It's Not Summer without You by Jenny Han Read Free Book Online Page A

because I felt shy all of a sudden—I held back. Instead, I said, “You got here really fast.”
    “I sped like crazy,” he said, and then, “Hey, Taylor.”
    She got on her tiptoes and hugged him and I regretted not hugging him too.
    When she stepped away, Taylor surveyed him approvingly and said, “Jeremy, you look good.” She smiled at him, waiting for him to tell her she looked good too. When he didn’t, she said, “That was your cue to tell me how good I look. Duh.”
    Jeremiah laughed. “Same old Taylor. You know you look good. You don’t need me to tell you.”
    The two of them smirked at each other.
    “We’d better get going,” I said.
    He took my overnight bag off my shoulder and we followed him to the car. While he made room for my bag in the trunk, Taylor grabbed me by the elbow and said, “Call me when you get wherever you’re going, Cinderbelly.” She used to call me that when we were little, when we were obsessed with Cinderella . She’d sing it right along with the mice. Cinderbelly, Cinderbelly .
    I felt a sudden rush of affection for her. Nostalgia, a shared history, counted for a lot. More than I’d realized. I’d miss her next year, when the two of us were at different colleges. “Thanks for letting me leave my car here, Tay.”
    She nodded. Then she mouthed the word CLOSURE .
    “Bye, Taylor,” Jeremiah said, getting into the car.
    I got in too. His car was a mess, like always. There were empty water bottles all over the floor and backseat. “Bye,” I called out as we began to drive away.
    She stood there and waved and watched us. She called back, “Don’t forget your promise, Belly!”
    “What’d you promise?” Jeremiah asked me, looking in the rearview mirror.
    “I promised her I’d be back in time for her boyfriend’s Fourth of July party. It’s going to be on a boat.”
    Jeremiah nodded. “You’ll be back in time, don’t worry. Hopefully I’ll have you back by tonight.”
    “Oh,” I said. “Okay.”
    I guessed I wouldn’t need that overnight bag after all.
    Then he said, “Taylor looks exactly the same.”
    “Yeah, I guess she does.”
    And then neither of us said anything. We were just silent.



chapter eight
jeremiah
    I can pinpoint the exact moment everything changed. It was last summer. Con and I were sitting on the porch, and I was trying to talk to him about what a dick the new assistant football coach was.
    “Just stick it out,” he said.
    Easy for him to say. He’d quit. “You don’t get it, this guy’s crazy,” I started to tell him, but he wasn’t listening anymore. Their car had just pulled into the driveway. Steven got out first, then Laurel. She asked where my mom was and gave me a big hug. She hugged Conrad next and I started to say, “Hey, where’s the Belly Button?” And there she was.
    Conrad saw her first. He was looking over Laurel’s shoulder. At her. She walked toward us. Her hair was swinging around all over the place and her legs looked miles long. She was wearing cutoffs and dirty sneakers. Her bra strap was sticking out of her tank top. I swear I never noticed her bra strap before. She had a funny look on her face, a look I didn’t recognize. Like shy and nervous, but proud at the same time.
    I watched Conrad hug her, waiting my turn. I wanted to ask her what she’d been thinking about, why she had that look on her face. I didn’t do it though. I stepped around Conrad and grabbed her up and said something stupid. It made her laugh, and then she was just Belly again. And that was a relief, because I didn’t want her to be anything but just Belly.
    I’d known her my whole life. I’d never thought of her as a girl. She was one of us. She was my friend. Seeing her in a different way, even just for a second, it shook me up.
    My dad used to say that with everything in life, there’s the game-changing moment. The one moment everything else hinges upon, but you hardly ever know it at the time. The three-pointer early on in