The Ocean Goes Cold || Book 2|| Jeremiah Fisher

"Conbad"

It was present time now, June, 3 months after Susannah passed away. Me and Conrad weren't together after he decided to be a fucking asshole and leave me alone at my prom, but well get into that later. I was inside my house with Sofia, Nicole, Claire, and Aaliyah watching tv when I heard a knock on my front door. I opened It to reveal Belly and Jeremiah.

"Oli we need your help, Its Conrad hes gone." My heart sunk, what did they mean by "Gone." "He ran away, he hasn't been at college and he has his exams in 2 day, if we don't go now hes gonna fail!" I stand up and say, "Alright Im coming let me go get a bag."

My friends all get up, "Uhm were coming to! I need to finally meet the mysterious Conbad!" Claire says. "Whatever, go get In the car then." Jeremiah says. the girls all pile In the back and I call shotgun. It was an awkward drive so I decided to turn up the music.

"gorgeous" by Taylor swift came on. I remember when me and jere would scream this song. I looked at him and he looked at me and we both started singing in sync, " AND I GOT A BOYFRIEND HES OLDER  THAN US HES IN THE CLUB  DOING IDK WHAT."

I sing at the top of my lungs. " your so gorgeous... I csnt say anything to your face, cause look at your face your gorgeous." He sings while using my hand as a microphone. "I'm still team Jere!" Claire yells. I see jeremiah giggle.  " we all are!" Aaliyah adds.

I laugh and we get out at stop at a gas station. We all pile out  I get out and get the usual, blue raspberry slushie and sour patch kids. I get up to checkout and the cashier says, " are you from around here?" He asks scanning my stuff. "Nope, just visiting." I say awkwardly. "Figures, I know every pretty girl around here, do you have a phone number I can hav-" he stops mid sentence and looks behind me.

" uhm my bad nevermind." I look behind me to see jere standing behind me eyeing up the cashier. "Yeah your bad, stop being a fucking weirdo and leave her alone." He takes my bag of sour patch kids and walks out. " jere what the bell was that." I stop him as he's about to get in the car. " he was being a creep I was doing you a favor." "A favor? What if I liked him and wanted to give him my number?"

He rolls his eyes," you don't like him Oli, you don't even know him, I'm not gonna fight with you over this." I scoff and just get in the car. The girls finally come out after what felt like forever with all there snacks and got in the back. There was a awkward silence the rest of the drive and we finally arrived at Conrad's university to ask his roommate where he might've gone.

We walk up and go to the elevators  and to Conrad's room. When we reach his floor I immediately know which ones his, he has a sign hanging up in front of his door, " David and Conrad." It read. We knock and a girl peeks her head out with messy hair her body behind the door . "Uhm we're looking for Conrad ." Jere says. "Uh he's not here, we're busy bye."

She goes to close the door but  Sofia stop it from shutting, " I don't know who the fuck you think you are, but move your naked ass over so we can look for Conrad, or at least talk to his roommate. "The girls rolls her eyes and puts on a shirt and shorts quickly behind the door we went in to see his roommate, David, Conrad nowhere to be seen " yeah hi, uh I'm Conrad's brother and he's been missing school.

Did he mention where he was going?" Jere asks him. " he said he needed to go somewhere to think idk man." David says not even looking at jere. I observed Conrad's room to see a neatly made bed, organized desk, and neatly put away book bag. Conrad was always tidy unlike jere who just threw shit everywhere.

I walk over to his desk while jere and David were still talking to see a picture of us all the last normal summer. Belly, Steven, jere, Conrad, and me. Arms around each other on the beach. My eyes get watery. Memories of Susannah come flashing back in my mind like a sudden strike of lightning. It was getting hard to breath, I think of everything, especially how I let Susannah down.

Her one dying wish I let her down, "take care of Jeremiah Oli, he's gonna need you." I repeat the words she wrote to me. Jere comes over and sees me and puts his hand on my shoulder. "Oli are you ok-" I cut him off by picking up my bag and walking out. My heart was beating a million times a minute, my vision was blurry with tears, and my heart aches for my beloved Susannah.

I see a empty staircase and go to sit on the stairs. I try to breathe but my breaths just get sharper. " I'm sorry." I say as if Susannah were there. All she wanted from me was to take care of jere and all I did was fall for his shitty brother and break his heart. I hear the door open and look up, it's Aaliyah.

Aaliyah reminded me of Susannah, she's so sweet and caring, she always knew what to say. She sits down next to me and rubs my back. " Oli please talk to me." I look up at her and wipe my tears. " it's Susannah I- I let her down and she probably hates me. I just wish she was still here."

Aaliyah pushes my hair behind my ear. " Oli I've never met her, but the way you've described her. She seems amazing, I don't think she's mad at you love." She was right, Susannah could never stay mad at me, but this was different I hurt her son, the one thing she didn't want me to do.

I just agree with Aaliyah, I didn't wanna keep talking about this is hurt to much. At least not with her, I live Aaliyah but she doesn't understand Susannah, her warmth, her smile, her embrace, her love. Who I needed to talk to was jere. " thank you Aaliyah."

I give her a hug. " can you tell Jeremiah to come here please." I ask her. She nods and about a minute later jere walks in. He sits down next to me and then turns to look at me. " what's wrong Oli?" He says. I go to answer but no words come out. " did I hurt you Jeremiah?"

I ask him. He seems shocked by my question. "What do you mean?" He says with a confused look. " that day, on the beach, did I hurt you?" My voice breaks. He looks down at his feet and then to me again. " yes." He simply says.

" I'm so sorry jere, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you." He looks off into the distance and back to me. " I don't understand, where is this coming from?" He asks questioningly. " that note, Susannah told me to be there for you because you would need me, and I did the opposite jere, I left and I was a shitty person and I hurt you. The one thing she didn't want me to do I-"

he pulls me into a warm embrace and rubs my back as he hugs me. I cry into his shoulder and says," Susannah loves you Oli, we both know it. You did hurt me, bad, but my mom is the most forgiving person you'll ever meet and I guarantee you she would forgive you and hold you and tell you it's alright." I look at him and break the tension, " thank you Jere, but what else I need to know is, where the fuck is Conrad?"