Mystery of Love - Conrad Fisher

Chapter 8 - Her and muffins

CONRADS POV

The Muffin Shop takes about five minutes with the car, but I still try my best to be quick. Meeting Beach Girl was unexpected, but needed. We both needed a friend that we could tell everything to, without the fear of being judged.

Finding out my mom has cancer again, and not being able to tell anyone, has been eating me alive these past few weeks. Telling her made me feel better. She made me feel better.

Do I have to tell Jeremiah at some point? Yes. Do I need to tell Mom that I know? Also yes. The thing is, she seems so happy to just spend the summer with us now that we are back from college. Every morning she just sits outside, laying in the sun and smiling - I can't take that away from her.

I grab the muffins and drive back home.

Beach girl and I should probably exchange names, exchange numbers.. but the mystery has been fun. I always know I'm going to see her at night, at the beach - if we have each others numbers, the person has the chance to cancel. This way, we are forced to go even if we're depressed.

I arrive at the house and walk inside, "I'm in the kitchen." She calls.

"I think you need to tell me your name." I lean against the kitchen door, looking at her and smiling. She looks really pretty in my shirt, "I dont want to keep calling you Beach girl." I start laughing a bit. She seems hesitant.

"But I like calling you Pretty boy." She chuckles, "Pretty boy, huh?" I laugh, putting the muffins on the counter.

"My name is Juliet." She says, I open my mouth to tell her my name but I hear the front door.

"I think my brother is here." I say, "Jere, I'm in the kitchen!" I call, thinking it would be nice for him to join breakfast.

"Jere?" Juliet mumbles, looking at me, "Are you Conrad?" She stars at me, standing up from her seat, "I have to leave, like right now."

I am not fully understanding the situation until Jeremiah walks into the kitchen and his bag falls to the floor as soon as he sees Juliet. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Juliet doesn't say anything, she looks at me with tears in her eyes and then leaves the room. I hear her slamming the front door shut.

Jeremiah looks at me, "What the fuck, dude? Are you fucking my ex?" He laughs, kind off. It's a defensive laugh, he wants to look like he doesn't care about this whole situation.

"I didn't even fucking know she was your ex until like literally two seconds ago. I met her at the beach a couple of weeks ago." I tell him, not giving him the information he is looking for. Juliet told me it wasn't serious for him, so surely he shouldnt care if she moved on already.

"She's crazy, dude. Like she knew who you were, right? I bet she wanted to get close to me again."

"Jere, you sound crazy. We didn't know each others names until this morning, we decided to keep it a secret. You literally never showed her a picture of our family, how was she supposed to know?" I say, looking at the shock on his face. He didn't think I knew so much about this relationship he never told any of us about. "Why didn't you tell me you had a girlfriend? We used to talk."

"I knew it wouldnt last. The moment we started dating I knew she was gonna be too good for me, so I didnt think it was necessary. I didnt want Mom to ask a thousand questions, I didn't want either of you guys to meet her.. especially knowing I was gonna break up with her anyway, I wanted to avoid all questions." He grabs a muffin, looking at it instead of me, "I thought shit was finished when she picked up her stuff, ya know? None of you would have found out about her."

"Well, Jere.. she seems really nice." I tell him, offering him a smile, "I'm not gonna tell you that what you did was stupid, but planning to break up with someone just because you think they're too good for you? How about working on yourself?"

Jeremiah stands up, "This is why I never told YOU." He wants to leave the kitchen but i grab his arm, "There's still time to get her back." I tell him, which softens the look on his face.

"But she's a whore." He looks into my eyes, "She never fucked me but the first random guy she meets she's fucking? And the guy happens to be my brother?" His expression changes to anger again and before I can say anything, he leaves the house.

It's not my responsibility to make sure he knows that Juliet and I are friends, if you can call it that anyway.

I have to talk to her tonight.