Chapter 8

Flashback

'How many people is the maximum I can invite?' I'd called to Conrad last night
'Belly' Conrad had turned to face me, stopping cutting vegetables, 'there is no maximum'
'So the whole of Cousins?' I'd grinned at him
'Pretty much, though maybe not the under 5's and over 80's'
'Hey! Betty from up the road is always partying and she turned 95 last spring' Jere called walking in.
'Where's Anika?' Con asked
'Just coming, so to clarify Belly, as many people as we can fit in this house' Jere finalised
'Party on' was my final response.

Present

We got to town within 5 minutes of driving, parked up and hit the streets. We went to the bakery, pub, cafe, convenience store, restaurant, bar and surf shop to tell people of our plan. Everyone at Cousins liked a rave and usually the place would be scattered with 15-30 year olds. All together, just enjoying summer. In the town we must of invited at least 80 people, mostly our age but we weren't nearly done. I expected we'd hit a minimum 250. And we did.

At the boardwalk we rattled off another 120, there was Jason at the hot-dog stall, Kylie, Britt, Marissa and Violet from the stalls, Danny, Josh and Jamie from the erotic shop(I'd never been in there before today) and then Lola and Sam from the arcade. This was just the start. We'd go round saying, 'hey, party at my beach house tomorrow night, 8ish' and then if they didn't know where it was give them the address. Most said they would come straight away, in fact pretty much everyone did. It was the best thing about Cousins. You didn't need to plan. It sounded cliché but you just went with the flow of things.

After we'd invited the majority of the boardwalk Hud suggested we hit up the country club. They were posh but Jere knew a lot of them from his lifeguarding days and the more the merrier. We headed up there and went up to the reception to ask for a megaphone. They didn't let us have one but that didn't stop us. We asked if they had an intercom for when children got lost and they said they did. Hud quickly asked,
'Can I see if I can find someone, I've lost my sister.'
The women on the desk looked disapproving and asked if she could call out a name but Hud replied, 'You won't pronounce it right, its African.'
'You have an African sister?' Her eyes rolled at us
'Is that a problem' I replied sweetly
'Here you go then - be quick' Her voice snapped at us.
I quickly took the speaker and called 'Everybody! Listen up! Party at Conrad and Jeremiah Fishers beach house tomorrow night at 8. Be there or be square!' And cracking up handed the receptionist back the speaker. Her face was priceless. Very very angry. She started to let out a torrent of words, screaming at us so we ran, ran to the car nearly crying with laughter. Once inside we tried to calm down but her face kept popping up in our heads, the look of shock on her face turning into anger. Hilarious.
After we had calmed down Hud turned to me, 'That was the funniest thing I have done in a long time'
'Same!' I responded, 'We make a good team'
'Yeah we do' was his response, and with that we drove off too our next destination. The beach.

Because we had the beach house we'd always had our own section of the beach that was just for us. I used to like the idea of our own beach but it quickly became annoying because quite a lot of Cousins beach was privately owned and if you wanted to walk across it then you either had to get permission or go up to the road and round, which always sucked. Some people were chill, like Susannah. She'd laminated a piece of A3 card and tied it too our fence saying, 'no need to ask, you can wander through our sand whenever' and would always tell us that yes, seclusion and peace is nice but you can't own the ocean or the sand, it's not physically possible, only emotionally. Like how we felt about Cousins- missing it all year round. No matter what, always waiting for summer.

Anyway, there were some people who like Susannah, you didn't have to ask to walk across 'their beach' they were always fine with it. Actually out of the 6 houses that owned part of the beach, 5 houses were like Susannah. Friendly and easy. However there was the one house that was different. They demanded that you knock on their door to ask and if there was no response then you weren't allowed. Problem was, they never answered the door, meaning you weren't allowed on their stretch of the beach. From the age of 6 - 14 I never once walked across their sand for fear of what would happen. That was till the summer I turned 15. We were all playing truth or dare down the beach and it was Steven's go.
'Truth or dare' I asked him
'Dare' he responded casually.
'I'll take this one' Jere chimed in, 'Steven I dare you too go onto Mr and Mrs Markers (the people who owned the beach we couldn't walk on) land and strip down to your boxers whilst singing I predict a Riot by The Kaiser Chiefs. Stevens face was priceless, but being a good sport he did it. And he did it well and fully, not backing out.

Since then people had stopped really listening to the Markers, surfers in particular would surf on their land and one time a group of friends had had a barbeque. Mrs Markers would call the police but after a while they told her to stop calling- they had bigger situations to deal with and so finally all of Cousins beach was free to walk on. Cousins really owed Steven for that.

That's why as Hudson and I headed down to the beach to invite people for tomorrows party I knew how I was going to phrase this invitation. Make people want to come and manage to re-live the old memories. When we arrived there were around 500 people there and we rode up and down the beach repeating the same message.
'People of the beach' I'd call through Hudson's sound system, the guy had the newest technology of course, 'I hope you all remember the guy that freed our beach' heads would start to turn, 'that was Steven Conklin, my brother and tomorrow night we will be having a party at the Fishers beach house, 8pm, to celebrate Cousins! So say hell yeah if you'll be there!'
'Hell yeah' they'd respond and along we'd move. Eventually, after half an hour of beach calling we drove back up to the house satisfied that we'd have enough people turn up, I had just one more person to invite.

'STEVEN' I shouted through the phone 'Get on a plane asap* to come to the amazing pardy* we're throwing tomorrow night'
'Wait, Iz, what?'
'Just can you get on a plane today?' I asked
'For a party?' he asked in disbelief
'Not just a party Steven, a reunion, bring Lacie, c'mon bro. It's been years. Literally' I coaxed at him
'Ah what the hell, sure we'll be there' Steven answered. I could tell he was smiling.
'Don't tell the guys though' I said, 'It's going to be a surprise'
'Okay Bells, look, I have to go but I'll see you tomorrow'
'Bye bro, love you'
'You too' As he hung up I realised how close Steven and I had gotten these past few years. Before we'd fight or ignore each other but nowadays we were really close. I missed seeing him daily but tomorrow was going to be insane. That much I was sure of.

Back at the house it was surprisingly relaxed. Jere and Anika still were not back but Conrad, Ellie, Dean and Flynn were all finished for the day. Ellie, Dean, Flynn and Hudson had to go so they could see some others friends. As they left I told them to invite them to tomorrows party and they said they would. That left Conrad and I.

'Hey' I said, 'how did alcohol shopping go?'
'Good, I got a lot of stuff' he replied, 'How was invites?'
'I think we may have 300-500 people turning up' I replied warily
'Wow! Well we have the house, pool, patio and beach so it should be fine' he sounded pleased.
'Should be a good night, oh and there's a surprise coming but you'll have to wait' I added
'What kind of a surprise?' Now Conrad sounded wary.
'One for you and Jere, it'll be brilliant, I promise' I added. 'Trust me'
'I do.' All of a sudden the mood changed.
'About the other night' Conrad started. My heart started pumping but I knew this wasn't right.
'This isn't right' I told him, 'we have the party tomorrow and after that a whole week of just us. We can figure everything out properly then. Not rushed right now'
'Sure Bells, just one thing'
'Wha..' I couldn't finish what I was saying because he kissed me. Kissed me lightly for just three seconds before standing up and saying, 'fancy a swim?'

*asap = as soon as possible
*pardy = Made in Chelsea reference. Made in Chelsea is a British reality TV show that is brilliant. Jamie Laing constantly refers to any gatherings events or parties as pardies meaning they are going to be very fun, exciting or a lot of drama or drinking will occur. 'Party with a d' as he says.

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