Unfaded by Sarah Ripley Page A

guys. Whether or not he looked at other girls wasn’t an issue. There were no new ones to capture his interest. He looked out the window into the dark parking lot for a few seconds and when he turned back to face me, he had a small smile on his face. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small round ball filled with pink sand. A token of love. He handed it to me. The globe was perfectly soft and flawless. The sand was three different shades of pink.
                  “It’s a paperweight,” he said. “You can put it on your desk.”
                  “It’s beautiful,” I said. Reaching into my backpack, I pulled out the shopping bag with his gift inside. His face lit up as he accepted it. Opening it, he pulled out the heart shaped bottle.
                  It was romantic beyond belief. If Amber had been there she would have been going off about how sappy the two of us were. In fact, I’m pretty sure the kids at the table beside us started making gagging sounds.
                  None of that mattered.
                  “We know each other too well,” I said.
                  “You’re right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have listened to Breanna.”
                  “I’m sorry too,” I said. “I didn’t mean to miss movie night.”
                  He grinned. “I’m sure you can find a way to make up for it.”
                  That was it. The world was good again and Connor and I were back to our old selves. We decided to skip the party and go back to his house and watch a movie.
    But that’s the problem when there’s a crack in the hourglass . You can patch it up for a bit but eventually the sand begins to slip through again.

Five
                 
                  It started the next morning. Connor called me around eleven to see if I wanted to go skiing with Eugene and him. He’d somehow managed to get free lift tickets to the mountain.
                  “I’d love to,” I said. I was holding my toothbrush in my hand and trying to clean my teeth while speaking. “But I promised Dad I’d help out in the shop today. There’s been a huge amount of fender benders since the last snowfall. He’s swamped.”
                  “Come on,” he said. “Ask Larry to let you go. I’m sure he would.”
                  Of course he would. Dad was always reasonable about letting me do things with my friends on weekends. In fact, I didn’t think he was planning on opening the shop that day. Granny had a check up at the doctor’s office and he was doing that instead. But once the lie was on the table I couldn’t take it back. And after last night there was no way I could be honest with him. If he knew I was planning on spending the day with Kian he’d probably break up with me, regardless of whether or not Kian and I were just friends.
                  Was this how relationships ended up? One lie after the other? Would I end up telling so many of them that I couldn’t keep track?
                  I was turning into someone awful and I couldn’t stop. The worst part was I didn’t want to stop.
                  “That sucks,” Connor said. “Maybe I should just give the tickets to Eugene. I could always hang out with you at the shop.”
                  “No!” It took every ounce of will power not to scream that into the phone. “It’s going to be busy. Besides, Dad said he’s going to get me to do some of the body work today. I’ll be in the back with a blow torch and you know its employees only. There won’t be much time to talk.” Oh, how the words were just pouring out of my mouth now. “Go with Eugene. Have a good time. We’ll get together tomorrow and do something.”
                  “OK,” he finally said but I could hear the disappointment dripping through the