What Could I Do? - The Summer I Turned Pretty

10.

Atlas p.o.v

All summer long I tried to move on from Jeremiah. I thought Conrad calling me and FaceTiming me and telling me that him and Belly weren't together meant he wanted to be with me. Boy was I wrong.

"Hey so, you know how I told you Belly and I aren't together anymore?" Conrad's face went from a sad puppy dog to a happy boy. I couldn't tell where this was going, but judging by his face I knew he was about to break my heart.

Honestly, I didn't see it coming. He flirted with me through the phone like he wanted me. And yet, here I am listening to his plan on getting Isabel Conklin back.

After I heard those words come out of his mouth, I completely disengaged. My heart started to build up a new and thicker wall. I could feel it inside of me.

I just gave him fake comments like "mhm" "yeah go for it." I wanted him to be happy.

I couldn't tell if I was heartbreak, or relieved. Sad at the fact that I wasted my time talking to him thinking he could actually like me. Then relieved because it meant I didn't have to suppress my feelings for his brother anymore.

Everything Conrad and I talked about, I just thought of how Jeremiah and I already had these similar conversations.

In reality, I was happy for Conrad, and I was happy he wanted to talk to me. I mean, It's Conrad, this is just what he does. He leads people on unknowingly, he doesn't talk to a lot of people so it's easy for the other person to feel something for him. They think he picked them, just like I thought he picked me.

I hung up the call while he just went on talking about Belly. I texted him that my mom called me, both of us knew it was a lie.

That is what went down in the Fall semester. Conrad could always make me feel special and then used a few seconds later. It was an endless cycle with him.

I could never be mad at my friends for it.

-

After Steven blew out the power to the beach house, Julia kicked us all out so she could fix the open house. We all took this as a win, and left with the 7 of us, Steven and Taylor drove here since they felt left out and we are taking Skye with us too. Belly thinks they can help us convince their mom.

We all left to the board walk, since we haven't been there since we were little kids.

It was always a fun time over there. The countless times I would drop my ice cream and Jeremiah would buy me a new one. Where Conrad would win stuffed animals for Belly and I.

Steven would challenge me to dance dance revolution and Jeremiah would get jealous. It was times like that when I felt like Jeremiah could like me back.

"What should we do now?" Skye asks as we all crowd in a circle.

"We should do the battle games we used to do as kids! Remember?" Jeremiah says as he looks at all of us.

"You mean the battle games that our parents banned us from years ago because Conrad and I got over competitive with?" Belly asks and I nod my head laughing as I licked my ice cream cone.

"We totally should do this." I say to them and everyone smiles except Conrad and Skye.

"I should head back home. I don't belong here." Skye says as a they try to walk away. Belly and Taylor both grab them and shake their heads.

"Are you kidding Skye, you're with us. The boys are totally going down." Taylor says and Skye nods their head.

"So Conrad? What do you think?" I ask him shyly. He looks at all of us and then finally cracks a smile.