the winter i turned intelligent: epilogue

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

Epilogue:

The Following Summer:

Belly’s POV:

Staring at the sky while floating on the crystal-clear seafoam green water in Fiji is exactly how I wanted the start of my summer to feel like.

My mind was so relaxed that I almost didn’t hear Jeremiah’s voice when he called my name. When I tilted my head out of the water, I heard him repeat, “Someone just told me that there could be some jellyfish here so be careful.”

Panicking I added, “Shit. Where? Did you see one?”

Smiling, he tried to calm me, “No Bells. I didn’t see any. I just wanted to let you know.”

Starting to swim closer to the shore, I added, “Maybe we should go to the pool or something then?” Getting stung by a jellyfish was not an experience that I wanted to repeat a second time.

Jeremiah tried to reassure me, “Here.”

He swam closer to me wrapping his arms around my waist as I wrapped my legs around his and told him, “Yeah, I don’t see how this is going to fix anything. You could get stung, or they could float to the surface and still sting me.”

“Don’t worry. If one of them approaches us, I’ll be sure to lift you over my head above the water, so you’ll be safe,” He joked.

Laughing with my nose pressed against his, I confessed, “You’re such an idiot.”

“An idiot that you love.”

“Yes. An idiot that I love. Very much.” 

Jeremiah’s POV:

My lips moved to Belly’s neck when she giggled, “Jere, there’s people around us.”

I exaggerated concern, “Oh. Right. Thanks for reminding me,” before lifting her wet hair to the side and covering my face with it for privacy.

She burst into laughter immediately. “Great plan. I’m sure no one will notice now.”

I offered, “We could just go back to our room?”

“We spent most of our day there already yesterday.”

“I’m not seeing your point,” I tried not to show a smile although it was hard considering how she was rolling her eyes at me playfully.

Remembering how we decided to make the most of this vacation since we both would be starting new jobs soon and Belly was also looking into different grad school programs, I encouraged, “Okay, what do you want to do then?”

“Maybe we can walk down that trail over there. I saw the prettiest flowers on our way here,” She pointed towards the greenery by the shore.

“Let’s do it.”

After walking for about twenty minutes in the heat and still in our swimsuits she concluded, “Why did we do this?”

I snorted, “My plan was much better. Just saying.”

“I need a drink,” She added while wiping off the sweat from her cheeks.

We stopped for smoothies and took them back to the beach. After barely laying our beach towels on the warm sand, we both collapsed onto them from the fatigue. Still panting, I managed to add, “I think we just walked like 15 miles.”

“It was probably 2 at most, but I understand you,” Belly placed her drink against her forehead to come down from the heat.

With both of us facing down onto our towels shortly after, she placed her drink on my back now, instantly making me jolt from the sudden cold. “Fuck.”

“Sorry. Was that too cold?”

“Actually that felt good. Do it again.”

She giggled before placing it on me again when I took the chance to wrap my hands around my cup that had lots of cold water droplets dripping down it.

I traced her back with my now cold fingers and quickly heard her breath shift. When stopping shortly after, she furrowed her brows at me, “Why did you stop?”

I smirked and reduced the space between our beach towels before tracing along her back again while adding, “I love how you thought kissing in the water was a little much, but this is okay.”

Running her fingers through my hair before pulling me in she revealed, “Yeah. I don’t really care anymore. Let’s do both.”

As our lips smiled against each other’s, I pulled her still damp hair over both of us, jokingly trying to cover us again, before feeling the vibration of her laugh on my bottom lip. The sensation really made me wish we were back in our room.

I used to think that at some point a relationship would get boring, but none of this ever got boring for me. There was never a dull moment with Belly, and it was most likely since our relationship was built around our friendship first. She was my best friend since the beginning, and she still was now.

Which is why after so many years, it still felt just as exciting to be with her. And even though we had grown up a lot in the past decade, in many ways we were still the same teenagers from many summers ago.

When we walked back to our room to get ready for dinner, I remembered a funny detail from before that was relevant to our conversation from earlier today. “Remember what Taylor used to call us all the time?”

Belly laughed, “You mean team jellyfish?”

I grinned at the memory, “Yes. Team jellyfish.”