AFTERGLOW |TSITP

𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘

AS LANELLE, BELLY AND JEREMIAH ARRIVED AT THE BEACH HOUSE, Jeremiah immediately ran in to talk with his brother.

But Lanelle and Belly stayed outside a little while longer, the girl looked around the place that once had so many memories, that had Susannah.

The house where she shared so many memories with Belly, Conrad, Steven and Jeremiah. The one place where she has good memories with her mom.

But since Susannah's death everything's gone to shit.

Lanelle doesn't even remember the last time she spoke to Conrad and knowing that he's so close yet so far — that made her anxious.

She got broken out of her trance as belly tapped her on her shoulder.

"Do you want to go inside?" Belly asked her as she worriedly looked into her friend's eyes.

Lanelle took a moment to answer, "Yeah — yeah sure"

As the two girl walked into the living room where Jeremiah and Conrad were arguing or better said Jeremiah scolding Conrad about him disappearing.

"Jere, the house has been put up for sale." Conrad stated.

Lanelle frowned at that sentence as she shared a look with Belly.

"What do you mean the house is for sale?" Belly chimed in

Conrad turned his head to look at Belly, spotting Lanelle next to her too and he gave them — better said, Belly a look that Lanelle couldn't describe.

"What are they doing here?" He grumbled

Lanelle crossed her arms standing up for her and Belly,

"Wow, hello to you too?"

Conrad didn't even spare Lanelle a glance.

"So this is why you haven't been answering my phone calls or texts?" Jeremiah continued angrily.

Conrad scoffed, "Jere, did you not hear what I just said?" As he turned his attention back to his brother.

"We're going to lose this house, mom's house."

"Why would your dad sell this house?" Lanelle questioned in confusion.

"He's not, our aunt Julia is." Conrad replied, not looking her in the eyes.

"Susannah's sister?" Belly frowned, desperately trying to make Conrad look at her, but he didn't spare her a glance.

"Half sister. Apparently the house belonged to the both of them and then when mom..." Conrad paused, taking a breath, "Now aunt Julia owns the whole thing so.."

"Okay, we'll just call dad and figure something out." Jeremiah suggested.

Conrad groaned in frustration as he put a hand to his forehead, "You think I haven't already done that? He says legally the house is theirs."

"Okay, then he'll buy it." The blond tried to reason

"He doesn't have the money to buy it, between the brown and the medical bills and the —"

"Yeah I know how much the medical bills cost, because I was the here." Jeremiah fired back,

"How long did you know about this?" He continued

"Jere, this was all happening so fast. I was going to tell you after I'd taken care of it." Conrad tried to explain.

Jeremiah chuckled in response, "And this is you taking care of it? Going AWOL, ditching school, not talking to us —"