You are in Love... Conrad Fisher

1.2

"CONRAD, SWEETHEART

how have you been?" delilah's mom asked the boy.
"uh, i've been ok, actually."

that's when belly walked in soaking wet.

"guess they did the belly flop without you." delilah whispered to conrad. he chuckled and nodded.
"you're dripping water all over the place." Laurel scolded belly.

susanna walked over to belly.

"laur, she's gorgeous."
"i know." laur replied.
"i mean, you've always been lovely but honey, look at you."
"i think i look the same."
"you do not look the same at all. now jere won't have to shoo away all the boys from only me, it'll be both of us." delilah winked.
"uh, no. you're mine." conrad said tickling the girl.

she giggled and swatted his hand away. the parents all looked at each other and smirked, belly looked at the pair, mainly at delilah, with a hint of jealousy, but no one noticed.

" am not conrad. aren't you talking to that girl you took to the deb ball last year, what was her name again? nicole?"
"her name is nicole, and no, we're friends but nothing romantic anymore."
"mkay." she nodded.

belly walked upstairs up to her room.

"you know, delilah. when you were little conrad had the biggest crush on you, even though he didn't know what it even was."
"mom!"
"awww what? i didn't know that." delilah's mom alice said.
"it was so cute. when you were over in the summer and you went back to your house he'd tell me every detail about what you guys did and how pretty you looked. he would always have this huge smile on his face."
"ok, that's enough mom. we're heading upstairs."

delilah laughed and walked upstairs with conrad.

when they passed by belly's room jeremiah was talking about heading to the beach with her, but as they passed belly couldn't help but glance at the two older teens.

as the pair walked into Conrad's room, delilah couldn't help but comment on the way it looked.

"your room hasn't changed. still like boating?"
"yeah, but i never really have time to."
"well you do this summer, right? especially cause you don't do football anymore."
"yeah but i probably won't. i'm gonna focus on spending my summer with my mom. and you."
"well don't ever let me be a reason why you don't do something, conrad. i know you love boating and fishing."
"i know, but that isn't very important. are you going to the bonfire later?"
"maybe, we'll see."
"ok.. well, how about we watch The Notebook for the millionth time, and by then it'll be time for dinner."
"oh, i'm sorry, but i already agreed to go with Laur and Belly to Whale of a Tale. they seemed excited i was going."
"that's fine, we'll have our movie marathon another day."
"ok.. i should probably get going downstairs anyway. see you later."
"see ya, deli."

she kissed his cheek and walked out of conrad's room downstairs and outside to where laurel and susanna were talking by the pool.

"hey, laur. where's belly?"
"she's ditched us for the ocean."
"let her play, i'll go with you. i just need to stop by the country club first."
"the country club? oh god, nevermind i'll just go with delilah."
"you say it like it's a bad thing."

she laughed and nudged delilah's hip with her own.

"i'm going to check on the catering for your party."
"catering? i swear to god, beck, you said you were doing a few bottles of wine and that's it."
the blonde scoffed "it's just a few light appis, calm down. you don't have to come in the club you can wait in the car."
"fine." laurel said placing the towel down that she helped susanna fold.

they finished with all the towels and then walked to the car. the ride to the club was peaceful. delilah stared out onto the placed passing by and realized how much she had missed Cousins.

"be quick, if you leave me too long i'll get sunk in placeee." laur called out to susanna as she walked in the club.

delilah giggled at the older woman's behavior and looked at her phone just scrolling through instagram a bit.

susanna came back to the car within a few minutes and then the women drove off to the book store.

the three walked inside and laurel walked up to the counter to talk to the employees.

"we are all set for your party tomorrow night."
"great, thank you." laurel laughed.
"how was tour?" the man asked.
"oh, my publishers didn't send me on tour for this one, it's been a pretty quiet release."

a man bumped into susanna and mumbled a quick 'sorry'.

"are you on social media? you should really be on social media." the lady told laurel.
"ah, well, no, i'm not."
"are you working on something new?"
"always." she nodded.

susanna and delilah walked over to the counter.

"how many copies did guys order for tomorrow night?"
"i think.. 20." the guy stated.
"oh that's not nearly enough. i've invited half the town." anna admitted.
"what? you said this was going to be a small thing."
"mika, i'm so sorry, but you might have to run to the barnes and nobles in port smith and get some more."
"w- business has been slow we haven't been keeping up stock."
"it's fine." laurel said.
"what about this?" susanna picked up a book. "must have a hundred copies of this book."

laurel scoffed.

"cleveland castillo is off-brand jonathan fransen. cleveland castillo is such a phony name it's like 'hi, i'm masculine but i'm an intellectual'. i bet hemingway is his hero. i bet he wears horn rimmed glasses."

she took the book from susanna's and hands and opened it to the back with the 'all about the author' section.

"yeah, see." she showed everyone the picture of the man and we all started laughing.

"yeah.. contacts irritate my eyes."

the girls spun around to see the guy from the picture.

"awkward." delilah said as the man walked out.
"goodbye... cleveland." the male worker said.
"yeah, that's him. he's renting the burke house all summer."
"oh... that's a nice place." anna said.
"sorry.." laurel said as she placed the book back where it belonged.

the girls walked out of the book shop and started giggling while they walked to the car.

"what a lovely encounter."