JEWEL -𝘛𝘢𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘳 𝘑𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘭

𓇼xii. the boardwalk

                                 JEWEL
                             chapter twelve

☼𓇼࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ☼𓇼࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ☼𓇼࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

Serena walked into the house with Jeremiah and Conrad scrunching her hair with her towel.

"Mmm, did somebody get muf-?" Jeremiah cut himself off as he saw Skye and Julia in the kitchen.

"Hey Jeremiah." Skye smiled. "Hi." Jeremiah muttered back. Skye greeted Conrad and Serena as they walked in. Serena just gave a small wave in return.

"How have you guys been doing since your mom?" Skye asked sympathetically. "It's been rough." Jeremiah spoke. "Rougher now that our aunt is stealing our house." Conrad snarked.

"I'm not stealing anything." Julia defended. Serena scoffed. "You guys should get on the road and beat the traffic back to Boston." Julia spoke, trying to get them to leave.

"No, I think we are going to stay for the open house." Serena hummed, taking a muffin as Julia glared.

"Uh no, no, no, I can't have a bunch of teenagers chasing everyone away." Julia spoke as Serena spilt her muffin in half, giving the other half to Jeremiah, who smiled in thanks before taking a big bite.

"Call your father because this isn't an Aunt Julia problem." Julia chided. "Uh yeah, actually it is because you are the problem." Conrad snarked, Serena held back her laugh.

"I don't have time for this." Julia declared, walking out of the room. "Conrad, she's still your family." Belly spoke up. Serena rolled her eyes.

"No family of ours would do this to us." Serena scoffed, giving Belly an annoyed look. Belly backed off. "This is hard for her too." Skye spoke up.

"Really?" Conrad asked. "Seems like she's doing this all pretty fucking easily," he scoffed, walking away.

Serena just sighed, shaking her head. "He's grown into quite the asshole." Skye scoffed. "You have no idea." Jeremiah sighed.

Serena decided she was done with the conversation, leaving the room and walking upstairs to her room.

She changed out of her swimsuit into shorts and a t-shirt before jumping on her bed, sighing.

She couldn't think anymore; she had a million thoughts running through her head. She sat up, groaning and clutching her head, hoping she could get it to focus.

Her mom's funeral was playing over and over in her head, and she couldn't get it to stop. She was trying to calm down when she broke out into a sweat. The house was getting hotter and hotter.

She needed air. She stumbled out of her room, almost hyperventilating. She ran downstairs, passing by Taylor as she called out to her.

She got to the backdoor, running all the way down to the beach, as she started to fully hyperventilate. She was clutching her throat in a desperate attempt to get it to start working.

"Serena? Sea!" Taylor called out, rushing to the girl. "Taylor?" Serena questioned, gasping for air. "It's okay, it's okay." Taylor spoke, sitting down and pulling the girl in for a hug.

She didn't really know how to help with a panic attack, but she tried her best. She rocked Serena while stroking her hair.

Serena remembered the last time she had a panic attack, it was after her mom's medicine stopped working. Her mother sat there and rocked her until she fell asleep.

Serena sobbed into Taylor's shoulder. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she repeated, feeling like a burden. "It's okay. Don't be sorry." Taylor hummed tears pooling into her eyes.

This is what Taylor wanted. She wanted Serena to know that she could lean on her when she needed help.

But Serena didn't see it that way; she always felt like a burden, and that's why Serena broke the Jewel girls heart breaking her own in the process.

Taylor held the girl until her breathing was steady and she was calmed down. Neither girl knew what to say as they walked back to the house in silence.

They walked into the back door. Steven is calling out to them. "Come on. The open house has been canceled; we're going to the boardwalk." He spoke, heading to the front door, everyone following behind.

Serena saw Skye following, assuming that they were tagging along with them. She wasn't too sure how she felt about them yet.


☼𓇼࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ


As they walked through the boardwalk, Serena got that warm feeling in her chest. She loved the smell of the sea and the excitement on everyone's face.

They all decided to get ice cream. Jeremiah telling Skye the story about Belly having to ride the tower of terror. Serena laughed fondly at the memory looking over and seeing Belly smile at her.

"I remember you were so scared you threw up." Serena laughed. "I was sick!" Belly defended glad the girl was speaking to her without hate in her tone. "Sick with fear. My mom had to throw out your clothes and carry you home in a caftan." Conrad laughed.

"Susannah used to force my mom to come here when they were kids. My mom always hated it, but Susannah loved it so much so." Skye trailed off. "You know what else my mom loved? The beach house." Conrad scoffed.

"My mom's not evil, Conrad, and your mom wasn't a saint." Skye spoke. Serena scoffed. About to say something before Belly cut her off.

"Skye, have you ever played shoot your shot?" Belly questioned, trying to lighten the mood.

"No, and I'm fine with keeping it that way." Skye dismissed. "Well, do you want to watch me beat Conrad's ass?" Belly joked.

"I wouldn't hate watching that." Skye spoke. "Okay, no, please, not another great Broadwalk showdown." Steven commented.

"I'm with Steven on this one; you guys get violent with it." Serena shivered, recalling the time she got a busted nose from playing laser tag with them during a competition.

Belly playfully scoffed. "We are never violent!" She laughed. "Don't you remember when Laurel banned you guys from playing?" Jeremiah laughed.

Belly playfully rolled her eyes. "Alright, we are splitting into teams." She spoke. "Since we have an odd amount, we can play rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets the extra player."

Conrad agreed, stepping forward to play with the girl. Once they had shouted rock, paper, scissors, they both threw out paper. They went again. Belly doing rock, and Conrad is doing paper again.

He cheered, pulling Serena to his side. Belly gasped. "Not Sea; she's the best as laser tag," she frowned.

"I know that's why I took her." Conrad winked. Serena giggled. "Remember that one time you busted her nose and she still got you out." Steven laughed.

"Yeah, sorry about that still." Belly muttered, embarrassed. Serena just smiled at the girl. "No hard feelings that was years ago." She giggled. "Can we play now?" she asked. Everyone nodded heading to the arcade.

They all raced inside. Once they signed up, they all went to the start area, putting on their vests and grabbing their guns.

Once Belly explained the rules, they all ran out, getting into their positions.

Serena was hiding behind a wall. She peaked around the corner, seeing Skye sneaking around. She shot at her, getting her out.

She went on to get Belly out, with team Conrad winning the first round. They went on to win the first two rounds, with Belly's team winning the third and fourth.

It was the last round, and Serena was feeling confident that they would win. She saw Taylor hiding behind a corner sneaking up on the girl and shooting at her. "Shit." Taylor groaned.

Serena cheered, jumping in victory. As they had been the last ones in the round. Conrad came up pulling her into a hug and laughing. "Let's go!" Steven cheered coming up behind them as Jeremiah followed cheering.

"Don't worry, we'll get them next time." Belly spoke to her team as they walked out.

The next challenge was rock climbing. Serena was going up against Taylor. Steven jokingly started climbing on the wall.

"No wait, wait, you can't do that without a harness." Cam spoke, running up to them.

"Cam?" Serena questioned. She ran up hugging the boy; he hugged her back before pulling away.

"Hey guys." Cam spoke awkwardly, waving at everyone. "What are you doing here? I thought Nicole said you were doing some fancy internship." Belly questioned.

"Oh yeah, that fell through," he muttered. "Awh, I'm sorry." Serena frowned, ruffling his hair. He just smiled, playfully rolling his eyes.

After Belly introduced him to Skye, he helped Serena and Taylor set up their harnesses. "Come on, Taylor, you got this." Belly called.

"Come on, Serena, bring it home." Steven called out. Serena glanced over to Taylor. "You're going down." Taylor joked.

"Yeah, whatever, bring it, Jewel." Serena spoke before it could register the nickname sliding off her tongue too easily. Taylor looked away, leaving Serena to feel uncomfortable.

She was scared she upset the girl, but she couldn't think too much about it as Cam started counting down. Serena began climbing as soon as "go" left his mouth.

She was thankful for her long limbs as she easily climbed the wall. She reached up and grabbed the flag, cheering. Taylor groaned, frowning.

Serena's team cheered her on as she came down. It was now officially time for shoot your shot.

Belly and Conrad stood in front of the game, both teams watching in anticipation. Cam had decided to tag along, standing by Serena.

The both started playing, each team cheering as their respective teammate scored.

Belly got the last shot at winning the game for her team. Serena slightly cheered for them as Belly picked her prize, a stuffed giraffe.

The last game was the dance machine, everyone heading back to the arcade.

Jeremiah and Skye went against each other. Serena watched as Skye danced; they were surprisingly good. Team Belly took the win.

The last game was go karts. Serena hated driving them, so she opted to get in one with Jeremiah. But she soon regretted it as she saw how the boy drove.

Team Conrad had secured the last win. They all picked out their bags of candy before Belly had to go ride the tower of terror.

Jeremiah offered to go on it with her. Serena watched their faces as they went up and came shooting down. She laughed so hard she didn't think she could laugh any more.

Belly came off the ride stumbling and shaking just a little. They stayed at the boardwalk until it was dark, before ultimately deciding to go home.

As Serena sat in the car, all she could think about was how much fun she had at the boardwalk; it almost felt like nothing was ever wrong in the first place, but that all changed when she arrived home walking inside.

Everything was gone, all of it down to the pictures on the wall. Serena felt tears prick her eyes as she walked through the house. Everyone looked around silently, not knowing what to do. Serena had officially felt like she had lost it all.