stella woke up from her nap, which was unfortunately only about an hour. she sighed, only getting a moment of peace, before remembering what had happened before she had fallen asleep.

"fuck," she muttered, falling back into her pillows.

*flashbacks*

stella rolled her eyes before locking eyes with the boy. her head was tilted up, tempting her drunken self to just lean in.

and she found herself doing just that.

jeremiah was getting lost in her eyes... and her lips. it sounds cheesy, i know.

unfortunately for both of them, jeremiah was a decent guy. "stel... you're- you're drunk. i can't-"

stella was quiet. it was like she couldn't make words come out of her mouth.

"you won't even remember this when you wake up." he looked down at his hand which was covered up by one of hers. he took it back cautiously and stood up from the bed.

stella drowsily flopped down on her bed, laying on her chest. she watched the boy walk towards the stairs that led back down to the rest of the house.

she let out a small, frustrated groan. "but what if you're my type, j?"

*flashback ends*

before she had time to think about it any more, footsteps were jogging up her stairs. she lifted her head up to see who's face would appear in her room.

she knew before the face was even there. she knew because of the voice and the sound that the footsteps made going up the stairs.

"one sec, i just have to get stel," he said at the bottom of the stairs.

"okay, fine, but hurry up!" that voice was obviously steven.

while jeremiah was walking up the stairs, stella heard a third voice come from the bottom of the stairs. "bro, i don't even know why she's needs to come with us."

stella rolled her eyes. she knew it was her brother, andy.

"oh, you're awake," jeremiah said, swinging his arms by his side awkwardly. "i, uh, i came up here to ask you if you wanted to go with us to set off some of the fireworks."

stella smiled, standing up from the bed. "of course, i do," she chuckled softly, grabbing the zip-up sweater that was hanging off the bed post.

jeremiah hesitated before saying, "about earlier-"

stella was caught in the moment, so she couldn't think of anything else to say except for, "oh, i was really drunk... i don't really remember anything. did- did something happen or... something?"

jeremiah's lips parted slightly, letting a soft breath come out of his mouth. he closed his mouth and shook his head. "uh, no... i don't know what i'm talking about," he lied.

they walked down the stairs with some extra tension between them. andy and steven didn't notice anything between the two because they had been too busy trying to remember a handshake that they had made years ago.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

while they were leaving the house, conrad caught stella at the last minute before she could close the front door. "stel! stella, wait! are you... busy?"

"i was just gonna do some fireworks with j, andy, and steven," she said, tilting her head at her friend confusedly. "what's wrong, connie?"

conrad had already felt bad about spilling all of the susannah drama on her, so he felt like maybe she didn't need to know about the minor bickering that had happened between him and his dad again. "uhh, nothing. nothing. you go have fun."

"you sure?" she raised an eyebrow at her best friend. "you can come with us if you want-"

"it's fine," conrad replied, looking around the room aimlessly. stella sighed, looking between her best friend and the group of three behind her in the drive way. "stel, seriously, it's okay. go have fun."

the corners of her mouth turned up slowly and sympathetically. "okay, fine," she finally said before jokingly adding, "loser."

they could never take anything too seriously. "just go!" he laughed, leaning against the door frame, watching her jog away to the other boys. "loser!"

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

they were on the beach, setting off fireworks. it was already pretty late so it was dark outside.

"yeah! that was awesome!" jeremiah yelled, brushing his hands off. they watched another firework go flying into the dark sky. it was so dark that they could only see each other's silhouettes and the boxes of fireworks next to them. "come on. that was your best one yet."

stella smiled before looking over at steven who was being oddly silent. she nudged her brother, signaling for him to talk to steven.

andy gave her a little shove back before putting a hand on steven's back. "aye, what's wrong?"

"shayla knows about taylor," he replied dully.

stella involuntarily sucked air through her teeth. she pressed her lips together. "oh shit."

"that's the thing, like, shayla didn't even seem mad," he said, making her scrunch her nose and raise her eyebrows. she didn't have any valuable advice for him. 

she was in no way a good source for relationship advice. she felt like she never made the right choice when it came to relationships. with anybody.

"i don't- i don't know," he continued. "she didn't even seem to care. she said we weren't anything serious anyways."

jeremiah scoffed, crossing his arms. "and you bought that? dude, she was wanting you to say you wanted to be exclusive."

"what? no," steven said.

"yes, dummy," jeremiah let out a breathy laugh before glancing at stella and continuing. "sometimes when someone wants to be with someone, they'll, like, try and pull some reverse psychology shit."

andy gasped loudly. "oh, facts though! i saw that in a tv show-"

"andy, shut up." stella elbowed him gently.

"no. no, no, no, no." steven kept denying, even though he partly knew that jeremiah might be right.

jeremiah rolled his eyes. "yes! i know how these things work."

stella's eyes found their way to his intimidating stare again. even though it was dark, she could still partly make out his face. she felt like he always knew what she was thinking. it made her want to make her mind blank all the time, usually because he was on her mind.

steven muttered an "oh fuck" while the rest of the teenagers laughed quietly.

"dude, i don't know, man," steven said, waving his hands around. they all took a cautious step back. "i'm just- i am just crazy about her. i swear, i've just never felt this way about anyone else."

steven's dramatic little speech made stella start to get in her feels a little bit. fuck you, she thought, just as dramatically.

she was thinking about how her and jeremiah's relationship had really evolved this summer. she thought about the daydreams that she had and the moments where she could have sworn that there was some kind of spark.

but she also thought about the times where she was almost 100 percent sure that he didn't like her. she wasn't sure how she was feeling. she wasn't sure if it was just a little phase.

but she knew one thing for sure. that she was tired of feeling unsure about everything.

she shoved steven on the shoulder lightly, making sure to send jeremiah a subtle look. "well, quit your fucking moping and go tell her."

steven chuckled lightly while andy whooped and threw an arm around his shoulder. "give me some, steven!" he said excitedly, trying to motivate him.

"come on," jeremiah said calmly, doing his little handshake with steven. "go get your girl."

jeremiah kept his eyes on the ground for the most part while they were walking back to the house. stella did the same, but occasionally one of them would look up and glance at the other person. they met each other's eyes a few times, but every time that happened, their eyes shot back down to the ground.

andy was oblivious to this. he was on his phone, talking out loud to the other two. maybe that was a good thing that he didn't notice though.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

the trio walked through the front door quietly. they were met with two fathers trying to make their escape from the fourth of july trip. they both stopped in front of their kids.

"dad?" jeremiah said, almost disappointedly.

"hey, kid," his dad replied.

andy and stella's dad bit the inside of his cheek. "i want to finish up some work before the weekend is over..."

stella glared up at her father before opening the door for him. she smirked at the ground, almost making herself laugh with her own thoughts.

there's the door, bitch, she thought.

andy's face stayed expressionless before he excused himself to go up the stairs. he never really gave a shit about this kind of stuff. i mean, yeah. andy and his dad got into arguments a lot, but andy was usually either silent or really defensive. no in between. and stella had only really seen andy cry, like, four times after the age of ten.

"are you leaving already?" jeremiah said sort of sadly to his father. stella pressed her lips together before also quietly excusing herself to go upstairs.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

author's note

i'm gonna end this here 'cause i'm still deciding what to do for the last part of the episode. i'm sorry if this was boring. i'm lowkey having writer's block for the chapters that are supposed to lead up to the tea or whatever. i just feel like this chapter was all over the place but whatever. :)

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

if you guys have any ideas, please let me know in the comments down below. :)) PLEASE.

[ unedited ]