Cruel Summer, Jeremiah Fisher

eleven

"You totally owe me for making me do that," I told Jere as we walked up to the house with his arm wrapped around my shoulders.

He kissed the top of my head and handed me my stuffed dolphin, "Oh, it wasn't that bad."

I stopped in place when we walked through the front door of the beach house, only to see that everything had been removed.

"What the fuck!" Jere yelled.

I couldn't help but just stand there and look around in shock.

The house that was normally filled with warmth and magic was now cold and barren.

We all stood in what was once the living room and took in our surroundings.

Everything that Susannah had built in the house was gone. It would never be the same.

Conrad and Belly were the first to walk away, then Jere ran upstairs.

I sat down on the stairs with my head between my hands.

Everything was changing so fast, and I needed to pull myself together to be there for everyone else.

Jere walked down the stairs and stopped next to me, "Everything's gone."

When I heard the sound of someone coming through the back door, I stood up and followed Jere towards it, only to see Julia.

"What the fuck, Julia," Conrad spat.

"I'm sorry," she let out, "This must be such a shock. I-I spoke to your father this afternoon, and he and I decided it would be best not to drag this on any longer than necessary."

Conrad stepped forward, "I don't give a shit what the two of you decided on, you had no right to touch anything in this house, those were her things!" he yelled and Steven had to run up to pull him back.

I had tears streaming down my cheeks at that point.

"Everything's in storage, I made sure that the movers were careful with every single thing," Julia said.

"Oh, thank you for being so fucking gracious!" I snapped and Jere looked over at me.

"I'm just doing what I have to do to sell this house," she sighed.

Conrad stepped up again, "That's bullshit. You could've said something. You could've warned us! All you want to do is spite our mom constantly-"

Julia cut him off, "Okay, enough! You're not the only one that's hurting here. And I'm not the one you should be angry with. Your mother could have warned you that this was gonna happen. She just wanted to make me the bad guy. As usual."

"I'm so sorry that she was too busy dying to make your life a little easier. You know, it sucks that our grandfather loved him more than you, but I'm not surprised," he spat before walking away.

We all followed him outside as he tried to call Adam, "Of course Dad did nothing to stop her."

"Connie, what can he do?" Jere asked.

"He doesn't care about us!" Conrad yelled and I flinched back.

When Skye walked outside, Conrad started stomping up to them, "Did you know about this? I'm serious, did you know about this?"

"I didn't know anything, okay. I swear I would have told you," they promised.

"Connie, come on. What are we gonna do?" Steven asked.

"I don't know!" Con said pacing back and forth.

"Okay, we can't just leave. Alright, we still have a chance the house isn't sold yet," Jere claimed.