Page 99 of Choosing You

My past continues to haunt me.

And this time, I can’t run from it.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN

“Jade? Are you in there?”I jump up from my bed when I hear her voice.

“Yes. Just a second.” I quickly check my face in the mirror to make sure I’ve wiped away any remaining tears.

I open the door to find Harper standing there. She usually looks like a model with her long blond hair, bright blue eyes, perfect skin, and the latest clothes. But today, she’s hunched over wearing sweats with swiggly lines of mascara running down her face. Her hair’s in a messy ponytail and her eyes are red and puffy.

“Harper, what’s wrong?” I lead her into my room.

“Cole dumped me last night.” She collapses on my bed, then curls up into a ball, shoving my pillow under her head.

“What happened?” I sit on the bed next to her.

“Last night at the Halloween party he said he needed a change. So I asked him what that meant and he wouldn’t say anything. Then later, I found him in one of the rooms doing it with some girl in a French maid costume. I guess that was the change he was looking for.” She sniffles, wiping her nose on the sleeve of her bright pink sweatshirt. I grab a box of tissues from my desk and offer them to her.

“I thought we had something, Jade. Cole and I were the perfect couple. We liked the same things. We could talk about stuff. We had great sex.” She grabs a wad of tissues.

“You had sex with him?”

“Of course I had sex with him. Have you seen him? Whowouldn’thave sex with him?” She pauses a moment to blow her nose. “I guess that’s why he left. He just used me, then moved on to the next girl.”

“When did you two start having sex?”

“Since I’ve been staying over there. Like a week ago, I guess.”

Harper and I are friends, but not super close friends. I’m not someone who likes super close. I’m more of a stay-on-the-sidelines type of friend; just someone to do stuff with when you’re bored.

In the few months we’ve known each other, the sideline friend arrangement has worked well, at least for me. Harper and I eat in the dining hall together almost every day. We hang out in her room and watch TV. And sometimes we’ll go into town and shop. But we’re not the type of friends who share all the intimate details of our lives with each other. Although today she seems to want to do just that.

“I didn’t know you two were that serious. I guess we haven’t talked much since you guys starting dating.” They’d only dated for a few weeks but she’d spent almost every minute with him.

She wipes her face with her hand, smudging the squiggly lines of mascara. “I should’ve known he would cheat. Guys that good looking always cheat. Do you ever worry about Garret cheating?”

“Um, well, we’re not dating so it doesn’t matter. He can do what he wants.” Given that Harper and I aren’t super close, I haven’t told her everything that’s been going on with Garret and me and why we’re still only friends.

She sits up and takes another tissue. “Why do you always say you’re not dating him? You two are together all the time. You’re always up in his room. What do you two do up there? And how can you just be friends after all this time? You seriously haven’t had sex with him?”

“No. Now can we just talk about something else?”

“I don’t get you, Jade. I know you really like him, so why aren’t you two going out?”

Part of me wants to tell her why. I’m curious if she knows how to handle the situation given her own wealthy background.

“Harper, does your family have certain rules they make you follow? Like dating rules?”

She gives me a strange look. “Dating rules? What do you mean?”

“I was just thinking that since your dad is a well-known director your parents might put pressure on you and your sisters to date the right guy. Like maybe they’re worried that the person you date is a reflection on the family.”

“What are you talking about? That’s crazy. My parents don’t care who I date. Why would you ask that?”

“It’s just that I’ve heard that some of the people here at school are forced to date people their parents pick out. It’s all about image, making the family look good.”

“That’s an East Coast thing. People with old money do that stuff. West Coast people tend to be new money. They’re more laid back.” She wads her tissues up and stuffs them in the front pocket of her sweatshirt. “The people out here are formal and stuffy. They’re always trying to hide anything that might embarrass them, like a kid in rehab or their recent nose job. But in LA, practically everyone’s in rehab. And everyone gets plastic surgery, so we don’t worry so much about hiding stuff. My sister, Kylie, embarrasses my parents all the time. They just ignore it.”

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