✸ ANYONE ELSE
chapter twenty-two ━━ the summer house

THE FIRST COUPLE of minutes was spent in complete silence.

Jeremiah and Julie had gotten into Steven's car as soon as he pulled up in front of their house, Jeremiah in the front seat, and Julie in the back.

Steven kept looking back at her. He was expecting her to say something—anything was better than this silence. He wanted to hear her voice.

It felt like forever before someone spoke again, but it wasn't Julie. It was Jeremiah.

"This was my prom's theme song." He said, turning up the radio.

Steven nodded unsurely, "How many proms have you been to?" He asked, remembering that the song hadn't been from Julie and Jeremiah's own prom.

"Total? Five."

"What? Yeah, right. I don't believe you," Steven laughed as if going to five proms was the most unrealistic thing he could think of.

Jeremiah starting ticking off with his fingers to prove that he was right. "Junior year, I went to two, mine and Flora Martinez's at Sacred Heart. This year, I went to my prom and two others. Sophia Franklin at—"

"Okay, okay. I get it. You're in demand." Steven laughed and leaned forward to fiddle with the air conditioner control. Julie looked cold in the backseat.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

WHEN THEY DROVE up to Conrad's campus, there were people milling around outside on the lawn. Girls were laying out in shorts and bikini tops, trying to get a bit of sun, and a group of boys were playing Ultimate Frisbee on the grass.

They parked right in front of Conrad's dorm building and then slipped inside the door when a girl stepped out with a laundry basket full of clothes.

Jeremiah clearly knew the way, because he hurried inside. He took the stairs
two at a time and Steven and Julie had to jog to keep up. Steven kept sending glances towards the girl, but she always looked away.

He had to remind himself that this wasn't about him. It was about Conrad. This probably wasn't going to be the time where they figured everything out. As soon as they were done here, they would be going back to the car and sit in silence for another two hours before he would drop them off back at their house and not see them again before his mother decided that it would be a good time.

Jeremiah came to a stop at the third floor, and the two others stopped behind him. They went down a brightly lit hallway until they reached Conrad's room.

The door had a sign that Conrad's name was written on, and underneath it, the name "Eric Trusky."

Julie had met Eric. She had visited Conrad on campus the year before, so she recognised the person when a stocky, muscular guy with reddish brown hair, opened the door wearing gym shorts and a T-shirt.

"What's up?" he asked them, his eyes falling on Julie as he also recognised her.

Jeremiah cleared his throat. "I'm  Conrad's brother, and this is—"

"Your sister," Eric caught him off, "I remember her,"

Julie smiled at him, and they continued to look at one another for a moment when no one spoke.

Steven coughed loudly, when the two had been staring a little too long, and smiled in victory when it made Julie glance at him.

Julie cleared her throat, "Do you know where Conrad is?" she asked.

Eric opened the door to let them in. "Dude, I have no idea. He just took off."

"So Conrad didn't say anything to you  before he left?" Jeremiah asked, trying to push an answer out of the boy.

"He barely says anything, dude,"

Jeremiah exhaled loudly and clasped
his hands behind his head. Then he took out his phone and looked at it, as if
there might be some answer there.

Julie sunk down on Conrad's bed. The navy sheets and navy comforter he had had since they were little kids were strewn across it.

"I was actually about to take off, dudes. Going to my parents' country house. Will you guys just make sure the door is closed when you leave? And when you find C, tell him he owes me twenty bucks for the pizza." Eric didn't sound too concerned about the fact that his roommate was missing.

"No worries, man. I'll tell him." Jeremiah sat down at Conrad's desk, surveying the room.

Someone knocked on the door and Eric scrambled over to open it. It was a
girl, wearing a long-sleeved shirt and leggings, sunglasses on the top of
her head. "Have you seen my sweater?" she asked him. She peered around
him like she was looking for something.

Julie immediately recognised her, and jumped up to talk to her. "Hey, Sophie, have you seen Con recently?"

The girl smiled upon recognising Conrad's sister. "Yeah, I have. Is everything alright?"

"He isn't answering any of our calls," Julie gestured to the two boys behind her, "Has he said anything to you?"

"I think he said he was going to the beach, to surf or something? He's so crazy." She smiled at the younger girl to calm her down.

The beach. Julie got eye contact with Steven and her brother. He was at the summer house. He had to be at the summer house.

✸ author's note ✸
i'm sorry for the lack of communication between them, but i'm trying to make it less rushed than act 1.