Paper rings💍 { Johanna + Conrad }

☆*:..｡Baby Games｡.:*☆

"Cinder Belly!" Taylor calls out as she walks out of the bus with bags and balloons in hand. She gives Belly the balloons and her gift then hugs her. Taylor and Belly are best friends, obviously not as close as us but still, and while Taylor and I are good friends we have never really been as close as she and Belly are. "Hey Joey," she greets me "Hey Taylor," I say and we hug as well. "Hey Jeremy," she says to Jeremiah and me and Belly just look at each other with a knowingly unimpressed look knowing that's how she's flirting with him. "Oh this is for you Jo," she tells me while she hands me a gift bag, "Since I won't be here for your birthday, but you have to wait till your birthday to open it," She tells me sternly, like a mom telling her kid they can't have any more cookies. I laugh, "Ok Tay, thank you." I tell her and we get into the car. We stop to get ice cream at Taylor's request. We were seated on a bench outside. I got cookie dough, Jere got strawberry, and Taylor and Belly are both sharing a banana float. "So what's the plan?" Taylor asks Belly "Well Susannah always cooks this amazing dinner and this year's theme is midsummer and she even got some flower crowns for us to wear." Belly says full of excitement "Wait really, we're just doing dinner? Belly it's your 16th," Taylor says unimpressed. "Well, there is Nicole's party," Belly says shrugging it off. "Omg yes, a party let's go to that!" Taylor says excitedly "Wait, who's Nicole," she asks. "She's our big sister for the deb ball. She's really great." Belly said. She seemed to like the girl which I didn't have a problem with but it still made it hard to be around her at the tea parties, I mainly stayed with Shayla for those. "She's also Conrad's girlfriend," Jere chimed in. It hurts my heart to hear it every time. Taylor looks at me because she knows my feelings for Conrad from the late nights we three girls would spend together just talking. I shook my head subtly letting her know not to say anything and I'll fill her in when we got home. She understood. "Ok let's go so we can jump in the pool, I'm melting," she says dramatically. I giggle at her antics and we all get up to get going.

                                                                                        ~~

We were home in Belly's room for a while catching Taylor up. "Wait he said that!" Taylor shouts in shock when I told her about my argument with Conrad. All three girls were sprawled on Belly's bed. "Yep. Now we kinda have this battle of who can make the other more jealous. At least in my head, we do," I say with a sigh "Well are you winning?" Taylor asks "Oh definitely," I tell her and we all giggle. "I don't know though. I obviously don't want to fight with him and this is not how I pictured this summer going between us." I admit "Yeah I get it babe. But at least you got this new man and he seems amazing, maybe it's time to move on from Conrad." she tells me. Maybe it was time, but I was not going to give up on us. "Ok, I don't wanna talk about this anymore. It's Bell's birthday let's go and have fun," I say with a smile. "Oh Belly open your gift," Tylor tells her. She opens it and it's a really pretty purple bikini. We all change into our bikinis and head out to the pool. 

                              Jo's bikini (or picture wtv you like <3) ⤴

Jeremiah, Steven, and Gabe were all already in. We each got in and we were all swimming around now. After a while Taylor has an Idea "You guys wanna play chicken" she says with a smile. We all agree and go into teams. Steven and Taylor, Me and Jere, and Belly and Gabe. Gabe having to be on Belly's shoulders for obvious reasons. We played three rounds before Gabe got bored and quit. "Wait where are you going?" I ask him confused "I'm bored with your guys' baby game," he said walking inside. I turn to look at the rest and we're all dumbfounded by the fact a seven-year-old called us out on playing a baby game. "Wow," Steven says as he starts laughing. "I'm pretty sure he's just mad he lost," Belly says with a laugh. "Wait now the teams are uneven," Taylor points out "Oh, well it's ok ill just switch with whoever loses," I say and they resume their game. After a good battle, Taylor goes under and Belly and Jeremiah are cheering for their win, I'm just there laughing at Taylor and Stevens' bickering about whose fault it is they lost. "Ok whatever, Jo get on," Steven says. I get on his shoulders and me and belly start battling each other. Just then Conrad walks through the gate holding hands with Nicole. We all stop to see who is there "Oh hey Nicole," Belly greets the girl. Conrad and I just stare at each other looking for emotion behind the other's eyes. "Are you guys playing chicken?" Nicole asks sounding a bit judgmental "Yeah it was Taylor's idea," then Taylor pops from behind them and shows herself "Hi I'm Taylor," she says not sounding too happy. I just look between Nicole and Conrad and their intertwined hands, sadness in my eyes as I'm stranded on Steven's shoulders wishing to just be able to disappear. We were all just standing there kind of awkwardly, "Hey you guys wanna play a real game?" Belly asks us and we all agree. Steven and Jeremiah put us down into the water and we started playing volleyball.

Nicole and Conrad sat there on the ledge with their feet in the water. Nicole was all over Conrad not even realising his eyes had never once left its focus on me. After about 10 minutes of playing, the ball goes rogue and hits Nicole in the head. "Ow!" she says on impact and me and Taylor just snort trying to hold in our laughter. Conrad immediately goes to her aid. "Omg Nicole I'm so sorry are you ok," Belly says "Taylor!" she says as she looks back at her for throwing the ball. "It was on accident," she responds not knowing why the Conklin girl got so upset. "Conrad I'm fine," Nicole tells him so he can calm down. She was being dramatic and I hated it. "Do you need anything?" Belly asks the girl as she and Conrad are walking inside. "Belly it's fine Conrad can handle it. Come on Jo why don't we go drink some more," she says looking right at him and I stand there wanting to disappear in the water and never come back up. "Yeah have fun with that," he told her looking right at me. Once he went inside I got up and walked to the beach. I needed to be alone. I hated this.

Heyyyyy so you guys should totally comment what you think so far or whatever 😝👀

(this is for my 5 engaged readers😘🫶)