the winter i turned intelligent: chapter 12 (pt. 1)

Important Note from Dreamy Plots & Story Talks: This story contains suggestive language and sexual content and is only suitable for readers that are 18+.

Chapter 12 (part 1):

Jeremiah’s POV:

Belly and I checked on Natasha a twice since the accident. Both times we visited her, she was relatively quiet. Natasha was many things, but quiet was not one of them. Maybe this was her way of telling us she no longer wanted to be around us anymore since her breakup with Conrad. I couldn’t blame her for it, yet something still felt a little off with the whole situation.  

When Belly and I got back from her house, I slumped on the sofa. She went into the kitchen and returned shortly with a bag of barbecue chips and two cups of lemonade. I tried to regain my posture as best as I could amidst my murky thoughts. As she handed me the chilled cup, I questioned, “Was it just me, or was Natasha unusually quiet? Almost like she had no expression.”

Belly took a sip of her drink before answering, “I’m sure she’s just in a lot of pain, and honestly she’s probably feeling down now that she can’t skate for a while. The Olympics are most likely occupying a lot of her thoughts right now.”

“Yeah you’re right, I’m sure that explains it. Fuck, I feel awful for her, if I had seen her coming towards me, I wouldn’t have let her protect me like that.” It wasn’t until now that I realized I was starving. I took a handful of chips from the bowl, and once my mouth wasn’t full, I remembered to ask something that I was curious about since that day, “oh, and I was meaning to ask you, what were you two talking about when I left?” I noticed Belly’s eyes twitch for a second, “Did she ask about Conrad?” 

Belly’s POV:

“Well, not exactly...not at all really. First I apologized for how I spoke to her after her practice. Then-” I thought about not telling him what she told me. The fact that Natasha hadn’t confessed her feelings for Jeremiah to him directly made me believe she never wanted him to know. But ever since the accident, I didn’t want there to be any more secrets between us. His happiness meant the world to me, the way I knew mine meant to him.

So I swallowed the lump in my throat before continuing, “then, I also apologized for assuming she liked you.” My right wrist started to shake before I quickly covered it with my left wrist to calm my nerves, “Well it turns out I wasn’t wrong. She did like you. I think she liked you a lot. And I don’t know, I wouldn’t be surprised if she still does Jere.” His brows scrunched, and I was already unsure what he would say next. “But please don’t tell her I told you this, I’m sure she didn’t want me to tell you, but I had to because if you ever had feelings for her, well... I want you to be happy.” 

“Belly stop. I am happy. I’m happy with you. I’m a little shocked, but that doesn’t change how I feel.”

“But Jere, if you wanted to be with someone else, I don’t want to be the one stopping you that’s all.” I couldn’t believe I was saying this to him, and yet I knew it was exactly what he needed to hear.

“Do you want me to be with someone else?”

“No of course not-”

“Well, that’s all I needed to hear.” The warmth of his hand pressed against my shaking one, still shocked at how well he knew me. He could tell when I was nervous, when I was sad, when I was anxious, when I was happy, he knew more than I gave him credit for. “I’m glad you told me though, and I won’t tell anyone you told me. I love you Belly.”

“I love you more-” My shaky breath intensified as I moved closer towards him as his back pushed further down the couch, until I was on top of him. As my lips barely crashed into his, Hazel started barking loudly.

“Fuck! I forgot to give Hazel her dinner. Just give me ten minutes.”

I laughed when he slowly got up with the grumpiest expression before disappearing into the kitchen.  

I knew he was being sincere. He didn’t have feelings for her the way I once thought he had. I was proud of myself for being honest despite my initial discomfort. I was slowly but surely learning to process my feelings when doubts would arise.

Jeremiah’s POV: 

Trusky, Carlos, Jessica, and I were having breakfast at the same diner this morning. Ever since Trusky and Nina had broken up, Trusky was very noticeably awkward around Jessica, to the point where Jessica even noticed. Typically the roles were reversed, since prior to his relationship with Nina, Jessica was the one flustered around Trusky during most conversations. I hadn’t had the chance to ask him what was going on, so as soon as Jessica left the booth to go to the bathroom, I turned towards him as Carlos listened intently, “what’s going on?”

Trusky always told us the truth, so I didn’t believe what he said next, “nothing, what do you mean?” 

I clarified, “I mean, you’re barely looking at Jessica, and you’re talking very quickly to her as well.” 

Carlos clapped in the air, “you like her, I knew it, the day has finally come, oh this is going to be good.” Carlos chuckled to himself.

As I thought about what he just said, it made a lot of sense to me, “is that true? If it is, that’s great man.”

“Carlos, I swear if you tell her, I’m going to tell Zac that you hated the new pair of boots he got you for Christmas even more than the previous ones.” 

Carlos’ jaw dropped, “you wouldn’t...”

Trusky’s eyes grew wide, “I would.”

“Guys-” Jessica was back, so I tried to deflect from the topic. “Jess, are you going camping with us tomorrow? It’s just for one night.”

“Trusky’s going to be there.” Carlos bravely added.

Trusky’s eyes were on fire, “yeah, and so will everyone else.”

Jessica focused on me, “I don’t even wanna know...yeah okay fine I’ll go, but I hate camping. Can’t Ashley and I just stay at a hotel, while you all camp? We’ll meet you for food and drinks.”

Carlos more than approved of the idea, “if you’re staying at a hotel, so am I.”

This was one of the last group activities we would all be doing together for a while, so I wanted it to count, “no guys, that defeats the whole purpose of going camping.”

Carlos turned to Jessica and added, “great so then we can all agree not to go camping.”  

Trusky supported me, “no it’ll be fine, trust us. We have games prepared and you know...other stuff.”

We hadn’t prepared anything, so I knew he was stalling, but I appreciated him for saving the situation since Carlos and Jessica sighed in unison before agreeing.

The Following Evening:

Everyone was here except for Conrad, who was busy at Medical School. He barely had time recently to go out due to his heavy workload and course schedule. We planned to spend some time separately together though soon.

We were preparing s’mores as Matt, Trusky, Ashley, and Carlos tried starting the fire. I wished I had a camera to record this since I knew this would be an entire comedy skit and more.

Matt quite literally brought the tiniest branches for the fire and handed them to Trusky. He tilted his head and looked at Matt, “what is this?”

Matt responded obliviously, “sticks, you know, for the fire.”

“A fire for gerbils or for humans?” Carlos dropped the bunch of larger branches that he had to the pile.  

Matt’s cheeks turned red as he told Ashley, “Are you even going to help?”

She defended, “I am helping, I’m finding us service to watch a movie.”

Steven added, “No one said we were going to watch a movie, what are you talking about?”

Matt laughed, “Ashley tends not to know what she’s talking about.”

She flipped him off, “Whatever, I bought the marshmallows,” and then continued scrambling around hoping for her cell service to improve.

Jessica’s POV:

“Hey.” I took two s’mores and handed Trusky one.

“Hey.”

The silence was really starting to throw me off, “okay what’s with you?”

“Nothing, thanks for the s’more.”

“Well, if it’s about Nina, we can talk about it.”

“It’s not, and I knew you didn’t like her so you don’t have to pretend anymore.” 

“Okay then, is it about another girl?” He paused for too long, and his eye contact is what gave it away to be honest. Suddenly it clicked. “You like me, don’t you?” 

“Why would you think that?”

“I’m the one you’re barely talking to. Admit it.”

“Admit what?!”

“That you like me!”

“Okay fine! I like you!”

“Interesting.”

“What, what do you mean by interesting? Do you still like me?”

“What makes you think I ever did?”

He snorted, and I should’ve seen that coming, “okay if we’re lying now, then let me start. I’ve liked you since we first became friends. I didn’t think you liked me the same. You never said anything.”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing, that is not how it looked like to me, not at all. I can’t believe you liked me back.”

“Still do.” He paused. I felt this would finally be the moment where he would make a move, but it dawned on me that just a few weeks ago he recently left a relationship.

“Why did you date Nina if you liked me so much then?” I didn’t want to be fooled twice. 

“I never thought I stood a chance with you. I also didn’t want to lose you as a friend. I didn’t make the right choice though, and I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

“You didn’t hurt me, you made me fucking pissed, but you didn’t hurt me.”

He chuckled, “that’s my Jess.”

I was impatient, and I had waited years for this. He had already said everything that I needed to know, and I wasn’t going to wait for him to make the first move any longer. As soon as my lips touched his, it felt as though this was my first kiss all over again.

Belly’s POV: 

Jeremiah and I were finishing up setting our tent when I realized we purchased the wrong size, “Shit.”

“Things could be worse, no?”

“Jere, we have no room.”

He had this smug grin on his face, “we have enough for one.”

“Exactly for just one, wait did you plan this?” I tried not to let the smile that I was holding back show through.

“No I honestly didn’t, but I can’t say that I’m mad about it.” He opened the tent and placed a blanket and two pillows inside, one below the other. “I guess one of us can sleep on the top and the other on the bottom, your call.”

My heart started racing faster, “we can interchange.”

He walked out of the tent and held onto my waist, “I like the way you think Bells.” 

“Mhm I thought you would,” I looked back at the pillows, “why not stack the two pillows on top of each other?” 

“It’ll feel better this way, trust me.”

The air was cold and peaceful, yet I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to feel close to him, both excited and nervous at the thought of anything happening in this group setting.

Jeremiah’s POV:

After setting up the tent, I think we both realized that if we did anything here, pretty much everyone would notice. The rush in my chest kept building, so naturally all I could think of was to play a game. I tagged her on the arm and then ran through the pine trees. There was enough light surrounding us from other groups’ campfires close by to find our way in the forest.

I hid behind a tree when Belly was only a few feet away from me. She moved forward, “Jere, I know you’re there.”

“I know where I am, but where are you?!!”

“Right, exactly.” I could hear her sarcasm as she moved closer.

She moved forward so I took the opportunity to hug her tightly from behind.

“SHIT! You scared me!” Her laughter vibrated against my chest. In this moment, it felt like we were back at the summer house during high school. Even though we were currently in the middle of a forest in our twenties, everything felt the same in the best way possible.

The closeness of her was consuming me as I started kissing her neck from behind.

I barely heard her whisper, “Jere, we can’t, not here.”

I grumbled against her ear, “I know.”

“Although I really, really want to. Here, I know what’ll distract you, carry me back.”

I snorted, “very well then.” I ran towards our tent with her legs wrapped around my waist. If this was supposed to distract me, it was doing a terrible damn job at it.

Before we entered the tent again, Belly and I shared a s’more. The chocolate and melted marshmallow dripped down my fingers, and as I licked the dessert off my skin, I caught her staring at my hand. When she saw that I noticed, she quickly looked into my eyes.  

“It’s rude to stare Bells.”

“It’s rude to eat your s’more like that.” She bit her bottom lip.

I narrowed my eyes at her knowing perfectly well what she intended by that. I challenged, “How did you want me to eat it?” Instead of responding, she moved towards the tent and went inside first. I followed and carefully placed my weight on top of her. I added with an overtly cheerful tone while I pretended to sleep, “Well, goodnight!”

She placed her hands in my hair pulling my face towards hers, “I don’t want to sleep.” She looked at me with a strong glare where I knew her patience was wearing thin.

“Remember there are people around us...” I licked my lips before biting down on my bottom lip as I looked at her lips. That did it.

“Fuck it-” She tugged my hair so that our lips would crash. I had to remind both of us we had to be quiet when I could barely think clearly.

“There’s literally no fucking room to move, ugh.” She laughed into my neck as the side of our tent moved, while I struggled to remove my shirt or hers. “I guess this won’t work out the way we had hoped.”

I groaned, “I need an ice bath.”

“I mean the lake is not that far away. Taylor tried swimming there last week though and said she could barely put her toe in the water at how cold it was.”

“Yeah on second thought, I’m good.” I sighed dramatically, “Just distract me with a song or something please.” 

Belly chuckled before she began singing her favorite Taylor Swift song, and my heart instantly warmed at the melodic sound. She always had the most beautiful voice where she could genuinely have been a professional singer if she wanted to.

As soon as she got to the bridge of the song, Steven’s voice made me jolt, “shut the fuck up Belly, we’re trying to sleep!”

Belly and I stared at each other briefly before bursting into laughter, laughter that was louder than her singing. We continued to laugh into each other’s chests forgetting about sleep altogether.

Mindlessly sharing jokes and conversation throughout the night inside this tiny tent, I didn’t notice when the moonlight faded into twilight.