The Trouble with Kissing Connor

Chapter 35 - Connor

The scout had already phoned twice that week. I had avoided both calls. My father had phoned once, too and my mother was acting weird. It was as if she was trying to lure me into a false sense of security and get me to open up to her by being overly nice. One day, she brought me breakfast in bed—Seriously? But the thing I wanted most in the world, Sadie, was gone. And my life felt so bland without her in it, and school felt even worse.

Everyone was still talking about the fight video. No one would shut up about it and the principal had called a huge assembly and threatened anyone else with suspension should they continue to share it or watch it. But people continued to share it and talk about it and stranger still, was how some of the guys started talking about Sadie because of it. Having a video of two female classmates cat fighting, seemed to have ignited some serious primitive cave man crap in some of them, because one morning I heard Chase call her hot.

"What did you say?" I asked, stopping and turning to look at Chase and Tyler.

"That Sadie is actually hot," Tyler said.

"I never noticed it until now," Chase added.

"Dude, no wonder you are always hanging out with her," Tyler added, holding his hand up for a high-five I was not going to give him.

"So," Chase came closer to me, "have you done her?"

"WHAT?!" I stepped forward, raising my voice and glared at them. "Don't you ever, ever, talk about Sadie like that again. You understand me." I pointed my finger right in Chase's face. "In fact," my voice got louder still, "stop talking about any of the women in this school like that. It's disgusting and disrespectful and I should have said something to you guys ages ago. So take this as a warning, if I ever hear you talk about Sadie, or anyone else like that, we are going to have a serious problem."

I hadn't noticed that a small crowd had gathered, and when I was done, a clap and a few whistles rang out. I turned to see Brett and some of the girls from my class standing there clapping.

"Yeah, and me too," Brett stepped forward, but managed to keep behind me somewhat, as if he was using me as a shield. And then he turned to me. "It's about bloody time you told those assholes where to get off." And then he slipped his arm through mine and started walking me away from them.

"I don't know why I didn't tell them sooner," I said to Brett as we walked down the corridor together.

"Better late than never, I guess," he said. "Besides, what can I say about you Connor, you're a little slow off the mark with things."

"You mean Sadie?"

"Of course I mean Sadie."

I stopped walking. "Have you seen her? Do you know where she's gone?"

Brett shook his head. "No."

"I need to know where she is, and I know who I have to ask." I gave Brett a pat on the back and then walked off to find Jarrod.

"Hey!" I said, when I found his by his locker.

When he saw me, he slammed his locker closed. "What's up?" He asked curtly, pushing past me.

I followed him, undeterred. "Have you heard from Sadie?"

He swung around, a self-satisfied smile now plastered across his face. "The great Connor Matthews is asking me where Sadie is?" He was enjoying this and I had to let him.

"Yes! I am."

His mouth twisted into a cruel smile. "Must be crap not knowing, huh?"

"Look, have you heard from her or not?"