Belly scrambles to grab her phone, her gaze on the ground, averted from both Conrad and I. My skin feels cold as he drops his warm hands from my hips, turning to face Belly bashfully, leaning against the table next to me, "Uh, sorry," She shoves her cellphone back in her pocket, "I was coming to get a snack, but I'm not really hungry anymore, so..."

She turns on her heel. Her\ head ducked as she walked away and up the stairs, "I hope her date went okay." I break the silence as soon as she's out of sight, my once breathless and giddy tone replaced with worry.

Conrad sighs, his hand brushing against my bare leg as he moves. I want to stay and ask him about what just happened, was his heart beating as fast as mine, did he feel dizzy with new emotions too? But then I picture Belly's face. I had to go upstairs and check on her; I can't let my little sister keep whatever happened tonight hidden, "you should go check on her," Conrad says. His eyes tell me he feels the same as me. He doesn't want me to go either.

"Yeah," I slide off the table. She seemed so happy before her date; something clearly happened with Cam. I look him over at Conrad one last time before walking away. His hair is a mess, his lips shiny due to the lip gloss I'd been wearing, "we'll talk later?"

He nods. The smile on his lips makes me want to kiss him again. Conrad's always had this sort of crooked smile; I've never noticed till now how captivating it is, "yeah, definitely." I have to force myself to look away from him, walking up the stairs in the back of the kitchen.

Belly's door is shut when I approach it, and I can hear her talking to someone, her voice so low I can barely hear her, "Bels?" I question, lightly rapping my knuckles on her door, "can I come in?"

Belly is silent on the other side of the door until I hear her sigh, "I'll call you later, Taylor." She mutters to her best friend. It doesn't take long before she's yanking her bedroom door open. My heart drops at the sight of Belly. Her cheeks are stained with tears, her eyes bloodshot. She was crying, her hand angrily wiping her cheek to catch stray tears.

"Oh my god, Bels." I mumble sadly, pulling her into her room and shutting the door, "what's going on? Did something happen with Cam?"

I expect my sister to fall into my open embrace, letting out whatever terrible thing happened on her date tonight, but instead, she scoffs, glaring at me, "how could you?" She mutters. Her tone is a mix of hurt and anger as if I've betrayed her somehow.

"W-what?" I ask, stammering as I shake my head, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, don't play dumb, Florence." She walks over to the other side of her room as if being physically close to me is revolting. Belly's never spoken to me like this. Her words are filled with venom. "You know how I feel about him."

All at once, it hits me. I remember as kids the way Belly adored Conrad, she'd always side with him during our petty arguments and giggle at his lame jokes. She used to gush about him all the time, and I'd tease her for having a crush on him. We all have childhood crushes, that's all I thought it had been, but maybe I was wrong? Maybe Belly's been harbouring these feelings all this time, and her childhood crush has grown into something more.

I think of how she watched me when Conrad greeted me on the first day here or how she stopped laughing when I dragged him into the pool... Her unreadable expression suddenly made sense. She was jealous. "Oh my god," I mutter, more to myself than to Belly.

Belly likes Conrad.

"Belly," I step further into her room, my tone laced with guilt, "That kiss meant nothing. He's been drinking and probably wasn't thinking. It was the heat of the moment; I didn't know you still had feelings for him. I would never have kissed him otherwise. I swear."

"Of course, you didn't," She scoffs, rolling her eyes, "cause you only ever pay attention to yourself. You act like Steven and I are so below you, like we're little kids still. You act like you're the greatest big sister in the world, like you've sacrificed everything for us, but the truth is, you only care about one thing and that's yourself."

Her words feel like a knife to the heart because they couldn't be further from the truth. I would do anything for Belly, anything to see her happy. When Belly was happy, I was happy, and when she was sad, I hurt for her, striving for a way to make everything okay again. Since the minute she and Steven were born, I took on the role of big sister, happily giving up whatever to make my younger siblings happy. "Belly," My voice cracks as I reach for her hand, "you don't mean that. You're my sister, I'd-"

"Half-sister." She cuts me off, yanking her arm back out of my reach. It's just one word, but it feels like a punch in the gut. She knows how hard it was for me as a kid, not knowing who my real father was, knowing that I wasn't "real siblings" the way she and Steven were. To me, Belly's always just been my little sister, even if we don't have the same father. I guess she feels differently, though. "What I am, Florence," She takes another step forward, her eyes piercing into my own daggers, "is the kind of person who would never do something like you did tonight. Do you even like him? Or do you just enjoy playing around with other people's feelings?"

"I-" I hesitate because I don't know. When we were friends, people always assumed there was something more between Conrad and me, but there never was. He was truly just my best friend. Things feel different now, though. I couldn't imagine Conrad just being my friend after kissing him like that.

She takes my silence as my answer, "that's what I thought," she scoffs, walking over to her bedroom door. She pulls it open, gesturing for me to go, "just go. I really don't want to talk to you anymore."

"Bels," we've never had an argument that didn't end in a quick apology and a hug.

"I said go!" She raises her voice, more tears pouring down her face, ruining the mascara Susannah helped apply earlier. I'm sure mine doesn't look any better. Belly never yells. She's always been the kind of girl that rarely gets angry, but right now, she's looking at me with pure disgust. No matter what I say, she's not going to listen.

"Okay," I nod, my tone quiet and calm. She just needs the night to calm down, then we'll talk and sort everything out, "I'm sorry," I whisper before walking down the hall into my own room.

Before my talk with Belly, I'd been planning on going to Conrad's room after to talk about our kiss in the kitchen, but I can't speak to him now. I have to figure things out with my sister before I figure things out with him. Instead, I curl up on my bay window, pulling my handmade quilt up to my chin.

The smell of the quilt alone makes me cry even harder, taking me back to the moment in the kitchen. Conrad's jacket grasped between my fingers, the smell of his cologne and the same detergent used on the blanket taking over my senses while he kissed me. After a few minutes of crying, I pull my phone out of my back pocket, needing to talk to someone about everything that occurred tonight.

Isla answers after a few minutes, her familiar bright smile on her face, "Florence?" Her smile drops as soon as she sees my face. She sits up straight, her features contouring into worry. "What's wrong?"

Ugh this chapter!! I love Belly and Flo so much, having to write them fight was so hard for me!!

And of course, being the sacrificial sister she is, she's going to put Belly first, even over what she wants and her own personal feelings.