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The rest of the day was a blur. Jeremiah had actively avoided Nala, and she knew there wasn't much she could do because she didn't even know why he was mad. She knew that Conrad was usually the emotionally unpredictable one, not Jeremiah. His walkout was completely out of character for him.
At the arcade, Nala and Steven had stuck with each other. They learned that they liked each other's company. Nala told him about how she almost got into Princeton but was waitlisted and then rejected, Steven said being waitlisted was still good since she was at least considered.
"I have this best friend back home, we always did stuff like this during the summer. He'd let me win every game and I'd prance around thinking I was a real winner."
"What changed?" Steven asks.
"I got older and realized what he was doing. That's when I got competitive." Just then, she'd beat him in the dancing game. "Good game, soldier."
They began looking for another game to play together. Nala caught a glimpse of Jeremiah. He was standing a distance away from Conrad and Belly who were playing some sort of zombie game.
"Why's Jere so mad at you?"
The girl shrugs. "I'm not really sure. I mean, it was just a game."
"I mean, he looked like he was going insane when he thought you were hurt. I've only seen him like that once."
They reached a racing game, taking their seats and putting coins in. "When was that?"
Steven grew a little quiet. "When we found out about Susannah."
Nala still remembered everything Jeremiah told her about his mom. How could she forget? Susannah had been his entire world, he loved her more than life itself. But she couldn't understand how the situations correlated.
"I'll try and talk to him later. I think he needs space for now."
And space had been exactly what Nala gave him.
Later that day, back at the beach house, everyone had gone their separate ways. Nala switched into a swimsuit and headed down to the pool. Belly was already there swimming.
