CHAPTER ONE

COOPER MURPHY REALLY HADN'T experienced a "summer vacation" since he was six years old. after his parents split he was kicked out of his house with his mom and told to find somewhere new and far away from his dad. his dad had never really been a good person—which was one of the reasons why his parents had gotten divorced. they'd moved in with his grandmother, but she died only a few years later, leaving cooper and his mom alone in her large house. they ended up having to downgrade because money was tight and now seven eight years later the seventeen year old boy and his mother were just making enough to get by.

vacations weren't ever in their plans because cooper's mom never had time off and when she did she had other things that had to be taken care of. he'd spent every summer hanging out with the few friends he had and as he got older he started smoking weed and getting high all the time, causing some of those friends to drift away.

cooper identified himself as a loner. he didn't mind being alone and he definitely didn't mind not having to share his stash. however, when he spotted conrad fisher under the bleachers of the football field one night during a game looking depressed he offered some over and the two smoked for hours, talking about random shit. he'd told cooper about his mom's cancer returning and how his dad had cheated on her. he made cooper swear not to say anything and cooper told him he would take it to his grave. the two started hanging out more, sharing weed and keeping each other company.

susannah, conrad's mom, loved cooper. she knew of his drug use, but still treated the boy like he was one of her own. conrad's brother, however, was not a fan of the blond. he thought cooper was a bad influence on his brother and couldn't stand him. cooper was offended in the slightest. he didn't care about his or anyone else's opinions on him.

it was the summer after conrad and cooper (surprisingly) graduated high school and conrad insisted that cooper spent the summer with them in cousins. cooper was hesitant because he wasn't sure how his mom would feel about it, plus he wasn't sure if he wanted to deal with jeremiah's existence while he was there. he'd debated for a week before deciding to talk to his mom about it. she was more than happy for him to go and was so grateful that susannah offered to pay for anything needed while they were away. his mom ended up giving him as much money as she could to bring along and told him to enjoy his vacation. she'd said he definitely needed it. it only made his decision of going easier and he put jeremiah and his issues into the back of his head.

they'd arrived to cousins only an hour before and conrad was in his room unpacking while cooper laid on the guest bed, scrolling through the apps on his phone waiting for the boy. he was too lazy to unpack—he'd do it eventually. he'd left his bedroom door open so that conrad could come right in when he was done. a car honking it's horn caught his attention and he sat up, looking towards the door to see jeremiah rushing passed as susannah announced that their friends were there.

cooper was curious, honestly. conrad had told him a lot of things in the few months they'd been friends and meeting his crush would definitely be entertaining; especially since she had no idea he liked her that way. cooper was pretty sure he was the only one that knew of his true feelings for belly conklin. he'd even broken up with his girlfriend because of how he felt for the girl.

he slid off his bed and made his way downstairs and out to the driveway. conrad was greeting the girl while susannah was hugging her best friend and jeremiah was with belly's brother. jeremiah's smile faded from his face as he caught a glimpse of cooper and he lowered his voice, whispering to his friend. the stranger looked in cooper's direction and the blond boy simply gave a small wave. susannah smiled wide at the boy, gesturing for him to join the group. he approached her with a small smile and shook laurel's hand as they were introduced. the two moms then headed into the house, leaving the kids outside.

"hey," the boy with jeremiah spoke. "i'm assuming you're the legendary cooper i've heard about. i'm steven."

"nice to meet you." cooper said, shaking the boy's hand as he extended it.

"i've heard great things about you." steven said, causing cooper to chuckle as he shoved his hands in his front pockets.

his eyes trailed over to jeremiah before he looked back at steven. "i doubt that."

"cooper!" conrad called for the boy. "this is belly."

"it's nice to meet you." cooper smiled at the girl as they approached the three boys.

"hold up," jeremiah interrupted. "do you guys know what time it is?"

steven looked at his empty wrist, "oh, it's that time already?"

"what time is it?" cooper asked.

the three friends looked at each other before shouting in unison. "time for a belly flop!"

belly screeched and tried to run away from the boys, but they caught up to her fast. conrad grabbed her upper body and the other two grabbed a leg each, carrying her to the backyard. cooper silently followed, watching as they counted down and threw her in the pool. belly faked hurt and pulled conrad in with her making cooper notice right then and there that she was in love with him too, no doubt. steven and jeremiah changed the topic to food and headed inside. belly climbed out of the pool and headed inside also to find a towel, leaving the two graduates outside.

conrad peeled off his wet zip-up and threw it on the ground. the boy looked up to see the smile on cooper's face. "what?"

"oh, buddy." he clapped a hand on his wet shoulder. "you have no idea."

he made his way inside and back up to his room to grab his phone that he'd left behind. cooper watched belly walk to her room and jeremiah soon trailed after her. their rooms weren't far apart, so he could hear their conversation. the curly haired boy wanted to swim in the ocean with the girl and was practically begging her to go.

"sure," she caved. "just give me a few minutes."

cooper walked over to the door, leaning against its frame as he waited for jeremiah to exit her room. he did so, with a smile on his face, and cooper smirked. "that was a little desparate, don't you think?"

jeremiah's face faltered and he rolled his eyes. "fuck off." he didn't give the older boy a second glance as he made his way down the stairs to wait for belly. the smile didn't fall from cooper's face as he walked back into the bedroom and scrolled through the ten texts his mom had sent him. she was only updating him on how her day was going, but she was one of those people that sent multiple texts instead of one large one.

conrad quickly closed cooper's door as he entered the room and ushered the blond boy to the window. they climbed out onto the roof and sat, deciding on smoking some weed to chill each other out. cooper took a hit before handing it over to conrad and looked out at the beach. he could just make out jeremiah and belly running into the water and he licked his lips.

conrad looked at his phone before turning to cooper. "my mom and laurel are running errands, so we're on our own for dinner before the bonfire tonight. did you still want to go to that?"

"definitely." cooper nodded, accepting the joint as it was handed back to him. "we gotta get some beer on the way."

"don't worry." conrad smirked. "i've got this."

jeremiah is going to
despise the shit out
of cooper at first 👀