Page 13 of Choosing You

“I never saidI was having lunch with you,” I say, catching up to him.

“You need to eat, right? And you’re bored? So we’re having lunch. What do you like? Mexican? Italian? Burgers?”

I grab his arm, making him stop. “Hold on. Why do you keep trying to get me to do stuff? Coming to my room last night. Finding me at the track. Making me go to lunch. Are you stalking me or something?”

“Do you feel like you’re being stalked?”

“No, I guess not.”

“Then I’m not stalking you.” He turns and starts walking again. “I was just trying to be nice. But you’re making it very difficult. I thought people from the Midwest were supposed to be friendly. I’m not getting that vibe from you at all.” He says it jokingly although I’m sure he agrees with the statement at least somewhat. I definitely haven’t been friendly to him.

“The friendly thing is a myth. We just say that to attract tourists.” I race to keep up with his fast pace. “Why are you making such an effort to be nice? You don’t even know me.”

“Because I know it sucks to be in a new place where you don’t know anyone. My dad sent me to boarding school in London back in seventh grade and I hated it. I didn’t like any of the people there and I hated being so far from home. I started sneaking out at night hoping they’d kick me out of school. It didn’t work so I set my room on fire and within a week I was back home.”

“So where’s home?”

“About a half hour from here.” He opens the residence hall door for me. “That’s why I figured I’d show you around town. I know everything about this area.” He stops at the door to my room. “Don’t take too long. I’m starving.”

“Want to meet back here in 15?”

He looks confused. “You mean like 15 minutes? You can get ready that fast?”

“Uh, yeah. Why? Didn’t you just tell me to hurry up?”

“I’ve just never met a girl who can get ready in 15 minutes. I was thinking you’d need at least an hour.”

“An hour? Who takes an hour to get ready for lunch?”

“I guess not you. Okay, 15 minutes. I don’t even know ifIcan get ready that fast.” He takes off through the door to the upstairs.

I shower and quickly dry my hair, then throw on shorts and a white t-shirt. To keep things simple, I only wear black or white shirts. Years ago, I realized that trying to keep up with the latest colors in fashion was both stupid and expensive. So I decided to just go with the classic black and white. I could have gone all black but then I’d get a reputation as some goth chick and I didn’t need people talking about me more than they already did. That’s why I mix it up with white.

Seventeen minutes later Garret comes racing out from the stairwell. I’m standing outside my door, waiting for him.

“Damn, you weren’t kidding,” he says. “You really can get ready that fast.”

“So what took you so long? Had to style your hair or something?” I can’t seem to stop hurling insults at this guy. Maybe because I know I’d never date him. First of all, I’ve already decided that I’m not getting into a relationship in college. And second, a rich, popular, pretty boy like Garret would never date someone like me.

“I’m going to ignore that,” he says, walking down the hall without me. He seems a little mad. Maybe I took it too far. I catch up with him when we’re outside.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to piss you off. Sorry.”

He stops and smiles at me. “So youcanbe nice. You just choose not to be.”

I smile back. “Exactly. So you might want to bail on lunch. I used up all my niceness just now and you may not be able to handle whatever I say next.”

“I can handle it.” He walks up to a black BMW in the parking lot and opens the passenger door for me. “So what do you want to eat?”

“I thought we were eating on campus.”

“The dining halls aren’t open yet. Didn’t you read your housing packet? They don’t open until Tuesday.”

Shit! What am I supposed to do for food the next few days? I’ll have to take a cab or the bus to a grocery store. Good thing Ryan gave me money.

“Are you getting in or are we going to stand here all day?”

“Oh, um, can’t we just walk somewhere? I can’t get into cars with strangers.”

---