It's Not Summer Without You

Jeremiah and Belly ride in silence until Jeremiah says that the song playing on the radio was his prom’s theme song. Belly asks how many proms Jeremiah has been to, and he says five. Belly says she does not believe him but inside knows that Jeremiah is exactly the kind of guy a girl would want to bring to prom: “He would know how to make a girl feel like the prom queen even if she was nobody” (71). Jeremiah tells Belly that she looked good at her prom and that he liked the dress she wore. Belly wonders if Conrad told Jeremiah anything about that night, and Jeremiah explains that Susannah had one of their prom photos framed. Belly realizes how different prom would have been if she had brought Jeremiah instead of Conrad.

The narrative switches to the weeks before prom. Belly asks Conrad to be her date, knowing that it will be difficult to convince him. Predictably, Conrad at first says no. Belly feels rejected, recognizing that “he couldn’t do this one thing for [her], to make [her] happy. He didn’t feel like it” (74). She says she will go with Cory instead, pretending that he has asked her.