Fanfiction – The Summer I turned pretty.

(context: I loved the books and the series "The Summer I turned Pretty". But sometimes I wished Belly had made different choices and not created so much chaos between her and the Fisher brothers. That's why I have imagined here how two scenes from the TV-series between Belly & Jeremiah could have gone differently)

I leave the shower, my hair in a towel turban, another towel wrapped around me, barely covering my body. I nearly bump into Jeremiah in the small hallway.

Jere: "Oh I am sorry, um, good morning."

I am quite embarrassed seeing him in broad daylight after our make-out session in the pool last night.

Jeremy smiles. I can feel that he's happy. "How did you sleep?"

I remember my dream. Of him and then Conrad lying in bed with me. I can feel myself blushing and answer quickly "Fine. Great. No dreams."

Steven wrangles past us with a coffee cup in his hand to also take a shower. Shortly afterwards he bursts from the bathroom and yells me for leaving my hair in the shower. He can be such a jackass sometimes. I am mortified when he throws a ball of shower hair in my face in front of Jeremy and scream back at him. Then we are alone again.

Jeremy tries do get back to the conversation: "I didn't wanna rush you or anything, but I would like to eventually talk about what happened the other night..?"

I don't know what to tell me so I evade: "Uh, yeah. No, I mean. With, yeah, with Taylor coming to town and the tournament and everything…"

I can tell Jere is disappointed but he is such a good sport. He keeps smiling. "Gotcha. Yeah. But maybe after everything's..?"

"Yeah, sounds good." I say.

He turns to go back to his room. I pick up the ball of hair from the floor and throw it in the wastepaper basket next to my vanity. Then I change my mind.

"Wait, Jere."

Jere comes back. "You're right." I tell him. "Give me 5 minutes to get dressed and then let's talk."

He sits next to me on the bed. I can tell he's checking out my tight neon volleyball outfit.

I put my hand on his arm. I like him so much in this moment: "Last night was fun."

Jere nods and smiles. His blue eyes light up.

"But I… I'm scared."

"Why, though?"

"Come on. You know."

"No, I don't, Belly. You're gonna have to explain it to me."

"I don't want to ruin our friendship. I am really scared."

"I get that. But this is real. I am not…this is not a joke to me. I am not just playing around. I really really like you."

"I like you, too. But don't you see, what a mess this could make?"

"Yes. Yes I see that. But us… it's already changed anyways. That's done."

He looks really serious now. It's so untypical of him that I can't quite adjust to this new person. I'm so used to Jere being fun and playful.

"Jere, you're always flirting with everyone. Hooking up with everyone…"

"Yeah, but that's just for fun. With you it's different."

I only now realize the extend of the situation. I get up and pace a bit.

From downstairs Susannah's voice is calling: "Belly! Belly, we have to go!"

I look at Jeremiah, torn between going and our talk.

"We have to go."

Jere takes a deep breath. "Ok."

I take my sports bag and turn in the doorway. He's still sitting on the bed.

"Are you coming?"

Jeremiah gets up too. "You go ahead. I'll be down in a minute."

After the tournament, I find Jeremiah sitting on the beach alone. He does not look happy at all. The sun is setting and coloring the sand a pale orange and the ocean in moving stripes of pink, orange and blue.

"Can I sit?"

His nod is barely noticeable. He doesn't look at me, his eyes on the water.

We watch the softly crashing waves together. It's a calm evening.

I feel bad about how I treated him. "I am sorry about earlier. With the tournament. I just, I get into my super competitive zone and I... Are you mad?"

Jere turns to me: "Nah. Nah, it's all good. Conrad's a better player anyway."

I can tell that he really doesn't hold a grudge. I would if I were in his shoes. But he always has had this talent to bounce back, to see the good side, to stay positive. Susannah's sunshine boy. I am relieved and smile at him.

After a pause he says: "So, I hear he's maybe taking you to the ball."

"Who told you that?"

"My Mum."

I make up my mind then. "Well, he's not."

I can tell that I have his attention now: "Ok. What's going on there?"

"Nothing! Nothing. But…"

"Belly, do you still like him?"

I look down, trying to think how to explain the situation that I barely understand myself.

"Yeah. Yeah I do. Even though he's a jerk to me. And I don't see it happening. But.. yeah. I don't know. But I am not going to the ball with him."

Jere's face is strained now. "Why not? If you like him?"

"I don't know what he wants. There's Nicole…"

Jere's hand is letting the cool sand run through his fingers. "Not anymore. That's over."

The sun has nearly set now. Twilight is descending in purple, gray and blue hues over the beach. I shiver, I am just wearing a T-Shirt. Jeremy notices and without saying anything takes off his hoodie and hands it to me. I put it on, it's still warm from his body heat and smells like him.

"So. What now?" And I know he means, him and me.

"Oh Jere, I don't know. Can we just go back to being kids?"

Jere looks at the water, then at me. His unconquerable smile breaks through and lights up his face.

"Race you to the house!" He gets up and starts running. And even though my legs feel like lead after the tournament day, I leap up and follow him, and we run through the sand as fast as we can, stumbling and laughing. He is much too fast for me of course and turns, running backwards, taunting me.

We run through the darkening evening towards the lighted windows of the beach house and I feel the careless summer happiness, that I always feel here, flooding back to me.