The Trouble with Kissing Connor

Chapter 11 (Sadie)

It was my turn to drive to school that morning, thankfully. Because if my sister had been driving, I might have been compelled to throw myself out the window because I was already so nervous. More nervous than I'd ever been in my entire life, because ...

I was going to tell him.

Things had gone too far and they were totally out of control. I needed to put an end to this mad charade, and soon. I hadn't had a second of sleep the night before. I'd gone over the situation in my mind until my brain hurt. Somewhere between 3am and 5am, I'd decided that I had to tell him. I no longer had a choice. But how the hell was I going to say it?

"Hey Connor, guess what? I kissed you. It was a joke. Haha. Surprise!"

This was going to be the hardest thing I'd ever done. What if it ruined our friendship? What if it made everything feel strange and awkward between us? But that was a risk I had to take, though; it was ruining our friendship already. I felt myself pulling away each day under the stress and pressure of the lie I was telling. Some days it had been hard to look him in the eyes. Kissing him and keeping it a secret, was already ruining our friendship, so the way I saw it, I had nothing to loose.

We arrived at school and I took up my position outside the gate to wait for Connor. I knew he wasn't there yet, because if he had been, he'd be standing there waiting for me. I was relieved. It gave me a few more moments to rehearse the lines in my head again.

I had to keep reminding myself to breath. My body was hot and cold and tingling all over, and I worried that the anticipation was going to give me a permanent stomach cramp. But when the final bell rang and Connor still wasn't there, I forgot my nerves and started to wonder if something was wrong.

I sent him a few texts, but he didn't respond, so I tried calling him—no answer. This was weird now. He always picked up his phone, no matter what he was doing, and he always texted me back.

Maybe he was jogging to school that morning and was just running a bit late, that was it. His phone was probably in his bag and he couldn't hear it. But after two class periods and still no Connor, I really started to worry.

"Brett." I pulled him aside in the corridor. "Have you seen or heard from Connor today?"

"Nope."

"I think something's up, I can't get hold of him."

"Has the telepathic link been broken?"

"The what?"

"Between you and Connor? You always seem to know what the other one is thinking or doing. Connor says so anyway."

I nodded. I knew what he meant. Sometimes it did feel like we were telepathic. "The link has been severed," I said.

"Well," Brett paused and looked like he was thinking about something. "That is a grave situation, indeed."

He was right. Something was wrong.

"Okay, I'm leaving. Cover for me. Say I'm sick or something."

Brett smiled. "And what fictitious illness shall I conjure up for you?"

"Surprise me."

I left Brett with a big smile across his face and I sensed he was going to make some kind of drama of this. He was really into movies and ran the film club at school and that gave him endless amounts of inspiration. Tomorrow at school people would probably be asking me about my dreaded disease, the one so serious that it was named after me, Acute Sadie Syrcomalitis Syndrome . I didn't really care though. I exited the gate and speed walked to Connor's house. As I went I kept phoning and messaging him, and, with every non-answer, I grew more and more worried. This wasn't like him.