𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 - 𝘫𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘭, 𝘵𝘢𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘳

𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘰

02. | CRUSHING

"Steven, I swear to God, if you look at that phone one more time, I'm putting it in the screen basket." Laurel threatens her son.

"It's just, we want to see your beautiful faces." Susannah tells the teen.

"Beautiful?" Esenae questions.

"Yes, beautiful." Steven smiles, caressing his own face.

"Can dinner be a screen-free zone?" Susannah questions all the teens. "You know, like the olden days?"

"Like the good child I am, my phone is in my room." Esenae smiles proudly.

"Yeah, because it's dead." Tae snorts out a laugh as he picks at his dinner.

"Exactly. If your phone wasn't dead, it'd be in your hand right now." Belly chimes in.

"No one asked you two." She glared at her best friends.

"Steven." Jeremiah says, grabbing the boy's phone and throwing it into the basket. "Boom! Nailed it."

"Very macho man of you." Tae looks up at the boy, blushing as Jere winked at him.

"Okay, okay, okay, we get it, you've been working out." Steven speaks up.

"Oh, you're just jealous because Jere has a better body than you." Belly states.

"I second that." Tae agrees.

"I third it...?" Esenae says in a questioning tone, wondering if that was a thing.

"Uh, no, actually, it's all about the lean look now. Otherwise, you can't wear tailored suits." Steven defends, causing the table to laugh.

"Tailored suits." Conrad repeats, laughing at the words.

"When are you leaving for training camp, man?" Steven questions the teen, causing the table to go silent.

"Uh, he quit football." Jeremiah answers him.

"What?" Esenae looks at her brother who was already looking down in shame.

"W... Wait, really? You quit?" Steven asks him.

"Mhm." He confirms.

"Are you kidding me, man? I'd— I'd kill to play college ball." The Conklin teen says in disbelief.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Esenae looks at her brother. Turns out, she wasn't the only one who had changed.

"He can always change his mind." Susannah states.

"I'm not gonna change my mind." He tells her in a serious tone. "I was just gonna sit on the bench all season anyways."

"What happened to, "we tell each other everything"?" Esenae scoffed as she shook her head, her brother staying silent.