as soon as aunt laur picked me up from my house I felt my stomach flutter, for some weird odd reason. i started to walk to the conklin's car and belly got out to hug me and help me put my bags in the trunk.

"brinnnnn!!!" i heard belly say
"bellsssssss!!" I said back to her

we jumped into each other's arms and started giggling.

"im so excited you get to come this year with us!" she says all excited
"me too! i can't wait!" i say back
"let's go!" steven says
"oh well its nice too see you too steven." I say while smiling and patting his shoulder through the window

we get into the car. steven and laur in the front and belly and i in the backseat. we start driving away as laurel starts having a conversation with me.

"hi honey!" she says so sweetly
"hey auntie laur!" i say back
"are you excited to be going to cousins this summer?"
"im so excited! i can not wait! belly always tells me about her cousins trip every summer and I can't wait to experience that now too!" I say genuinely
"well I'm glad, the fishers are dying to meet you." laur says
"really?"
"yeah they can't wait!" she says
"ay but you keep your hands off of jeremiah." Steven says in a jokingly way
"shut up steven!" belly says
"whos jeremiah?" i say knowing but playing along
"the curly blue eyes lover boy." belly says trying to whisper
"ohh! well steven it's my summer too and i can do what I want." I say with a smile.

belly secretly high fives me and steven scoffs.
we drive and drive until finally we arrive to cousins. this drive is exactly what I pictured when belly would explain it to me. the smell, the people, the ocean, the boardwalk, the shops, the country club, the house.
we slowly pull into the nebhiorhood and then up to the house. steven honks the horn two times which belly told me that means "come help with the bags" in their language. i then see...
him.
he ran out of the house in a white and teal striped shirt and tan cargo shorts, his hair was blowing in the wind every step he took, his eyes were bluer than anything i've ever seen before.
his smile was so big and.. pretty, I've never seen one like it. i felt butterflies in my stomach.
i could feel my cheeks get hotter.
this summer. this summer I knew I was done for, after seeing... him.

we all get out of the car. jeremiah hugs steven I could hear the conversation and I just stared at him until he went and hugged belly. susannah then walks out and runs into laurels arms. I was just, well... there.
until he came up to me.
he walked up to me and stared at me for about 10 seconds until I finally said something.

"hi, im brinley. but you can call me brin. im belly and steven's cousin."

he looks at me some more until he smiles at me and hugs me.
I hugged him back
butterflies ~
he let go and looked at me agian until he finally talked

"im jeremiah, but you can call me jere, or your boyfriend ethier one works." he says

i turn red knowing he's flirting with me.

"im going to go say hi to your mom and your brother, i will be back though." i say letting out a little smile

i walked away from him and to susannah.

"hi! um im brinley, you can call me brin though. thank you so much for letting me stay, im so excited."
"hi hun! im susannah, jeremiah's and conrad's mom! i'm so glad your here! we are going to have a blast!" she sounded so sweet i wanted to hug her so bad, then out walks conrad, the guy belly had always had a crush on.
i see him play with her hair as she's laughing until i hear steven start talking.
and then the moms walk inside.

"hey guys! i mean i don't know about you but I think it's time for a.." jeremiah then joins in
"belly flopp!"

i see belly shake her head really quick and then try running away until conrad grabbed her hips and caught her from running, the boys picked her up except for jeremiah who looked at me with a grin, I hurry up and shook my head, he picked me up by my legs and threw my over his shoulder.

"jeremiah fisher! i swear to god if you don't put me down!" i say
"sorry It's tradition." he says as he grabs the back of my thy and carry's me like a baby.
i get butterflies so i can't say anything anymore, i just lay there in his arms.
steven and conrad have belly, and jere is holding me

"one... two... three..."

me and belly get thrown in the water
the guys just laugh and then walk back to the car to get the bags
me and belly get out of the pool and run inside

"you guys are getting water all over the place." laur says

she goes and gets us towels as susannah just stares at us with a smile

"even soaking wet you girls are gorgeous." susannah says
"aww thank you susannah." belly says

i smile at her

•••

"can you guys put the phones away please?" laur says

Steven continue's to play on his

"steven." jere says as he takes the phone out of his hand and throws it into the chair into the corner
"BOOM!!" jere says while flexing

i giggle along with everyone else

"okay okay okay, we get it ... you've been working out."
"your just jealous jere has a better body than you." i say as everyone looks at me and then laughs
"it's actually all about the lean look now, other wise you can't wear tailored suits." Steven says trying to make a comeback
conrad giggles and whispers "tailored suits."
"ay when you leaving for training camp man?" steven says asking conrad

everyone looked at conrad and then jere spoke for him

"um he quit football." jere says while looking at his hands.

everyone looks shocked so i tried to make a shocked face to play along because I didn't know what was going on.

"wait really? man I would kill to play collage ball." steven says.
"he can always change his mind." susannah steps in.
"im not gonna change my mind. i was just going to sit on the bench anyway." conrad said trying to hide his anger

this wasn't the way belly had described him.
he wasn't acting the same..

"well if your not doing football, what are going to do all summer?" laurel says
"oh man! you can work at the club! with me and jere!" steven says in an exciting way
"im not working at the club." conrad says which makes stevens expression change.
"wait you guys are working all summer?" belly says confused
"yeah i'm life-guarding and steven is working at the snack-shack." jere says while fist bumping steven.
"well then what about us?" belly says while pointing to me and her
"we'll I don't know, i mean there are other jobs at the club open." jere says
"there's no need for that!" susannah says as she hannds me and belly 2 envelopes.
"woah woah woah what is that?" steven says trying to look at the paper.

we open the envelope and read it

"i got you girls an invitation to be a debutant!" susannah says while smiling at me and belly
"my sister and cousin!?!?! a deb?!?" steven says in a petty way
"are you girls sure you want to this, it dosent seem like your sort of thing. especially you belly."
"it's not, deb balls are bulls**t and all debs are sheep." conrad says in a really petty way
"I'll think about it." belly says
"I'm not so sure." I say
"it's all up to you." susannah says
belly grabs my hand under the table and smiles at me.

"so then if this whole deb thing isn't a for sure what are you girls doing this summer?" laurel ask me and belly
"i guess find a job at the club." I speak up and then look at jere who is smiling at me

after I help clean up dinner, everyone went off to do there own things and i started baking some cookies before someone comes and grabs my waist from behind.

"hey brin." jeremiah says
"woah woah woah lover boy. slow down there." i say as I take his hands off my hips and put a cookie into his mouth.
"good?" I say

he shakes his head yes

"hey so i was wondering if you wanted to go to the bonfire tonight?" jeremiah ask me
"who all is going?" I ask
"i think everyone."
"belly too?" I ask
"yes." he says
"okay then I will be there." i smile at him
"we're leaving in an hour." he says
"will you help me clean up pleaseeeee?" I ask in a pouty voice
"yeah of course brin." he says laughing

i go upstairs and put on my white and red strapless dress
i walk downstairs and see belly and conrad sitting on the edge of the pool.
jeremiah comes up and scares me, i jump a little bit but also laugh, and then we walk out to the pool together with Steven following behind.

"you guys ready?" jere ask
"yeah we're ready." belly says as they both stand up and walk to the car with us.
we arrive to the bonfire and all it is is just a bunch of dumb kids drinking, dancing and smoking so i just go sit on the sand far away from anyone while jeremiah went to go catch up with some people, belly and conrad went to catch up as well and steven went to find shayla.
after a while jeremiah walks over to me and sits down in the sand next to me.

"hey." he says
"hi." i say back
"what are you doing by yourself?" he says
"well i am new to cousins, you guys aren't so everyone went to go say hi to people and I just sat down here."
"you could've come with me." he says very genuine.
"yeah I guess." I say

we stopped taking for a while and I put my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs.

"so tell me about you." he says
"oh we are doing this?" I say laughing a little
"doing what?" he says offended but laughing
"starting a conversation." I say
"well I truly want to get to know you." he says

i blush a little and start telling him about myself as he scoots closer to me to the point are entire sides are touching.

"my name is brinley reese keller. i am 16 but turning 17 on july 4th this summer. my favorite colors are sage green and beige. my favorite food is Mac and cheese but the homemade kind not the box kind. i also really love raspberry ice cream! or really anything raspberry. those are definitely my favorite fruit, i love dresses and bracelets. tom holland is my celebrity crush oh and i also love summer so much, especially the beach. and I'm so excited to spend this summer here. with well, you... Guys!"

he looks at me and laughs a little bit

"why are you laughing?" i say
"because that's cute." he says

i smile and blush a little until we look at eachother and slowly lean in until belly walks up to us.

"we need to go now!" she says kind of nervous
"what's going on?" i say
"conrad is wasted and got into a fight!" belly says

all of a sudden cop sirens go off and a guy screams "COPS!" so jeremiah grabs my hand and we run to the car together. when we get to the car i see belly talking to some guy outside of the front seat while steven helps conrad get into the car. jeremiah gets into the drivers seat since he was the DD and I get into the front seat next to him. steven and conrad are in the back.

"belly come on let's go, the cops could pull up any second." i say
"oh cam can give me a ride! right cam?" she says while looking at him
"yes that's not a problem!" cam says
"no belly your getting into a car with a guy you just met." jeremiah says
"im cam, cameron!" cam says
"your name is cam cameron?" steven says in a petty way.
"no just cam." he says
"no offense but no. belly get in the car." jeremiah says
"just get in the car." conrad says

then cam and belly have a short small whisper convo and then they kiss, I was shocked but tried to hide it, then belly gets into the car and cam walks home.
the whole carride was silent.
we got out of the car and went into the house, i went up to bellys room and just fell right on the bed and knocked out cold asleep.

a/n: hey guys!! here's the first part :)))
hope you enjoy!