Their reactions were, well, unexpected.
"Finally!' Alex exclaimed, flinging her arms up in exasperation and whipping her red curls around her face.
"Took ya long enough." Lilly rolled her eyes, a smug grin on her lips.
Ok, make that really unexpected.
"Huh?"
They stopped the commotion to stare at me. The smiles slipped from their faces. Their dumbfounded looks made me feel kind of insecure, like I had gone to school in my pj's. (Which would be so cool! Until I got suspended, of course). I was extremely uncomfortable, though I'm pretty sure it was only weird to me. People from nearby tables were giving us curious glances, and I knew that if someone didn't unfreeze soon, the whispering would start.
But unfortunately for me, I was far to confused to find words to say, let alone make a logical sentence presentable enough to say in public. So I sat there in silence, and waited.
I swear, we were sitting there in silence for an hour before the responded.
"You're kidding, right?" Alex raised her eyebrows at me.
"Kidding about what?" I tilted my head to the side, as I always did when I was lost. Which was pretty much during every class except PE. "Run till you puke!" was a pretty universal term.
"Wait." Lilly started massaging her temples, as if she had a headache. "You actually have no idea about Conner?"
"What about him?" I felt really slow right now.
Alex face-palmed her forehead, and Lilly closed her eyes and tilted her head to the sky, both letting out a frustrated groan.
I really hate it when I'm out of the loop.
I felt like I had when I had gone to school on a Saturday, only to be greeted by silence. But still to tired to notice, or care, I still went to my locker, and then continued on to my first period. Only to find the door locked. And then I remembered that there was no school on weekends, and proceeded to bang my head on the lockers repeatedly.
This happened at least once a month.
I'm seriously not, a morning person.
"Never mind." Lilly sighed, and started to eat her sandwich sadly.
What was it with my friends and their vauge elaborations?
"No, tell me." I crossed my arms and glared at them.
"It's not really our secret to tell Selli." Lilly shrugged, and Alex nodded, both looking intently at the ground. I was about to argue, when I processed their words and realization hit me in the face.
Wait, Conner was keeping a secret from me?
That couldn't be true, we told each other everything! We were practically one person, aside from the differences in our anatomies. If Conner had a secret, I would be the first to know about it.
Right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The rest of the day, I was so preoccupied with trying to figure out my friends latest puzzle, that I was pretty much zoned out the entire time. Lilly and Alex didn't seem to mind though, because they themselves were preoccupied in a hushed conversation.
Which I would be totally fine with, if they would at least bother to try not to glance at me meaningfully, and so obviously that it was ridiculous, in between words.
When school ended in a blur, (as usual), I headed out to the soccer field for Conner's soccer practice.
So once again, there I was, sitting on the bleachers, incredibly bored out of my mind, watching a bunch of sweaty teenage boys run after a ball.
"You look excited."
I jumped at the closeness of his voice in my ear. Turning my head, I noticed Travis sitting comfortably next to me, his hands stretched behind his head leisurely. My instinct was to feel irritated, or possibly cautious by his presence. But as soon as I caught sight of him, my emotions drained.
I felt kind of bad, because I almost burst out laughing at the sight of his outfit. And, I must admit, I did choke on my laughter quite noticeably.
He was wearing a sweater vest. An actual sweater vest.
And worst yet, it was pink. Pink and grey plaid stripes stretched across the length of the white cotton.
Not even the nerds at this school dared to stoop this low on the dress scale. In our school, wearing a sweater vest was like walking around the halls with a flashing sigh that advertised, "Please come rearrange my face!" taped to your back. And I was pretty sure that even his extreme attractiveness couldn't save him.
I was actually pretty amazed that he was still alive.
"What?" He smirked. "Can't dig the sweater vest?"
I shook my head, still failing to choke down my laughter.
I finally broke out laughing, and I just couldn't contain it. It was as if Conner were there, tickling my relentlessly. I was pretty certain that the Chinese could hear me laughing, I was so loud. I was actually starting to cry from laughing so hard, by the time I actually opened my eyes and looked at him.
And froze at his calculating expression.
I suddenly remembered that he was onto me and Conner, and my laughter died in my throat. His next words surprised me even more.
"You're cute when you laugh."
A blush crept over my face. I was expecting, "I know your sleeping around with Conner, and I'm going to tell everyone if you don't do as I say," not that he likes my laugh.
I guess I'm just having an off day.
"Oh, and I know that there's something going on with you and Conner."
That was more like it.
"Why would you say that?" I tried to keep cool.
He gave me a cautious stare with his stormy grey eyes. "So you're not dating Conner?"
"No." I almost cheered when I didn't stutter. That was probably the best lie I had ever told in my entire life.
"Prove it."
This was about to get weird.
"Huh? Just how would I do that?" I asked, quickly getting anxious.
"Go on a date with me."
My eyes widened at his blunt solution. "Why?"
He shrugged casually, looking unaffectedly at the boys on the field. "To prove you're not with Conner."
My mind whirled as I tried to process his explanation. I mentally compared the pros and cons. If I went on a date with him, it would prove that Conner and I were just friends. But I would have to go on a date with Britt McSweater-vest. If I didn't do it, he would be convinced that there was something between us, and pursue the matter further. It was a pretty close call.
This kid was smarter than I had anticipated.
"Fine." I agreed curtly, relieved that the boys were finally done with practice and were heading over.
I practically flung myself of the bleachers and charged to Conner.
"Hey-" He was interrupted when I yanked his hand, not breaking my stride. I dragged him to his car, him complaining in tow.
"Someone's horny! Not even a hello before you insistently drag me home to get in my pants."
Perv.
"Don't flatter yourself." I retorted blandly as I sat shotgun. Arms crossed over my chest.
I had a date, with the Britt.
"Ouch." Conner tried to look wounded. "What's up with you?"
I looked at him, entirely serious. The laughter drained from his green eyes as they saw my expression. I explained what had happened to him, conveniently skipping over the whole 'blackmail date' part. I really didn't want him to go to prison anytime soon.
So instead, I told him that he was on to us, and told us that we had to do whatever he said if we didn't want him to blab our secret, and he listened, uncharicteristicly quiet.
Then he exploded.
He balled his fists tightly, his jaw clenched. "That freaking psycho! That bastard! Who does he think he is? Why I oughta beat the shit out of that-"
"Con!' I grabbed his hand, trying to calm him down. He breathed deepily, making an obvious effort to control his temper. After a few moments, he squeezed my hand and opened his eyes, signalling to me that he was calm again.
"I'm ok. It's just that-" he stopped mid-sentence. "I just-" He sighed. "I don't like that kid."
I rolled my eyes. "Welcome to the club."
"We don't actually have to do what he says, do we?"
"We have to! If we don't, he'll be suspicious!"
He cradled his head in his head, looking pitifully defeated. "I still don't think we should go along with this." He muttered.
"We'll be fine!" I took his keys from his pocket, sticking them into the ignition and turning on the engine. "He'll grow tired of us! And after that, we'll never have to deal with him again. Okay?"
He sighed again, taking the wheel and driving us to my house in silence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the time we had walked to my front door, Conner still hadn't said a word. It was so weird, that I was almost convinced that I was dreaming the whole thing.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. When I answered it, I could hear my moms breathless voice on the other end. "Hey honey! We're at the airport with Conner's parents! Something came up, some case in Baltimore, so we'll be gone for the rest of the week."
I couldn't really say that I was surprised, because this happened almost every other week. I loved my mom, but she was more scatter brained than a do-do bird sometimes.
"Oh, um, okay mom. Good luck."
"Thanks sweetie! See you Friday! We love you! Our planes boarding now, so bye!" With a click, the line went dead.
Hanging up my phone, one look at Conner and I could tell that he had already figured out what had happened.
I opened my front door, walking in a few steps before turning back to Conner. "Sleepover?"
Rolling his eyes, he followed me in.
He shut the door behind him, before leaning against it and grinning at me. "What do you want to do now?"
Rolling my eyes at his sarcasm, I grabbed his hand and started to led him upstairs.
"In a rush are we?" He asked. I didn't turn back and respond, knowing he was using sarcasm.
"Jeez girl! You must really want to get in my pants huh?" This time, I turned back to whack his arm before continued upstairs.