On a hot July day, Belly Conklin sits at the pool of her family friends’ beach house. Belly, her mom, and her brother, Steven, have spent every summer of her life at the fictional Cousins Beach with Susannah Fisher and her sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. The boys come back up to the house after surfing, and Conrad lifts a magazine off Belly’s face, kissing her. They all jump into the pool, Belly thinking, “Just like always, Cousins was the only place I wanted to be” (2).

Taylor, Belly’s best friend, interrupts her daydream. Belly remembers that she is not in Cousins, she and Conrad are not together, and Susannah has been dead for two months. Belly experiences the pain of this realization all over again and thinks that it all still “doesn’t feel real. It’s like it’s happening to someone else” (2). Belly is at her friend Marcy’s house, and her friends discuss what they are going to wear to a friend’s party that night, a big event thrown annually. This is Belly’s first summer not going to Cousins Beach, so it will be her first time going to the party.

Belly pretends to listen, thinking about how she cannot wait for summer to be over, when a friend, Cory, presses a cold can of soda against her neck.