Cruel Summer, Jeremiah Fisher

twelve

"What's going on out here?" A loud voice jolted me out of my sleep.

In a daze, I looked around to see that I was on a golf course with my friends, the memories from last night quickly coming back to me.

Jere snorted, "You have bed head."

I slapped the back of his head, "Shut up! It's probably from you trying to hug me all night!" I teased flattening down my hair.

"Mom," Cam Cameron quickly walked up to her, "I'm so sorry, um... they- they needed a place to stay because they lost their house. I'll clean everything up, I swear."

He really was such a nice guy.

"Yeah, we-we'll help clean up," I defended him.

Cam's mom looked around at us, "Good. And don't forget to return the cart," she said before walking away.

Well that definitively went better than expected!

I felt like things were going to take a turn for the better for us.

-

I jinxed it.

"The buyers made an offer on the house and i've officially excepted it," Julia told us, standing in front of the beach house, "I have to go to Boston to finalize the details, but, uh, it's done. The house is sold."

I looked down at my feet and cursed.

Con and Jeremiah had a plan. We thought that we could really save the house.

But it was gone already.

"It's sold?" Jeremiah asked with a confused tone.

Conrad shook his head, "Y-you sold this house in the last twelve hours?"

Ten years worth of my memories, and she was able to sell them away in half a day.

"Yes," Julia nodded, "to a lovely family with three children and some kind of a poodle mix."

I scoffed, "Do you honestly think we give a shit what kind of dog they have?"

Jeremiah stuttered, "This can't just be over."

"It is," she blatantly stated, "Uh, I'm gonna need your keys, please."

Con and Jere looked at each other before reluctantly handing their keys to Julia's outstretched palm. I shook my head and looked away.

"I'll bet your really enjoying this," Conrad said.

Julia shook her head like she wasn't going to deny his statement.

"Mom," Skye spoke up, "Don't do this."

At least she was making an effort to stop her mom and wasn't just going along with it.

Julia looked over at her, "Skye. Really? I told you two that I was selling the house, you just refused to believe it. And I'm not enjoying it, but I will admit that i'm relieved it's finally over. Come on Skye," she led them away to her car.

I shared a look with Belly and Taylor. What were we supposed to do now?

-

I reassuringly rubbed my hand up and down Jere's back as we all stood around the kitchen, "Alright, so, I know things aren't going so great right now, but it's always the darkness before the dawn, right?" he said.

"Yeah, not this time," Conrad muttered.

It was clear that he thought this was over. I couldn't even imagine what the two were feeling.

Personally, I felt like I had failed Susannah in a way. I promised her that I would be the one to keep up the magic in this place, but how was I supposed to do that if I couldn't even manage to find a way to save the house?