We'll Always Have Summer

Belly is excited to take her last exam and officially finish her freshman year at Finch University. The test goes better than expected, and when she returns to her dorm room afterward, she plans to sleep until dinner. When Belly opens the door, she sees her boyfriend, Jeremiah Fisher, sleeping in her bed, holding her stuffed polar bear, Junior Mint. She gets in bed beside him; Jeremiah stirs briefly, and they fall asleep together.

Belly reflects on her relationship with Jeremiah, which began at the beginning of Belly’s senior year of high school. She thinks about how quickly they came together once they decided: “One minute we were friends, then we were kissing, and then the next thing I knew, I was applying to the same college as him” (5). She thinks about how right their relationship feels, how they have known each other their whole lives, and that, in some ways, their relationship felt “inevitable” (5).

Belly prepares to attend a party at Jeremiah’s fraternity house to celebrate the end of the year. Summer has always been Belly’s favorite time of year because growing up, she would go to the Fishers’ house in Cousins Beach. Now, Belly feels sad that she and Jeremiah will spend most of their summer apart while she works at a restaurant and he interns at his father’s company.

Belly meets Jeremiah on her way to the party. He compliments her appearance, and Belly complains that her feet hurt. Jeremiah suggests she hop on his back, and he carries her the rest of the way to the party, Belly laughing the whole way there.

When they arrive, Belly greets Jeremiah’s fraternity brothers, but she does not know many of the Zeta Phi (the sister sorority) girls there. Belly enters the party and sees Lacie Barone, another girl in Zeta Phi, talking to Jeremiah. Belly thinks about how Taylor told her that Lacie has a crush on Jeremiah, but Belly refuses to be jealous, thinking that it makes sense that girls would like Jeremiah because of his personality.

Belly greets Lacie, and they briefly speak about Lacie’s plans to study abroad in France next semester. As Jeremiah leaves to get Belly a drink, she thinks, “He was the first boy I ever kissed. He was my best friend. More and more, I understood. This was the way it was supposed to be. He was the one. My one” (12). She recalls their shared past.

Later that night, Belly and Jeremiah dance together in the living room at the party. One of Jeremiah’s drunk frat brothers charges at Jeremiah and tries to break Belly and Jeremiah up as a joke. In the process, he spills beer all over Belly.

Belly leaves to go clean up and ends up in the upstairs bathroom. Belly hears Lacie and a friend outside the door discussing how someone at the party looks hot, and the friend responds that she is jealous Lacie got to hook up with him. Belly’s stomach drops when Lacie responds, “Whatever happens in Cabo stays in Cabo” (15), and Belly realizes they are talking about Jeremiah.

Belly opens the door, and Lacie’s shocked face confirms that she was discussing Jeremiah. Belly runs to Jeremiah’s room and locks the door but then decides she needs to hear the news from Jeremiah himself. She goes downstairs and demands that Jeremiah go to his room with her. When Belly confronts Jeremiah, his face turns white, and she knows he cheated on her. He tries to excuse his behavior by reminding Belly that they were on a break at the time of the Cabo trip, which Belly recalls lasted only a week. Belly remembers how in her mind, even while they were broken up, she knew they would get back together, which only makes the betrayal hurt more.

Belly begins to cry and yells at Jeremiah not to touch her when he tries to comfort her. As she sobs, Jeremiah says he wants no secrets between them anymore and admits to having sex with Lacie in Cabo. Belly slaps Jeremiah across the face, and Jeremiah tries to explain that his encounter with Lacie meant nothing to him and that he loves Belly. Before leaving the party, Belly tells Jeremiah, “What we were, it’s gone. We lost it tonight” (20). Belly catches the last bus back to her dorm and turns her phone off to ignore the numerous messages from Jeremiah. 

Belly thinks back to when she and Jeremiah broke up in April and how, despite small fights and annoyances here and there, it came out of nowhere. Their break-up fight begins when Jeremiah tells Belly that he and his fraternity brothers plan to go to Cabo for spring break. Belly and Jeremiah have already planned to visit Cousins for a few days and visit his mother Susannah’s gravesite. When Belly reminds him of this, asking him if it is a good idea to go to Cabo, Jeremiah is exasperated. Jeremiah tries to convince Belly to go with him, saying that some girls from Zeta Phi will also be at the same resort.

An angry Belly explains it would not be fun for her to go on a trip with girls she didn’t know, and she says she is not going. Jeremiah asks her to admit that she is paranoid about him going without her, and Belly retorts that Jeremiah did not want her to go in the first place. Jeremiah admits he would not mind it being a “guys’ trip” (28), which sets Belly off, and she tells him that it sounded like there would be plenty of girls there anyway.

Their argument intensifies, and Jeremiah ends their relationship. Belly spends the rest of spring break crying. Her brother, Steven, tells her that she has not heard from Jeremiah because it’s expensive to call from Mexico and that they will get back together when he comes home. This turns out to be true, as Jeremiah brings Belly back a puka shell bracelet, which shows her he was thinking about her while he was away. Belly realizes now that Jeremiah bought her the bracelet because he felt guilty about cheating on her.

Belly cannot help but envision Jeremiah and Lacie together, imagining Lacie “probably knew tricks and moves I’d never even heard of” (31). Belly admits that she is a virgin. She wants her first time to be special and recalls how she always thought it would be with Conrad, not Jeremiah. Belly grows increasingly upset, remembering how she thought this summer at Cousins would be the first time for her and Jeremiah. The thought mortifies Belly, as she cannot imagine being with him in that way now.

Belly stays in bed for a full day, alternating between crying and sleeping, before she gets up. Belly decides to talk to Anika, who tells her to “let yourself feel whatever you need to feel” (34) and that Jeremiah was wrong not only for having sex with Lacie but for keeping it a secret from Belly.

As she listens to Anika, Belly thinks about her own secret, one she has not shared with anyone: Over the years, sometimes Belly recalls a memory of Conrad and “[looks] at it, [admires] it, sort of in the same way I looked at my old shell collection” (35). Even after she begins dating Jeremiah, Belly still occasionally recalls a memory with Conrad, although she admits that there is one memory she does not “let [her]self touch. It wasn’t allowed” (35).

Belly explains that this past December, she was home alone when she suddenly decided to drive to the Cousins Beach house, knowing it would be empty as Jeremiah and his father were away visiting family. Belly drives to the house and lets herself inside. She falls asleep but wakes up to the sound of someone breaking into the house. Belly sees that the intruder is Conrad. She flings open the door, and they stand there, equally shocked to see one another. Belly thought Conrad would still be in California, where he is enrolled at Stanford. Conrad tells her that his father sent him a plane ticket at the last minute, and he figured he would stop by the Cousins house before going home.

Conrad enters the house and starts a fire, teasing Belly for eating nearly an entire container of chocolate pretzels. Belly thinks about how “it was like no time or distance had passed between [them]. In some ways, it felt the same” (24) as when they spent the night together at the beach house two years before during their brief relationship.

The next morning, Belly thinks Conrad may have already left and falls on her back as she runs to check. Conrad comes downstairs and asks Belly if she is alright. Conrad carries her to the couch, and Belly realizes, “Oh my God. I still love you” (44). She tells herself that Conrad will always occupy a place in her heart, while Jeremiah “would have everything else” (45). Conrad and Belly spend the day at the house, with Conrad taking a run on the beach and Belly watching films. When Conrad returns to find Belly crying at the end of Casablanca, they debate who the main character should have ended up with. The next morning, Belly finds that Conrad has left without saying goodbye. On the ride home from Cousins, Belly receives a call from Jeremiah and makes the split-second decision not to tell him about her visit or seeing Conrad.

Belly leaves Anika’s room and returns to her dorm, turning on her phone to a flood of messages from Jeremiah. She texts him back, asking for space, and he agrees. Belly begins packing her room in preparation for her father to pick her up. She calls Taylor and tells her what has happened with Jeremiah, and Taylor flies into a fury, saying that she is going to “drag [her] nails across his face when [she] see[s] him” (48). Taylor hurries to Belly’s dorm, bringing food. As they sit together, she asks Belly whether she thinks she will get back together with Jeremiah. When Belly asks her what she would do, Taylor responds that while she would not take back Jeremiah under normal circumstances, to Belly, he’s “not some guy, you have history together [...] he effed up in a colossal way. But he’ll never be just some guy, not to you” (49). Belly is grateful for Taylor’s lack of judgment and knows in her heart that she is right.

Belly remembers her feud with Taylor the previous summer, which Belly thought would blow over as soon as she returned from Cousins. For the rest of the summer, Belly and Taylor avoid each other, and Belly wonders if it may be for the best that their friendship ends as they get ready to go to college next year.

At the end of summer, just as senior year is about to begin, Belly goes to the mall with her mother, Laurel (a tradition she used to do with Taylor), and they run into Taylor and her mother. While the mothers talk, Taylor ignores Belly, who finally caves and asks Taylor if she will come over later that night and help her style the new clothes she bought. Taylor agrees, and they mend their friendship. Belly admits that even after they make up, their friendship never goes back to how it was and that “we were growing up. We were figuring out how to be in each other’s lives without being everything to each other” (54). Despite this, when Belly and Taylor end up at the same school, Belly believes their friendship is fate, even as they pursue different interests and friendships.

The next day, Belly calls Jeremiah and tells him she needs to see him. She tells herself that she is calling him to end things officially and in person. When she opens the door to Jeremiah, she feels all the hurt he caused come rushing back and stops herself from hugging him. They sit on her bed, and Belly asks Jeremiah how she could ever trust him again after what he did.

In response, Jeremiah gets down on one knee and asks Belly to marry him, pulling out a small diamond ring. Belly sits in stunned silence as Jeremiah explains how miserable he has been without her and how he will do anything to make it up to her. He promises that they can get an apartment together next year and that he will learn to cook, and Belly begins to imagine a life together.

Belly tries to tell Jeremiah that he is just trying to make up for or erase what he did, but Jeremiah assures her that this is not the case. He tells her, “You are the only girl for me. I’ve always known it. In this whole world, I will never love another girl the way I love you” (57). He asks if she still loves him and when she says yes, he asks her again to marry him. Belly looks at Jeremiah, thinking about how well she knows every feature on his face, and realizes that she does not want to “see a mark on his face one day and not know how it got there” (58). With this realization, Belly agrees to marry Jeremiah. They embrace and spend the rest of the night planning their future together, including how they will tell their parents the news.