sour patch kids. she ran so fast to the vending machine down by the corridor, leaving a gust of air in her wake. you’d think she was busting to pee, but no. the only right answer would be food, dearest to her heart comfort food. she thought about the years that had gone by, the months, weeks, hours, minutes, seconds...not a day went by that belly stopped thinking of what home was to her. She missed the summers in cousins, although nothing compared to the people that made it her special place in the world. Susannah, who was like a mother to her. her mother Laurel, even Steven who has tortured her from the day she was born. the insanity, i know. most of all, the boys. Jeremiah, asking herself if their ESP connection was a actual thing, would she get a glimpse into what he spent his days doing? what he was thinking in this very moment? But then... her mind strays. dreaming of what it’d be like to run her fingers through his romantic hair again, hearing him speak her name that she’d never tire of listening, tasting the sweet-salty smell of the ocean on his lips.
Belly was shoving the candy into her mouth like it was going out of fashion, at first she thought she imagined it in her head, feet stopping amid her dorm room. there was something familiar about it, like she’d recognize the voice anywhere. in her dreams, a wish on a shooting star, at the end of the world. she came alive, the hairs on the back of her neck standing. “Conrad?” the sour patch between her lips fell to the floor, as did her chin and gaped eyes. the girl he was talking to looked at Isabel confused, the wires in her head turning. Occasionally passing one another in the dormitory, they knew each other. “Oh, Isabel. Hey.” She said, though Belly’s focus wouldn’t falter. Not for a second. “Connie?!” She could cry. She was teary-eyed, easily pouring out. Springing to him as suddenly as her beating heart, always. She wrapped her legs so tight around him she thought if she never breathed steadily again she wouldn’t mind because she wouldn’t trade this feeling for anything else.
