The Summer She Turned Pretty

The End?

I decide to check the pool first, where else could he have gone? To my luck, he was sitting in the far corner of the pool, in one of the lounge chairs. 

"Jeremiah!" I yell, out of breath. He looks back at me and as I get closer I realize he's crying. "Jeremiah." I whisper, sitting right next to him, "Hey, what's wrong." He tries to reply but his voice breaks. He pulls me in for a hug and cries on my shoulder. We sit like that for a couple of minutes, I let him calm down, not all the way, just a little bit so he can explain what happened.

"May..." Jeremiah sniffles. "I hate to be the one to tell you this, but I know I have to." Jeremiah begins. I try to imagine the things he could possibly say next. What he actually says is not one of them. "My mom has cancer again."

All of a sudden my whole body pauses, I feel like I'm going to throw up and faint. I try to stand but almost fall, I feel Jeremiah bring me back down to the seat. I don't know when I started crying but I was, Jeremiah was holding me close and his big waterworks started again. 

"What... How... How did you know?" I eventually ask. He just hands me a phone in his hand. Susannah's. On it, there's an email from CB Cancer Treatment Center. It's about upcoming cancer trials. The email basically said that Susannah wasn't taking chemo but there were still spots available. I look back at Jere, we're both still crying. "I'm so sorry!" I wail and we hug again. 

"It's not your fault, May. I'm just glad you're here with me." He replies, his face was buried in my neck so his reply was muffled. 

"Does my mom know?" I ask. 

"Yeah, when your dad and mom went in the back rooms, I overheard her saying that mom was really sick. So then I asked Steven if he noticed anything off about her this summer but he said no." Jeremiah rants. 

"Why wouldn't she-" I began to ask why they wouldn't tell us, but then it hit me. "All Susannah wanted this summer was for it to be perfect. She didn't tell anyone because she didn't want it to ruin the summer but- if I knew I would've hung out with her more, I wouldn't have skipped any movie nights- I wish I knew." Jere rubs my hand. 

"It's ok, you couldn't have known, and we still have about a week left so you can make up for all that, May, it'll be okay." Jeremiah was just saying it to calm me down because in what world will everything be ok? But I just nodded, because what else could I have done? 

"Should we tell Belly, Conrad, and Steven?" I ask. 

"I think we should definitely tell Conrad," he answers, and I nod. "And May, I'm sorry I left you. I said I wouldn't leave your side, and I did." 

"Jeremiah, I was more worried about if you were okay." 

"But I know how much this meant for you I-" I shut him up with a kiss on the lips. "And thank you for coming to find me." 

I smile, "I told you I wouldn't leave your side either." We sit in silence a little longer, then, hand in hand, we had back inside. Once we get back inside, we see Conrad, Cam, and Belly talking. The waltz must've just ended. We quickly walk up to Conrad, and Jeremiah taps his shoulder. 

"Hey, where were you guys?" I could see the jealousy in his eyes as if Jere and I went off the make-out. 

There were still tears in both our eyes. "Conrad," I say, Jeremiah was obviously too out of it to talk but I managed to pull it together. "Jere and I need to talk to you, all right?" I say, shakily. "It's important, it's-" 

"It's about mom." Jere burst out. "I found something out." 

Conrad just stands there like a stone, wait a minute... "We'll talk- We'll talk about this later ok?" Conrad mumbles, looking around.