ruined me ( conrad fisher )

008, not so sweet sixteen

━━━━━━ ☀︎,━━━━━━━...‥

"MORNING, EVERYONE!"

      Every birthday Belly ever had was at Cousins. Leilani used to look forward to the day because she loved seeing the smile on Belly's face when she opened the gift she got her. But, this year was different.

      It had been a week since Leilani and Belly had their argument, but it had been a week since they had last spoken to each other. Neither of them told anyone about the argument, but everyone assumed something had happened.

      "Morning, everyone!" Belly greeted, them as she walked into the kitchen.

      Everyone's heads perked up at the sight of the birthday girl -- everyone other than Leilani and Conrad.

      One thing about Leilani is that she will hold onto a grudge for dear life. But, this wasn't Leilani's doing. Belly had been ignoring the girl all week -- the only time they spoke was when Belly asked Leilani to pass her the cereal, but that was days ago.

      Everyone rushed over to her, to wish her a happy birthday. Leilani leaned on the kitchen island, as Steven walked around and stood beside her, as he placed down a plate of bacon.

      "Belly button's getting old finally. Happy birthday," Steven smiled, before taking a bite of the piece of bacon in his hand.

      "Happy birthday, Bells," Dylan said, tuning in his seat beside Conrad.

      "Thanks, everyone," Belly giggled before she looked up at Leilani -- as if expecting her to say something.

      "Yeah, happy birthday," Leilani mumbled.

      Laurel walked over to Belly, hugged her, and told her that her pancakes were ready. "Actually, I'm not really, uh, hungry," Belly told her.

      "We can open gifts then," Danielle smiled softly.

      "Oh, you're gonna love mine," Jeremiah smiled, grabbing his gift off the counter.

      "I doubt it," Dylan laughed.

      They all walked into the living room and sat down. Leilani sat on the floor next to Jeremiah as Belly started opening her presents one by one.

      Leilani had bought Belly a gift -- but she decided that if Belly wanted to ignore her for the past week, she didn't need her gift that bad.

      The first present she opened was from Laurel, "It's a first edition. I got it from a rare book dealer,"

      "Thanks, Mom," Belly smiled, inspecting the book.

      "Turn to the bookmarked page," Laurel told her with a smile. "It's your favorite poem," she whispered to Susannah, making Danielle smile.

      "Oh yeah," Belly laughed, opening the page. "I remember Susannah teaching us to recite this,"

      "For whatever we lose... like you or a me, it's always ourselves we find in the sea," all the kids mumbled, smiling as they looked up at Susannah.

      "Thank you, I love it,"

      "You're welcome,"

      "Okay, open mine now, Belly" Susannah said, handing Belly her gift.

      Belly smiled, shaking it before she tore the wrapping paper off it. When she opened it, it revealed a pearl necklace. "Oh, wow. They're gorgeous. Thank you, Susannah,"