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alianna danced in the middle of the dance floor by herself, struggling to remember the moves. if only she had her dance partner with her, she'd be flawless at it.
belly already asked cam cameron to the deb ball, so she had nothing to worry about. as soon as she asked him, he immediately said yes.
or at least that's what belly told her.
alianna watches as belly and cam cameron playfully talk with each other, giggling.
alianna stumbles as she misses a step in the routine. she looks around embarrassed and disoriented, taking off her gloves and gets out her phone.
alianna struggles to find the write way on how to text conrad after last night interaction. about the fireworks kiss and how jeremiah caught them.
alianna ends up sending 'good morning' with a shining sunshine emoji after going through multiple attempts of good morning messages.
"hey ali." shayla and steven waltz over to her. "oh hey guys, i see your back together." she states the obvious, "yes, yes we are." shayla smiles at steven.
"yeah, but you were a tasmanian devil about the situation" steven says, "sure, sure." alianna scoffs.
"attention everyone." paige enters the room, "please welcome our debutante waltz instructor, ms. covington." she announces and everyone applauds.
"thank you, paige. as you all know, the waltz is the most highly anticipated part of the ball." ms covington has a great way of saying it.
"so, please join your partners now." ms covington spreads her arms, signaling the debs and their partners to come together and start the waltz.
as everyone is preparing, alianna looks around and notices how she has no one. she would ask belly but she was too busy laughing with cam cameron. her brother was with gigi and steven was already in place with shayla.
nicole approaches alianna, "why, where's your escort?" she asks, "who were you gonna ask?" nicole asks again.
"uhm i never really planned this part out." alianna looks down, now embarrassed about how she was prepared. something susannah always made sure they understood was to always be prepared, no matter what it is.
"that's okay, i'll be your partner for today." nicole says and positions erased to start. "are you sure?" alianna is worried.
"i'm your deb sister. but, you need an escort for the big night." nicole let's alianna know, "paige is gonna have, like, an aneurysm if you wait too long."
"and so will susannah." alianna jokes. alianna mirrors nicole's steps as they begin to waltz.
• • •
nicole leads alianna while they dance. "your doing really good!" nicole says. "it's these shoes!" alianna giggles telling nicole, making up excuses for her awful incoordination.
ms, covington repeats the steps out loud, she makes them sound so easy but when your in the floor, everyone starts to jumble around and you can't get it right.
"did you do any of this with conrad?" alianna hesitated to ask. "well, conrad was spared by ms. covington." nicole let's her know.
"i was originally supposed to go with this guy james but he dropped out last-minute." nicole rolls her eyes at the name.
"but, luckily conrad stepped in to save me." a smile appears on nicole face, as the memories fill her mind. "yeah, susannah taught him a lot of dances." alianna say's referring to conrad.
"conrad actually, uhm, he left me on read last night. and i was wondering if you've seen him at all today." nicole asks, alianna has flashbacks from last night, when they kissed.
"no, he was... he was still asleep when i left." she half lies. the two continue to dance together.
MEAN WHILE AT THE BEACH HOUSE !
"ali." conrad knock on her bedroom door and opens it.he goes inside, "ali?" he calls again. he glances around the messy room and notices the white polar bear with sunglasses plush that sat on her pillow.
he taps its nose and leaves. he makes his way to the kitchen and pours himself a cup of coffee from the teal coffee maker.
"morning." conrad spots jeremiah as he grabs a mug, but conrad pours that last bit of the coffee. "seriously?" jeremiah whines about it.
"you can have it." conrad holds the mug out, waiting for jeremiah to take it. "thanks." he grabs the coffee and takes a small sip.
"why where's alianna and everyone else?" conrad says while dumping out the leftover coffee grinds into the bin. "uh, ali, belly, steven and josh are at the club doing the whole deb thing." jeremiah tells him.
"josh? didn't realise he was doing that stuff." conrad says surprised. "wants some eggs? i'll make some?" conrad's asks in a joyful tone.
"uh i gotta get to the club." jeremiah reminds him, finishing off his cup of coffee. "right." conrad sighs.
"so uh what's with the good mood?" jeremiah asks. "i don't know, maybe i'm just happy to be alive, after you almost blew me up last night." conrad says making jeremiah roll his eyes.
"look, i said i was sorry. i didn't know you guys were out there." jeremiah lies, he stares out the window going back to a flashback of him standing on the porch watching as alianna and conrad kiss.
he comes back from reality and asks "what we're you guys doing out there anyways."
conrad looks up at him, "i don't know, just talking." he lies. "about?" jeremiah keeps the conversation going on the same topic.
"don't you have a pool to vacuum?" conrad asks trying to get out of the conversation. jeremiah checks his phone and realised the time, "shit, i'm late!" he quickly chugs a bowl of left over cereal milk.
"dude, you seriously gotta stop with the milk thing it's disgusting." conrad complains as jeremiah jogs off.
conrad goes back to staring the coffee maker up again, "good morning natalie!" he smiles as she enters the kitchen. "well good morning to you too!" she says in the same cheerful tone she always has, she glances back at conrad as he leave.
lish speaks ! 🤍🌊🫶🏻
my favourite chapter so far !! alsooo working on the second book and it's looking so good !! make sure to vote and comment :))
