Our Beloved Summer | A TSITP Story

Chapter 4

"Officers, thank you. It won't happen again, I can promise you that much." Said my mother. I stood with Jere, Steven, Belly and Conrad in the front of the house. We waited for the inevitable ripping.

"Tell Mr. Fisher the chief wants to set up a tee time when he gets back in town." The male officer said, making his way back towards the door. His partner followed after.

"Absolutely. Sorry again for all the trouble. Have a good night, Officers." She closed the front door behind them, and turned to us. "How could you guys be so irresponsible?"

"Mom, it wasn't a big deal. All right? Seriously. The cops were just looking to break up the bonfire." Steven was the first to try to reason with Laurel.

"Not a big deal? I would say getting picked up by the cops for underage drinking is a pretty big deal, Steven."

"Were you guys... smoking tonight?" He asked. She did kind of reek of weed.

"What? Keep your voice down. Susannah's asleep on the couch." Mom rose her voice in defiance.

"I wasn't yelling, you were." Steven defended. Jere came up behind him to make his plea. "Just so you know, Laurel, I didn't drink tonight. I was the DD, I swear."

Mom didn't actually want to hear our sides so she just turned to Belly next. "When did you leave the house without telling anybody? And what in the world are you wearing?"

"It's Taylor's. And why am I the only one who's not allowed to go out?" Belly wrapped her arms around herself, covering the pink minidress she was wearing.

"It's not that you're not allowed, it's that you should have told us you were going. How did you even get there?"

"I walked." Belly said quietly, pushing further into the corner she was in.

"Jesus. You took your sister to a drinking party?" She turned to me next.

"No, Mom. Belly was still here when I left, meaning she went to the party on her own. I got dragged into this by chance." I tried to reason. I knew I shouldn't have stayed at the party, but I wasn't taking the blame for something my sister did on her own free will.

My mother only scoffed - she didn't believe me. She shook her head as she said, "I hope you realize this night could have ended a lot differently if your family wasn't your family."

"We're sorry, Laur." Said Jere.

"Just... go to bed, guys."

We all moved slowly out of the front of the house.

"Dani. Conrad."

We both turned around, looking her dead in the eye. All she did was shake her head, keeping her mouth open like she wanted to say something else. I got to it before she could.

"Mom. I told you exactly what I was doing and where."

"You were half way down the beach, Dani!"

This was a losing battle with no chances of survival. "You know, you have really been disappointing me lately. Think of Belly, you're supposed to be her role model." Mom continued, not caring about the how hurt I looked. I was also the bad buy in Moms eyes, the reason that things went wrong.

"And you're the oldest. What the hell's gotten into you?" She looked at Conrad.

"Nothing is going on." He said, so low that I could barely hear it.

"You need to own up to your mistakes, the both of you. Go to bed before I do something I'll regret." She just waved us off and rubbed her fingers across her forehead.

I couldn't help but scoff. None of us ever did anything unredeemable, but the second we stepped slightly out of line, we got ripped a new one.

My mother said she trusted us but when it came down to it - she was just a liar.

Conrad and I brushed shoulders as we both went to go up the stairs at the same time. I didn't have anything to say to him, so I only looked at him. He looked back, not speaking either.

A few milliseconds went by before I huffed and continued up the stairs. I could hear his sneakers squeaking against the stairs and there was a certain air pressure that made me feel like he was right behind me. I don't know what demon possessed me but I turned around right as I reached the second floor.

He took the last step as I faced him, his face coming up right in front of mine. It was only a second that our faces were centimeters apart until he stepped back down. "What?" He asked, surprise written all over his face. He was breathing a little heavier too.

My heartbeat sped up as I looked back and forth from his eyes to opened lips. "Are you okay?"

He looked at me, his eyes moving back and forth like mine were. "Yeah, I'm fine."

He pushed past me on the stairs and went into his room. I stood there for a second, staring at his closed door. So much for trying.

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Word Count: 803

Authors Note: since the last chapter was so effing long, I made this one short xoxo