AFTERGLOW |TSITP

𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍

LANELLE WOKE UP, after crying her eyes out yesterday she had the best sleep ever. The girl did her daily routine and after that she made her way down the stairs.

But her footsteps came to a halt as she heard the water running,

"There's no way that the boys are up this early." Lanelle thought as she frowned, "Belly and Taylor are still sleeping in my room as they came to comfort me."

The girl quietly made her way into the kitchen and saw Susannah at the sink. Or she thought that she saw Susannah, when the blonde haired woman turned around all of Lanelle's hopes and dreams came crashing down.

It was aunt Julia.

"Right.", she remembered. Susannah's dead and isn't coming back.

Lanelle felt someone behind her on the staircase — she turned around and saw Belly.

Their footsteps alerted Skye, "Hey Nelly, Belly." they greeted them

Lanelle smiled at Skye, she's not going to judge them just because their mom is an asshole.

"Hey, sorry. I just um — smelled some muffins." Belly spoke up, sheepishly looking at Lanelle

"Do you want one?" Skye asked

"Yeah, sure." Belly smiled at Skye

"Count me in too!" Lanelle chimed in

"Uh, those are for the open house. Morning" Aunt Julia stated as she gave them a tight lipped smile

Belly nodded — her mood damping, Lanelle looked at Belly and saw that she was feeling down, the girl wrapped her arm around belly.

"Maybe if we throw some hot water on her, she'll melt." The girl whispered

That caused Belly to snort, "Stop it." she whispered playfully.

The sound of the door opening caught the girl's attention,

"Mmm, did somebody get muff.." Jeremiah began but he trailed off as he saw Skye,

"Hi?" The blond greeted his cousin, as Conrad entered the house.

"Hey Jeremiah, hey Conrad." Skye greeted them nervously

"Skye. You didn't tell me she was here too." Conrad began but he got cut off.

"It's they not she." Skye corrected him as they played with their fingers, "God, I guess it's been like a decade since I saw you guys. Um how are you doing since your mom?"

Conrad didn't answer them, Jeremiah cleared his throat as he folded his arms,

"It's been rough."

"Rougher now that our aunt is stealing our house." Conrad scoffed

That caused aunt Julia to turn around, "I'm not stealing anything, Conrad. Like it or not, I get to choose what happens to this house and I choose to put it on the market." She started as she made her way to the trash,

"You guys should get on the road to beat the traffic back to Boston."

"There's no chance, we're staying for the open house." Conrad stated

Aunt Julia immediately shook her head, "Uh no — no — no. I can't have a bunch of teenagers chasing everybody away. Call your father, because this isn't an aunt Julia problem—"