Summer Went Away | Cam Cameron (2)

Hate

Jeremiah

None of this felt real. The weirdest part was Emilia. She didn't feel like herself. I mean, she was running around fixing everything and that was normal, but she was mean. She was yelling at Cameron, she was yelling at me. When she got mad she took it out on Conrad, never me.

We were sitting in my bed. Emilia, Cameron, Steven, Belly, and I.

"Where is Conrad?" Belly asked, she always cared about him more than any of us. She has these stupid heart eyes for him and everyone can see it and gets annoyed as fuck at it.

I shook my head, "No clue, go find him."

Em put her hand on my arm, "Let's go downstairs and get you something to eat."

When all of us walked down the stairs, Emilia still holding my hand for support, Conrad was laying with his head in Aubry's lap. She was playing with his hair and he had trailed his hand on her knee.

She saw me is first. "Hey," she said.

That's when  Conrad looked over and saw  Em standing in the doorway with a plate of cheese and crackers. Belly looked like she was going to scream. 

He sat up. "Is that food for us?"

Em walked over and put it in his hand. She wasn't the happiest that Aubrey was here, but she'd do anything for Conrad. "Yeah," she told him. "Do you need anything else?"

He shook his head, "No, do you guys need anything?"

She looked over at the four of us and placed a small kiss on Conrad's head, "No, I'm okay. We're okay, come upstairs when you're ready."

"Who's that?" Belly asked me.

I smiled over at Emilia and Conrad, "That's Aubrey."

"What?" She yelled. She stomped over to Conrad.  "Sorry I interrupted your little moment."

"Oh, grow up," he said, standing up to tower over her.

Belly snapped her head at him, "Go to hell."

Conrad's face fell for a brief moment, but he quickly fixed his face. Steven and Cam shared a glance of 'holy shit'. Emilia, oh Emilia. I have never seen her look so pissed off at someone. She stayed quiet though, to let Conrad handle it.

"I should have known you'd be like this," Conrad snapped.

Belly's face fell and she asked him, "What do you mean?"

He shrugged, his jaw tight. "Forget it."

"No, say it." She yelled.

He started to turn around, to leave, but she stopped him. She stood in his way like a child. I thought Emilia was going to throw Belly down the stairs. Clearly, Cam thought so too, because he took a step forward and made his face soft just in case he needed to swoop in and stop a murder.

"Tell me," Belly said, her voice rising.

He looked at her and said, "I knew it was a bad idea, starting something with you. You're just a kid. It was a huge mistake."

"I don't believe you," she said.

People were starting to look. Laurel was standing in the living room, talking to people  I  didn't recognize.  She'd glanced up when  Belly started speaking.

Emilia guided Conrad to leave again. Hoping that she could just stop the whole thing.

"I hate you," Belly yelled at Conrad.

He didn't react he didn't even look at her, "good." He told her.

Belly ran up the stairs and fell flat on her face. I thought Emilia would help her up, she always would.

After a while Belly stood up on her own, "Why is he such an ass?" She asked.

I don't know if she was asking me, Cam, Steven, or Emilia, but none of us wanted to answer.

"He only cares about himself," she added.

Emilia stood in front of us and looked Belly dead in the eyes, "Get out of my house."

"What?" Belly asked.

"Get. The fuck. Out. Of my house," Em snapped.

Laurel walked up to her, "Emilia! Belly is grieving, she's going through a lot."

Tears filled Emilia's eyes, "And I'm not?! And my brothers aren't? Isabel didn't lose a mom, you're right here. She can wake up and tell you good morning, we can't do that. She didn't lose a fucking mom so she needs to stop acting like it. Susannah Fisher was my mom. She was Conrad's mom. She was Jeremiah's mom. She wasn't Belly's. So if you want to stand up for her then you can leave too."

Cameron walked over to Em and put his hand on her shoulder. He whispered something in her ear, but she pushed him off.

Laurel grabbed Belly and stomped out the door, "Come on Steven."

He looked at Emilia and Conrad, "I'm going to stay."

Cam pulled me aside a few minutes later, "are you okay?" He asked.

I shrugged, "I'm not sure. I've never seen Em like this. She isn't mean."

He put his hand on my arm, "I don't think she's mean. I think this is just how she's dealing with all of this. "

"Will you talk to her?" I asked, "before you leave?

He nodded, "Yeah, if she lets me. Are you going to talk to Brie?"

I shook my head.  I Didn't know what to say. She didn't want to deal with me anymore. And I wish I was spiraling and imagining it but she flat-out told me she didn't want to. I thought she was my best friend, I was always there for her but she just left when things got hard for me.

He saw the hurt in my eyes and put his hand on my arm, "Why?"

"She's just over me. I don't want to talk about it."

"Does Emilia know?" He asked.

I shrugged, "Kinda...she also dipped on her but Em kinda always saw it coming."

He shook his head, "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, I told him. I have people to talk to and I will talk to people. So please just worry about her?"

He nodded, "I've got it."