Cruel Summer, Jeremiah Fisher

one

Lauren ♡

I've been going to Susannah's beach house in Cousins since I was 7 years old. Despite only living there for 2 months every year, it's the place I feel most at home.

Every summer, I find myself counting the days until I can take the drive to Cousins with the Conklins.

The Conklins.

Like my second family... or pretty much my first.

I've been best friends since Belly Conklin since I was in the first grade when I forgot to bring my lunch to school, and she offered me some of hers.

Lauren sat alone at the lunch table in the large cafeteria. Kids ran around, yelling loudly to express their joy of seeing their friends.

Lauren hated lunch time.

It was only a reminder of the fact that she was the new girl in school and didn't have any friends... or any lunch.

A group of older boys ran past her laughing, knocking over the small milk carton she grabbed in the lunch line.

Tears welled in the young girl's eyes as the watered-down school milk dripped onto her blue dress.

"Here," a cute girl around the same age as Lauren held out a napkin, "I'm sorry about my brother, he can be annoying sometimes."

Lauren's eyes scanned the girl's features before gingerly taking the napkin from her hands, "It's alright, what's your name? I'm Lauren Meadows, I just moved here from Seattle. You look a lot like your brother by the way. I love your braids; I wish I could braid my hair like that-"

She stopped, realizing that she was rambling and suddenly held the fear that she had scared the girl off.

The dark- haired girl laughed, "I like you. I'm Isabella, but you can call me Belly, all my friends do," She plopped down into the seat next to Lauren, "Do you not have any lunch?"

The blonde girl slowly shook her head.

"Here, you can have half of my sandwich, as long as you like peanut butter and jelly!"

That summer, Belly invited me to go with her family to the beach house. She talked about how amazing it was for weeks, and she quickly met my expectations.

"Come on, Bells! What's our game plan? We can't let the boys beat us, or they will never let it down." A young Lauren huddled next to Belly on the beach.

Steven, Jeremiah, and Conrad had all challenged the girls to a football game. They knew it was an easy win.

"Alright, I'm going to throw you the ball, and all you have to do is catch it and run." Belly had a similar determination to win. She had been the only girl at the beach house for so many years, and now she had her best friend to watch her back.

With a quick handshake, the girls took their positions in line in front of the boys. They all looked at each other with smirks on their faces.

Easy win.

When Belly yelled 'go', Lauren ran as fast as she could and waited to catch the ball.

Unfortunately, with a combination of Belly's lack of throwing skills and Lauren's inability to catch, the ball hit her straight in the stomach and she went down with a thud.

The boys laughed and Jeremiah loomed over her with a hand held out. Taking his hand, Lauren was pulled up and gave him a smirk, "Don't worry, that was just our practice run."