𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 // 𝙟𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙖𝙝 𝙛𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧

[ 𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙮 𝙨𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 ]

idk if it's needed but i'm going to put one anyways

~trigger warning~

stella was sitting on the beach near conrad who was digging a big hole for whatever food he was making. she couldn't remember the name of it even though they made it every year. she picked up lumps of sand and let it seep through her fingers while she sipped more of another cup of the pomegranate margarita.

at the moment, she and conrad were quiet. whenever something happened with the dads, they were quiet after. they weren't really talkers when it came to this kind of stuff. at least, stella wasn't. conrad let himself go sometimes and ranted. stella had really only talked to conrad seriously about her issues with her dad twice.

it wasn't something she loved to look back on. she liked to forget about it after anything happened.

"hey!" jeremiah shouted in the distance. he had a ball of mud in his hand. stella looked between her two best friends. jeremiah's eyes relaxed at the sight of the girl. "hey, stel, i think we left the speaker back at the house. can you go grab it?"

they usually listened to music while they were at the beach, making the food. stella nodded, but she knew what was about to go down. i mean, with the mud in his hand and the tension between the boys, it was obvious that they had to argue it out and jeremiah didn't want her to be there for that.

at least, that's how stella saw it. if there was tension, then they have to argue it out.

i could be wrong, she thought, but she doubted it. she was raised where whenever there was something wrong, there had to be a fight. an argument.

*flashbacks*

𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨

it was the fourth of july. the dads were, of course, there for their annual visit. conrad and stella had decided to go for a walk on the beach to get away. stella had been acting weird ever since the dads had gotten there. 

i mean, her relationship with her dad looked pretty normal from an outsider's view. they shared a laugh here and there but it was mostly because they couldn't start a fight in front of other people.

"hey, you good?" conrad asked her. 

stella shrugged and rolled her eyes. it wasn't out of annoyance. it was because she was trying to prevent herself from crying, especially in front of conrad. she had only done that once before.

"yeah, i'm fine," stella said, crossing her arms over her chest. she tried not to recall the month before when it was her dad's week. she hadn't left for vacation yet.

𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨

this wasn't their first fight. these kinds of fights happened often.

stella had just gotten home. it was the evening so it was pretty dark outside. her dad was on the phone with her mom. she remembered how earlier that day, she had told her mom how she thought it was annoying that her dad always left cabinets open and left things out. it was the little things that pissed stella off, but she also didn't like when the place she lived looked like a mess.

she didn't like how she always had to make excuses during the rare times that her friends would come over. she didn't like that when she did have people over, she would make them hang out in her room all day because she hated how messy the rest of the house was.