Page 25 of Choosing You

“What?” Having him this close to me makes my heart pump even faster than when I was running.

“I like you. I really like you.”

I don’t respond because I’m not sure what to say. It makes no sense for him to like me. I do nothing but insult the guy.

“That said, I still think you’re rude and sarcastic and extremely difficult to please.”

“Aww.” I tilt my head to the side, smiling. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. Just for that, I’ll run back with you at your barely-moving pace.”

When we get back to the residence hall, he follows me to my room. “Do you have plans tonight?”

“Yeah, I’m booked solid, from now until morning,” I say proving his sarcasm comment.

“You want to go out for dinner? Catch a movie?”

“Dinner and a movie? Are you asking me out on a date or something?”

“Call it whatever you want. Do you want to go or not?”

I do a quick calculation in my head. Dinner and a movie will eat up at least $20 of my dwindling cash reserves. “No, I can’t.”

He looks disappointed.

“But we could get takeout and watch a movie here,” I suggest. “There’s that room down the hall with a TV.”

“I have a 42-inch flat screen in my room. It’s way better than that old TV down the hall.”

“You want us to be alone in your room together? Yeah, I know where that leads.”

He rolls his eyes. “Jade, have I tried anything this whole time we’ve been together?”

“No, but—” I stop, realizing that being alone with him in his room actually sounds appealing. “Okay. Come back down here in 10 minutes. And we have to eat cheap. Fast food burger and fries. All this eating out is using up my laundry money.”

“Would you just let me pay for it? An athlete like yourself should eat something other than greasy burgers and fries.”

“Don’t start with the money thing again. I pay for my own stuff.” I check my watch. “You just wasted a minute. Now you’ve only got 9 minutes to get back down here.”

While he’s gone, I shower quick, then throw on jeans and a t-shirt. I’m a master at getting ready fast. Growing up, I never knew when my mom would go into one of her drunken fits. Over the years, I learned to get out of the house whenever it happened, even if it was in the middle of the night. That meant I had to get dressed and out of there before she could find me.

Garret’s back in 12 minutes, not 9, so of course I give him a hard time about it. He takes me to a local burger place. It’s not fast food but it’s cheap. And it has outdoor seating, so we bring our food to a table under a yellow umbrella that shields us from the slowly fading sun. Tonight is a perfect early September evening. Not too hot but not at all cold.

Garret keeps his eyes on me all through dinner and listens to every word I say, even though I’m not saying anything remotely interesting. Or maybe he’s just staring at me and not listening at all. The thought makes me self-conscious and I start to worry that I have food on my face or in my teeth. He really shouldn’t stare. It’s rude. But to be fair, I’m kind of staring at him, too.

After dinner, we go back to his room. It’s the first time I’ve been to the second floor. The hallway stinks like beer and sweat. Luckily Garret’s room doesn’t have that odor and it’s much cleaner than I imagined it would be. He has a ton of electronics, including the big TV he mentioned along with a surround sound system. And there are at least 100 movies sitting in a big cardboard box on the floor.

“Pick whatever you want,” he says as I flip through the movies.

“You have quite a setup here. It’s like your own movie theater. I don’t even have a TV.”

“You don’t? You need a TV, Jade.”

“No, I don’t. If I want to watch something I’ll just use the one down the hall.”

“That one barely works. If you want to watch TV, come up here.”

“I’m not going to do that. I hardly ever watch TV anyway. Here. Let’s watch this one.” I hold up a cartoon, trying to keep a straight face. “It says it’s about some dogs that solve crimes.”

“How did that get in there? That’s my little sister’s movie.”

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