FEELS LIKE • CONRAD FISHER

004, a little fun

CAROLINA DRESSED UP for the debutante tea party that she had to go to. she had a white floral dress on with a lavender lacy fascinator on her head. her gloves matched her fascinator and she had black heels on. last night she even painted her nails lavender to match her fascinator and gloves. she was probably gonna take the gloves off once she got in.

she sat on the table by her friends, gigi and shayla. she knew everyone else on the table, but she wasn't as close with them. there was and empty seat for belly because she was late. when she arrived, belly sat down and awkwardly said hi to the girls.

"i told my my mom the only way i'd do this is if i could bring my girlfriend, 'cause i thought it would be a deal killer, but the club has been surprisingly chill about the whole thing." marisa said as steven poured tea for shayla.

"i'm honestly shocked." dara replied.

"literally, dara, i was expecting a conversion camp to spring out of the bushes. no, lesbians and debutantes are, like, a completely juxtaposing idea." marisa said and gigi agreed.

"yeah, but cousins likes to pretend to be woke. trust me, my family deals with it constantly." nicole said.

"the things we do for college applications and carolina doesn't have to. girl, i don't understand why your doing this." marisa said and carolina looked down to her lap.

"unless, she's trying to get a boy." gigi said making carolina look up.

"oh. my. god. you totally are!" marisa said making her shake her head, "no, no. i'm not doing this for anyone. i swear on my life. i just wanted to have a little fun." carolina explained.

"a little fun with a fisher. i saw you guys yesterday." shayla said and one of the girls almost choked on their tea "wait—which one?" marissa asked and shayla pretended to shut her lips, lock it, and throw the key away.

"okay, but still its insane that i have to do this for college."

"don't worry, marisa. you'll get in everywhere." shayla assured her. belly sat up in her seat, "wait. where are you applying?" belly asked.

"you know, the usual. every ivy minus cornell." marisa said casually and belly has a surprised look on her face. "ugh ithaca is so bleak." gigi said making the girls laugh.

"i know. what about you?" marisa asked belly.

"oh, belly is only a sophomore. she still has a year to think about all of this." carolina said and the girls nodded. "yeah, i'll be a junior in the fall." belly answered. belly was probably the youngest at their table. she was put with older girls for them to be "role models" for her to follow after.

"so, is this your first summer here in cousins?"

"no, i've been coming here for my entire life." belly laughed.

"yeah, she's like family friends with conrad and jeremiah." nicole said as belly stuffed a sweet in her mouth. "uh, so are you and jeremiah, like—a thing, or are you gonna take him to the ball?" gigi asked.

"um" belly said with the sweet stuffed in her mouth.

"oh my god, back off, geeg." nicole said making all the other girls laugh.

"it was a question."

"their basically related, okay? you have nothing to worry about." nicole said and gigi scoffed "i'm not worried." she said and carolina laughed.

"definitely, gigi," carolina said sarcastically.

"keep telling yourself that, babe."

"so which fisher are you into, care?" gigi asked. she would be lying if she said she didn't have a crush on conrad fisher. carolina looked around the table "i'm not into any of them." she lied.

"gigi, has had this thing for jeremiah—"

"ever since he got abs?" shayla asked, cutting nicole off. all the girls at the table laughed at her comment. "relax, i'm not into jeremiah fisher." shayla said.

"yeah, and you're noticing his abs?" gigi said turning to shayla. marisa pointed to shayla "she's too busy eye-fucking the waiter." marisa said, everyone saw her whispering things to him when he came by their table.

"dude, that's belly's brother." shayla said sending the girls into fits of laughter. belly made an disgusted face and looked down. "so what's it like to live with jeremiah and conrad? conrad's so mysterious."

"i—"

"hello debutantes." the woman said making the girls look up to the front of the room. " a few small housekeeping bits i'd like to go over. we have a lot to look forward to this season."

"yeah, a lot of drinking," carolina said to shayla, making her chuckle.

"now, i understand some of you might think that debbing is outdated..." carolina pulled out her phone to text someone to pick her up. she couldn't stand to be here for another hour drinking tea out of small cups.

carolina 🧸 pick me up asap. this woman is boring me to death.

the woman finished her her speech and belly excused herself from the table. "i'm going, girls." carolina said standing up.

"where?" marisa asked.

"home. i told miss paige my mom needed "help" with the house and she took it oh—and there is my ride." she said pointing at the car outside of the country club. "carolina is a sneaky girl." shayla said as carolina waved goodbye. she went past cam and belly. belly was wondering where she was going.

"thank you for picking me up, conrad." carolina said getting in the car and taking off the fascinator off her head the headband that was holding it on her head was squeezing her head. he looked over to her from the drivers seat "no problem. are you gonna quit this deb thing then?" he asked waiting for her to put on her seat belt.

"no, i just wanted to leave this one. miss paige wouldn't stop talking. also those sweets they had on the table make me feel sick. i think there's so much more sugar in there than those energy drinks we got last summer." she said as he started to drive back to their houses.

"yeah, of course i remember. steven was bouncing off of the walls singing what makes you beautiful for like two hours."

when belly went inside after talking to cam, she saw the fishers car in the lot from the window. she saw carolina get into the fishers car and she drove off. she wondered if it was conrad who picked her up. she doubted it would be susannah or jeremiah.

↷ ·˚ ༘ 💌 AUTHORS NOTE
i thought of steven singing "as the world caves in" in the shower 😭