my 'the summer i turned pretty'

sports

february 2024.

i haven't written in here much. a lot has happened. i met a guy, dated him, and broke up with him all in the span of a few months. jeremiah knew about him, but now he knows it's over.

we went to the fisher's house for lunar new years this year, like we always do. jere and i have been talking daily for almost a month. it's so fun to have him in my life again. this lunar dinner was schemed up by jere and i. our parents weren't really planning on getting together for the new years this year, "we're all just busy" my mom had told me, but jeremiah and i planned to pester our parents about it everyday until they finally caved and planned a time to get together. it meant a lot to me that he was willing to put in all that work just to get together.

a few hours before the dinner was supposed to start i received a text from jere.

jere: also, hey there's a football game tonight at 8 if you would want to go to that. we'd bring my little brother and steven too. 

me: does it cost money?

jere: nope, free

me: is it outside or indoors

jere: indoors

jere: 👍🏽

we arrived at his house and we ate dinner. it was delicious as always. steven took my seat at the adults table, so i ended up sitting at the counter. i hoped jere would follow me, and he did. i don't even remember what we talked about. college maybe. after dinner i wanted to test it again, so i moved to the table after conrad and his girlfriend moved. and just like before, he came and sat right next to me all over again.

his parents asked when we were leaving for the game and jere said in just a few minutes. there was a well known ice cream shop near the sports stadium, and i love all things sweet so i leaned over and asked jere if we could stop there too. he looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. "yeah of course" he had told me, and then took out his phone and looked up what time the shop closed. the game started, and the ice cream shop closed both at 8pm. we would only be able to make it to the ice cream place if we were late to the game.

i knew how much jere loved his sports. sports was his life. it's how he's found a family, and siblings beyond conrad. oh how he loves football. and so i didn't expect him to agree to take me like he did. "we better leave now if we want to make it" he said before standing up to get ready to go.

he drove us. we had to grab chairs from the fisher's garage, four, one for each of us. jere's younger brother pulled the chairs down and i tried my best to grab them. steven had left his sneakers at home and asked jere if he could use one of his so they were still inside. i tried to carry them all in my arms when jere came out and took them from me. we headed out to the car and off we went. i pulled up the directions on my phone and told jere where to go. it felt nice, normal. we drove around town.

it was a college town. jere and i would be attending the same college, eventually, assuming we both got in. it gave me butterflies just thinking about it. jere would continue to live at home and i'd live in the dorms. i pictured different scenarios in my head on nights that i couldn't sleep of what it would be like for jere and i to go to college together. i imagined him picking me up from my dorm and taking me to the mall. maybe i'd join him and attend family dinners at his house every sunday night.

"turn left here and then it should be on the right". i had snapped back into reality just in time to give jere the next direction. we pulled into the ice cream shop's parking lot and walked inside to get our sweet treats. jere knows how much i love anything sweet. i always linger behind after dinner to steal a bit more of dessert after everyone's done. and i'd be a millionaire if i had a dollar every time jere has walked in on my doing so, and usually he'd join me. he didn't pay for me, but that's okay, i wasn't expecting it. it did feel a bit weird after going on so many dates with other guys. it became a habit for me to step behind once the cashier asked for payment and let my date pay for the both of us.

we were in and out quickly and off to the game we were. jere and i talked about college in our way there. once we arrived we got out and went to the trunk to grab out chairs before walking inside the stadium. it was loud and hard to fined seats. once we did, i could barely see anything as a really tall person's head was blocking the view. jere helped me set up my chair while i had my ice cream and my book in hand. it was nice of him. we sat down and all watched the game. i would pay attention and usually end up starting into space right when something interesting would happen jere would turn to me smiling and ask if i saw that. i hated telling him i didn't and seeming uninterested, so i tried harder to watch the game. i asked questions, and he answered every single one. we were watching the college team that jere dreamed of playing for. i admired him a lot in this moment and seeing the passion and determination in his eyes as his dream team won their match. i took my phone to take a pic of jere and i with our ice cream and then one of the game which i later posted on my instagram story with the caption "the creamery and my first footballs game". posting him makes me feel like there's something there between us, that maybe everything isn't just in my head.

towards the end of the game jere decided to watch the rest of it standing. he folded up his chair while i stayed comfortably sitting in mine. since he was standing he didn't talk to me as much and i started to doze off. it was around 9pm and a weekend. i usually slept early on the weekends to make up for my lack of sleep throughout the week. soon his team scored and his loud cheers woke me up. "good morning sleeping beauty" he said to me as i rubbed my eyes and looked up at him. i smiled while he smirked at me, then went to take something out of his pocket. he pulled out two chinese candies, a brand that he knew i loved. "want something sweet?" he asked while holding his hand out with the candy. "of course" i said and thanked him while i grabbed the candy and popped it into my mouth.

after the game ended jere helped me set up my chair and we went up to chat with his high school coach who plays in the team. this was a momentous occasion for me. previously whenever jere introduced me to someone he knows he would tell them that i'm his cousin. in a way it made sense since we've spent every holiday or important life event together since the start of our lives, but being his cousin also implies that he could never ever like me. so it made me feel a bit weird every time that happened. i braced myself for the same situation again today, but once his coach asked who i was jere tuned to me and said "this is my family friend, belly. oh i mean isabelle". my smiled beamed as i turned to look at his coach and shake his hand.

once they were done talking we exited the stadium and walked back to the car. i couldn't stop smiling on our way home. i was finally out of the cousin zone and i was once again in the passenger seat of jere's car. he put on some of our favorite songs and smiled at me before starting to drive. i looked out the window at the view of the city lights, and in the reflection i spotted jere turning his head to look at me and then he smiled watching me.

i prayed this car ride would never end. that maybe our parents forgot to buy desert and they'd send us to go to the store to grab some, all because i wanted to spend more time with jere. to my surprise here missed the turn home and i looked back at him confused. he must've seen the look on my face because he nonchalantly said "we're not going home yet, i want to show you my school". and so he did. we drove around his high school and he would point out things like the doors he used to get into school, or where the gymnasium was where they'd hold school dances. i was utterly in love with jere, and him wanting to show me a part of his life i wasn't apart of, and that i'd always been so curious about, made me love him even more. it made it even more special when his younger brother, who was taking a nap during the car ride home, suddenly woke up and asked why we were at the high school at such a late hour instead of going home. i was curious about the same thing so i looked at him eagerly to hear his reply. he looked a bit sheepish and a slight blush came to his checks before his expression smoothed out and he replied "just cause".