the group of six teenagers stood at the door, watching their parents greet isabel and steven's dad and his girlfriend.

"she's hot." andy admired the woman standing outside. she looked pretty young to be dating isabel's dad.

the corners of steven's mouth turned down. "dude."

"what?" andy said defensively. "i'm just saying what everybody else is thinking."

"i wasn't thinking that," isabel blurted out. her voice sounded serious.

that only tempted stella to try and make a joke to lighten the mood. "were you thinking that?" she smirked at the two fisher boys behind her.

they both shook their heads hesitantly, hiding their smiles that were fighting their way onto the faces. stella rolled her eyes playfully at the boys and focused back on the parents.

"yo, that could be their future stepmom," conrad said breathily.

steven scoffed and pushed conrad in the back. "dude, what the hell?"

"don't push me." conrad cocked his head to the side. the two began play-fighting.

isabel was trying to grab their attention after seeing the parents make their way to the door. "guys, they're coming, they're coming."

"ah!" conrad made a funny noise and jumped away from the door. the two fisher boys and the davis siblings ran away from the front room and hid in the backyard.

"go, go, go, go, go," they heard steven shoo them away.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

dad

Hey. I'm going to be

a little late.

read 5:25pm

stella read the text from her dad and shut her phone off without responding.

what's new? she thought to herself. it wasn't that much of a shocker that her dad was going to be late.

conrad noticed her expression from across the room and furrowed his eyebrows. stella caught his change in behavior and sat up straighter. he's gonna be late, she mouthed to him.

he nodded and raised an eyebrow, as if saying, and you're not jumping for joy?

stella laughed and shook her head at the ground. she would jump for joy if her dad just cancelled all together, but being late is good enough.

jeremiah was sitting near stella, aching to sit closer. he still didn't know where he stood with her, feelings wise. she was thinking about the same thing.

recently, she was all that was on his mind. whenever she would be sitting across the table from him, he'd wish that she was sat next to him. whenever he'd lay in bed at night, he'd wish that she'd be with him, falling asleep next to him like that other night. it was hard for him to watch her speak with training his eyes on her lips.

it wasn't much different for stella. she had the occasional daydream about jeremiah. when he would be talking to someone, she would admire his lips as well. but also, his nose and his eyes and his hair. 

she always felt like she needed more. if their hands grazed each other while passing by, she felt like she needed more contact. even the occasional hug wasn't enough to feed her adrenaline.

it was like there was a magnet between the two and there wasn't really anything stopping them. nothing but nerves.

jeremiah was describing his music taste to stella, giving her song recommendations here and there. she was paying attention. but also, not really. he was talking and she was staring at his face and the rest of his body eventually. it was at the point where she couldn't stop checking him out.

"and then we do hayley kiyoko next," he said, flipping his phone around to show her.

stella whipped her head back up and trained her eyes on the phone. "oh yeah. i've heard a song i think."

"she's super vibey. you would love her," he smiled, making stella's mind go crazy.

god, does he like me or not? she wondered. it'd be so embarrassing if i made a move and he didn't like me.

he's so into you, another part of her brain thought. look at him. he's staring at you... quite longingly-

that's 'cause he's waiting for some kind of response. her mind was fighting itself at this point.

she shook her head in an attempt to make the thoughts in her head go away temporarily. "yeah, yeah- and sza," she added, knowing that this would buy her some more time to argue with herself in her head.

"don't even get me started on sza," he smiled excitedly. "wait, let me find my favorite songs."

jeremiah pretended to scroll while stella was picking on the loose strings on her shorts. he let his eyes wander to her hair then to her eyes. he focused on her nose and then her skin. then her lips.

his eyes rested involuntarily. i wonder what it would be like to kiss-

"stella! that you?" a voice interrupted both of their thoughts.

stella lifted her head up to see her dad walking towards them from behind jeremiah.

"ooh, is this the boyfriend?" her dad walked around the side of them. he finally got to see jeremiah's face, making his eyes widen. "oh! jeremiah! hey, long time no see. didn't even recognize you. you hittin' the gym?"

stella's face felt warm. she was sure that it was turning more and more red by the second. "why don't you go say hi to andy?" she suggested. she wanted her dad to leave. really.

but she knew that wasn't an option.

conrad had been watching from a distance. he and stella always joked about not liking their dads but once the dads actually showed up, it wasn't that funny anymore. once the jokes actually came to life, it wasn't funny anymore.

he watched as stella waved her dad away. he hadn't done anything seriously wrong since he had gotten there, but it was still early. jeremiah looked a little confused because he had not been stella's best friend through all of her rants.

that was conrad's job. conrad was the one that sat through all her complaining and detailed descriptions of arguments. it went both ways. stella had to listen to conrad talk about all of this stuff too.

one difference between stella and jeremiah was that jeremiah admired his dad. 

her dad shrugged carelessly and walked away towards the other adults. there was a silence between the two teenagers now.

stella felt like she wanted to be held in his arms and like she wanted to hide from embarrassment at the same time. there wasn't really anything to be embarrassed about though.

"do you wanna go inside... and see what victoria and belly are doing?" jeremiah said, making the awkward energy leave immediately.

"sure," stella smiled taking his hand that he had held out for her to help her stand up.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

everyone in the kitchen looked as if they were in a trance, staring at the blender. victoria and isabel were making pomegranate margaritas when the other two teenagers had walked in.

"that's dope," jeremiah said, watching victoria take the lid off the blender.

stella watched, her mouth parted slightly open. the drinks that they were making looked really good, even if it wasn't legal to drink them.

"how'd you learn to make these?" isabel asked.

victoria kept her eyes on the glasses she was filling. "so i actually spent a summer in this desert town in texas near the border called marfa. and there was a bar there that served these, and i told the bartender that i would not leave until he showed me exactly how he made these."

jeremiah's eyes wandered to the girl sitting next to him. her knee was accidentally touching his leg, making it feel tingly. before this summer, he wouldn't have been feeling this way if stella had accidentally touched him.

but ever since her and daniel were basically over, it felt different. like there was nothing stopping them.

there was nothing stopping them, but at the same time, everything was stopping them.

jeremiah chuckled lightly, pretending like he was listening to victoria's whole story. when in reality, he was more focused on stella, who was mainly focused on the margaritas in front of her. "can i try a sip?" she blurted out.

victoria's head shot up nervously. "are your parents cool with that?"

"yeah, yeah, no, they don't care," stella lied quickly. the smell of the pomegranates were already hitting her. it smelled really good.

"oh, then, sure," victoria said.

jeremiah sent stella one of his signature smirks. they weren't planning on getting completely wasted but they definitely wanted one or two of those margaritas.

"i'm gonna take this out to your dad," victoria said to isabel with two of the drinks in her hands. "do you mind taking those out to susannah and your mom?"

isabel smiled. "yeah, sure."

"thanks, love," victoria replied, oblivious to the fact that the teenagers were planning on taking more than a sip of those drinks.

as soon as she left the room, stella was the first to snatch one of the margarita glasses and take a sip. 

jeremiah looked at her carefully. "oh, well, how is it? strong?" he chuckled.

"that is amazing," she laughed, taking another sip. jeremiah licked his lips and let her pass the glass to him.

"is it?" he said before bringing the glass to his mouth. "mmm. no wonder you like it. it tastes just like a slurpee."

isabel giggled and rolled her eyes. "guys, let me try."

after she tried it, stella tapped her hands on the table. "but i have an idea."

"oh no," jeremiah smiled downwardly at her.

"j, i'm gonna need some more pomegranate juice," she ordered playfully.

involuntarily, he looked her up and down. "you got it."

conrad walked into the room to catch stella clumsily grabbing things from the cabinets to make more margaritas. "what are you guys making?"

"pomegranate margaritas," isabel explained. she flickered her eyes to stella, telling conrad that it was all his best friend's idea. this part was isabel's own idea though. "but with a twist."

she held up some sort of ice cream. conrad smiled mischeviously at his best friend. "well, you gotta use the good blender."

jeremiah looked uneasy about that idea. "oh, i- i haven't used that thing since the great kool-aid debacle of 2011."

the four teenagers started laughing about how that memory and how the counters were sticky for about two summers after that.

somehow the topic of the fishers' dad came about. "dad kept his, uh, briefcase in my room for a year," jeremiah mentioned and mocked his dad. "as a reminder, that all mistakes are not reversible."

isabel tilted her head to the side. "wait, won't he be mad if he finds out?" she said hesitantly.

stella and conrad sent each other a sneaky look before he replied with a smirk, "well, he's not gonna find out. he's not coming."

"damn right," stella laughed, making eye contact with conrad once more before putting her head down on the counter.

they were measuring the ingredients and when they got to the tequila, jeremiah insisted on putting a lot. "a lot more, a lot more tequila," he said playfully.

isabel was pouring and conrad tipped the back of the bottle forward so that a lot more would fall in. stella laughed and leaned against jeremiah's shoulder for a moment. "perfect amount."

stella walked around the kitchen island to start the blender, like she always did. jeremiah admired her from afar, like he always did. conrad waited for her to turn on the blender while keeping his hands steadily on the lid.

after it was on, he decided to be funny and take his hands off for a second. "no, keep your hands on it!" jeremiah laughed loudly, reaching for the lid.

stella had reached to do the same, making their hands touch on the blender. the adrenaline was back. conrad lifted his hands again off the blender again, testing the other three's patience.

he hadn't noticed that stella and jeremiah were almost frozen for a moment. it was like time had stopped when their hands touched. at least, that's what it felt like.

the feelings that stella felt near jeremiah were like how someone feels when they have their first boyfriend or girlfriend. and it was confusing her.

she was starting to realize how she felt. she didn't know if these feelings were permanent or if they were just temporary for the moment. but she knew that she felt something.

"keep your hands on it!" jeremiah scolded playfully once more before conrad actually put his hands back on the blender. 

the margaritas were done and they just needed to be poured into the cups. before pouring the drinks, conrad sighed with a funny smile on his face.

"man, you know what i miss?" he said.

jeremiah raised an eyebrow at stella before looking back to conrad. "huh?"

"watching laurel put dad in his place," conrad smiled goofily at his brother. he glanced at his best friend too, making her laugh.

she remembered all the times that conrad would crack up when laurel would put his dad in his place. he would always talk about it and laugh about it when they were younger. he was thinking of those memories too.

"you know, she'd walk in, she'd be like, 'adam'," conrad laughed, copying laurel's voice. stella laughed and put her face in her hands, quieting her laughter.

"adam! you came," laurel said pleasantly in the doorway of the kitchen.

jeremiah and stella glanced at each other, making a mental "that's what she said" joke. 

"happy fourth!" adam declared to the kitchen.

adam was the fishers' dad. the one that jeremiah admired and conrad couldn't stand.

"dad!" jeremiah hopped out of his seat. he laughed like a child. "you came."

"hey," he replied.

they hugged and his dad moved on pretty quick. jeremiah was still staring at his dad happily. 

stella's heart dropped the minute he walked into the kitchen. conrad and stella were so close that it was as if they feeded off each other's energy.

conrad got quiet immediately when his dad walked in the door. his eyes stayed put on the counter. stella played with the nail polish on her fingers.

"hey, guys," adam said again. "hey, connie."

conrad didn't look up. his dad took a look around the kitchen. "i'll have a little of what you're mixing up there."

"oh, yeah, sure," isabel replied kindly, handing him a glass.

conrad's eyes glanced up at stella who was already doing the same. they both kept their heads down subtly.

the dads were such a vibe kill for those two.

"hey, thanks, belly," adam said.

on the other hand, jeremiah was really excited that his dad was here. "oh, you're gonna love the firework show this year. it's gonna be the best one yet."

"i believe it," his dad chuckled.

jeremiah's eyes were excitedly darting around to each person in the kitchen. when they landed on stella, his smile wavered a little but he knew that it was probably just because conrad was little on edge. whenever conrad's mood was offf, stella's mood was off.

they were like two peas in a pod that way.

"where'd everyone go?" susannah called from outside.

adam put on a big smile. "hey."

"adam," she said seriously. "you managed to get off work."

"yeah, couldn't miss the fourth with my family," he chuckled.

the kitchen was quiet. the vibe had been killed abrupty. it felt like one of those things where the adults knew something that the kids didn't. except, the kids were growing up.

and a few of the kids did know something. maybe conrad and stella did know something.

"alright, well, let's get back to the party," susannah broke the silence.

"okay, let's go, kids," laurel waved the kids along.

conrad walked around the other side of the island to purposefully avoid his father. he also did it because he knew stella would be on the other side. she waited for him and put her hand on the back of his shirt while they walked out.

"hey, connie, can i talk to you for a minute?" his dad put a hand on his shoulder.

conrad shrugged his hand off and put his hand on stella's back to guide her forward. he wanted to make a beeline for the door. "i'm gonna head to the beach," he replied in a monotone voice.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

author's note

this chapter ended really abruptly lmfaoo. also please tell me if this was boring. i feel like this was boring. this was also a REALLY long chapter hahaha sorry that it took so long. again, i think that was more of a filler chapter that was needed for the plot, i guess. also it's really late an night when i'm writing this so i'm kind of going crazy.

anyways, long story short. idek if i like this chapter :(

pls vote, comment, etc. THANK YOUU :))

if you guys have any ideas, PLS comment them down below :)) I NEED IDEAS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

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