✧*̥˚ august *̥˚✧
augustine madden x conrad fisher
chapter three || 🍓🤍🌸

August was a very simple girl. She stuck to the same plan every single year since she could pass for sixteen and this year was no exception.

An hour and twelve minutes into the movie, August would lean into her mothers shoulder and start to complain about a sudden nauseating headache. Diana, who wasn't born yesterday, would roll her eyes and kiss her daughter on the top of the head before telling the young blonde to head back home and get a good night's sleep. August would resist it for a few minutes before running home — suddenly headache free. From there, she would go into her room, touch up her makeup and change her clothes if she felt like it, without being seen, she would then sneak onto the beach, stay there for an hour or two hours and then safely make her way back home.

But sadly that plan was altered when Belly came into the kitchen complaining about being sick and saying she just wanted to go to sleep. August gave the girl a knowing look. She was proud of her, for the past couple of years August had tried to get Belly to go with her, but both times, Belly had declined her offer. This time she didn't need to be asked, this time she just did it and August couldn't help but feel like a proud mom. She winked at the girl, who smiled in return and walked up the stairs.

When they finally fell into the living room, the mom's were sitting on the sofa while August sat on a single chair beside them. She wasn't paying attention to the movie, but laughed whenever the others laughed to make it sound like she was.

Half an hour into the movie had finally arrived, which she knew because she had set an alarm, she stood up from her chair, yawning.

"I think I'm going to go to bed. I don't feel well, I've had too much ice cream." She held her stomach, hoping someone would believe her. "I'm also gonna go check on belly, I might stay with her tonight. You know, like usual."

Diana smiled at her daughter, "Okay, come here." She kissed August on the head when she leaned down.

Laurie and Susannah told her to feel better and come into them if she felt worse, as if her mother wasn't there. But, in all fairness, last year Diana caught August sneaking back in and said nothing, so she probably knew exactly what she was going to do.

    August sent them a smile before walking out of the room, she heard them laugh at something that was going on in the movie.

    As she rounded the corner, she bumped into Belly. She grabbed onto her shoulders to steady both of them.

    Belly was dressed in a tight pink dress, making August's jaw drop, "You look— you look gorgeous. Oh, my God."

    "Thank you," Belly blushed, putting her hair behind her ear, "Where are you going?"

    "Well... I was going to check on you, but you're fine, obviously and then I'm going home and then to the beach." 

    "Do you want to walk with me? I can wait for you?" She said.

    August shrugged her shoulders, "No, you go. I'm gonna go home and put a pair of sneakers on."

    Belly smiled before sneaking down the stairs.

     August laughed quietly to herself, waiting for the girl to be fully out of the house before she could run down and leave as well.

    She ran down the stairs as quietly as she possibly could and slowly closed the door. She walked up the driveway and into her own driveway. She fumbled with her phone as she went to open the door, only to find it was locked. "Fuck!"

    She made her way to the side of her house and crinkled her face looking at the stupid tree. She climbed up the ladder that led from the ground to the tree. She sat down in the treehouse for a second, grinning as the childhood memories came back to her. August laughed as she looked at everyone's initials scraped into the floorboard.

    The blonde then made her way over to her window, sliding it open and climbing in, making sure not to fall.

    She walked over to her closet, which had been filled with the clothes from her duffel bag. She looked at the shoes that lined the closet, leaning down to pull her white converse out.

    She quickly tied the laces before once again climbing from her window, she couldn't let her mother know she was actually sneaking out. She made her way to the tree and climbed down.

     She climbed over the fence that separated the two houses and made her way out Susanna's back garden. She walked along the beach, which she did most nights anyway to clear her head.

    She always loved the ocean. The way the sea clashed with the rocks made for a very peaceful sound. The feel of sand on her feet did freak her out slightly but she has grown to tolerate it.

    She watched as a random couple were diving on eachother, trying to tackle the other. They looked so happy, one day August wished she could have something like that.

     August looked ahead and saw she was only a few minutes away from the party. She continued to look out at the ocean while walking, only turning when she heard someone yell and saw Belly fall flat on her face.

    Her hand slapped against her face as she took off in a sprint towards her best friend. "Bro! Are you okay?" She asked the girl who was behind embarrassed.

   "I'm fine!" She stood up and dusted herself off. "I thought you hated the Red Sox?" She asked Conrad, to be honest, August hadn't even noticed him, but her eyes flickered to the girl who was beside him.

    "Who are you?" The girl asked.

     Great, now it was getting awkward.

    "Who are you?" Belly turned the question towards the other girl, while August stood there awkwardly.

    "Nicole. Conrad and I went to the Deb ball together last summer." That's where August had seen her before.

    "I knew, I knew you." She mumbled with a smile, clicking her fingers together.

    Everyone ignored her statement which made her duck her head in shame.

    "It was after you guys left to take Steven to look at colleges." Conrad spoke, practically glaring at Belly for interrupting his make out session.

    "I thought you said that deb balls were bullshit, and all Debs are sheep."

     Like the saviour that was Olivia Diaz, the girl strolled up to the group and grabbed August away, "You looked like you were going to throw yourself into the fire."

    August grabbed her best friend and hugged her, "I was. I've missed you so much!"

    "You saw me a month ago," Olivia smiled, pulling from the girl. "But I missed you too."

    "Well, obviously. I'm the best!" August joked, taking a drink from the cooler they were standing beside.

    Olivia chuckled and began talking about a guy she wanted to hook up with. August hadn't laughed this much in months, Olivia always had a way of opening August up and making her laugh. Olivia didn't even have to say something funny, August laughed being in her presence.

    They were sitting down close to the fire as a fight began to break out. It was bound to happen eventually. August just really hoped it would take longer for it to happen.

     She groaned as Olivia dragged her over to get a better look.

    fucking conrad, she thought looking at the boy who was yelling at someone over a bear.

    "No, give me my beer back. I paid for that," He said, trying to grab it from the other boy.

    Nicole stood between them trying to get them to stop, which was stupid because they were two drunk hormonal teenagers just looking to fight someone.

    "No, no, no. Stop, you're drunk," She told them, pushing further between the two. "Just give him the beer!"

    "Maybe you should listen to your girl." The dude Conrad was trying to fight taunted him.

    Nicole continued to tell him to back off because he was drunk to which he kept on telling her he was fine, which he wasn't. "Give me my beer back."

    "He's fine. He's a real big man."

    August could see the anger rise in Conrad's face, this was not going to end well, was it? "Fuck you, bro."

    They continued to push each other for a beer. Belly then came over at the wrong time and the guy Conrad was trying to fight flung his arm back to hit Conrad not only connected with his face but also connected with Belly.

    August ran over to Belly for the second time that night to ask if she was okay. She took Belly's face in her hands, inspecting her cheek, she could already see the bruise form.

     At perfect timing the cops pulled up.

    Everyone started to run away. August screamed, "Fuck you!" at the local that hit Belly as he ran like a pussy.

    After making sure Belly was fine she hugged Olivia goodbye, promising to see her again tomorrow.

    They all made their way to Jeremiah's car. Belly was talking to a guy outside while Jayden sat on one side of the car and Conrad sat on the other making Jeremiah sit in the driver's seat glaring at the two.

    There was a silence in the car making August cringe.

    She turned her head and asked "It was a great day wasn't it?" She asked, breaking the silence that had started to swallow her whole.

    Jayden looked at her and then smiled to himself, "Yeah, sure."

    She nodded her head with that answer.

     Jeremiah had tried to tell her to get in the car multiple times but the guy she was talking to wanted to drive her home. "No, you're not going to get in a car with a guy you just met."

    The guy suddenly put his hand through the window making August flinch, "I'm Cam— Cameron!"

    "Your name is Cam Cameron?" Jeremiah asked, looking him up and down.

    August sighed, "What the fuck." she whispered.

    "No, it's jus- it's just, Cam," The boy faltered.

    August rolled her eyes along with everyone else in the car. She pulled her phone from her back pocket and saw she had two missed calls from Diana. She was royally fucked. She then opened a random app to make it look like she was busy because she just couldn't listen to anymore of this conversation.

    Her phone was taken from her hands. She glared at the boy on her left, "Give me my phone!"

    "No," Conrad muttered simply, opening a game she honestly didn't know she even had.

    She once again rolled her eyes, mumbling something about killing him in his sleep.

    Belly got in the car all smiley making August slap her on the shoulder, "You're growing up on me, Bells. Please stop." Belly laughed at her and ignored her while putting on her seatbelt.

    Jeremiah started the car, pulling off. Then remembered something, "Fuck! Steven!" He pointed at Belly, August and Jayden saying, "Watch Conrad." He then took off in a sprint.

    August leaned back in her seat, "I hate him sometimes."

    "Same," Everyone else said back.

    They had been driven back with the police, which was not a good thing. Diana was glaring at all the children while Laurie was talking to the police officers.

    "Officers, thank you. It won't happen again, I can promise you that much," She told them politely.

    "Tell Mr. Fisher, the chief, wants to set up a tea time when he gets back in town." One of the officers told them.

    August was sitting on the floor at Jayden's feet while he stood beside Jeremiah. She was picking at her fingernails making Jayden kick her back softly. She immediately stopped realising what she was doing.

    "Absolutely. Sorry again for the trouble." She told them, leading them out of the house.

    When they were out of the house, both Laurie and Diana's nice demeanour was gone.

    Diana looked at her two kids with anger written all over her face, "What the fuck were you two thinking?!"

    "Mom..." They both mumbled not making eye contact with her.

    "Don't 'mom' me. We'll talk when we get home." She snapped.

    Both kids hung their heads.

    "How could you be so irresponsible?" Laurie asked, throwing her hands up.

    Steven walked out, "Mom, it wasn't a big deal. All right? Seriously. The cops were just looking to break up the bonfire."

    "Not a big deal?" She asked

     "Yes!"

    "I would say getting picked up by the cops for underaged drinking Is a pretty big deal, Steven."

    Steven scoffed, "Were you guys smoking tonight?"

    "What?" The two women said too fast, confirming their answer.

    August looked up at her mother with a scoff.

     "Keep your voice down. Susannah's asleep on the couch!" She suddenly yelled.

     "Well, I wasn't yelling. Well, you-you-you guys-" He stuttered getting cut off by Jeremiah.

     "Just so you know, Laurel , I didn't drink tonight. I was the D.D I swear"

    She pointed at Conrad, "You're the oldest. What the hell had gotten into you?" She turned to Belly, "And when did you leave the house without telling anyone? And what in the world are you wearing?"

    "I told August." August turned to Belly with a look of betrayal. "It's Taylor's and why am I the only one who's not allowed to go out?"  She asked her mother.

    "It's not that you're not allowed, it's that you should've told us you were going. How did you even get there?"

    "I walked," Belly whispered.

    "Jesus," Laurie muttered, "You know better than to walk that far down the beach alone at night."

     "Can you stop treating me like a kid!" Belly asked, furiously.

     "If you want to be treated like an adult, you need to act like one." Laurie told her softly.

    "Then maybe you guys should, too." Conrad said, making August whip her head around to look at him and she felt Jayden's whole body move.

    Laurie looked confused, "What does that mean?"

    Diana looked like she was ready to pounce on him.

    He shrugged his shoulders, "I hope you realise that the night could've gone a lot differently if your family wasn't your family." Laurie told him, her eyes flickering to the Madden children.

    "We're sorry, laur," Jeremiah apologised for all of them.

    "Just..." She brought her hand up to her face, "Go to bed guys."

    Diana didn't wait a moment before grabbing her children by the ears and dragging them from the house, not looking back or saying goodbye.

    She lectured them the whole way home about the effects of underage drinking which August thought was very hypocritical. She threw them in the house and told them to go to bed and that she would see them in the morning.

    They both sulked while walking up the stairs. August gave her brother a side hug before going into her room and locking the door.

    She leaned against it and groaned.

    What a wonderful way to start the summer.

happy valentine's day <3