Moonlight | Conrad Fisher

Chapter 37 "Color Brown."

The summer rain started pouring outside, but I didn't care. My tears seemed invisible in this weather but yet, my mascara was exposing me.

I ran out of the car, to the house that was once my home for more than eighteen years. Pounding on the door, no one came to open as I was about to turn away and walk back.

"Sweetheart?" The door opened as I turned around.

"Mom." I cried out before running into her arms and hugging her. My tears streamed down as she whispered words into my mouth but I couldn't comprehend them. She was worried, and yet there was only one person that I was worried about. "I miss her. I miss him."

I heard her sigh before she hugged me even tighter, and it felt like I was a kid again. I was a little child in my imagination, that either scraped her knee by falling off her bike or got a bad grade in second grade. It felt good to be held, by someone at least.

——

My phone rang as I let out a loud groan. I was laying in my childhood bed, in my bedroom. "Yes?" I mumbled out as Belly's voice rang through my ears.

"You're coming with me. Or actually, you're picking me up because I have a problem with driving long distances."

Sitting up, I pulled my hair behind my ear as I groaned again, just loud enough so that Belly could hear me. "Bells it's literally seven in the morning. What are you on about?"

"I'll tell you everything when you come pick me up. It's important. You don't have time for makeup or for planning an outfit, just pack some makeup and start driving to my house."

"I swear if you're getting me up for something unnecessary I'll cut your head off."

"See you here, Nina."

At that, the phone line clicked as I let out my third groan of the morning. Looking myself in the camera, I was quite thankful for the fact that my eyes weren't puffy from the night before.

I talked to my mother about some of the stuff, I knew she was also dealing with grief in her ways so I didn't want to be a burden to her. I've made my monthly promises to visit her, and this is my second time in one month. She didn't even expect me.

In a matter of minutes, I was out with my makeup bag and a fresh pair of clothes as I turned the wheel around and made my drive to the Conklin home.

After about an hour, I was pulling up beside the house before I realised that the girl was already sitting on the curb, waiting for me. When she realised that my BMW was in front of her, she jumped in before smiling at me.

"Thank the Lord you've listened to me. Okay, so we're going to meet Jere."

I raised both of my eyebrows at her sudden expression. She pulled her lips into a thin line before shrugging her shoulders and buckling herself in the seat. "That was a tad bit random, don't you think? Why would we do that?"

The car was now out of the neighbourhood and into the busy roads. I assumed we were going to the summer beach house. "Well it's kind of a long story. But to make it short, I wanted to sort things out with Jeremiah so I called him and then I realised that something was wrong. I asked him what's up and he told me that like I'm some weird way, Conrad had just disappeared-"

My foot stepped on the breaks as fast as I could before Belly even got to finish her speech. The other cars honked at me as they drove around. "No. We're going back home. I'm not doing this."

"Just listen!" Belly put her arms on my shoulders as she turned me to look at her. "Conrad told his roommate that he was just done with everything and then he just left and no one's heard from him ever since. I know you still care for him. And well, even though that happened, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't care about him."