Belly and Jeremiah (Book Series) (2024)

This article is about their relationship in the books. You may be looking for their TV relationship.

May Contain Spoilers!

The relationship between Belly Conklin and Jeremiah Fisher starts off as a strong friendship, resembling a sibling-like one with the two looking out for each other. However, it soon blossoms into a romance, albeit an unsteady one.

Having grown up together, their relationship begins as close friends. Belly had a childhood unrequited crush on Conrad, which was common knowledge in the family. This also included Jeremiah.

It is in The Summer I Turned Pretty that Jeremiah takes notice of her and develops feelings for her. However, when he confesses his feelings, Belly still has feelings for Conrad and Jeremiah finds himself heartbroken.

By the end of the second novel, the two begin to become closer and Belly realizes she also held an attraction to him as well. They enter into a relationship after Conrad lies that he is over Belly and they decide to give a relationship a chance. However, the two begin to meet rather emotionally rough times, straining their relationship.

Prior to series

Prior to the trilogy, as seen in flashbacks throughout the first novel, Jeremiah had not seen Belly as anything more than his best friend's little sister. They did, however, have a typical sibling/friendly relationship.

When they were thirteen, though, he kissed her during a game of truth or dare when given the dare to kiss a random person in the group. It was heavily implied that Jeremiah kissed her in order to make Taylor jealous, whom he had a brief crush on, during her short stay there. Belly is left shocked and angered, since it had been her first kiss and she wanted it to be special.Taylor told Jeremiah this private information to him right after the game when Belly had left, making him feel embarrassed and a little guilty.

The Summer I Turned Pretty

While Jeremiah has always cared for her in a brotherly sense, like Conrad, he strictly saw her as "his best friend's little sister". However, it appears that Jeremiah now suddenly sees her as a girl, not a little sister figure as before. Jeremiah falls for Belly, but when he confesses his feelings to her, he is heartbroken to realize she still likes Conrad.

He and Belly mend their strained relationship in the wake of Susannah's returned cancer, both comforting each other late one night in his bedroom. The two end up falling asleep side by side in his bed and, when waking up, Belly tucks him in with her part of the bed comforter. While they are on good terms again, Jeremiah still likes her and her newfound romantic relationship with Conrad bothers him. Knowing how he feels about her relationship, Belly is left feeling guilty about hurting him.

It's Not Summer Without You

In It's Not Summer Without You, Jeremiah and Belly spend a large amount of time together when looking for Conrad after learning he has disappeared. When they find him at the summer house, they decide to stay there until they can convince him to return to school. They all band together, however, when learning of Mr. Fisher's plans to sell the house. Belly is left a little hesitant given how her relationship with Conrad crashed and burned and left things between the two on a sour note, but puts her differences aside to help make things right.

After convincing him to let them keep the house on the condition he pass his exams, Jeremiah and Belly help Conrad prep for his tests. While at his university waiting for his results, Jeremiah ends up kissing Belly. After confirming he still loves her, the two briefly make out in the car. However, the moment is ruined when they are walked in on by a near furious Conrad. Belly runs after him, not bothering to even glance back at Jeremiah. After having a fight with Conrad, Belly walks around the college campus before being forced to return to the car where Jeremiah is sitting on the hood and Conrad is sitting in the back seat. Heading back home, Jeremiah tells Belly to drive.

During their car ride, the three do not talk to each other and are left in an awkward and tense silence. As the result of heavy rain fall, the have to spend the night in a motel. While Belly is taking a shower, Conrad reluctantly tells Jeremiah he is over Belly and he can have his chance with her. After this, Belly makes the choice to start a relationship with Jeremiah and gives up on Conrad.

However, they are unaware of the fact that Conrad actually lied and is still deeply in love with Belly.

We'll Always Have Summer

In the third and final novel, We'll Always Have Summer, Jeremiah and Belly have been dating for two years. The relationship is going well... until Belly finds out Jeremiah cheated on her with another girl while the two are at a frat party one night.

Heartbroken, she slaps him and spends days in bed crying. To prove his regret, Jeremiah proposes marriage to her. She hesitantly accepts on the condition he never hurt her again.However, the rest of their family is not happy to hear about their engagement given their young age. Belly soon moves into the Summer house due to her mother's fury over her upcoming wedding... where Conrad is also residing. Jeremiah is left uneasy at this and shows several signs of jealousy of Conrad's friendship with Belly.

While the two plan their wedding, Jeremiah just about leaves all of the stress of planning on Belly. When he does try to help her, he gives little to no serious thought over their wedding, which leaves Belly frustrated. It is also revealed he has bad credit when he and Belly try to look for apartments near their campus, which also goes poorly when they disagree over apartment choosing. As a result of his bad credit and Belly's lack of credit, they fail to get any apartment in general. Despite both still caring for one another, their relationship appears to be quite rocky during their wedding planning and marriage plans.

The night before their wedding, Belly reluctantly tells Jeremiah about Conrad confessing that he still loves her. Jeremiah is left outraged over this, even wanting to go to beat up Conrad for doing so. Belly barely prevents him from doing this, leading him to demand to know if she is only marrying him to "erase" any feelings she has for Conrad from her life. Belly denies this, but Jeremiah doesn't believe her and leaves in a fury.

Conrad soon finds him and attempts to convince him to return to Belly, but he refuses. Eventually, Conrad and him get into an intense and violent fight over Belly as both boys begin arguing over who loved her more and deserved her. Jeremiah is soon fed up with Conrad refusing to admit his true feelings for Belly to him, bringing up how he told him he was over her, and demands he finally tell him the obvious truth. Conrad then admits that he is in love with Belly and he believes she is the only person whom he can ever be with. Ultimately, Jeremiah disowns Conrad as his brother and leaves.

When Jeremiah returns to Belly, he says that he has always known deep down that she still loved Conrad and cannot handle it anymore. He demands that she give her whole heart to him or nothing at all. Belly admits, to his shock, that a part of her heart will always love Conrad. However, she insists to Jeremiah that she loves him more. Jeremiah tells her that it simply isn't good enough for him. The two don't go through with the wedding and break up, but remain good friends and still care about one another.

It is later stated that she and Jeremiah began chatting online during her time abroad in Spain for her junior year of college. Years later, during her wedding to Conrad, Jeremiah attends the ceremony and Belly blows him an affectionate kiss when they see each other from afar. He responds to her with a smile before turning his attention back to his date.

Timeline

• First Relationship
  • Start Up: Ending of It's Not Summer Without You
  • Broke Up: We'll Always Have Summer ending
    • Reason: Belly still loved Conrad and Jeremiah wished to have all of her heart, not a piece of it. They also realized that they "weren't meant to be".
      

Quotes

Trivia

• Jeremiah was Belly's first kiss, abruptly kissing her during a game of Truth or Dare at fourteen years old. Belly had been furious since he stole her first kiss, which she wanted to be special, and he had only done so as a joke and to make Taylor jealous.
• The two did not have sex during their two year relationship. While Belly came close to believing she was ready to give her virginity to Jeremiah, even seriously considering consummating their relationship during a trip to the beach house one time, she ultimately decided against it. Jeremiah later implies during the couple's break up that their lack of sexual intimacy was a problem for him.
• The moment Jeremiah saw Belly as a "girl" and developed feelings for her was during their summer meet up after Belly and her family arrive at Cousin's Beach in the very beginning of The Summer I Turned Pretty. It was shortly after this when Jeremiah saw Conrad checking Belly out as she walked away to get a pop from the house that he also experienced "crazy jealousy" and realized he liked Belly.
• The two remained friends after their break up.
• Jeremiah admits in the final novel that deep down he always knew that Belly and Conrad still loved each other. However, he still dated Belly regardless of it because he loved her and, initially, wanted a relationship despite it.
• Belly indirectly and unintentionally ruined the brotherly relationship between Jeremiah and Conrad. In the final novel, Jeremiah was jealous of her and Conrad's lingering feelings for each other. After being fed up with Conrad lying about his true feelings for Belly as well finding out about his secret love confession to her, Jeremiah disowns him. This results in the two not talking to one another for an extended amount of time.
• When Belly and Jeremiah entered their college years together, this proved to be when they began to meet the rough times of their relationship when seeing their "non-summer" selves and the conflicting parts of their personalities.
• Whenever the couple ate together, Jeremiah would frequently steal bits of food from Belly's plate. This heavily annoyed her as she does not like it when people do that, even playfully.
• While the two got along great during their non-romantic relationship and even had romantic tension together, their college years as a couple proved to be rather unstable and emotionally hard. After they ended their relationship together, it is implied their general relationship smoothed out again.
• Belly disliked Jeremiah's habit of not taking things seriously anymore during their relationship and found this trait to be annoying, especially during their engagement and plans for a married life together.
• As children, they practiced an "ESP connection" where they would sit and try to read each other's minds. Belly believed Jeremiah could read her mind when, actually, he was able to read her based on her facial reactions. However, they grew to know each other well enough to accurately guess what the other was likely thinking and began to simply call it their "ESP connection".