we are at the dining table when jeremiah chose to flex and threw a paper into the trash can.
„aaand yess nailed it!"
„okay okay okay we get it you've been working out." stephen said with an amused
"your just jealous because jere has a better body than you." belly snapped and my eyes gre wide. i tried not to laugh while we gave each other a high-five.
"uh, no, actually it's all about the clean look now" stephen said
"is it?" i mumbled and felt someone staring at me and when i looked up i saw conrad looking at me with a slight grin before he focused back on his food.
"no way" jason said looking at his muscles.
"otherwise you couldn't wear tailored suits" steven argued.

"anyways when are you leaving for football camp, man?" he looked at conrad just as everybody else does.
after a few seconds of silence jeremiah spoke up "he quit football."
i looked at jere and then back at conrad "what? why would you do that?" i said what everybody thought. "you loved football dude" jason said.
"it got boring" conrad answered.
"you can always change your mind" susannah said with a hopeful smile on her face.
"i'm not gonna change my mind"
i'm still a little bit thrown off that he quit football. he loved football with his whole heart. he even teached me how to play so we can play together.

after an awkward silence susannah spoke up. "belly, madison i forgot to give you something" she stands up and walks to the kitchen with a huge smile while belly and i look confused at each other and our mothers, who just shrugged their shoulders.

"you guys can be deputant girls!" she says full of happiness and gave each other of us an invitation. "is this the thing we're girls are drinking tea and dancing in white dresses?" my brother laughed. "it's so much more than that, it could be so much fun!" "you don't have to do that, belly" laurel spoke up "mads i don't force you, you don't have to do that" my mum said. "it's ridiculous" stephen said laughing. "don't do it" conrad said and everything went silent again. just the fact that conrad said that i shouldn't do it made me want to do it.

i look to belly and we say in union "we'll think about it" with a slight smile. susannah leaned back in her chair and looked to laurel and christine with a smile "they'll think about it"
"they'll" my mom said also with a smile while laurel looked not that pleased

• • •

im sitting on my bad watching some tiktok videos when someone knocks on the door.
"come in" i call out.
"hey." and i look up.
"hey what's up?" i ask.
"wanna catch up a bit?" he asked. i slide to the side of the bed and show him that he can sit down next to me and that's exactly what he does.
there's an awkward silence because no one says a word and we are just looking at each other until i speak up and look away from him for a sec.

"well how's life going?" "good" conrad answers. "how's yours been?" "good" i answer. "that's good." "okay what's up? you are weird" "do you really wanna go to the deputant ball?" conrad finally asked. "why not? could be fun." "you wouldn't have done it last year" he says looking straight in my eyes and he's right. if susannah asked me last year i would've immediately said no because it wasn't my think. it wasn't. but it is now. i like stuff like that. "a lot of things changed over the last year, you know" "example?" he asks "justin and i broke up because he cheated on me with my best friend" i said and make a weird sound. something like a laugh and breathing out. "oh shit" "yeah, oh shit" "maddie i'm sorry" he says and i can see in his face that he's really sorry "it wouldn't have lasted anyways and i'm over it" i say with a slight smile. he looks at me with sad eyes and shit those eyes i can't focus. why am i like that right now?

"what about you? you still together with this girl?" i ask, secretly hoping they aren't together anymore. i don't know why i hope so i just somehow do.
"um..aubrey? no um no it wasn't that serious" he answered my question  "ohh okay sorry" he gave me a quick smile and i spoke up again "relationships suck."
"oh yeah relationships suck." he repeated and both of us began to laugh.

"hey the- um..the bornfire is today, wanna um come with me?" he asked shyly.
"yeah sure let me change and i'll come downstairs."
"okay" he said with a smile and left my room.

just now i realize that my cheeks heated up. did he asked me out? no. why would i even think about stuff like that? it's conrad. the same guy as in my best friend. i shouldn't think about him that way. wait...there is no 'that way'. right?

to get away from this thoughts i go to my closet and pick out a few outfits. in the end i chose a simple black bikini and a jeans shorts and a black cropped top to wear it over the bikini. i chose to wear gold jewelry so i took two necklaces, one a present from susannah 2 years ago and a pearl necklace, earrings and a bracelet. jeremiah brought me it a few years ago. there are 3 pendants on it. one is a dolphin, my mum gave it to me. the other are a sea star and a heart that i got from belly.
i'm wearing white air forces and put some light make up on. concealer, bronzer, mascara and highlighter.

i'm walking down the stairs and see conrad outside smoking some cigarettes. i walk up behind him and take away his cig so i could take a shot from it. he looked at me with confused eyes. "since when do you smoke?" he said  while i walk away from him and he follows me. i turn to him "as i said - a lot of things changed"
"now hurry up i want to party" i laugh at him and he smiles. damn this stupid smile.

~next chapter is the bornfire...this is gonna take a bit till i write it because SO MUCH happens there bruh
anyway , for confused ones madison doesn't know that belly is also coming so let's see how she'll react :)