𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮 . . . 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙧𝙖𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧

𝙩𝙬𝙤

𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮

later that night the fishers and conklins were gathered around the table for dinner, conrad at the head of the table with noa sitting next to him. the boy was staring at his girlfriend lovingly as she laughed at what steven and jeremiah were showing her, unknown to the couple belly was sitting at the other end of the table glaring daggers between them.

"steven i swear to god, if you look at that phone one more time, i'm putting it in the screen basket" laurel sighed annoyed looking at her teenage son.

"it's just we want to see your beautiful faces" susannah finished sweetly.

"steven" a laughing jeremiah said as his friend ignored their mothers

"dude, are you kidding me?!" steven yelled as jeremiah snatched his phone and tossed it into a basket in the corner.

"boom! nailed it" jeremiah flexed his muscles mostly trying to show off to noa, who shook her head at his actions.

"okay, okay, okay, we get it, you've been working out." steven rolled his eyes

"oh, you're just jealous because jere has a better body than you." belly laughed making fun of her older brother.

"uh, no actually it's all about the lean look now. otherwise, you can't wear tailored suits." steven smiled shrugging.

"sure, sure."

"tailored suits." conrad mimicked to his girlfriend making her smile, a smile that lit up his world anytime he saw it.

"so when are you leaving for training camp man?" steven asked the older fisher brother.

all of the fishers, noa included went silent. conrad's body stiffened, which noa saw as she placed her hand atop of his to calm him down, this didn't go unnoticed by belly, in fact it angered her more, she wished she could be the one to simply place her hand over conrad's and calm him down.

"uh he quit football." jeremiah finally announced the news to the conklins.

"wh-wait, really" belly was gobsmacked, she always thought cornad loved football, she even imagined him as a famous nfl player and her waiting at home for him after his games. she couldn't even imagine what had made him quit, she looked at noa who had a blank face, was it noa's fault he quit?

"you quit?" she finally asked

"mhm" conrad silently mumbled not looking anywhere but at his and noa's joint hands, calming him down.

"are you kidding me man?" steven asked surprised, "i'd- i'd kill to play college ball"

"he can always change his mind" susannah cut in hopefully.

"i'm not gonna change my mind." conrad said with a stern tone. noa had picked up on how annoyed the boy was getting, slowly rubbing soothing circles on his hand which calmed him again. "i was just gonna sit on the bench all season anyways." he finished.