"Duuuuuuude! The coolest shit just happened," I said as I climbed through her window. I do this most nights, climb up the trellis and into Sadie's room. It's very 'Dawson's Creek' someone had once said. Obviously, I didn't have a clue who Dawson was and why the hell he'd have a creek. But when I'd googled it and watched the first episode, I'd got it. Well, got most of it, except the part where they were actually in love with each other and didn't really know it.
I like hanging out in Sadie's room, it's big and comfortable and her walls are covered with maps and pictures of Nellie Bly. Who the hell is Nellie Bly, you ask? I wouldn't have known either if it wasn't for Sadie. Nellie Bly was a famous female explorer who went round the world in seventy-two days. Sadie's always saying that the second she graduates, she's putting on a backpack and heading out.
"Dude...D–" I was just about to tell her the story when I saw her face. One second she had a smile plastered across it, and the next second it was gone.
"Your mom giving you shit for something again?" I asked.
She shook her head. "Nope. Just tired."
"Is that why you left? I went looking for you?"
She rolled her eyes at me. So Sadie! She's an expert eye roller. "That party was a total waste of my precious time and besides, I didn't feel like kissing random guys with Vodka breathe."
"Not for me it wasn't," I said, before I flopped down on her bed like I always do. It's so much more comfortable than mine and I can't count the number of times I've slept on it. Sometimes, after a long Fortnite session I'll just crash here. My friends think it's weird that I've shared a bed with a girl and nothing's happened, but it's not like that with us. "The coolest thing happened," I told her. "Guess."
She got up off the bed and walked to the other side of the room. "I'm not guessing. Spit it out."
I sighed loudly. "Dude, I think I'm in love." As the words came out, I couldn't help the smile that stretched across my face. It was so big, it felt like it was going to rip my whole face wide open.
Sadie swung around. "What?!" The word came out as a loud squeak and her face was bright red. I couldn't figure out if my best friend was about to pass out or burst out laughing.
"Yup. There was a power failure, and I kissed someone in the dark and it was, was..." I trailed off as I thought about it again. My heart beat a little faster, and my hands tingled as I remembered how they'd felt on the her back, whoever she was.
"Who was it?" she asked hoarsely. "Who was it that "accidentally" dropped the card to get a kiss from you?" She gestured air quotes.
"No, we hadn't even started playing the game yet. The lights went out and... best fucking kiss of my life!" I sighed slowly.
"Sounds like someone couldn't wait to start the game," Sadie said, she had found her voice again and was now sounding sarcastic as hell.
"I wish I knew who," I continued.
"You seriously have no idea who you kissed?"
"Nope." I put my hands behind my head and stretched out across her bed.
"But you have a suspicion, right?" she asked, walking over and sitting down again. "Well it must have been one of the girls who came forward to play the game."
No idea, but she did leave a calling card." I took the gum out of my mouth. "Behold, the glass slipper."
"She left gum in your mouth?"
I nodded.
"WHAT? That's disgusting." Sadie was visibly cringing now. "Ewww. No!"
"Think of this as a modern day version of Cinderella, right?"
Sadie rolled her eyes again. "Cinderella is a fairy-tale, Connor."
"Exactly. And doesn't the guy always get the girl and don't they live happily ever after?"
"They all live happily ever after, which of course is completely unrealistic and fake and gives girls false expectations of love and relationships and that's why they all have to go on the internet and whine about how miserable they are." Sadie paused after her rant. Another Sadie staple. "But actually, now that I think about it, Cinderella is a good example in your case...because the girl in the story wasn't who the prince thought it would be."
"Oh, really?" I sat up, intrigued by this statement. Who did I think it was? I scanned my mind, trying to remember who had come froward to play the game. I realized after a moment that Sadie was watching me rather closely.
"Did you figure it out?" she asked, her eyebrows arched.
"No," I said, looking at the gum again. "But we need to find her!"
"WE?" Sadie asked.
"Yes, we. I'm gonna need your help!"