To Whom It May Concern

45 | Sydney

 "So how was tonight?"

I walked into Katie and Mel's apartment only to be greeted by two of my best friends waiting eagerly on the couch, both of them seeming to have been waiting for me to get home.

I gave them both a strange look as I closed the door behind me, walking over and sitting on the armchair beside them.

"It was fun." I replied, narrowing my eyes. "Since when do you two care so much about how my dates with Connor go? I've been dating him for four years."

Katie and Britt looked down at my hands before exchanging worried glances between the two of them, both of them silent.

"Alright, you're starting to worry me." I said, unsure of what was going on. "What's up with you two?"

They looked at each other again, a silent communication obviously taking place while I sat and watched. Katie shrugged at Mel as their final cue and they both looked at me.

"Dan let something slip when he called a few hours ago."

"And?" I prodded, unimpressed with that bit of information. Dan was terrible at keeping secrets; it was something that everyone in our group knew about and made fun of him for.

"And your left hand is bare."

"I didn't wear any rings tonight; Connor doesn't like a ton of rings. He says they hurt when he's holding my hand."

"As adorable as that is, I think he had a different reason for not wanting you to wear rings tonight, Syd." Mel piped up, shaking her head at me. "If you catch my drift..."

"I don't." I replied. "You both know I can get dense when it comes to things involving relationships, so just tell me. Lay it on the table."

"Connor was going to pop the question tonight." Katie finally admitted, "And if you're too dense to know what that means, it means he was going to propose. Get on one knee, ask for your hand in marriage, fulfill your every desire." She shook her head, "Did you say no?"

I shook my head, my eyes wide as my heart started to race. He was going to propose? Connor Hall was going to ask me to marry him?

"If he was going to propose tonight, then he flaked out." I said, standing up and beginning to pace around the apartment. "He didn't ask me."

Katie and Mel both cocked their heads to the side, and I had to repress a laugh at the image.

"That's bizarre." Katie said, "Dan told us that he was dead set on asking you tonight. Didn't he take you to the place where you guys had your first date at JMU?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, he did. But that doesn't mean he was going to propose--he didn't ask me, guys."

"Did you say something to make him not want to?" Mel asked, "Did you say something that made it sound like you didn't want to marry him?"

I thought back to the past few hours and recounted everything I said to him, until one thing came to my mind.

"Oh no."

"Syd, please tell me you didn't screw this up."

"I think I did." I sighed, thinking back to a conversation that had occurred pretty early on in the evening, beginning with Connor's nervous babbling.

"I just want to make sure that we're on the same page here."

"On the same page?"

"Yeah, on the same page. Like, about where we're heading. I know that in the past we talked about having a future like Dan and Britt are having...you know, getting married, having a normal life..."