Page 174 of Choosing You

“Okay, bye.” She shuts the door. “Isn’t he great?”

“Yeah, he seems really nice.”

She takes some sheets and a blanket from her closet and we make up the air mattress.

“Jade, do you want to talk about it?”

“No. I just want to go to bed.”

I try to sleep but I can’t knowing that Garret is sitting in a jail cell. I keep checking my phone for messages but I have none. You would think his dad could at least give me an update.

In the morning, I still have no messages, so I get up and go to class. I’d like to just skip class today, but I have a biology quiz and then later I have a presentation in art history.

After biology, I head back to my room. As I’m walking across campus, my phone rings. I have to stop to dig it out of my backpack.

It’s Garret’s dad. “Jade, I need you to come to the house this afternoon after class. I’ll send a car.”

“Where’s Garret? What happened?” I notice people staring at me. I’m not used to cell phones and I tend to talk too loud.

“He’s here at the house. We got him out on bail this morning.”

“Can I talk to him?”

“He’s meeting with our attorneys right now.”

“Please. Just for a minute.”

“All right, but this needs to be quick.”

His dad is being surprisingly nice to me. I figured he’d yell and scream at me, saying I’m the reason his son spent the night in jail.

“Hey, it’s me.”

I relax a little just hearing his voice. “Garret, I’m sorry about all this. I don’t understand what—”

“Jade, stop it. None of this was your fault. This all happened because of Blake. You didn’t do anything to cause this. And I swear I’ll fucking kick his ass again if he said anything to make you think that.”

Garret’s right. It’s not my fault he’s in this mess, but for some reason I still feel some responsibility for it. Maybe just by the fact that Garret’s dating me. Bad things always happen to me and now I’ve brought him along for the ride.

“Are you okay?” I ask him.

“I’m fine. And Blake is fine. I just busted his nose. I’m sure he’s in pain from the bruises I left on him but I really don’t give a shit. He deserved it.”

“But there was all that blood.”

“I broke his nose pretty bad. He’s having surgery on it.”

“So he’s still pressing charges?”

“Yes. But we’re working on that now. I’m talking with our lawyers. I need to get back, but I’ll see you at the house later.”

We hang up and I go meet Harper for lunch but I can’t eat. I’m too anxious about this afternoon. Garret’s dad didn’t say anything about why I’m going to his house.

At art history class I manage to get through my presentation, but it doesn’t go as smoothly as I’d planned. I’ll probably get a B or C on it, breaking my string of A’s. Now I’ll have to study even harder for the final.

A driver is waiting for me when I get back to my dorm. He approaches me as I walk in.

“I just need to put my stuff away and then we can go,” I tell him.

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