"Thanks for driving us, Ri. Are you gonna stay at the beach jam the whole time?"
Sydney's cousin Riley was absolutely one of the funniest people I had ever met. The second I got in the car she had asked for every single bit of personal information I had to offer, including my I.D. and social security number, and had poked fun at Sydney for opting to sit in the back of the car with me instead of in the front seat with her.
"Yeah, I think I'll hang out for a little bit. Don't worry, I'll be back by midnight to pick you guys up...and I might have picked up a cute Greentown guy along the way."
Sydney rolled her eyes.
"Riley thinks she's hot stuff, when in reality she is far better at making fun of guys and turning them away than actually picking them up."
"It's not my fault that all the nasty guys are attracted to me. I'll just have to find a good one from Greentown." Riley shrugged, making a sharp left turn and throwing me into Sydney. "And don't think that that wasn't on purpose." She grinned, winking at me through the rearview mirror.
"Embarrassing me wasn't on the to-do list today, Ri." Sydney muttered.
"But it's just so much fun!" Riley laughed. "Is Jen going to be at this thing? We grabbed lunch the other day and she is probably my new favorite person on this planet. Her sass is beyond phenomenal."
"Why do you think we get along so well?" Sydney laughed. "You grabbed lunch with my best friend without me?"
Riley shrugged again.
"Hey, you have your eye candy to drool over, you don't have time for us."
I felt my cheeks grow warm as Sydney nudged me.
"She's talking about you, just so you know."
I smiled slightly, my self-defined swagger from the hammock completely gone at this point. It only seemed to really come out when I was alone with Syd, because in all other situations I was kind of just awkward.
"Does he speak?" Riley asked as we pulled into a parking lot that was almost completely full. "I mean, you answered my questions at the beginning of the trip just fine, but then you got quiet."
"I usually only speak when I feel a phrase warrants a response." I responded quietly.
"He's got some sass too, Syd! I like him."
"Yeah, well, you can't have him." Sydney laughed as Riley continued to search for a place to park her car. "He's currently seeing someone."
"Am I?" I winked.
"Are you?" she replied slyly.
I leaned over the seat and kissed her cheek quickly before sitting back up.
"I guess I am."
"Stop, I can't take the flirting. I am a heartless person with no interest in love and I don't need the two of you changing my cold soul." Riley muttered as she found one of the few pen spaces left. "I don't want to get puke on my dad's car."
"Riley tries to act like she doesn't have feelings, but we all know she does." Sydney stage whispered in my ear as she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the car door. "One of these days, she'll crack."
"I will not do any such thing." Riley replied. "Now show me the way to the boys, I have some hearts to break tonight."
***
"Is this Connor? This cannot be Connor. You're so cute! Holy crap, give me a hug."
It was past sunset, we had found a parking space, there were teenagers everywhere and tiki torches blazing every few feet. I knew absolutely no one there except for Sydney and Riley, the latter of which had disappeared the second we had set foot in the sand. I wasn't sure how or why it happened, but within a few seconds of bracing through the crowd of sweaty high schoolers, I was being attacked in a bone-crushing hug by a girl I had never seen in my entire life.
"Connor, I see that you've met Jen Hamile, my best friend." Sydney laughed as she approached from behind us. "Jen's incredibly friendly and will give anyone she sees a hug with or without knowing them. The only requirement is—"
"—that they have to smell nice." Jen finished for Sydney. "I will not hug anyone who has had too much to drink, which means that I would never hug myself on most weekends." She winked at Sydney. "But I will always hug Syd. Did you know she's an alcohol virgin?"
"I did, as a matter of fact. I don't think I properly introduced myself, my name is Connor Hall and I—"
"Did I hear correctly? Is this him? The infamous Connor Hall? Goodness gracious can someone get me a chair, I might faint!" another girl appeared from behind us, this one carrying two cups of punch. "Sydney, you never told us just how handsome he is!" she exclaimed, handing one of the cups to Sydney. "And don't worry, I made sure no one spiked this bowl." She laughed before turning back to face me. "Hi Connor! I'm Kelsey Lyone, Sydney's friend!"
"Hello! I'm Connor Hall, Sydney's...good friend."
Kelsey winked at me before leaning close and whispering in my ear, "We all know you'll be more than that by the end of this week."
Sydney pulled her back and slapped her lightly on the arm before grabbing my hand.
"Look over to the left, past the gross couple, past the three guys who think they're good dancers, and just to the right of the two girls flirting with the college kids. See the couple standing and talking?"
I looked over, past a couple who did not seem to know that sucking face was not appropriate in a public setting, past three shirtless guys who were trying and failing to do the cha-cha slide to rap music, and past two girls who looked Aria's age twirling their hair and batting their eyes at a couple of guys who were three times their size. Off in the near distance stood an attractive-looking couple; the guy with gelled beach blonde hair and wearing the classic frat boy getup and the girl with dark wavy hair and wearing a swimsuit. They seemed to be deep in conversation with each other, and neither looked happy.
"Alright, I see them."
"That, my friend, would be none other than Kevin Long and Delaney Cross." Sydney's statement was met with a chorus of whispered "boo"'s from her friends and a pair of wide eyes from me.
"That's them? I pictured them looking more—"
"Ugly?" Syd supplied.
"—like the devil." I finished. All three girls laughed and I realized that I was actually the center of positive female attention for the first time in my entire life.
"Yeah, I wish they were less attractive, but at least I could wipe off most of Delaney's beauty with a wet washcloth and some tweezers for those false lashes." Sydney shrugged. "Hey, do you want some punch? I can go get some for you if you're thirsty."
"No, that's okay, I can get some! I'll be right back." I promised, starting to walk off before I felt someone grab my arm. I turned around to find Kelsey whispering in my ear.
"The punch bowl to the left is spiked, the one to the right isn't. I don't know if you're like Syd, but if you are, don't trust anything from anyone except us."
"Gotcha." I nodded before weaving my way through the crowd and arriving at the punch bowls.
The one to the right is normal, I repeated in my head, the one to the right is normal. I grabbed a cup and ladled the punch from the right bowl into it and turned to go back to Sydney.
"Hey buddy, what's your name?"
The guy with the gelled hair and frat boy clothes was standing right in front of me, completely blocking my path to Sydney.
"Kevin Long." I muttered.
"Nope, that's my name." the guy laughed. "I asked for yours, hotshot."
"I was putting a face to a name, don't give me that. I'm Connor Hall, the upgrade from you?"
I didn't know where all this arrogance was coming from, but I wasn't complaining about it.
"Oh I see, you're Sydney's new guy, the pen pal! Allow me to properly introduce myself, since you decided to do the honors for me. Kevin Long, dating extrordinaire, body building icon. At your service."
I wasn't exactly sure what to do with this information, so I just stood in silence, trying to figure out a way to get out of this situation.
"Do you want something, or can I get back to my girl?" I asked, trying to appear more at ease with the situation than I actually was. Did I just refer to Sydney as "my girl"?
Focus, Hall.
"Wow, big shot over here! I just wanted to see if my ex's new guy was anything compared to me. I'm pleasantly surprised to find out that he's nothing big." Kevin turned to leave, smirking.
"Hold up, man." I wasn't sure if I was trying to defend Sydney's pride or my own as I kept talking. "Now that I'm in the picture, I'm gonna need you to stop being a jerk to Syd online...and in person. Both. It's just that I can see it online, but I mean once I go back to Virginia I won't be able to see it in person...the point is, just stop being such a loser, okay?"
Kevin seemed surprised at the fact that I was actually standing up to him. Despite me having the advantange on him height-wise, he could definitely beat me up if he wanted to.
"Dude, I just do what my girl tells me to do, alright? You and Syd have clearly not hit that point in your relationship, but when your girl has an order, you follow it, no questions asked. So don't come pointing fingers at me when you have no idea what's going on here, East Coast boy."
I furrowed my brow in confusion.
"If it isn't so simple to see, then what's going on? Why do you tell Syd that she was the problem? What's your game here man?"
Kevin looked around quickly before leaning a bit closer to me. "Look man, this thing isn't as crystal clear as it appears, alright? No one in this situation is perfect, not even your precious Sydney. The less you know, the less you'll have to feel guilty about telling your girl."
"What?"
"Can you just let this go, man? I just wanted to check out the downgrade, okay? Leave me be."
"I just want to try and understand this thing for Syd, alright? She doesn't know anything and I want to be able to shed some light on it for her, and you seem to be the only one who can do that, so start talking."
A small smirk crossed the other guy's face as he looked at me, and he straightened up, crossed his arms, and looked me in the eye before continuing.
"Fine. You wanna know everything? Then here you go, pal. I cheated. I was cheating on your girl for a long time. Want to clear that up for her? Go ahead. Want to be the one who breaks that news to her? Good for you. Want—"
"Hold on." I held my finger up as my phone buzz and I saw a text from Sydney.
"She wants to know if you need help, right? She's already got you on a leash, man! Why do you think I was driven to cheat? She doesn't give space!"
"Driven to cheat? Everyone has a choice. You always have a choice, and most people are capable of choosing correctly. Except for you, it seems." I glared at him before typing a quick response.
"So you cheated on Sydney with Delaney. What, did she force you to end it?"
Kevin shrugged carelessly.
"I was ready to end it myself anyways, then Del gave me an ultimatum: I can either keep dating Sydney and lose Del, or get rid of Sydney and go public with Del. The choice was easy, man. Look at it this way: do you see that huge bonfire over there?"
I followed his finger to the blazing fire near where many of the high schoolers were gathering and hanging out.
"Yeah."
"You wouldn't put out that fire right now, in the height of its glory. You don't put out a fire that's burning bright, man. But when the fire dies down and you want to leave the bonfire, you put the fire out. It's done serving its purpose. So you put out the flame permanently. All I did with Syd was put out the flame permanently between us. Our relationship was done serving its purpose, and it was time to move on to something better."
"Something better than Sydney? That's impossible."
"Oh believe me pal, it's totally possible. In fact, it's so great to be done with her. It's the best freaking thing in the world to be done with that mess of a girl."
I could feel the anger boiling inside of me, but I kept myself calm and controlled as I tried to look at everything rationally.
"Ever considered the fact that you might think that Sydney is such a "mess of a girl" because of all the lies and hate that your scum of a girlfriend has been feeding you for the past year?"
"My what?"
"Your scum of a girlfriend." I repeated.
"This can't end well." I heard Sydney's voice from behind me as she, Jen, and Kelsey approached. "Connor, it's okay, let's go over here."
"Yeah Connor, I suggest you go with your little slut of a girlfriend and leave me before things get nasty." Kevin growled, his eyes hard.
"Sydney is just about the further thing from a slut that I've ever met in my entire life. She's not the one who cheated!"
"Wait, what? Connor? Cheated? What are you talking about?" Sydney appeared by my side and looked at me with the saddest eyes I had ever seen. "Cheated?" she repeated softly.
"Oh gosh, Syd, I didn't mean to say that—"
"You cheated on me?" Sydney exclaimed, her eyes turning from sadness to anger in a split second as she looked at Kevin. "You low-lying piece of crap, you cheated? What kind of l—"
"Oh please, hop off of your high horse Sydney. You're even worse." Delaney had appeared at Kevin's shoulder. "You actually drove someone to be without you! I can't even imagine what that must be like!"
"Stay out of this tramp." Sydney muttered, her eyes focused on Kevin and her fists balling slowly.
Delaney smirked.
"Wherever Sydney Porter goes, drama always follows." She winked at me and took a sip of her drink. "Remember that, lover boy."
"Don't talk to him!" Sydney exclaimed, "You don't even deserve to be in the presence of someone as wonderful as Connor Hall. Don't speak a word to him."
"Syd, are you alr—"
"I'm fine." She snapped as Jen tried to pull her back. "Just seeing these two makes me sick."
"Have fun with that ball of positivity, Connor! You might never escape her grasp." Kevin smirked as he turned to walk away.
I shrugged.
"Better this gorgeous girl than that tramp you're leaving with."
Kevin turned around slowly and looked me in the eye.
"Don't you even think for a second that you can talk about Delaney like that."
"Oh, but you can throw around any words you want about Sydney?"
"It's different."
"In what way?"
"Delaney doesn't cause needless trouble!"
I heard scoffs and muttered "Yeah right"'s from Jen and Kelsey behind me, while Sydney stood still as stone beside me.
"I stand by what I said." I responded.
"You won't like what happens to you if you keep standing by it, pal."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
I saw Kevin's fist flying at me, and in my head I knew I should be ducking, but the blind anger that was pulsing inside of me caused me to just stare at him straight in the face as his fist hit me square in the eye.
"Connor!" I heard Sydney's voice as I fell to the ground, my vision black and my head spinning. "Connor!"
I felt my body hit the ground and my mind replayed Sydney's voice over and over again in my head before going completely blank.
A/N: ooooooooooooh that was some drama.
I hope you guys enjoyed!! Let me know what you think is going to happen next with Connor and Syd! Did you guys think Kevin cheated before this chapter? If so then you're psychic because I didn't even know until this chapter.
Thank you guys so much for voting for Dear Sydney on the Fiction Awards! If you haven't yet, please do! And thank you for continuing to promote the book and tell friends about it, you're all so sweet!
For all my Writing Palace contestants, the new challenge will be out in a few hours, by 3 PM EST at the very latest. Good luck to everyone!
Also, remember to check out Recalling Lincoln Carter! There are two chapters up and another one coming tomorrow, and I hope you guys will give it the same love that you give Dear Sydney!
As always, thank you for voting and reading and commenting and sharing! You guys rock and I can't wait to see what else you guys make happen for this book, you're all incredible.
**Also, since I've gotten some questions: Connor and Sydney do not have Instagram accounts in real life like they have the Twitter accounts. This is mainly because while it's super easy to tweet as them, it's a bit trickier to come up with pictures for them to post often!**
-Katherine