Part 31

                                    

                                          



Still half asleep, I walk into the kitchen and see Belly talking to Aunt Julia and a random girl.
"Bells!" I yell.
"Y/N." She smiles and hugs me.
"Taylor has told you, hasn't she?"
"Yeah, you might wanna call Mom, have you not checked your voicemails?"
"I don't check my voicemails."
I pull my phone out from my pocket and open it up to see nearly twenty voicemails from my Mom.
"She thought you were missing, I told her that you're at a friend's house."
"Thanks." I scroll through them but pause before I see a name I didn't expect.
'Conrad Fisher'.
I changed his contact name after the funeral, I couldn't bear seeing his nickname every time I checked my messages.
"I'm gonna go upstairs."
"I'll come." She swipes a muffin and follows me up.
Belly lays next to me, on her phone scrolling through tiktok.
We sit on my bed and I put an air pod in, listening to Conrad's old messages.
28.09.22-"Hey Eminem, it's Conrad of course, just checking if you still wanted help with that writing thing later. Call me."
07.10.22-"Hey! I talked to Jere and he, he um, he's been dating, I, I wanna talk to you. Shoot me a text when you can call."
19.10.22-"Leaving you this message to let you know that you stink like eggs."
30.10.22-"I wanna play Fortnite, play with me."
02.11.22-"I had this idea where next year for Halloween, we can go to Cousin's and throw a huge party, what do you think?"
12.11.22-"I loooovvvveeee you, y/n Conklin."
29.11.22-"I listened to that song you said to listen to, it was pretty good, listen I've got it on now. I can still see it all in my he-e-e-ead. I love you, call me you voicemail ignoring egg."
20.12.22-"I really wanna see you n/n."
05.01.23-"I leave you voicemails every month and you never answer, egg."
18.02.23-"When is prom again? Sorry, I forgot. Love you."
02.03.23-"It's totally up to you but, when you get a chance, could we talk?"
05.03.23-"I'm so sorry about prom, It was all my fault, please call me."
20.05.23-"Hey y/n, are you all coming to the reception after the funeral? Adam needs to know."
09.06.23-"Hi y/n, I'm gonna start by saying that I get why you're angry and I feel awful about how everything went down, but, I miss you and I feel so stupid but also just, I don't know, I feel kind of fucked up about all this. Anyway, I understand that you want to ignore me, but if you feel ready or whatever, please give me a ring. Bye."

I stare at my phone in shock and don't realise that I've teared up.
"Are you okay? Y/N what the hell are you listening to?" Belly asks.
"Nothing." I put on a smile and hold back my tears. "It's all good."
"Okay." She eats some muffin.
"Why are you two hiding?" Tay sits on the bed with us.
"No reason." Belly says.
"Is it, you know who?"
"Taylor!" She yells.
"Who?" I whisper. "Jeremiah?"
Belly's face is guilty.
"Conrad?"
"I'll let you two have a chat." Taylor stands up and leaves. "See you downstairs."
Tay shuts the door and I look at Belly, anger brewing up inside me.
"What is this about?"
"Before you get furious, let me just say that you knew that I liked Conrad, so I still get nervous around him."
"We all know that Isabel, what are you hiding?" I wait. "Tell me!"
"Fine! You wanna know?" She sighs. "I was jealous of you two, but you never told me about prom, so I called him and asked about you guys, he got angry at me."
"And said what?"
"He said that everything was fucked up and that he fucked up prom and you and everything."
"Why were you jealous?"
"Because he asked me to be a Deb last summer, and I was happy, but he went for you instead, of course." She stands up. "You couldn't have let me have that one thing, could you?"
"Are you kidding me? You always get everything, and I am the one left with less so don't you dare try to guilt trip me."
"Quit whining y/n."
"Whining? Well I'm sorry if I'm a tad upset right now, but if you couldn't tell, I've lost the only boy I love and the only woman who has ever treated me like an actual daughter." 
She looks down at her feet.
"Got anything to say back to that?"
She shakes her head.
"Belly, I'm sorry if you're jealous, but please don't take it out on Conrad, or Jeremiah."
"Okay."
"Come here." I hold out my arms and hug her. "I'm sorry for yelling, I just have a lot on my mind. Now go get ready, I have an Idea of what to do today."
She shuts the door and I look through the bag of things that Taylor brought me.
I settle on a purple brandy melville top and a pair of black denim shorts, which expose my anklet, well, Conrad's.
I slide on my crocs and head downstairs, instantly hearing a knock at the door.
"Can I help you?" I ask.
"Sandy Denati, I'm looking for Julia."
"Oh, open house lady." I say and she makes a slight face. "Julia actually decided to cancel, so."
"I'm sorry, who are you?"
The door opens some more from my way.
"She's my girlfriend and she is right Julia is having second-thoughts."
I secretly grin at the comment.
"Conrad Fisher, nice to see you, I'm sorry about your mother."
"Not sorry enough to pass up an opportunity to sell her house."
"Just doing my job."
"Consider this an unexpected day off." I tell her, annoyed.
"Ignore them!" Julia walks through us. "I'm sorry Sandy but the AC has broken suddenly, no open house today."
"This is not good, and on the hottest day of the year? Jesus." She storms off  and Julia follows.
Conrad slams the door.
"I'm sorry that I called you my girlfriend."
"Oh, don't worry, it's cool." I turn around and walk away with a small smile plastered onto my face.


'When he loves me, I feel like I'm floating.'