she, conrad fisher

2

chapter 2
[play: what you know by two door cinema club]
i can tell just what you want, you don't want to be alone

-

maisie

i was sat on the seat by my window reading my book in silence. the house was always silent. i hated it. it never felt like we had fully lived in any of the places we had called home. to my parents a home was a roof over our heads. to me it was so much more, but they never understood or tried to.

the doorbell rang and i could hear my mom go to get the door. voices exchanged and eventually i was called down. before me was conrad. he was stood with his hands in his pockets, barely making any direct eye contact with me. regardless he seemed to have made a great impression on my mom compared to the one i got from him last night.

"conrad from next door was inviting you over." my mom told me, smiling at conrad before leaving us.

the thirty second walk to the fisher house was silent which made it even more agonizing. there was a hatchback parked in the drive way that i didn't remember seeing last night. maybe these were the other kids susannah had been talking about. i felt relieved walking into their house full of conversations and chaos. this was a home.

"maisie! i hope connie didn't talk you're ear off on your way here." susannah sarcastically joked in the most light hearted way possible, knowing her son too well from the way he walked in.

"hi im laurel." the other woman beside susannah greeted me, offering me up a muffin that they had gotten from the bakery and i took it after introducing myself.

"connie take her back to meet the others." susannah told him, whilst she was busy cleaning up the kitchen.

i followed conrad outside to the backyard where the other three were sitting around the pool. a boy with bright blue eyes was the first to introduce himself to me, rushing ahead of the other two siblings. once i was able to become acquainted with everyone, we they were all throwing out ideas of what to do while i couldn't contribute much.

"we could honestly just spend the day on the beach?" jeremiah suggested, but was shot down by steven who said it was boring.

"no we should take her into town. show her around a bit." steven put out another option.

"or we could ask maisie what she wants to do?"belly turned, smiling at me.

all eyes were on me now, even conrad.

"um what do you guys usually do every summer? or what haven't you guys done in a while?" i asked since i was the absolute worst at making a decision.

"come on maisie, tell us what you want to do. you're new to cousins." jeremiah pushed me to come to some sort of suggestion.

"we could take her down to that wooden park 10 minutes from here. play hide and seek." conrad suggested, looking at me for all half a second before looking at the others.

"what are we four years old?!" steven laughed.

"no that sounds fun. i can't tell you the last time i got to play like that." i agreed, smiling back at the rest.

"hide and seek it is!" belly cheered, and we all got up and headed towards the front of the house.

in the garage were bikes for everyone and i realized that i didn't have one. my dad was supposed to take me into town to get a new one. i watched the rest claim theirs. i stood off to the side thinking of what to do, how to tell them. i didn't want to ruin our plans. conrad brought a bike towards me, waiting for me to grab the handle. once i did, without saying anything, he went back to grab his.