you and your now-boyfriend jeremiah were sitting in your bedroom at the summer house. he was holding your stuffed bear with glasses and a scarf in his lap, absentmindedly playing with it.

you and jeremiah were family friends. belly was your sister and steven was your older brother, and the three of you had been coming to cousins every summer since you had been born.

jeremiah and conrad both lived at the beach house with susannah, their mom. they had always been there, every summer since forever, so much so that it couldn’t be summer without them.

jeremiah had always bugged you more than belly. it was never questioned, it just was. while belly pined over conrad and was ignored by him, you and jeremiah did your own thing together. now, finally, the two of you had gotten together.

“so,” jeremiah said, resting his chin on top of the polar bear’s head and looking up at you with those blue, blue eyes of his. “now that i can finally call you my girlfriend, i can call you a bunch of other stuff, too. how do you feel about me calling you my little sugarplum? oh, oh, i have a better idea. how about snookums?”

he was grinning with barely-contained laughter. jeremiah was enamored by you, even though the two of you had only just started dating. you knew jeremiah was only making fun of you. he always was.