Chapter 2

Conrad noticed it first, he'd always been able to notice things as soon as they happened but he only saw it a fraction of time before the rest of us. The smoke was curling through the air, something that looked completely unnatural to me. Smoke didn't belong at the summer house, smoke represented danger and there was never, ever danger at the summer house.

We started to run up to the house. When we arrived the sight was shocking. Taylor was sitting in the living room with the letters, my letters, in her hand. Yet some were lit on the floor, burning and twisting in the flames, becoming nothing but ash. I could see the writing warping on the paper in the flame. Conrad's perfect handwriting, the curling t's the dotted i's all vanishing in front on me.

There was nothing I could do, Conrad was the only other person to recognise what they were. No one else could possibly comprehend what was happening. I could see the confused looks on Jere's and Anika's faces as their eyes flashed between the flames and my eyes, but I couldn't offer them an explanation, all I could do was watch the letters burn till Conrad was next to me, he lifted my chin and stared into my eyes, firstly reassuring me everything would be okay but then subtly getting my permission for something. Something I'd promised myself wouldn't happen.

Conrad's POV

I arrived at the house first and immediately recognised them, of course I did. They may have been a year and a half but I knew every word, every thought and every feeling relating to those letters. My letters to belly.

I began writing to her after her and Jeremiah had cancelled the wedding. She'd ran back home then quickly went to Spain for junior year before I even got the chance to talk to her. I poured my heart to her through letters. I sent her 23 letters that year, explaining to her everything. Everything that I never could bring myself to do before. But I never received a reply. I was pretty certain she'd received them, though I could never be sure and now here was proof, and what's more, she'd kept them. By the looks of it every single one. I knew I owned a place in her heart, as much as she denied it and I was determined to fight for it and these letters, the ones she had kept, would fuel my determination. Except they were burning, before both our eyes. Diminishing, vanishing, crumbling. All Taylor's fault. Taylor had to leave. She had no place here, but I thought to myself, why? What motive did she have for doing this? Before coming to a response to these questions I walked over to Belly, lifted her chin and stared into her eyes, her beautiful grey-blue eyes, wanting permission to do what I'd longed to do for two years, kiss her.

Belly's POV

I knew what Conrad was asking yet I knew here wasn't right. Nothing was right here at all.

With Conrad by my side I turned to Taylor. My so called best friend to demand an explanation but before doing so Conrad turned to Jere and Anika and asked them if we could have a bit of privacy. They both looked confused but willingly accepted, turning to walk back outside to the pool. Now alone with her he turned back to Taylor, anger ruling his eyes.
'What the hell do you think you're doing?' he demanded, shaking with rage.
'Conrad, stop.' I said to him, this is between me and Taylor and I need to handle it my way.
Looking at her I cried, 'But explain yourself Tay, why would you do this?'
'No belly, why would you do this?' She responded, 'I found these at the bottom of your luggage whilst looking for your blue dress which by the way you forgot to pack!'
'Forget the dress Taylor, I don't care how you found my letters but why on earth would you think you had the right to read them and then burn them?!' I screamed at her.
'Belly you need to get over him, I was doing you a favour, he's not worth any of this shit, he's treated you terribly yet you keep coming back for more and more. You're desperate and you need to move on, let it go Belly and stop being pathetic!'
That was my breaking point. I pulled my arm back and slapped her as hard as I could across her cheek, trying to make her experience as much pain as she was putting me through. 'Get out!' I shouted toward her, not daring to look into her eyes. 'I want you gone in the next 30 minutes.'
She didn't bother to respond and as she walked upstairs I crumpled to the floor crying my eyes out. Conrad swept up the ash of the letters from the fire which had now burned out before pulling me too my feet and wrapping me into a hug.

We stood there for a while not even acknowledging Taylor as she stalked out the house, luggage in hand, leaving the summer house for good. Only then did we realise the problem we had. Taylor hadn't brought her car here as her and Anika had travelled with me and I'd said I'd drive them both back when they were going to leave but we hadn't anticipated that Taylor was going to leave on the day of arrival and I was definitely not willing to drive her the four hours back home. Of course we had Conrad's car but he also was definitely not going to be offering her any favours soon which left Jeremiah.

I felt terrible to ask but what other choice did we have so Conrad went to call Jere and Anika inside leaving Taylor confused by the car. She wasn't going to be left waiting around though so stomped up to the house. Conrad looked like he was about to say something but I looked at him to prevent him, letting her sit round the table with us. We told Jere and Anika that Taylor was leaving and could Jere possibly drive Taylor back as we weren't willing to but he refused saying it was Cray's first summer party and he'd already promised Anika he was going to show her around and introduce her to people. I stored how close Anika and Jeremiah had become in a matter of hours at the back of my mind ready to analyse later but first exclaimed about what we were going to do.

Taylor had sat through all this not saying a word just staring at me but I refused to meet her eyes. I couldn't bear to look at her. The last train had gone already and a taxi would cost too much so I grudgingly told her she could stay tonight but was expected to leave on the first train tomorrow morning. Upon hearing this Taylor did what Taylor did best and stormed upstairs without uttering a word.

Now with that cleared up and knowing Jere and Anika were going to Clay's already, Conrad and I decided to go as well to kick the summer off on a good note. I told them all 'I'll be down in an hour and we can go' Before leading Anika upstairs so we could get ready.

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