Page 149 of Choosing You

“What’s going on?” Kelsey, the girl who lives next door to me, walks in wearing her robe. Her eyes widen when she sees my room. “What happened in here?”

“Someone broke in,” Garret says. “Can you go get Jasmine?”

“Yeah. Sure.” Kelsey leaves.

I try to take a deep breath to calm myself but I can’t. I’m shaking too much. Garret holds me closer, gently rubbing my back. “It’s okay. He got what he wanted. He won’t come back.”

“He was here in this room. He touched my stuff.”

We hear someone running down the hall. Jasmine comes in, followed by Kelsey.

“Jade, who did this?” Jasmine asks.

Garret lets me go as I turn to face her. “We don’t know.”

It’s kind of a lie, but technically we reallydon’tknow who did it. I know it’s the guy who keeps calling me, but I have no idea who he is.

“Were you here last night?” Garret asks Jasmine.

“I got home around 11. I think I was the only one here. Everyone else was probably at one of the parties off campus. When do you think this happened, Jade?”

“I left my room around 6:30 last night, so sometime after that.”

“Well, I didn’t hear anything when I got back. It must have happened before 11. What did they take?”

“I’m not sure yet. I need to go through everything.”

Jasmine takes out her phone. “I’m going to call the police.” She goes out in the hallway.

“You don’t have to wait here, Kelsey,” I say as she stands there awkwardly. “But thanks for your help.”

“I hope they catch whoever did this.” She hurries back to her room.

Other girls hear the commotion and soon they’re all in my room talking and asking questions. Harper isn’t there but I’m guessing she’s still at her boyfriend’s apartment.

Sara, the girl who lives across the hall from me, asks, “What if he was a rapist? Or a murderer? Do you think he’s coming back?”

I don’t answer her. I don’t answer any of their questions. I just wait quietly in Garret’s arms. The girls from my floor quickly scatter when the police arrive.

The police officer asks tons of questions, but none of them seem to lead anywhere. I don’t tell him about the phone calls because then I would have to tell him about the letter. And if I say anything about the letter, the man on the phone may follow through on his threats.

“So you have no idea who would’ve done this?” the officer asks for the ten millionth time. “Maybe someone wanting to pull a prank on you?”

“A prank?” Garret says. “Do you really think this looks like a prank?”

The officer reviews his notes. “Well, nothing appears to have been stolen. So basically they just made a mess of the room. Sounds like a prank to me.” The officer gets up to leave. “We dusted for prints, so we’ll let you know if anything comes up. But I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

He walks out, followed by the cop who dusted for prints. As soon as they leave, I shut the door and take my dress off. I grab some jeans and a shirt from the pile on the floor and put them on, then search for my socks.

“I’m guessing you don’t want to go for breakfast now,” Garret says.

“I’m not really hungry anymore. Maybe we could go somewhere else. I know I should clean this up, but I just want to get out of here. I can’t be in this room right now.”

“Then let’s go. I’ll just drive until you tell me to stop, okay?” Garret opens the door and his dad’s standing there.

“Are you two all right?” Mr. Kensington walks in looking very serious.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Garret says. “What are you doing here?”

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