We'll Always Have Summer

“I’ve only ever loved two boys-both of them with the last name Fisher. Conrad was first. [...] That kind of love is really a one-time-only thing. [...] When I looked at Jeremiah, I saw past, present, and future. [...] My two great loves. I think I always knew I would be Belly Fisher one day. I just didn’t know it was going to happen like this.”

Belly reflects on the differences in how she loves Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher. Belly loved Conrad first, acknowledging that her love for him is one that she could only ever experience once in a lifetime. Already there is the implication that Belly feels the need to emphasize that while she may have loved Conrad once, she sees that as being in the past, whereas Jeremiah is her past, present, and future.

“We’d known each other our whole lives, and in some ways, it felt like a big surprise—in other ways it felt inevitable.”

Belly explains that because she and Jeremiah have known each other for their entire lives, their romantic relationship feels in some ways inevitable. She also characterizes their relationship as a surprise, however, which is a subtle nod to Belly’s past relationship with Jeremiah’s brother, Conrad, and her years-long belief that she would end up with Conrad.

“A fight is like a fire. You think you have it under control, you think you can stop it whenever you want, but before you know it, it’s a living, breathing thing and there’s no controlling it and you were a fool to think you could.”

In their two-year-long relationship, Belly and Jeremiah break up once due to an argument over spring break plans. Belly states that while they do not often fight, their argument escalates so rapidly that it can only be compared to a fire, something that takes on a life of its own and can quickly get out of hand. This is how their argument over Jeremiah going to Cabo ends up, and the two decide to break up rather than work through their disagreement.