Dazzling Haze-Conrad Fisher

Movie Night... Maybe

"The whole deb-scene is bullshit. It's for sheep." Conrad said said not looking up from his food.

Belly and I held our debutante invites in our hands. Susannah had a wide grin on her face before glaring at Conrad.

"No it's not. It's when a girl has a coming out; it's a formal recognition she's reached maturity." She raised her eyebrows towards Jeremiah.

Steven choked on the food he put into his mouth and let out a laugh. "Oh, sorry. I'm sorry, mature? Belly and Madison? A couple months ago Belly had a cat funeral and made us all wear black. Not to mention Madison is the baby out of everyone."

"Shut up, Steven. I saw you crying in your room." Belly snapped back.

"Wait, Moji died? Dang, I'm sorry, Bells." Jeremiah added.

"Madison, Belly, don't you want to get all dressed up?" Susannah gave us a smile.

"It's just... not their kind of thing." My mother began. "They're like our feral little alley cats."

Steven and Jeremiah chuckled from across the table. I loaded food onto my spoon and launched it straight at Steven's face.

"Call me a baby again, Stevie." I sassed.

"We'll think about it." Belly responded for the both of us. I nodded in agreement and Susannah faced our mothers.

"They'll think about it." She raised her glass towards them and took a sip. My mother gave me a side eye before continuing with her food.

Following dinner, Belly and I sat on our beds catching up on all the drama from home.

"Taylor underestimates my abilities with boys. I'm great with them. Am I right?" Belly asked.

I laughed before realizing she was being serious. "Oh yeah. Amazing. Never seen better, actually."

At this, she gave me a challenging look and reached for Junior Mint on the other side of her bed. She picked him up by the paw and slung him towards me.

"It's almost the annual movie night with the moms. I'm going to go help them set up. You coming?" Belly walked to the doorway but hesitated to see if I would follow.

"I'll catch up. I was going to go for a little night swim first." I responded with a smile.

"Okay. I'll be down in the kitchen." With that, she walked out of the room and I could hear each step she took down the stairs as she descended.

I went over to my suitcase and grabbed the swimsuit that I packed, my preferred over what Hannah secretly placed for me. It was my favorite, a pink one-piece with an open back. I changed in Belly and I's bedroom and then proceeded out to the back of the house.

I opened the door and stepped outside. The slight mix of sea salt and campfire filled the air. As I shut the door to the backyard, I recognized a figure perched on the side of the pool.

"I thought you said smoking pot changes the way your brain processes information." I said after walking slowly towards the pool.

"So does your cell phone." Conrad responded, taking another puff.

His eyes followed me as I took a few more steps and dived into the pool. As I surfaced I turned to face him.

"You said marijuana messes with white matter." I tilted my head as if to challenge what he had said.

"Do you even know what white matter is?" He replied.

"You said our brains are still developing, that-"

"God, do you memorize every single thing that I've ever said?" He interrupted. I felt my cheeks turn a slight pink.

I hesitated before replying, "get over yourself."

I pushed myself under the water and glided towards the other side of the pool, trying to soak in what was just said.

"I mean, Conrad, you're the one that said that smoking was dumb and that real athletes don't put shit in their bodies."

"I said a lot of stuff. And I'm not an athlete anymore," he added. "So..."

"Well," I started. "I still think you should quit." I watched my legs through the water and realized the silence that followed my words. I looked up at Conrad to see him staring blankly at me.

"What'll you give me if I do?" He asked, the corner of his upper lip lifting into a smirk.

I stood fully out of the water and took a careful step towards him. "What do you want?" I questioned back. At this, his smirk twisted into a smile and he raised his eyebrows.

I fell backwards into the water, keeping just my head above the surface. I held my eye contact with Conrad. "I think you should quit for yourself."

Conrad took another puff before asking, "Hey, why are you considering this debutante thing?"

"I don't know, it's not like Belly or I have anything else going on." I shrugged.

"Yeah, but it's not you." He said shortly. "Don't let my mom make you guys her little dolls just because she never had a daughter."

"I don't mind it. Sometimes I wish I was her daughter..." I looked in the opposite direction of him and dived under the water again.

"You're better off with Abigail, trust me." He said as soon as I came up.

"Why are you acting so different?" I shot him a look.

"I'm not." He spoke between smoky exhales.

"I know you. I mean, something's going on," I looked at him with tired eyes. "Just tell me."

"Mads, I-"

Steven's laughter filled my ears. The door swung open and following were Jeremiah and Steven. They raced down the steps towards Conrad.

"Come on, man, we're leaving. You ready?"

"Can I come too?" I looked up at Steven from the water.

"Uh, no." Steven looked at me in awe.

"The moms are getting everything set up for your movie night." I had almost forgotten.

"See ya." Conrad spoke softly as he stood up from the side of the pool and joined the two boys.

"Let's go, slow-poke." Jeremiah said.

"Have fun with the mo-oms!" Steven called with a giggle.

I rolled my eyes and dropped beneath the surface of the water. Assholes.

—

"Brownies are going in." Susannah said as I walked into the kitchen. She gave me a faint smile as she spoke.

"Cant we do something different?" I asked. My mother turned around and looked at me with deep confusion.

"But we always watch 'It Happened One Night' on the first night," she started.

"Well, we could watch 'The Philadelphia Story' instead." Susannah shrugged and held her smile.

I looked around and obviously showed signs of being uncomfortable.

"Everything okay?" Susannah leaned on the counter.

"Yeah, no, I'm just kind of tired so I think I might skip the movie and go to bed.

"Okay, sure, we can do the brownies another night."

A sense of guilt filled my gut as I walked upstairs with Belly, but our new plans for the night were much better than sitting with the moms on the couch.

We were going to that beach bonfire whether the boys liked it or not.