happier ⇒ the summer i turned pretty

FIFTEEN!

TW: panic attack

jeremiah just drove around the town. avalon was silent. she just kept her eyes looking out the window. there was so much she wanted to talk about with him, but she just didn't know how or where to even start.

the radio was on low but you could still hear it. it was the only thing breaking the complete silence.

jere pulled into an empty parking lot. he didn't say anything, he just parked the car and sat there.

avalon was confused. she just sat there quietly with her arms crossed.

she could hear him take a deep breath before he spoke to her. "is everything okay av? like seriously." he looked over at her.

she looked down at the floor. she definitely felt off, but she didn't know what was wrong. she just shrugged her shoulders and stayed quiet.

he nodded his head side to side. "is it your brother?" he asked.

she sat there for a moment thinking of what to say.

"i guess so."

"you guess so?" he sighed. "if it's not that then what is it? you know you can talk to me."

a tear started to roll down her cheek. jeremiah noticed and carefully wiped it off. "hey, it's okay." he cupped her face.

she held one of his hands that were on her face. "this summer has just been sorta weird." she sniffled her nose.

"weird how?" he asked, wiping away more of her tears.

"well first the conrad thing. it's just been weird with him ever since... you know." she explained.

he nodded. he didn't say anything so she could get out everything she needed to say.

"and then all of you hated me for it. which is totally understandable but, i had other shit going on and you all just left me!" she cried harder.

jeremiah felt pain in his chest. he hated seeing her so upset like this, and the fact he caused some of that pain made him feel terrible.

"and now i have to do this deb training which i'm only doing for susannah, and now for belly too. i don't even have an escort and it's literally right around the corner." she took a breather.

"and now that mateo is here, i just know everything is going to get messed up. there's no hope of this summer feeling like the others." she explained. she sat quietly, out of breath from blabbering everything.

she started crying even more. she was crying so much that she was starting to not be able to breathe. she was trying to get air out but she couldn't.

"hey hey hey, avie, breathe. just breathe." he put his hand on her chest and the other hand on the back of her head. "it's okay. just breathe." he spoke calmly.

she tried to contain herself. the comfort of jeremiah helped her calm down. she slowly started to breathe again. she continued taking deep breathes until she felt better. she had so much stress built up inside her that she finally cracked.

when she was calm, he pulled her in and hugged her. he just held her close and didn't say a word.

she felt so relaxed and safe with him, now more than ever. she hugged him tight.

no words were said, they just held each other for those few minutes.

she needed that comfort. she hasn't felt that in so long. she's had to bottle everything up and just be there for herself, but now that's changed.