stella could hear fireworks from her bedroom. she felt overwhelmed with everything lately. especially her feelings that she was trying to figure out. she knew she couldn't tell conrad. at least, not yet.

he would freak, she thought.

she looked out her window and saw conrad standing by himself out on a dock near the water. she smiled excitedly and ran down the stairs.

she could really use some best friend time with conrad. it felt like it had been a while since they had done some of that.

by the time she was down the stairs, she had already found someone standing next to him in the distance. she recognized the person to be isabel.

her smile slowly faded. she almost felt like she was being replaced. even though, stella and conrad had been really close lately, sometimes, it still felt like isabel was getting in the way. she didn't want to think about it that way though, because in a way, she was being a hypocrite. she was kind of doing the same thing was jeremiah.

she rolled her eyes to herself and thought, well, this is just depressing.

her thoughts were interrupted by a voice behind her. "hey."

she recognized the voice as jeremiah's. she turned around quickly, trying to cover up the fact that she had been watching conrad and isabel talk. "uh, hey- hi."

the boy chuckled and stepped down from the porch. "i didn't mean to scare you. i just didn't know where everyone went..."

he looked past stella to where she had been looking before. his eyes were immediately drawn to conrad and isabel down near the water.

"oh... hey. don't worry 'bout it." he smiled at the girl. "you'll always be his best friend."

"i guess so," stella mumbled, glancing back at the other two teenagers again. "can we go inside?"

jeremiah nodded and followed the girl back inside the house. stella wrapped her arms around herself, as if she was cold. she wasn't cold.

it was just hard for her to get the thought of her best friend and isabel together. she thought that maybe she was just making it up.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

jeremiah and stella found themselves sitting on his bed again, but this time, they were actually watching a movie. jeremiah always knew how to distract someone from their worries. stella was thankful for that, especially tonight.

the movie was playing quietly, only because they both wanted to talk. they weren't doing much talking though. they were just thinking.

stella was mostly done thinking about her best friend and isabel. she had moved on to another train of thought. and that was the lie she had told earlier.

stella had remembered everything. about her and jeremiah's "almost kiss", i mean. she was drunk but she could still remember what had happened after her short nap. but long story short, she was embarrassed. she was nervous that he didn't feel the same and she had made a fool of herself.

right next to stella sat jeremiah who was thinking about the same thing. he was thinking about what had happened.

did she really not remember? he thought.

ever since that moment, there had been times where jeremiah had wished that he had just kissed her. but the other parts of his mind were telling him that if he would have done that, things would've gotten so messed up.

later that night, they ended up falling asleep. well, of course, stella fell asleep first. so it was more of a situation where stella fell asleep on jeremiah's arm and he didn't want to wake her up so he was trapped.

she looked really peaceful when she slept, but this isn't a cheesy type of thing where jeremiah stares at her face and admires her skin because stella didn't even have perfect skin like in those movies. her hair didn't fall perfectly down her shoulder when she slept. in fact, her hair had fallen quite messily over jeremiah's arm and shoulder. her lips were parted slightly with her bottom lip pouted a little bit.

jeremiah tore his eyes away from the girl who was perfect in his eyes. he slowly let himself fall asleep too.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

stella and jeremiah were out by the pool at the country club. they could still hear some faint music coming from inside where the debutante ball had taken place.

their fingers were interlocked and their hands were swinging in between them. "i had a lot of fun tonight," stella smiled up at the boy.

jeremiah chuckled softly, tearing his eyes away from the girl for the first time since she had been revealed at the dance. "me too. tonight was literally perfect."

it was true. nothing had gone wrong. they talked. they danced. they laughed. they took pictures. it was perfect.

they couldn't have asked for anything else.

well, there was one more thing. "stel?" jeremiah said.

she stopped walking and looked up at the boy. they were back near the building again. "yeah?"

"i- i just..." jeremiah started to say quietly. his voice was just above a whisper now. "i just- i wanted to say..."

he slowly leaned in and she got the signal. she leaned against the wall behind her. he didn't even need to finish his sentence because they both knew. they knew that they were more than friends.

their lips touched softly at first, but slowly deepened. he let his hands go to her waist and her hands rested on his arms.

one of her hands traveled up to his hair. she ran her fingers up the back of his hair slowly and then down the back of his neck.

stella drew herself back. "j, susannah wants to see me before she goes."

jeremiah's lustful look turned into confusion. "what? where's she going?"

"she has to run an errand but she wants to talk to me before i go to the country club for those dance class," stella explained, fixing the blanket that she had slept with next to jeremiah.

jeremiah examined his surroundings. it was all a dream. "oh, uh, right. i have to work at the country club today anyways, so let me go with you."

she nodded and left the room to change. this left him time to process.

did i just have a dream about stel? he thought.

i mean, yes. he did have the occasional daydream, but it never seemed that realistic. it made him wonder if she had ever thought about him like that.

"fuck," he mumbled to himself, picking out an outfit to lifeguard in. it was moments like these where was scared that she knew what he had been dreaming about.

what if i said something in my sleep? he thought to himself. shit, what if i said her name or something?

he almost laughed at himself, but this was no laughing matter. he didn't have answers to most of the questions he was asking himself, but he was sure about one thing: his feelings for stella.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

author's note

i'm literally so sorry that this chapter took so long to get out here and it's not even that long of a chapter but i've actually been busy. i was kind of moving and stuff and it's a whole long story and cheerleading is picking up now and i'm working on my permit classes or whatever and summer reading, like it's been busy, i guess. if this was boring, please let me know. :)

pls vote, comment, etc. if you want THANK YOUU <3

if you guys have any ideas, pls comment them down below!! :))

SIDE NOTE: if i wrote a conrad fic after this one was done, would you guys read it? and if you would, pls drop some ideas for that so i can look back at them when i do write it. :)

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