What Could I Do? - The Summer I Turned Pretty

14

Made up here on out.

Atlas p.o.v

It was the beginning of senior year, a lot went down at the end of summer. Conrad and I spent the last few weeks of summer together before I kissed him goodbye in California.

I cried the whole flight back home. My senior year would shortly start in a few days. Belly and I texted regularly. We face timed every day to talk about outfits for our first day back.

It would be our last first day of high school, so we had to make it count. Conrad would call me sometimes during our FaceTimes, so I always had to leave Belly to answer him.

I felt bad for it, but duty calls. Everything was going great. I genuinely didn't have any thoughts about Jeremiah once. It was amazing since I removed him off of everything except text so I wouldn't get reminded of him if I saw him pop up on my feed.

This was helping me be able to move on from him.

-

Conrad p.o.v

I spent every moment I could talking with Allie. She never failed to make me feel so loved. Her whole aura was just sunshine and happiness. She was a ball of light. I knew I had to protect her at all costs.

I could remember the first summer I started to catch feelings for her.

It was about three summers ago. Before Belly got her braces and glasses removed. That year I noticed a lot more girls noticing me. And yet Allie didn't notice my change.

I liked her for it, she never treated me differently than the other girls did, maybe that's what made her stick out the most amongst them all.

I liked how she treated me like how she treated me every year. I even tried all my moves on her, but she wouldn't budge.

I tried putting my arm around her, but she didn't even bat an eyelash at me. She was too busy looking at Jeremiah.

Even as kids as all knew they liked each other, I had caught Jeremiah day dreaming on many occasions thinking about Allie.

It was cute when we were younger, but now I just get jealous every time I hear him talking about her, or with her.

We aren't young anymore, I used to not see what Jeremiah saw, I didn't get it. But a part of me wished I saw it sooner. I couldn't help but wonder if I showed interest in her as a kid then she would of been mine sooner.

I remember that Fourth of July. Watching Jeremiah and Allie almost kiss. I told Steven to go to them see what they were doing. Steven was still short at the time so he couldn't see what I saw.

I got jealous, I couldn't let him kiss her. Steven and I were always close. Sometimes I felt like even he liked Allie. But maybe it was just because she was the only girl for him to like in the friend group.

The summer I noticed Belly was the next summer. I didn't see her as a kid anymore, even though Allie is younger than Belly. Belly still had a lot of maturing.

Maybe it was because of how immature Steven was, and Allies parents splitting at such a young age for her.

Allie was more of an adult than Belly was, but something changed in her. That made me want her. Maybe it was the fact that Belly and Allie were so a like. I felt like if I couldn't have Allie, there was always Belly.

I knew I didn't have a chance with Allie, so I went for Belly instead, wanting to give my brother the dibs that he unknowingly put on Atlas.

It made me so mad when I saw Belly and Jeremiah kissing, especially once I saw how hurt Allie was. It just confirmed my suspicion of Allie liking Jeremiah.

I guess I always knew but I just didn't want to believe it. Even when we were younger it was always J plus A.

I knew no matter how hard I tried to get her to notice me, she always saw Jeremiah first. That was until she finally didn't. She noticed me, she wanted me. It was no longer Jeremiah and Allie, it was now Conrad and Allie.

Every moment I spent with her it made me realize how lucky I was. I was the happiest I could ever be. More happier than I was with Belly.

With Belly, it was fun. She's a great girl, but nothing out of the ordinary, she was just like all the other girls I dated before.

Allie never failed to make me feel other emotions I never felt before.

"You okay Con?" I hear my girl say to me as I must of spaced out.

"Uh, yeah. Just thinking of you." I say to her and she smiles. "Oh my god, It's really late for you isn't it! You can go to sleep if you need to. I know you have class in the morning." She was worried about me. It was 4am here, I woke up early since it was Allie's first day of class. I knew she was nervous so I wanted to be there for her.

"It's fine, you're leaving soon anyways right? I'll be fine. I promise princess." I tried my best to reassure her and smiled. She smiled back at me weakly.

"Okay Connie, thank you." She says back to me and I couldn't help but to smile. She never failed to make me blush. Even when I was half asleep.

I was drifting in and out of consciences when I could of sworn I saw Jeremiah appear behind Allie.

Before I could even react, I fell asleep.

-

Atlas p.o.v

"Conrad? Hello? Are you there? I'm about to leave." I guess Conrad fell asleep, which was fine. He needed his rest anyways. He told me all about the work he had to do on his second week of classes.

I hung up the call and put the finishing touches on my outfit. I sent the picture of my outfit to Conrad and turned off my phone.

I knew he would look at it once he woke up. I was so excited and nervous for the first day.

Belly already went to her school, they started a day earlier than I did. She told me all about her first day as soon as she got home. How she already had volleyball practice.

I was thankful I wasn't in any sport so I didn't have to practice after school. I was only in dance, but they rarely required us to practice after school. Only if we had recitals.

My dance class had three recitals, one for winter, spring and the end of the year. I always wished the Fishers or Conklin would show up to my dances. It was a dumb wish, because I never even went to Belly's tournaments. Even though I had a chance last year, they were going against my school in regionals.

I grabbed my backpack and went off to my first last day of school.

I wasn't the girl I was in the summer time. Even though I knew all the people at Cousins beach, some how Belly and the boys knew everyone much better than I did.

I practically grew up with these people, and yet I never saw Cam Cameron. Maybe it was the fact he was in all the smart classes.

But seeing him was nice, he reminded me of the summer time.

"I still can't believe you go to this school." Cameron says to me as he walks the same pace with me to my locker. I laughed and nodded my head.

"I agree. I legit never seen you in this school until 2 summers ago." I say to him and he smiles.

"What class do you have?" He asks me and I look down at my phone to see what class I had.

"English 104." I say to him and I ask him what he has, "AP LIT" he says and I nod my head. I knew we wouldn't have the same class together, I don't know why I bothered getting excited.

"But it looks like we are next to each other." He says as he points to both our classrooms.

I smiled and nodded my head, "I'll see you after class then. Nerd." I say to him and laugh as I heard him laugh at me calling him a nerd.