AFTERGLOW |TSITP

𝐓𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒

"WHAT THE FUCK, JULIA?" Conrad cursed, his eyes full of loathing.

"I'm sorry, this must be such a shock. I-I spoke to your father this afternoon, and-and he and I decided that it would be best not to drag this out any longer than necessary." Julia tried her best to explain but Lanelle's anger kept piling up.

"Oh fuck you!" Lanelle snapped — that caused everyone to look at her.

"Don't." Steven whispered in her ear, not wanting the conversation to escalate further.

Conrad backed her up, "Exactly fuck you! I don't give a shit what the two of you decided on. You had no right to touch anything in this house, those were her things." The boy kept inching towards his aunt to get his point across. Steven approached Conrad and held his arm.

"Breathe man."

Lanelle scoffed, "Why? He has every right to act like that, none of this is fucking okay. And I'm so sick of these half-ass apologies." The girl paused, "This is so messed up." She muttered as Conrad shrugged Steven off and went over to her.

"Everything's in storage. I made sure that everyone was careful with every single thing. I'm just doing what I have to do to sell this house." Aunt Julia tried to excuse herself.

"Bullshit, you could've said something. You could've warned us. All you want to do is fight our mom constantly." Conrad glared

"Okay, enough! You're not the only one that's hurting here. And I'm not the one you should be angry with. Your mother could've warned you that this was gonna happen. She just wanted to make me the bad guy, as usual." The woman sighed

Lanelle rolled her eyes, "Oh cry me a fucking river."

"I'm so sorry that she was too busy dying, to make your life a little easier. You know, it sucks that our grandfather loved her more than you, but I'm not surprised." Conrad's voice wavered as he walked out of the kitchen.

That last sentence made Lanelle's mouth drop a little and her eyebrows raised. She, Belly and Taylor went to follow Conrad outside.

The whole group stepped outside, watching Conrad trying to make a phone call.

"Of course dad did nothing to stop her." He grumbled as the phone was still ringing.

"Connie, what can he do?" Jeremiah asked as he stood next to his brother.

"He doesn't care about us jere!" Conrad snapped, still trying to get in contact with his father,

"And this asshole won't even pick up my calls." He continued as the front door closed.

Conrad looked at Skye who just came through and glared maliciously, "Did you know about this? I-I'm serious, did you know about this?" He approached Skye accusingly.

"I didn't know about anything, okay? I swear I would've told you." They defended.

"Would you have? Really? Because we haven't seen each other in ten years. Would a day at the boardwalk be enough to make you betray your mom?" Conrad stood in front of Skye with a furious expression.

Lanelle shared a look with Belly, everyone was watching the scene unfold. The girl snapped out of it, and placed her hand on Conrad's shoulder, at first he flinched wanting to know who it was and as he saw that it was Lanelle he let her place her hand there.

"Back off, okay?" She whispered, feeling bad for Skye. The boy just took a deep breath in response.

Skye sighed, "Listen, I know we don't know each other very well, but I-I wouldn't have sideswiped you like this." They sincerely spoke to Conrad.