To Whom It May Concern

36 | Connor

I arrived at Shelby's party with Dan and Alan in tow, my mind flashing back to freshman year when we would sneak into senior parties together. Now we were juniors and threw our own ragers, but this one took the cake: Shelby had rented out the entire Festival Ballroom for the occasion, and people were flooding in by the hundreds.

We immediately found Katie, Mel, and Britt, who were already rocking out to the music blaring through the speakers. The DJ was at the front, trying and ultimately failing to get the crowd to pay attention to the advertisements he was shouting in between songs.

"Hey baby." Dan gave Britt a quick kiss, drawing away quickly and scrunching up his nose. "I see that somebody's already started having fun tonight."

"I know you usually get my first drink, but you guys were late!" Britt laughed, rolling her eyes and taking another sip from her cup. "Next time, baby."

Dan shook his head and started dancing with her, and the two immediately became lost in their own world--something they tended to do a lot.

Something Sydney and I had tended to do a lot.

"Where's Syd?" I asked, trying to be as casual as possible. "I mean, is she here? Is she coming?"

Katie gave me a strange look before answering my question.

"She's here, I think she was going to meet Jacob by the entrance and then bring him over to us so we could all hang out." She checked her watch. "She's been gone for like an hour at this point. Ya'll are really late to this thing, it's literally 11:30."

"We were playing Monopoly and Alan wouldn't let us stop until someone won." I rolled my eyes, "It's not our fault."

"Hey, if you don't finish the game, everyone forgets where they were and it's a big ordeal." Alan defended himself.

"Alright."

"Hey guys!" An over-the-top voice could be heard from directly behind Katie. She moved aside to reveal Shelby Toth herself dancing around behind her. "Glad you guys could make it! Especially you, Connor!"

"Thanks Shelby." I nodded, trying to appear as standoffish as possible. I still had my plan for Sydney tonight. "Great party."

"Isn't it?" She grinned, ignoring my signals. "I just need someone to kiss at midnight..."

"Have fun!" I replied, turning away from her to talk to Alan. I saw her walk off from the corner of my eye, undoubtedly confused. I had asked her to be my date to an engagement party, after all.

But tonight was about Sydney. The one person I couldn't seem to locate at this party.

11:40.

I was still looking around for Sydney, attempting to look as inconspicuous as possible and knowing that I was failing by the look on Katie's face.

11:45.

The disco lights had gotten turned off by someone and the room was completely dark. The music was still playing, but no one could see anything.

11:50.

Sydney still hadn't appeared, and I was growing continuously annoyed with the fact that I was being forced to hear Britt and Dan have fun together while everyone else seemed to not have a care in the world. I was still stuck without the person I was trying to find.

11:55.

Still no sign of Sydney. The disco lights were back on, and my search was back on.

11:59.

I had one minute to find her before my surprise was ruined by the time itself.

The countdown started.

"Ten! Nine!"

I found myself turning and looking in the back corner of the dance floor, a place I had checked ten minutes earlier to no avail, and I saw her.

"Eight! Seven!"

I excused myself from the group and started for her. She was standing alone.

"Six! Five!"

I still had eyes on Sydney. But someone else was approaching her, faster, with a drink in his hand.

"Four!"

I watched Jacob tap Sydney on the shoulder and give her the drink. I saw her smile and thank him before taking a sip and nodding, as if confirming he had gotten her order right.

"Three!"

I walked faster, pushing through people and trying to reach her before the final two seconds.

"Two!"

Ten feet away.

"One!"

Five feet away.

"Happy New Year!"

Two feet away. I was twenty-four inches away from reaching Sydney and delivering my New Year's surprise. Ringing in 2021 with the right girl.

I was two feet away when Jacob kissed Sydney, and she kissed him back.

A/N: Hey guys! I'm so sorry for missing Sunday's update, but I actually have a legit reason for it this time. If any of you have been reading my author's notes for a while on my books, you know that I'm from Maryland but that I'm currently a freshman at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah, which is 2,000 miles away from home. So this weekend, my mom and sister (both of whom I'm extremely close with) flew out to Utah to surprise me! I hadn't seen them in two months so it was super exciting and I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible, so there was no Sunday update! But I'm back on Wednesday.

Thoughts on the NYE party? Thoughts on what Connor's gonna do now?

Let me know!

-Katherine