betty ↳ conrad fisher

thirty-one.

Betty Graham was laid face down on her bed, drowning in blankets , and drifting in and out of sleep. She had been like this for days, the only time she got up was to go to the bathroom. Her brothers had gotten worried about her by day 2, her mother getting worried around day 4 and finally the three of them wanting to check on her from time to time.

The thing that made it so bad was the fact that this was the first time Betty had really, truly mourned what they had. When they had broken up the first time she was so mad that she didn't cry, when she hadn't showed up it didn't hurt her enough to really feel it, she was preserving herself. But this time...even though he wanted her, he had proven he wanted Belly too, and  that hurt more than anything else.

The days she spent in her bed were filled with hurt that she had accumulated over the entire course of their relationship. She was constantly dredging up  old memories, reminding herself of times she truly  should've been more hurt than she was. This was the worst heartache she had ever felt, and she didn't know how to cope with it.

"Hey sis...how you feeling?" The voice was Nick Grahams, and behind him trailing was his brother, the both of them acting as if they were walking on eggshells. Betty groaned as he spoke, both of the boys standing at the edge of her bed and sharing a look. "Can you at least tell us what happened?"

"No...I don't want to talk about it."

"Listen Betty...we need to know whose ass we have to beat okay? Just point us in the direction." Noah said, a serious look on his face as he gestured towards the door. Betty didn't say anything, instead letting out a huff and then actually managing to push herself up into a sitting position. The boys took a step back, taking in the sight of their sister who looked worse for wear, her face tear stained and her hair a big greasy mess.

"It's my own fault. I just waited too long to cry about it." Betty said, the two boys looking at her in confusion. However before they could say anything else her mother walked past the bedroom door and peeked in, her eyes widening when she saw that Betty was actually sitting up and talking.

"Oh good! You're up. Go shower and change your clothes please. I need you to look presentable." The three siblings looked at their mother in confusion, Betty's eyebrows furrowing as the woman just looked back at them. "Well don't just sit there and look at me...get up."

The boys looked at their mother in confusion still, the woman going to her daughters dresser drawers and pulling some clothes out for her. She wanted to fall back into bed, her heart feeling like it was ripped in half and stomped on even still. But her mother grabbed the boys, pulling them into the hallway and then giving Betty a stern look.

"Now."

She shut the girls door, Betty falling back on her bed. She didn't consider her options, instead pushing herself out of the bed before she could get too into her head. She refrained form looking out the window at all, knowing that with her luck the harbinger for all this pain would be looking back at her. It was hard to describe what was so heartbreaking about it all. They had talked on good terms. They had settled things. But knowing his heart was divided so largely, it felt like hell to even think of.

Betty was in her bathroom and out of the shower quicker than she had expected, finding a small amount of energy to do something so basic. She occupied herself with getting dressed and attempting to find her hairbrush, her body slowing the more she moved. Finally she gave up, sitting at the chair of her vanity and staring into the mirror. She ran a hand over her hair and then over her face, looking into the mirror with a resenting gaze. She traced over her features, wondering what it was about her that wasn't enough. She figured maybe it was something internal, maybe her personal issues were too large for him. Maybe Belly was more open, more honest and emotional and maybe that's what Conrad wanted. Maybe Betty Graham was too closed off to be with someone who was also closed off. Maybe he was tired of pulling all the weight in the emotional department. Before she knew it she was being reminded of their conversation a few days before, when he had practically begged her to confess her love to him. She didn't know it was that important, she thought he knew. She thought he knew. She thought he could tell. It was  the way her family loved, not out loud. Betty loved her mother but she didn't tell her a lot, she couldn't even think of the last time she had told her. She loved her brothers more than life but she never said it, they just knew. She thought he knew that. She thought he knew how hard it was for her to say things like that. She wondered if that's why he couldn't choose.  Because Belly could say it and she couldn't. Because Belly was better at showing it than she was.

"Well look at you...clean. You want me to brush your hair?" Betty's mother stood in the doorway of her bedroom, pulling her eyes away from her reflection. She had tears brimming her eyes that she hadn't been noticed, her vision slightly blurry as she bit the inside of her cheek. Her mother was holding Betty's hairbrush in her hand, the girl giving her a nod. She crossed the room quickly, Betty's hand lifting to wipe the tears from her eyes.  Her mother stopped behind her, separating her hair into two sides and then starting on brushing it. "You know...me and your dad broke up one time in high school—did I ever tell you that?"

Betty had heard her  parents story a thousand times over, it was her favorite one. They had met in elementary school, but they had hated each other all the way up until 9th grade when he asked her to the school dance. The rest was history, and still now they loved each other so much. Betty loved hearing about them. But she had never heard this story, and she wondered if her mom had saved it for a moment like this.  Betty shook her head, her mom pulling the brush through her hair  and smiling down at it.

"Oh yeah...it was a huge fight—I mean, we didn't talk for like a month."

"Why were you fighting?" Betty asked, her eyes on the reflection of her mother as she spoke about it. The older woman smiled, Betty thinking this side of her mother was easy to love.

"It was Junior Prom, your dad and I were having a good time but there was this girl who always stared at him. And finally I guess she thought prom was the place to make her move...so she goes up and starts dancing with him, and he lets her. Oh I was so mad...I thought I was going to tear his head off." Her mother chuckled at the memory, Betty smiling as she pictured a mystery woman in the midst of a dance with her dad.

"What happened?"

"Well we went home early that night, and I was so angry. And I told him we had to break up because clearly he liked other girls. He told me I was crazy and of course I didn't like that. I ignored him for weeks, seriously your grandma was so annoyed because he called the house constantly trying to get me to talk to him." Betty's mother brushed the ends of the right side of her head, the younger girl frowning at the thought of her parents fighting like that.  She looked at her mother in the mirror, still noticing how she was smiling although the story seemed to be upsetting.

"So then what did he do?" Betty asked, turning around in her chair and looking at her mother. For a moment she felt like a little kid again, her mother standing over her with the hairbrush, telling her a story.

"He showed up at my doorstep with a dozen roses and your Aunt T knew that  I wouldn't be able to resist. So she dragged me downstairs and he begged me for an hour to take him back. And that night I realized something."

"What'd you realize?"

"I realized that he was the right guy for me... because he loved me so much that he wasn't willing to lose me." Betty's mother ran a hand over her daughters hair, knowing that her words hit close to home. Betty felt a lump in her throat at her mothers word, and she knew what she was trying to say. She was trying to tell her that if Conrad really wanted to be with her then he would, and if he really loved her he would choose her.  Betty's lip trembled and she buried her head in her mothers shirt, her tears returning as her mother wrapped her arm around her head. For a moment she didn't know what to do, she had never had a moment like this with Betty, the girl had always been able to keep her cool, and it was refreshing for the both of them to know she was able to hurt so deeply. She cried into her moms shirt until the sound of the front door closing pulled her head back, footsteps on the stairs making them both look to the door. Her mothers hand ran over her smoothed down hair as a figure appeared in the doorway, Betty flooding with relief at the sight of who it was.

"Oh my girl...I'm so sorry." Jared Graham crossed the room, Betty standing from her seat and meeting him in the middle for a hug. She let out  a few tears of  joy as she felt safe in her fathers arms, the man running a hand over her hair. It was well known between the Graham family now that Betty had had her heart broken, and it was Conrad Fishers doing. And it would not be so easily forgotten. "Let's get you fed huh?"