The Other One

Chapter 1

Hello. :] This is the first story I've uploaded to Wattpad. HA! I got the picture slideshow to work! :D Now you can see the characters. :] Please read and vote! And leave a comment or send a private message if you'd like to say something. I hope you enjoy it. :]

+Cake

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"Why do we never go out on dates?" Lizzie enquired, her perfect red eyebrows scrunched together in frustration. "I've never met one of your friends. Don't you think I should be meeting your friends, maybe your family by now?" She had come to the realization the week before that Connor, her boyfriend of nearly a year who she loved with all her heart, had never once taken her on a date anywhere outside of the house. Why hadn't she noticed it before? It really was very odd. All of her friends had been on at least one date with their boyfriends, so why hadn't she? Especially after they'd been in a relationship for so long. Weren't dates something a normal adult relationship entailed? She hadn't thought to ask him about it until now, but only because she was beginning to get frustrated. And what was it with him avoiding her meeting his friends and family? Surely he wasn't ashamed of her; she knew herself to be a kind, energetic, positive person. She also knew that she was beautiful, but had never thought of herself with anything but modesty. What was not to like?

Connor stared at her with a blank look on his face. A feeling of apprehension made her belly tense. Connor only got that blank look when he couldn't find the appropriate thing to say, and when the blank look left, it was usually replaced with one of remorse or another emotion just as bad. She knew, because she'd only seen it two times during their entire relationship, and each time he'd delivered a negative piece of information. So why was he getting the look now? Lizzie's eyebrows scrunched even closer together in her confusion, and she began to twirl the thick, braided bracelet on her wrist, a nervous habit. Why was he taking so long to respond to such simple questions?

"Erm, well... see, I... wanted to take you somewhere special, and my favourite restaurants were always booked tight whenever I tried making reservations..." Connor muttered, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. His neck-scratching was his nervous habit, and it tipped Lizzie off to the fact that something was wrong.

"You don't have to take me to a fancy restaurant. We could go rock climbing, or go out for ice cream. Something. Why haven't we done any of that? And going on a camping trip or dropping in to say hi to your parents - those things don't require reservations and planning. I don't need special, Connor, you know that," Lizzie pointed out, "I'm fun. I like doing basically everything, as long as it's with you." When Connor stayed silent and continued subconsciously scratching his neck, she again got the sense that something was very wrong. Her eyebrows relaxed and she raised one at him and crossed her arms, waiting for the reply that would assuage her doubts. The silence lasted nearly five whole minutes, and her answer never came.

Suspicion grew like a weed in the pit of her stomach. Connor was her boyfriend; she knew all his facial expressions and body language and what they meant. She knew how to comfort him when he was hitting a rough patch at work. His last name was very common : Smith. She knew the angles and colours of his face by memory - perfect sandy hair that he kept short, a straight nose, a strong jaw with the small cleft in the chin, thick eyebrows, and beautiful caramel-coloured eyes rimmed with eyelashes almost child-like in length; she had such a clear image of his face memorized that she could've drawn it in her sleep.

As she thought over all the things she did know about Connor, she realized there was a whopping pile of things she didn't know. Why, oh, why hadn't she realized it before? She didn't know who his parents or his friends were. He seemed to always direct the conversation elsewhere whenever she'd mention that topic and it had bothered her, but she hadn't thought it was something to worry about. Throughout their relationship, he'd only been there for about half the time in person - he seemed to always be gone, and she'd obviously assumed it was for work, as he managed his own company. He had only stayed over at her house a handful of nights. He wouldn't move in with her, and wouldn't allow her to move in with him. He visited her twice a week, and occasionally a weekend.