𝐕𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄, 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫.

005.

"officers, thank you. it won't happen again, i can promise you that much." laurel apologized as she led the cops out the door.

"tell mr. fisher the chief wants to set up a tee time when he gets back in town."

"absolutely." she nodded faking a smile. "sorry again for all the trouble. have a good night,
officers."

as soon as the front door was closed, laurel turned to the teenagers that were gathered in the hallway.

"how could you guys be so irresponsible?" laurel practically screamed, glaring down at the teens.

"mom, it wasn't a big deal." steven spoke brushing the whole thing off. "all right? seriously. the cops were just looking to break up the bonfire."

"not a big deal?" the woman scoffed. "i would say getting picked up by the cops for underage drinking is a pretty big deal, steven"

"were-were you guys, you guys smoking tonight?" steven blurted out after sniffing the air.

"what?" laurel instantly asked. she was clearly caught off guard by that question. "keep your voice down. susannah and sophia are asleep on the couch."

"well, i wasn't yelling." steven defended.

"well, you-you were." the woman stuttered.

"just so you know, laurel, i-i didn't drink tonight. i was the dd, i swear." jeremiah announced hoping to make the woman feel a little better about the situation.

"i also did not drink." cindy nodded.

"you're the oldest. what the hell's gotten into you?" laurel questioned looking at conrad before turning to her daughter. "and when did you leave the house without telling anybody? and what in the world are you wearing?"

"it's taylor's." belly shrugged, looking down at her pink dress. "and why am i the only one who's not allowed to go out?"

"it's not that you're not allowed, it's that you should have told us you were going. how did you even get there?" laurel asked.

"i walked." belly answered.

"jesus." laurel gasped throwing her hands up. "you know better than to walk that far down the beach alone late at night."

"can you stop treating me like a kid?" belly shouted.

"if you want to be treated like an adult, you need to act like one."

"then maybe you guys should, too." conrad spat back.

"what does that mean?" she asked but only received a small scoff in response. "i hope you realize this night could have ended a lot differently if your family wasn't your family."

"we're sorry, laur." cindy sincerely apologized.

"just... go to bed, guys." the older woman sighed. she watched as all of the teenagers walked up the steps. laurel couldn't help but stop conrad as he went to walk past her. "i don't understand what is going on with you."

"nothing." he shook his head. his eyes following cindy. "nothing's going on."

"connie..." laurel mumbled as he hastily walked away from her.

as cindy plopped down on her bed, there was a knock on her door. "come in!"

conrad entered the room. "hey."

"hi." the girl mumbled, not really sure what to do.

"i'm sorry about what happened at the bonfire." conrad laid on the bed next to her. "i was being a dick."

"what's going on with you?" cindy questioned. "you fought someone over a beer."

"that guy deserved it." he shrugged.

"you could have gotten seriously hurt." cindy told him. "i care about you conrad."

"i know that." conrad nodded. "i care about you too."

the guy station guy had left after finding about belly's age, but that didn't stop him from talking about cindy. conrad overheard it and the beer incident was the perfect opportunity to get him back.