It's Not Summer Without You (Summer, #2)

by Jenny Han

“Come on, Bells,” he said. “That’s not how we kissed that other time.” Conrad came back into the room then, wiping his hands on his jeans. He said, “What are you talking about, Jere? Don’t you have a girlfriend?”

oh dear lord

“Never said I was playing.” “Chicken,” Jeremiah and I said together. “Jinx,” we said at the same time. “You guys are two-year-olds,” Conrad muttered. Jeremiah got up and started doing his chicken dance. “Bock bock bock bock.”

ok this is kinda funny

And I was supposed to be on a boat with Taylor and Davis and everyone. Gulp.

my dude just said gulp

“I can’t even believe how selfish you are, Belly.” “Me?” “Yes, you. You keep your summer house and your summer boys all to yourself and you don’t want to share anything with me.

?????? they aren’t your friends and the last time you went literally no one liked you????

“At least I didn’t give away my virginity to a guy who shaves his legs!” She gasped. In confidence, Taylor had once told me that Davis shaved his legs for swim team.

WHAT????? LIKE, HUH

“At… at the funeral, I was awful to you. I was horrible, and I’m so ashamed of how I acted. It wasn’t how I wanted things to go, not at all. I really, really wanted to be there for you. That’s why I came to find you.”

yes, you were

Taylor was right: I was a masochist.

more like an idiot

“Because I do. I like her. I really like her. Do you?” He didn’t blink, didn’t even hesitate. “No.” It really pissed me off.

omg i don’t care

“I wish Susannah was my mother and not you.”

the way my faces just dropped 😧

My mother’s hand reached out and struck my cheek so hard I rocked back. I didn’t see it coming. I clutched my face and right away I cried, but part of me was satisfied. I finally got what I wanted. Proof that she could feel something. Her face was white. She had never hit me before. Never ever, not in my whole life.

OMG WTF

Jeremiah was standing in the hallway, looking at me with his mouth open.

literally me right now

“Listen, thanks again for coming to help, Laurel. I really appreciate it.” He looked at us kids, smiling. “These guys weren’t too keen on listening to what I had to say. I’m glad to have a little backup.” My mother smiled back at him just as pleasantly. “Oh, I’m not here to back you up, Adam. I’m here to back up Beck’s boys.”

woopsie!

My mother’s eyes were almost glowing. “I said, sit down, Adam.” He gaped at her—we all did. Then she said, “Kids, get out.”

ok i lied laurel is my favorite character

“What the hell, Laurel? Did you really think you could railroad me into changing my mind?” “Excuse me, but fuck you.”

oh damn!

I said, “You’re welcome.” But I didn’t know what I was saying “you’re welcome” for, because I hadn’t really done anything. My mother had helped Conrad more in half an hour than I had in all my time of knowing him.

i would rather have read about susannah and laurel’s summers

“What do you guys know about freshman psych?” Conrad said, crossing his arms.

really…psychology?? it’s literally like 80% terms and definitions you’ll be fine

Learning was, had always been, Conrad’s thing. From the very start, he was the one with the chemistry set, thinking up experiments for us to do as his scientist’s assistants. I remembered when he’d discovered the word “absurd,” and he went around saying it all the time. “That’s absurd,” he’d say. Or “numbskull,” his favorite insult—he said that a lot too. The summer he was ten, he tried to work his way through the Encyclopedia Britannica. When we came back the next summer, he was at Q.

what a fucking nerd

“Should we?” I turned around, started to say, “Should we what?” when Jeremiah came out of nowhere. “Yeah. For old times’ sake,” Jeremiah said. Uh-oh. “No way,” I said. “No freaking way.”

oh sweet jesus

Sighing, I looked out the window and asked, “Does he ever talk about me? I mean, has he ever said anything?” “Don’t,” he snapped. “Don’t what?” I turned toward him, confused. “Don’t ask me that. Don’t ask me about him.” Jeremiah spoke in a harsh, low voice, a tone he’d never used with me and one I didn’t recall him using with anybody. A muscle in his jaw twitched furiously. I recoiled and sank back into my seat. I felt as though he had slapped me. “What’s the matter with you?”

oh dear god i cant with you people

and then he stopped, he leaned over and pulled me toward him—like by gravitational force. He kissed me, hard,

oh…who coulda seen this coming..certainly not me

“Do you still—” Care. Think about me. Want me. Roughly, he said, “Yes. Yes, I still.” And then we were kissing again.

so, um

He must have made some noise, because we both looked up at the same time. We sprang apart. There was Conrad, looking right at us. He had stopped short of the car. His face was white. He said, “No, don’t stop. I’m the one who’s interrupting.”

omg i just cackled cause i can’t keep doing this shit

“If you like Jeremiah, why are you wearing my necklace?”

i mean…technically she literally stole it from your dorm and you never even gave it to her so

“It’s not yours. I never gave it to you. You just took it.”

see!

He stuffed the necklace into his pocket. “Then leave,” he said. When I didn’t move, he said, sharply, “Go!” I was a tree, rooted to the spot. My feet were frozen. “Go to Jeremiah. He’s the one who wants you,” Conrad said. “I don’t. I never did.”

you are the most self-destructive people i’ve ever met in my life

What would Susannah say if she saw the mess we were in now? She would have been so disappointed in me. I hadn’t been a help at all. I’d only made things worse.

to be fair, you all did this to yourselves so

Conrad was busy ignoring me, but Jeremiah said, “Nah, you take it. You’re the girl.”

ok then

So that was that. We were finally, finally over.

i think you’ve been “finally, finally” over for a while babes

a couple of years later

woah