the crew was out at the beach. conrad was sitting in a beach chair with stella sitting on the floor in between his legs. nicole was there too. steven and shayla was sitting across from them near gigi.

just then, isabel approached the group with a pitcher of the "belly special" which was just the pomegranate margaritas. conrad was quick to pour a cup for stella then one for himself.

"hey, guys!" a familiar voice called behind them. stella smiled simply at the thought of jeremiah. she didn't know why. "hey! check out who i found!"

it was cameron. he was isabel's... boyfriend? friend? stella didn't really know. conrad offered him a drink but he was quick to decline. "oh, i'm good, man. thank you, i don't drink."

"yes, that's right," conrad recalled, tapping his plastic cup against stella's. "more for us. that's fine."

jeremiah was immediately becoming the life of the party. he sat down across from stella and greeted everybody on the way there.

even though conrad and stella weren't together and would never do that, jeremiah couldn't help but feel a little jealous of them sitting so close together. i mean, they had always been like that, but it had been bugging him recently.

stella was laughing at something conrad had said while handing jeremiah a cup of the "belly special".

"it's not a race, con," nicole said, watching conrad down the drinks.

stella was already on her second cup, but nobody had really noticed. except for jeremiah and her best friend.

"yeah, save some for the rest of us, please," jeremiah teased the two, acknowledging the girl in front of him. "that means both of you, stel."

stella chuckled and finished the rest of her second cup along with conrad. she raised her empty cup in the air and said, "okay, wait, wait, wait. but what if it was a race? i mean, isn't that... isn't that, like, every drinking game?"

"oh, yeah! let's play whatever stel just said," isabel announced, making gigi raise an eyebrow at her.

"you want to play a drinking game?" she asked, almost in disbelief.

i mean, we were all thinking it, stella thought, referring to gigi's comment. stop, that was mean, stella.

"why not? i mean, it's the fourth of july, right?" isabel threw her hands up in the air.

a proud smile made its way to stella's face. "hell yeah!"

"fuck it," her best friend added to the chorus of cheers among the group.

they started playing a few games where you had to make a coin land in this glass bowl. something like that. stella had obviously had a little more than enough alcohol already but she wasn't like andy. she could take a few margaritas and still be fine.

it was a new tradition for stella and conrad to link arms and down a drink. of course, stella and jeremiah tried it too.

jeremiah wasn't drinking as much as he wanted to. maybe it was becacuse he was hopeful for the rest of the night. stella-wise.

speaking of stella, she was easily on her fifth or sixth mini cup. she wasn't drinking out of the huge glasses that isabel was using.

they were in the middle of a game when it was stella and jeremiah's turn to go up against each other. he put two fingers in front of his eyes and pointed them towards stella, basically saying, i'm gonna win.

stella couldn't help but feel small butterflies in her stomach but she played it off with a playful eye roll. "watch your back, j," she chuckled, taking another sip of her drink.

isabel was keeping the drinks going for stella. whenever she ran out of one, isabel would have another ready. they were playing cornhole and conrad and stella were one team and jeremiah and cameron were on another team.

stella couldn't keep her eyes off jeremiah. especially his arms and his hair... and his eyes. she shook her head before she could get too distracted.

when it was stella's turn to toss, jeremiah took this moment to admire her while she was focused on throwing. he loved the clothes she wore and the person underneath them. he loved watching her bite her lip when she would focus super hard on throwing one of the bean bags.

jeremiah took a sip of his drink to try and cover up the blush rising on his cheeks from just looking at her. he also noticed how she had been downing drink after drink. i mean, the amount of the tiny cups that she drank had probably added up to about two and a half of the big glasses that isabel had been drinking.

stella threw the last beanbag that would determine who won the game or not and... she missed. of course. what were they expecting from stella anyways?

conrad threw his head back in disappointment and laughed into his hands. "stel, you sold!" he groaned, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

jeremiah and cameron were celebrating when jeremiah parted with his team mate to tease his brother and his best friend.

"stel, i can't believe you missed it!" steven chuckled, taking a sip from his cup.

andy let out a quiet laugh. "i can."

"that's my girl!" jeremiah picked her up in a hug and waved her around like a rag doll.

they all finished off a few more cups before they decided to start heading back to the summer house.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"hey, connie! catch!" jeremiah called to his brother.

the fisher boys and stella were playing catch with a football. stella was decent at it, but only because she had spent so much time with conrad growing up that she had caught on to some football stuff.

conrad caught the football that his brother had thrown him, of course. he threw it to his best friend next, who just barely caught it clumsily. "j, heads up!" she tried throwing it while he wasn't paying attention.

too bad he was usually always looking at her.

jeremiah caught it without taking his eyes off her. he went to throw it to conrad but his dad stepped in the way. stella saw her dad trailing behind him with a bottle of beer in his hand. she rolled her eyes, waiting for next stupid comment he was going to make.

"woah! interception!" jeremiah smiled, turning his gaze away from the girl.

stella tried not to think about how hot she thought that he looked when he was attempting to play football.

it's the margaritas talking, she told herself.

"go deep!" the fishers' dad said, throwing the ball to jeremiah.

stella wasn't too focused on them anymore. she was focused intently on her best friend who seemed to linger behind his dad.

he shot her a look that said, are you fucking kidding me right now? he added a small smirk after the glance. they had made this whole dad thing a joke by now. maybe it was a way for them to cope, i don't know.

"your spiral's looking pretty tight, must be in the genes," his dad mumbled to him. "oh, hey. i talked to coach walsh from brown. he says there's a spot on summer sessions waiting for you."

jeremiah had caught his dad's throw, calling out, "touchdown, patriots."

"i'm good here," conrad muttered, keeping his eyes trained straight ahead, not wanting to look at his dad.

"hey, dad. uh, we're lighting that big firework you got in mexico," jeremiah said excitedly. a small smile crept its way onto stella's face. "the one that, uh, makes the big palm tree. it's gonna be awesome."

"can't wait," his dad said, catching the ball again. "just don't aim it near the house, alright?"

stella furrowed her eyebrows before she could notice her dad walking towards her. he stood next to her and put a hand on her back, making her shrug him off. "no half-shirts today?"

"i wore a crop top one time around you and now you won't let it go?" she mumbled annoyedly. she didn't want to cause a scene in front of the boys.

she focused her attention back on her best friends. she didn't want to continue the conversation with her dad before it got worse, because she knew it would.

"hey, come here, i want to show you guys how to run a post," the boys' dad said.

stella could feel that conrad had wanted to leave. "don't you guys have to dig the clam pit?" stella asked him, allowing him an escape. she picked up her small cup filled with the pomegranate margarita, prepared to walk away with him.

"yeah, i was about to say that," he mumbled, taking the hand that his best friend was holding out.

"oh, i'll come help," his dad suggested.

stella grabbed her dads attention. "hey, why don't you talk to him, yeah?" she said, referring to the boys' dad.

"yeah, why don't you go spend some time with mom?" conrad said to his dad.

stella leaned his head against her best friend's arm as they stormed away from their fathers together. his dad stayed quiet. jeremiah had his hands on his hips awkwardly with his lips pressed into a line. he picked up his shoes on the way out to follow the other two, leaving the dads alone.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

author's note

okay, so i was going to make the chapter longer but i literally want to fall asleep rn. so i decided to just give you guys what i've got so far. :) if it was boring, pls let me know. fourth of july tea is coming! <3

pls vote, comment, etc. THANK YOUU

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

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