✸ ANYONE ELSE
chapter thirty-three ━━ arguments and confessions

          THE PARTY CONTINUED to buzz around them. The coloured artificial lights blinked red, blue, and green and along with the loud booming sound of music, it reminded Julie of every other party she had ever been to. Everything was the same except for one thing. This party was being held in her mother's beach house. The beach house that meant everything to Susannah Fisher was currently being vandalised by a big group of drunk high schoolers, and there was nothing she could do about it.

She wanted to shout at them and tell them to stop, but she would never be the type of person who had the courage to do that.

Steven held her hand as they walked through the house in search of their siblings. They had to have a group meeting about the party. Maybe they could convince Belly and Jeremiah to call it off and send everyone home.

Neither Belly nor Jeremiah was anywhere to be found though.

They searched the whole house twice, and finally, they found Jeremiah. His entire face was one big frown—an atypical expression for the always smiling boy.

"What's wrong?" Julie was immediately at his side, placing a comforting hand on her twin brother's shoulder.

"Belly and Conrad kissed." he sounded tired.

"What?!" Steven exclaimed, his face displaying a growing rage. "Where are they?!"

"Outside." Jeremiah replied, his voice lacking any emotion.

Steven rushed to the front door, the other two just behind him.

Outside, the cold night air hit them again. Goosebumps made their way onto Julie's pale skin. This time of year she would usually be tan or sunburned, but this year she was almost as pale as in winter.

Belly was standing just outside the door on the pavement, a lost look on her face.

"What the hell, Belly?!" Steven stormed over to his younger sister as soon as he spotted her. "You kissed Conrad again?"

"Why are you mad at me?!" she frowned deeply.

"Don't you get it?!" He gave her an exasperated look. "You can't just go back and forth between Conrad and Jeremiah as if they were dogs! They're humans with feelings and you can't just go to the one who gives you the most attention and completely forget about the other! You're my sister, Bells, and I love you so so much! But Jere and Con are my friends, and I can't just sit and watch you ruin their relationship!"

Isabel Conklin stood stunned, tears welling up in her eyes as her brother shouted at her. "It— it's not like that—" She tried to defend herself.

"Just shut up for once!" Steven couldn't control his anger anymore, it was pouring out of him like water pouring through a hole in a dam.

Just as he was about to start another rage fit, Conrad rounded the corner, having rushed over at the sound of yelling.

"What's going o—" He didn't the chance to finish his sentence before Steven had taken a step forward.

"And you! You're supposed to be the oldest! You're supposed to be there for your younger siblings! Have you checked up on them even once the last year?!" He stumbled further forward, pointing angrily at the older boy as he yelled. "Do you have any idea what they've been going through?! Did you know that Julie got into Yale?! That she's going to fucking turn down Yale?!"

Conrad's eyes were fixated on his younger sister at this confession. "Jules—" He began.

"Don't start that! You left them to grieve alone just because you needed to be alone! That's selfish, Conrad! You—"

Conrad now took a step forward as well, fed up with being yelled at. "Shut up, Steven! You don't know shit! I was dealing with it my way!"

Steven was about to yell again, not at all finished, but Julie stepped forward, a calming hand on his arm.

"Maybe we should just go to bed...?" Her voice was hesitant, her eyes begging him to stop.

The Conklin boy nodded his head quickly, sending Conrad one last glare before taking Julie's hand in his, leading her away.

His breathing was still shallow, adrenaline from the argument flowing through his veins, but he forced himself to calm down by taking deep breaths as he thought about the warm feeling of her hand in his. Using her soft hand as an anchor, he eventually calmed enough to politely ask a group of people to move out of their way so he could get his girl a place to sleep.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

          SUN WAS STREAMING through the thin white curtains, bathing the teenagers in a nice, glowing light.

Julie had always been a light sleeper, so she was up as soon as she felt the warmth on her face, but the boy next to her, who was currently laying with his arm draped over her stomach, was still sound asleep, peaceful, soft breaths leaving his slightly open mouth.

A couple of meters away, Conrad had crashed. He was awake now though, and his eyes were fixated on his younger sister.

"Jules . . ." His voice came out in a whisper.

At the sound, Julie sat up straighter, carefully getting herself out of Steven's grip and moving towards her brother.

As she sat down next to him, he started talking again, his voice soft, apologetic and almost a bit scared. "I'm so sorry . . . I hadn't realised how much I was pulling away from you guys." He looked down at his hands. "I never meant for you to feel abandoned. I never meant to leave you alone with everything. . ."

"It's alright," She whispered. "I forgive you."

Surprised, he lifted his head slightly. "I love you," He pulled her towards him gently and enveloped her in a hug. "I'm so proud of you," He whispered into her hair, a little smile forming on his face. "You actually got into Yale."

At the mention of the school, Julie pulled away, shaking her head gently. "I'm not going to—"

"Hush," He interrupted her with a shake of his head. "We'll talk about that later. You can't just make such an important decision without consulting your older brother first."

✸ author's note ✸
this has been sitting in my drafts, just waiting to be edited, for months... now i decided to publish without editing so if there's any mistakes, please feel free to let me know!

i really want to finish this story soon, so there might come more updates in the next weeks 🤞🤞

if you're still here even after i've disappeared for months then i love you!! i don't expect to have any readers left, but if you're here then i want to give you the BIGGEST hug to ever exist 💗💗💗💗thank you thank you thank you