Free Truth & Dare by Liz Miles

wrong.”
    My face was heating up. I sat on the desk chair and said, “Mm, sort of.” And I was thinking, I should tell him . He probably won’t even care. He won’t, will he?
    But what if he did? He sat there, open-faced, smiling at me. Connor had never cheated, as far as I knew.
    He never had to , a little voice whispered in my brain. He’s too smart .
    So had I been, until Sunday night.
    But was “never needing to” enough? Was that all that had kept me honest?
    Forget it, I told myself. It’s over and you didn’t get caught, and nobody cares. It’s not like you didn’t try to do the problems the right way. It’s not like you couldn’t have figured them out yourself eventually, if you’d had another week.
    “What’s the matter?” Connor said.
    “What?”
    “You look kind of … strange.”
    “Strange how?”
    “I don’t know. Are you okay?”
    “Wonderful. Amazing.” I pushed stray hairs off my damp forehead. I took a deep breath, thinking, Tell him. No, don’t tell him .
    “You sure?”
    “Yeah.” I sat down beside him and laced my fingers through his. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
    It was like I’d stolen something from Connor.
    That’s exactly what it felt like. When his lips touched my neck, his hand stroked my hair, all I could think about was the fact that I’d copied from him. And worse, that he didn’tknow I’d copied from him. First I was a cheater, and now a liar, too?
    “What’s wrong?” he said. “I know something’s wrong with you.”
    “Nothing. It’s just—my mom is going to walk past any second, I know it.”
    I should stop making a big deal out of this. It wasn’t grand larceny. Connor wouldn’t even care. At least, I didn’t think he would care.
    Probably not.
    • • •
    Emily’s father let us all have wine at the wedding-rehearsal dinner, which was probably a mistake. Annie took Monica and me aside after the dinner, and we huddled on the steps of the restaurant. “Tomorrow we’ll be doing this all over again, except then we’ll be dressed like idiots,” she said.
    “With poufy things on our heads,” Monica moaned.
    “And Emily’s going to be married . Like a grown-up.” Annie shuddered.
    “Things’ll never be the same again,” I said.
    “Oh, look at you, pretending like that’s such a tragedy,” Annie said. “Don’t tell me you aren’t about this close to getting married yourself, Sarah.”
    “Whaaaat?”
    “You and Connor are practically married already.”
    My face, already heated with wine, seemed to ignite. “No, we’re not.”
    “Oh, come on. I bet he’s buying you a diamond any second.”
    “God, Annie, we’ve still got another year of high school. And Connor can’t afford a diamond.”
    “All you need is a down payment.” Annie gulped wine, her eyes bobbling a little, the way they did whenever she’d had toomuch. “You know what? I asked him out when we were freshmen.”
    “What?”
    “Connor. Before he started going out with you. I asked him out.”
    “I never knew that!” Monica said. “What happened?”
    “We went to a movie,” Annie said, her eyes avoiding mine. “We had a great time. But then—nothing.”
    “You went out with Connor?” I said, still unable to digest it. I thought I knew every guy Annie had ever seen, or thought about seeing, or fantasized about seeing.
    “It was while you were in Chicago with your family—and I didn’t say anything because it was just that once. I told him I wanted to see him again, and he gave me the ‘You’re great but I just want to be friends’ speech.”
    “Ugh, I hate that speech,” Monica said.
    “There was no point in bringing it up, it was too humiliating. And then later, when you started going out with him—what was I supposed to do? Say, ‘Oh, by the way, I once went to a movie with him?’ It wasn’t like anything much happened.”
    “Did you kiss him?” I said.
    “Whoa,” Monica laughed.
    I expected Annie to say, No, of course not . Hadn’t she