𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 // 𝙟𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙖𝙝 𝙛𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧

[ 𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙚 ]

the chatter from inside the "etiquette room" quieted. stella could feel everyone's eyes on her. well, maybe they weren't on her. maybe everyone's eyes were on the shirtless teenage boy that was drooling over the food on their tables.

a serious looking woman made her way over to the two. "jeremiah," she greeted him.

"paige," he replied, almost flirtatiously, but that was just his personality.

"where is your shirt?" she asked him.

jeremiah chuckled softly. "it's always a pleasure."

the woman hummed as he kissed her hand. "hi, uh, i'm stella," stella tried to introduce herself properly but she always ended up sounding lost.

"oh right! paige, this is stel. i mean, stella davis, the young woman my mom told you about," he explained kindly. stella let out a laugh which slowly turned into a snicker after jeremiah had winked and said, "my future wife."

stella elbowed him subtly. "she's late," the woman stated with an accent.

stella stifled a giggle. "my apologies," she said fancily, almost putting on the same accent but decided against it. jeremiah held back his laugh, not wanting to get them into any more trouble.

the woman turned her nose up and looked between the two. "you're at table two."

"are those those little brie and fig jam sandwiches with the prosciutto?" jeremiah asked, pretending to have not noticed them until now.

stella rolled her eyes playfully at the boy. "don't you dare," the woman said.

"okay," he sighed. they both knew that he was going to try and snag one anyways.

"those are for the girls," the woman said.

stella laughed at the boy's actions. he stealthily crept towards one of the tables. "just- just one."

"jeremiah, those are for the girls!" the woman complained while he took one of the sandwiches. stella shook her head.

on his way out, jeremiah put a hand on her arm. "knock 'em dead," he said under his breath.

stella just replied with a quiet laugh. he was already jogging down the staircase behind them, leaving her a little flustered. she could still feel where his hand was just moments ago.

oh god. that's j! stop overthinking this, stella argued with herself. we're friends. we're friends. we're friends. we're friends. yeah.

"hey, what's goin' on over here?" stella said, as a way of introducing herself to her table. 

isabel looked up at stella and sighed thankfully. "oh my god, finally."

"hey, yeah, sorry i'm so late!" stella laughed awkward, sitting next to isabel. "uh, i'm stella."

"hey, i think i saw you at the bonfire! i'm nicole," the girl to isabel's right spoke up. she was very pretty.

stella smiled. "oh! i think i know you. are you conrad's girlfriend?"

"i don't know," she replied shyly. "it's complicated."

isabel looked down. stella had noticed but chose to let it go because isabel had been acting kind of weird all summer. after the girls had introduced themselves to each other, one of them changed the topic.

"so i heard you guys are family friends with the fishers!" one of the girls said suddenly. she was blonde. stella learned that her name was gigi.

"oh, uh, yeah. we spend every summer here with them," isabel explained before eating another mini cupcake.

gigi let her eyes settle on stella. "uh, so are you and jeremiah, like, a- a thing or are you gonna take him to the ball?"

"oh, my god, back off, geeg," nicole giggled. stella laughed along with them but she wasn't quite sure what was funny.

"it was a question," gigi replied.

"they're, like, basically related, okay? you have nothing to worry about," another girl added. stella had also learned that her name was shayla. stella almost choked on her water after hearing her comment.

gigi laughed. "i'm not worried."

"keep telling yourself that, babe," another girl popped in. she was wearing a green dress.

"gigi has had this thing for jeremiah..." nicole explained before getting interrupted.

"ever since he got abs?" shayla cut in.

stella forced herself to laugh but she couldn't lie that something didn't sit right with her. 

"pun intended. absolutely," nicole said.

shayla laughed and calmed gigi down. "relax. i'm not into jeremiah fisher."

gigi widened her eyes. "yeah, and you're noticing his abs?" she said, almost jealously.

the girl with the green dress rolled her eyes. "she's too busy eye-fucking the waiter."

isabel almost threw up in her own mouth. "dude, that's belly's brother," shayla said sympathetically.

everyone at the table was either laughing or trying to hide the disgusted expression on their face. the girls spent more time talking. specifically, talking about what it was like to live with jeremiah and conrad. 

before they could even answer, the serious woman from earlier, paige, interrupted. "hello, debutantes."

the woman kept describing what this whole debutante experience was going to be like, but table two wasn't paying attention. shayla pulled out a flask of some type of alcohol. whatever was in it, stella definitely wanted some of that.

while stella was waiting for her turn with the flask, nicole had told them that the debutante ball can be a lot of fun with a good big sister, which apparently was just an older girl at the table. at least, that's what stella took away from it.

"do you want some?" nicole asked isabel.

she was quick to decline. "um, no thanks. i'm good."

nicole looked to stella next. "how 'bout you?"

"of course," stella said as if they should have already known that she'd want some. while she was pouring, she could see daniel walking by. "thanks, nicole. i'll be right back."

stella brought her tea cup outside with her to see daniel. "daniel, what are you doing lurking outside our tea party?" she asked with some humor in her tone.

"stella, what are you doing here?" he asked happily, noticing her dress. "wait- are you a deb?"

"uh, yes. i mean... yes," she said embarrassedly.

daniel smiled shyly. "oh, that's cool."

"i really wish that i could've seen your whole show," stella admitted, referring to his little concert that he had on the beach.

"well, are you still up for some songwriting? maybe tonight? and maybe on the beach?" he asked her, really hoping not to get rejected on his way to another mini gig downstairs.

stella nodded and furrowed her eyebrows. "oh definitely. i'll text you about it?" she said, more as a question than a statement.

"i'll pick you up at 5," daniel said, awaiting her approval. she nodded which caused him to smile and wink, "it's a date."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

author's note

okay, was that boring or was that good

i lowkey forgot about daniel so i had to bring him back into the plot somehow

[ unedited ]