CAROLINA STOOD IN front of belly with butterflies in her stomach. she held her bouquet as she rocked back and forth of her feet. she was really scared but also excited to dance with conrad. belly ended up dancing with jeremiah. carolina taught him all of the moves since it was very last minute.
"carolina harper, daughter of a katie and elijah harper is recent graduate of hillside high school. she has volunteered at the cousins women's shelter and humane society many times during her summers. she gracefully lead her varsity volleyball team to third place in nationals as the team captain and won the play it forward event raising 6,300 dollars."
carolina met conrad in the middle of the stage. she took his arm as the woman talked. "you look beautiful." conrad said making carolina smile. "you don't look too bad yourself mr. fisher." she said making him chuckle, but quickly stopped himself so the audience didn't see. the walked down to the dance floor, joining the others. she handed her bouquet to her mom and joined back with conrad.
"it's my honor to introduce this year's cousins beach country club debutants." the woman said as everyone clapped. there was a small break between the introduction and the boys dance routine. laurel left and jeremiah told care he was going to look for laurel and belly's dad,
the boys started their dance routine which made all the moms 'whoop' at the boys. carolina laughed as conrad danced with the boys. although conrad told care not to record, she just had to. "oh wow i'm sending this to everyone." carolina laughed as she recorded conrad.
the dance was about to start and jeremiah fisher was no where to be seen. she saw how worried belly looked and saw all the stares she got. care looked around and saw daniel in a suit. "connie. you go with belly, i'll go with daniel, okay?" she said to him and he shook his head "why?" he asked.
"daniel knows the dance. he did this before, remember?" carolina said and he nodded. carolina waved her brother over to him. "dance with belly, we don't know where jere is." conrad said to daniel. he sighed and nodded as he headed over to belly.
"conrad." carolina said looking at him.
"my mom really wants to see us dance, okay?" conrad said very seriously and she nodded. the music was about to begin and they all got into place. susannah gave carolina a thumbs up and smiled. the music began and conrad danced with carolina, just like susannah wanted.
after the dance, jeremiah walked up to conrad urgently. "hey. conrad, we need to talk, all right? it's important. it's about mom. i found something out." jeremiah said and carolina looked up at jeremiah with worry.
"um—we'll talk about this later, okay?" conrad said stopping him. jeremiah shook his head "no it's important." he said as conrad stopped him with his hand.
"it's okay," conrad said firmly. jeremiah looked down and his head shot up in realization. "you already know, don't you?" jeremiah said with anger mixed with sadness in his eyes "you've known this whole fucking time and didn't tell me?" jeremiah angrily said.
"conrad what's going on?" carolina asked.
"jere..." conrad said before jeremiah punched him in the face before tackling him to the ground. the two boys started fighting in the middle of the dance floor. susannah rushed over "stop it. both of you, stop it. what is going on?" she yelled.
carolina went to go and get conrad up to check on him. he got up and told her that he was okay. "mom..." jeremiah started, but started to cry. "we know, mom. we both know." conrad said and carolina was still confused.
"know what?" belly asked.
"susannah is sick, again." laurel said and carolina felt her heart drop.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
carolina sat in the back seat of her brothers car with conrad. daniel went into the house because he didn't want his sister to see him cry. when they got there, daniel immediately got out of the car and went inside. carolina started letting out loud sobs as conrad held her. he decided to carry her out of the car and to her bed.
"you—you should have told me. you shouldn't have to hold it in by yourself." she managed to get out between cries as pulled her into him. he gently rubbed her back to try and calm her down. "i know, i know." he said softly.
"i could have spent more time with her, i—i could have done so much." she cried. "she was sick this whole time and none of us knew. i feel so bad. does my mom know?" she asked and he nodded, wiping the tears that fell off of her face. she started crying even more thinking of everything she could have done with susannah.
"that's why you wanted to dance with me?" she asked.
"yeah, i know my mom was really looking forward to seeing us dance together. she told me while she was doing my portrait." conrad replied.
"and is—is that why you had the panic attack?" she asked and he nodded "yeah, cleveland knew too. i'm sorry for not telling you, i just didn't know how to." he replied. "you should go to bed." he said laying her down and pulling her sheets over her. he moved her hair out of her face and kissed her forehead.
"i'll come tomorrow and we can talk more, okay?" he said and she nodded and stray tears fell of her face and onto her pillow.
↷ ·˚ ༘💌 AUTHORS NOTE sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry don't hate me for not updating
