"Can I tell you something?" Conrad asked.
I only nodded.
"You're the strongest person I know."
To this day, I still think he lied to me. I should be the least strongest person he knows. How did he consider me strong when I could list dozens of peop...
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AGE: now
WE WERE FINALLY having dinner, but I couldn't quite hold my focus long enough to engage in conversation. I couldn't seem to erase the talk from before out of my mind. I had been so caught up with my own things that I hadn't noticed Conrad's attempts to bottle his own feelings inside.
It made me want to recite the exact same advice he has been giving me because he doesn't seem to be following his own advice, which makes me question whether or not I should be following it.
He was always locked inside his room or away with Nicole. It was obvious now that I'm actually looking for the signs of his avoidance. The way that he looks down at his plate, a word rarely slips from his mouth, especially when the table is having one big conversation.
If him quitting football wasn't enough to send everyone into a panic, then I don't know what else there is. There must be other things that I hadn't even considered yet.
I finally got out of my own head and took in the presence of everyone around the dinner table. The people I've spent almost every summer with. The people I love with the entirety of my heart.
I can't help but think about when this will end. I would do anything for it to stay like this, but nothing stays perfect forever, not even when you wish it at any chance you get. I knew that it couldn't stay like this forever. In the fall, Conrad is going off to Brown while I go off to NYU. Next year, Jeremiah goes off to training camp and then he and Steven off to college. I try not to think about the things that will no longer be the same: no more surfing, no more lazy dinners, no more late night swimming with Belly, no more fighting with the boys, and no more escapes to Sonny's and Conrad's surfing island.
I was brought back when I heard that the table was no longer at peace anymore. Steven said, "I just don't understand why anybody would want to kiss somebody who once fully shat in the bathtub."
I practically almost choked on my own spit. How the hell did we get into this topic of conversation?
"I was like two years old," Belly said, obviously tense. I could only imagine all the things she must be feeling right now. Steven being a jerk wasn't helping either. I can't help but put myself in her situation. I cringe at the thought. No matter how much I liked my significant other, I don't think I would ever have the guts to bring them to meet Alva and Eduardo. I even think they'd thank me.
"Two? More like six." Steven was enjoying the fact that he was making Belly miserable.
"Shut up, Steven!"
"Steven," Laurel warned.
"Aw, I remember that. God, that feels like a lifetime ago." Susannah took a sip of her wine with a smile.
