, Betty almost wondering if she could escape before they saw her.
"Don't worry about it. It's cool." Belly dismissed, the two of them both turning and seeing Betty standing in the doorway. Conrad's face drained of color and before anyone could say anything Jeremiah approached from behind Betty, his hand pressing to the small of her back as he stopped beside her.
"Hey, is everything okay?" The younger boy asked, his eyes going between Betty and Conrad and Belly and then back to Conrad who answered him.
"No, the realtor just got here."
"Shit. What are we gonna do?" Jeremiah asked, a worried expressing covering his face as he shoved both of his hands into his pockets.
"I don't know what else we can do." Conrad said, and Betty didn't like the sound of him giving up hope so easily.
"Well, maybe Skye has some information that could help us. I don't know if only we could get a moment alone with her." Belly said, proposing a solution of sorts.
"Them." Betty and Conrad said at the same time, Belly nodding and thanking them both for reminding her.
"Well good luck. Because those two are inseparable." Jeremiah was referencing Skye and Julia, Betty trying to contribute something to the plan and think of a way to get them alone.
"What if we invited Skye somewhere?" Betty proposed, wondering if separating the inseparable was the best course of action.
"I don't fucking know." Conrad said, throwing his hand up in the air and then walking past the three of them and towards the kitchen. Betty followed next, making her way into the kitchen where Skye, Steven, and Taylor were all being joined by Conrad. She leaned against the counter beside Steven, bumping his shoulder and giving him a tight smile.
"It's so hot. It's like 2,000 degrees in here." Taylor exclaimed, her hands fanning her face as she sat on one of the stools.
"Julia said the AC is broken."
"Oh what? No way." Steven said in a painfully suspicious tone, Betty turning to look at him and narrowing her eyes. He said it like it wasn't a surprise to him at all.
"Todays open house has been cancelled. So I need you all out of the house while I get the AC guy here to do some work. Also, uh, who is the AC guy?"
"Do you want me to look one up for you?"
"Uh no,no, that's okay. I'm certain Susannah has her preferred technician and four approved backups right here." Julia said, rifling through the drawers of a cabinet and then pulling out a binder.
"Great. Now we don't have to lie about the black mold to the buyers." Jeremiah said, trying to get Aunt Julia to fret further.
"Lets go to the beach." Steven said, Betty looking to him and thinking it sounded like a good idea.
"I'm not leaving." Conrad put up a fight, his stubbornness clouding his brain and keeping him distracted from everything that had been happening. And everything that he had done this morning.
"Conrad come on. We've won this round. Let's just get out of here." Jeremiah said, trying to get Conrad to see some reason.
"The mall has good AC." Taylor said, still fanning herself with her hand.
"Cool. Have fun." Conrad said, making Betty groan as she got immediately tired of his annoying act.
"Connie lets go. There's nothing we can do right now." Betty tried, his head turning to look at the girl and giving her a look of almost consideration. He quickly moved on from the consideration, his head shaking and his venomous words directing towards her.
"I didn't ditch finals just to leave this house for the taking by-"
"Conrad, I'm trying...straining to keep my shit together. You've already ruined my day. The least you could do is get out of my hair for a few hours."
"You think you're the only one..." Belly cut Conrad off, her hand dropping onto her shoulder as she moved to talk over him.
"What about the boardwalk?" She suggested, her eyes going to Jeremiah and then to the others.
"Yeah, the boardwalk. That's a great idea." Jeremiah said, his eyes attaching to Betty's collarbone where the strap of her tank top was laying. Steven spoke next, his gaze directed towards Jeremiah who seemed distracted at the very least .
"Yeah I'm down."
"Yeah me too." Taylor agreed, and Betty was on board too, a smile crossing her lips as she thought a day on the boardwalk might be fun. Betty's eyes turned to Conrad and he looked back at her for only a moment before he quickly looked away.
"Yeah. Fine. Yeah." He agreed, Belly speaking up a little bit to talk to Skye.
"Hey, you should come with us Skye."
"Oh, um...sounds very state fair." Skye said, Betty remembering now that they were talking about getting them away from Julia. Maybe now was the time.
"Oh my god yes you should come with! It'll be so fun." Betty said, her lips turning up into a positive smile that almost swayed Skye's decision.
"I think I should just stay with you, right?"
"No. Wasn't my favorite, but you might like it." Julia said, shaking her head as she scrolled through her phone.
"I shouldn't just stay with you?" Betty could feel eyes burning into her skin, the girl knowing whose they were and deciding to avoid meeting them. However they weren't who she thought, they were Jeremiah's too.
"No, I'll be fine. After this, I'm going to go back to the hotel for a nap and a NAN fan." Julia said, making Betty smile even wider at the fact that they were going to come.
"I guess I'm coming with you guys." Skye said, everyone nodding and agreeing to the plan.
"Yay!" Betty exclaimed as a few other people spoke, the girl making her way towards the entrance of the home. She just got outside when a hand wrapped around her and, the girl being pulled to the side and seeing who had done it. Conrad look down at her with a frustrated look, Betty immediately seeing that their friendliness had subsided for the time being.
"I don't need you be against me all the time." She killed her arm from his grip, her lip curling up in confusion and her eyebrows furrowing at his words.
"What are you talking about?" She said, not appreciating his hands on approach to trying to get her to listen.
"In there...you sided with everyone but me—"
"Yeah because you're being a dick." He took a step back from her, shaking his head in annoyance as she continued to speak. "Sitting in the house talking trash to your Aunt all day isn't going to help anything. It's only going to make things worse."
"And going to the boardwalk is going to make them better?" He asked, and Betty nodded.
"Wasn't it part of an idea that we separate those two and see if we can find anything out?" Conrad had forgotten about that, his face falling when he realized he was right. She rolled her eyes at him, seeing that today was going to be an off day for them, even though it had started as a good day. Where Betty woke up was long forgotten now as she turned away and started towards the others, her irritation paramount as they took on the day.
_____
Y'all sorry I'm kind of in a bad writing spot at the moment but I'm trying to work through it.
Let me know what you think is gonna happen for season 2!!