𝐕𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄, 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫.

018.

later that day everyone gathered on the dinner table for belly's birthday dinner. belly invited cam, and cindy invited matt. the girl sat between matt and conrad.

"this is delicious." cam stated.

"yeah." belly agreed.

"of course it is." susannah smiled.

"so, cam." jeremiah spoke. "you mind if i call you cam cameron?"

"mm-hmm. yeah, man." cam nodded. "feel free. that's funny."

"cool." jeremiah muttered as cindy smirked.

these past couple of days she could tell that jeremiah liked belly. she and jeremiah had always been the closest so she could easily read him.

except she couldn't read him. jeremiah could always read her and he made her think she could read him.

and yes cindy and jeremiah flirt as a joke, they're both really flirty people but they didn't like each other like that.

well cindy didn't like him like that.

"i'm glad you're here, cameron." susannah announced. "i know your mom, denise, from the club. i have heard a lot about you."

"thank you so much for having me, susannah." the boy smiled. "my mom says hi."

"so matt is this your first summer in cousins?" susannah then turned to the boy.

"yeah," matt nodded. "it's been great so far, i really like it."

"you'll be coming back next year?" even if he seemed like a nice boy susannah hoped he would say 'no', her wish was for conrad and cindy to get together while she was still alive.

"probably," matt informed.

"cindy definitely has a type." laurel whispered to susannah.

"i can see that."

"cam, matt, have you ever had miyeok-guk before?" laurel questioned, changing the subject. "it's a korean birthday tradition."

"no. looks so good." he complimented while laurel filled his plate.

"it looks amazing." matt admitted.

"belly told me cam's vegetarian, so i didn't put any meat in it." the woman smiled.

"thank you, laurel."

"why don't you eat meat, cam cameron?" jeremiah asked.

"uh, the meat industry is, like, the number one contributor to global warming." cam explained. "and i just, i like animals."

"just don't come for my leather jacket." taylor joked as everyone chuckled.

"i'm pretty sure you mean pleather." steven chimed in and taylor flipped him off.

"oh." jeremiah smirked. "you know, uh, actually, belly eats meat. so, you let her kiss you with those lips?"

"guys, stop." belly pleaded.

"no, I don't judge people for eating meat." cam shrugged. "it's just, like, a personal choice. i don't care."

"so you don't mind if, uh, like, her lips touch a dead animal, and then those dead animal lips touch your lips, right?" jeremiah questioned.

"I don't mind at all. um, in fact..." cam kissed
belly briefly and both jeremiah and steven pretended to be gagging.

"damn dude." matt laughed.

"aw." susannah sighed.

cindy felt a pressure on her right thigh, where conrad was sitting. she looked down at the hand that was on her thigh, cindy quickly slapped his hand away which didn't work. she then tried to pry his hand off but he put it back higher on her thigh.

"all right. all right, all right." laurel interrupted as everyone turned to her. "belly's allowed to kiss, but that's it."

"mom, please." belly croaked out. "no. you're so not funny. no more wine for you, okay?"

"i'm sorry." steven raises his hand in defeat. "i just don't understand why anybody would want to kiss somebody who once fully shat in the bathtub."

cindy gasped at the comment, forgetting about conrad's hand. "that was foul" the girl shook her head.

"I was like two years old." belly defended herself.

"more like six." steven exposed.

"shut up steven." belly warned.

"steven." laurel scolded her son.

"aw, I remember that." susannah smiled. "god, that feels like a lifetime ago.

"I remember when I visited last summer, and you and you," taylor pointed at the brothers. "dared him to pee in the fireplace, and you stunk up the entire house for days." she pointed at steven.

"I blamed the neighbor's cat." susannah mentioned.

"we were drunk." jeremiah defended.

"yeah, we were drunk." conrad agreed.

"on like half a white claw." cindy interrupted, remembering conrad's hand as she pried it off.

"she got you there." jeremiah laughed.

"you know, um, I'm thinking maybe we should go to nicole's party." belly announced.