❪ # TWELVE ❫ ⋆⑅˚₊
SEASON ONE, EPISODE FOUR: summer heat

ALL THE teens were seated on the beach in different floaties and beach chairs. Conrad and Tabitha decided to take the ground with a beach towel underneath them.

Everyone was in their own conversation until Belly came out with more drinks.

"May I present, The Belly Special?"

"Ohhh, very nice."

"Those look awesome."

"Uh, we saved you the inflatable unicorn." Gigi said pointing at the unicorn floatie that was next to her.

"Well, Thank you."

"You want some?" Conrad asked Tabitha while holding up the jug of Belly's drink.

"Yeah."

"Hey guys! Check out who I found," Jeremiah said walking to the group with Cam Cameron by his side. "It's Cam Cameron."

"Cam!"

Conrad held up a cup of the drink towards Cam, which he politely declined. "Oh, I'm good, man. Thank you. I don't drink."

"Yes, that's right. More for me."

Jere and Cam greeted everyone in the circle.

"It's not a race, Con" Nicole joked.

"Yeah, save some for the rest of us, please." Jeremiah added.

"Okay, wait, wait, wait. But what if it was a race?" Belly suggested. "I mean, isn't that... isn't... Isn't that the premise of, like every drinking game?"

"You want to play a drinking game?" Gigi asked, surprise laced in her voice.

"Why not? I mean it's the Fourth of July, right?"

"Fuck it."

"Let's do it."

All the teens were playing games, drinking, dancing, and having fun.

The girls were drinking and dancing on one side of the beach while the guys weee playing games on the other.

Conrad watched as Tabitha drank and danced with Nicole, a bright smile present on her face.

After games, everyone made their way up to the dock.

"Oh, okay, but did you know that she was one of the last people to visit Lindsay Lohan's beach club in Mykonos before it closed?" Gigi asked.

"Are you serious?" Shayla said.

"Mm-hmm."

"Oh, my God, I'd die for Lindsay." Shayla said while tilted her head back. "Ugh, she's a queen."

"Ibiza is superior, though." Nicole added.

"As if!"

"You don't agree?"

"No!" Shayla looked into Steven's eyes and grabbed his arm, "Back me up."

"Yes, no. I... Yes, I agree."

"He's lost." Tabitha chuckled.

Nicole mocked the boy resulting in Shayla telling the girl to shut up.

"Doesn't know what he's talking about." Gigi said.

"He knows what he's talking about. He's on my side."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

❝I DON'T get Conrad, sometimes," Tabitha starts as she picks on the skin around her finger nails. "It's, like, one minutes he's all over me. I mean, the other day practically undressing me with his eyes, but then nothing ever happens. And then this morning, he's, like, super into me, he's all over me, and now he's, like, 'Oh, football'."

"Yeah, no, he's really hard to read sometimes." Belly said. "Like all the time." She laughed.

"Yeah, but, I've never had to read him before. He would just tell me what's up. Now it feels like he isn't telling me anything." Tabitha said with a furrow in her eyebrows. "Do you really think he likes me?"

"Yeah... yeah. Totally. I mean you wouldn't like you? Tabitha, you're gorgeous and nice. Who would like you?"

Tabitha looked down at her fingers due to the blush the was forming in her cheeks. "Thank you, Bells. It just, doesn't feel that way with him, you know?"

"No, no. I mean, he talks about you a lot." Belly informed the girl.

"Really?"

"Yeah, mm-hmm"

"Hi." Cam entered. "You may want to hydrate. Water."

"Cam Cameron, you are so sweet. Isn't he sweet?"

Nicole, Shayla, and Tabitha all smiled at the two and agreed with the sixteen year old girl.

"Uh, do you want to go for a walk on the beach?" Cam asked.

"Belly, by the way, I love that dress." Shayla told Belly.

"Really? Thank, I... Taylor got it for me, actually."

"Mm, Taylor had great taste."

"Yeah, I know, right?" Belly agreed. "She totally does. Oh, my God. You know what? You and Taylor are, like, twins. Because you're both mega-fashiony."

"Very true." Tabitha and Nicole added.

"And you're both, like... baddies, would you... Baddies. And you. the like the same summer boys, which is..."

"We do?" Shayla asked.

As soon as the words fell from her mouth, Cam stood up and started trying to get her up. "Let's go for that walk."

"No, no, no, Cam. I'm talking," Belly turned towards Shayla with a drunken look on her face. "Look,

Shayla, like, don't worry, because my brother is an idiot. And it didn't mean anything. It didn't mean anything."

Tabitha and Nicole exchanged glances of confusion.

"Wait, what didn't mean anything?"

"Uh, them—them kissing. It was like... He—he, like, loves you. He loves you. And... wait, does anyone want another drink."

There was only silence left between the three girls, until Shayla spoke up. "Did you know?" She asked, directed at Tabitha.

"No, no, no. I swear I didn't. If I did I promise I would've told you." Tabitha sweared.

"I think I'm gonna head out." Shayla said and Nicole followed.

Tabitha let out a sigh as she watched the girls walk over to their bags.

Once she saw Belly arrive over as well, she decided to go over.

"Tell them not to leave."

"Stay you guys." Cam said, in an unconvincing tone.

"Uh, Shayla doesn't feel good." Nicole said. "I think we had a little too much."

"Oh... O-Okay, yeah. Well, I'm... I mean, I still feel... I feel gr... great. You know what? Lets do the again tomorrow."

"Hey," Gigi said, gaining Tabitha's attention. "We're heading to Nicole's. You're welcome to come over and stay the night."

"I'll think about it." She gave the three girls a sincere smiles and waved to them.

"Belly, I'm actually gonna take off, too." Cam said.

"Why?"

"I just think we can catch up when you're a little less..."

"A little less...?"

"Um... just drink water."

"Okay. But I'm not, I'm not drunk."

"Drink a lot of water. Yeah water would be good."

"I'm not..."

"Call you tomorrow." He said walking inside the house. "See you, Tabs."

"Bye, Cam." She smiled and waved at the boy.

"Okay..." Belly sighed and picked her glass back up. "Tabby, Tabsss. Do you want to drink with me?"

"I actually might just head up. I have a pounding head ache. Probably drank too much."

"Whatever." Belly rolled her eyes.

Tabitha went inside the house but it dawned on her that she left her phone outside.

Once she made it outside, she heard Belly's voice and the shower running.

"Oh, sea creature..." She heard Belly yell out. "Where are you?"

"Uh, I'm in the shower." Conrad answered. Tabitha furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"Everybody left. But we still got margaritas to drink."

"Okay, well, I can't drink it in the shower. Can you just put it down and I'll get it after? Can I shower?"

"I've always liked you with wet hair," Belly started. Tabitha pressed her lips together in a thin line and her heart started to race even faster. "It's so... romantic."

"What's so romantic about wet hair?" Conrad questioned.

"You just don't get it. I bet that girlfriend of yours would. I mean she is just great, isn't she?"

"Yeah... she is." He said with a. faint smile on his lips. "How many of those have you had?"

"Two... five. It's not important." Conrad chuckled at the girls antics. "Let me just ask you one thing, okay? Did you buy me that infinity necklace for my birthday?"

Tabitha's heart dropped to her feet. She waited, and waited for Conrad's answer, but it never came. She scoffed and sniffled.

Not wanting to hear the rest of the conversation, she made her way upstairs, but was caught by Jeremiah.

"Hey, hey. What's wrong, Tabby?" Jeremiah asked while resting his hands on her shoulders.

"Has anything ever happened between Belly and Conrad?" Tabitha sniffled.

"Not to my knowledge? Why? What's going on?" Jeremiah had worry laced in his voice and painted on his face.

"Um, nothing. Nothing important. It's stupid." She said as she took a seat on the steps.

He sat down next to her, "Talk to me."

As she opened her mouth to talk, Conrad had came into the house. "Hey, baby, what's wrong?"

She scoffed and went up into his room.

"What happened?" He asked Jeremiah.

"Didn't get to tell me. But she said something about you and Belly." Jeremiah said with an angry look now on his face.

"Shit." Conrad mumbled and began to follow his girlfriend.

"Hey," Jeremiah stopped him. "Nothings happening between you and Belly, right?"

"Why, cause you like her?"

"No, because Tabitha doesn't deserve to get hurt. Especially by you."

Conrad didn't answer his question and made his way into his room.

"Hey, Tabby. What are you doing?" Conrad asked as he walked into his room while to see her packing a bag.

"I'm spending the night at Nicole's." She mumbled, not looking at him.

"Hey, look at me. Tell me what's wrong." He grabbed her face and placed a finger under her chin to get her to look at him.

"Did you get an infinity necklace for Belly?" Tabitha asked with tears in her eyes as she looked at Conrad.

"No. I swear I didn't. It—it was for our—"

"She surely thinks it was for her."

"She's wrong! I just—I just didn't correct it. It was for you. For our anniversary. I swear."

"I'm still gonna go stay at Nicole's. I just—I need some space right now."

"I love you, Tabitha. For infinity."

"I love you too, Conrad." With that, Tabitha picked up her bag and walked out the room.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

CONRAD STOOD at the docks, watching the fireworks go off.

        Belly walked to his side and let out a sigh. "So... does everyone hate me now?"

        "Who could ever hate you?" Conrad said.

        "So I think my mom just got railed."

        "What?! By who?"

        "I don't know." She laughed.

        "Wow. Go, Laurel."

        "Belly, about the necklace..." Conrad started

        "Um, I'm sorry I brought it up."

        "It's fine, it's fine," He interrupted her. "It's just—It was for Tabitha."

        "Oh. Infinity. It's a you and her thing too?"

        "It's always been a me and her thing." He informed her.

        "I'm just confused, Conrad." Belly shook her head with a sigh. "I feel like you've been throwing me mixed signals."

        "How?" He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "I brought my girlfriend here. That's a very unmixed signal."

        "You have been acting weird around me ever since we got here." She shot back.

        "Belly, you don't know the effect you have on people."

        "Effect on people?" Her face filled with confusion, "I don't... I don't know what you're talking about."

        "Yeah. You do."

        Maybe she was crazy. Maybe she wasn't. But even though Conrad had a girlfriend, she felt something. And as she leaned into him she could only hope he felt it too.

        Only he didn't. Or maybe he did, but he knew he didn't want to kiss the girl. He was talking crazy. He just couldn't move.

        Thankfully, a firework had made Belly jump away from him. Which made him get out of what ever trans he was in.

        "I should go call Tabs." He said and walked into the house.

❪ NOT EDITED ❫
JULES RAMBLES

ੈ✩‧₊˚ authors note:

— three in a row who am i?

— episode five next, wonder when that'll be written 🌚

— don't forget to vote and comment!! 🫶🏽 don't be a silent reader! if there are any mistakes please tell me about them 🙏🏽

WORD COUNT:
1944

published:
friday, november 8th !