What Could I Do? - The Summer I Turned Pretty

12.

Jeremiah p.o.v

All year long I felt conflicted. Was my heart beating for Belly? Or my favorite person.

I went back and forth being angry at someone. I was mad at Belly and Allie. Neither of them texted me to check up on me. Allie would text me, but never was it to see if I was okay.

Although I never really gave her a chance to ask. Maybe if I answered her calls she would of asked me if I was okay.

I'll be real, Allie is my favorite person, she's the first person I think about when I'm happy or emotional. Belly has only recently flooded my mind. Ever since last summer, I don't know. Something about her changed. She was always just Belly, my best friend.

And Allie just had my heart for years on end. I always thought I would get over my crush on her, some silly child's crush. But it never went away, it only grew stronger.

So when prom came around I felt conflicted, I wanted so badly to ask Allie to go with me. But I don't know what I would of done if she rejected me.

Allie has been the one, it's always been Allie. From the moment I learned about love in English class, I knew it was her.

Maybe I was just using Belly as a safety net, but then why did it burn me every time I saw her with Conrad.

"Why don't you ask Allie to prom. Or that nice girl in your English class you always talk about her." My mom says to me as I tell her my options to ask for a date. I didn't even tell her about Allie, but she knew me so well.

"Why would I take Allie? She's like 3 hours away from us." I say to my mom we both knew why she brought her up.

"Come on Jerebear, you've had a crush on that girl since you were like 5." She says to me and I shake my head.

"I didn't even know her when I was 5." I say to her and she proved her point.

"See, only a boy in love would know the difference." I felt defeated.

I thought about it all day, and I decided I would ask her to prom.

I drafted up a paragraph I was going to write to her and ask if she wanted to go to prom with me. I promised her I would give a proposal if she did go with me.

I let my mom proof read the paragraph and she even teared up as I read it to her.

"I really raised my boy right. Oh! This is going to be so amazing my two boys taking my favorite girls to prom." My mom says as she pinches my cheeks and I smile.

Even when she was in pain, she still found a way to smile through it. My mom was so strong, and I adored her for it.

"Go get her." My mom says and I go to paste the paragraph in chat, when I see a new post on Stevens page.

I go to click it and there I see my Allie with Steven. She was holding his hand smiling while with the other hand helped Steven hold up a sign that she accept his prom proposal.

Belly was also tagged in the picture, she must of been the one who took it.

I immediately go back to delete what I was going to send her and delete the draft as well.

Tears filled up my eyes as I slammed my phone to my bed. I dug my face into my pillow and let myself cry. All my negative thoughts all coming in at once.

That night I sent the girl from my English class a prom proposal.

-

The only other important events that happened worth noting is how Laurel and Allies mom was able to convince Aunt Julia to not sell the house. So we were able to keep the house, and then we helped Conrad to be able to study for his exam tomorrow so he could go to Stanford.