Blake glances over at the bar. “I’ll catch you guys later. It’s time to get wasted.”
“I think I’ll grab a beer,” Decker says, eyeing the keg in the corner.
“You want something?” I ask Jade.
“No, I don’t drink.”
She doesn’t drink? Everyone I know drinks. Even Sadie, my uptight ex-girlfriend, drank. She didn’t get drunk, but she still drank.
“Really? Like not at all?”
“Why are you so surprised? We’re underage. It’s illegal.”
“I know, but everyone does it.”
“Obviously that’s not true because I don’t.”
“Okay, well, they probably have some soda. You want that?”
“Sure. Any kind but diet.”
I go over to where the keg is, and next to it is a cooler full of cans of soda. I take one, then grab a red plastic cup and fill it with beer and head back to where Jade is standing.
“Do you drink a lot?” she asks as I hand her the soda.
“Hmm. Do I drink a lot?” I gulp down some of my beer. “Define a lot.”
“If I have to define it, then you definitely drink a lot.”
“Okay, I admit it. I drink a lot.” At least I’m being truthful. I don’t want to lie to her any more than I already have. “But I try to limit it to the weekends. And maybe two or three weekdays.”
“Then our friendship ends here. I don’t hang out with people who drink. I need to go.” She turns and heads toward the door.
I stand there, completely surprised by her reaction. She’s really leaving? Is she really that upset I’m having a beer?
I race up behind her. “Wait. You’re seriously leaving? We just got here.”
“Yeah, and I don’t want to be around you when you’re drinking. Or around any of these people.”
“That’s what a party is, Jade. A bunch of people hanging around drinking.”
“I know. That’s why I never go to parties.” She walks out the front door.
I follow her. “Hold on. I’ll drive you back if you really want to leave.”
“You’ve been drinking, Garret. You really think I want you driving me home?”
I hold up my cup. “I had like two sips of beer.”
“I can get back on my own.” She takes off down the sidewalk.
“Just wait.” I grab her wrist and she stops. “I’ll make you a deal. I won’t drink the rest of the night, okay? Just stay for a few hours. It’s your first Saturday night in college. You don’t want to spend it sitting in your room, do you?”
She hesitates, eyeing my beer. “So if I stay, you won’t drink? Even what’s in your hand?”
I glance down at my cup. “I can’t finish this?”
She stares at me, as if that’s her answer.
“Okay, fine.” I dump my beer out on the grass.
“And I’m not promising I’ll stay for more than an hour.”
“Whatever. Let’s just go.”
I can’t believe I dumped my beer for a girl. And promised her I wouldn’t drink tonight. I barely know this girl and yet I found myself doing anything possible to get her to stay. Not just stay at the party. But to stay with me.
I feel this need to take care of her. I’m not sure why. Maybe because when I met her last night, she seemed scared. Out of place. Like she didn’t belong here.
She still seems that way and I feel bad for her. Being someplace new, where you don’t know anyone, can totally suck. And I want to make her feel better. Make her feel welcome. Show her it’s not such a scary place.
And selfishly, I want Jade to stay because I want to spend more time with her. I’m drawn to her and it’s not just physical attraction, although that’s definitely there. But there’s something else between us I can’t explain.
We go back in the house, which is filling up with people and getting really crowded.
“So are you guys close friends?” Jade’s looking over at Blake, who’s now doing shots at the bar.
“I wouldn’t say that we’re close. We don’t sit around having meaningful conversations. We just hang out. We were on the swim team together in high school and now we’re both on the team at Moorhurst.”
“Does he drink like that all the time?”
“Yeah. That’s why he got a place off campus. He knew he couldn’t get away with drinking every night in the dorms.”
It’s not just that. It’s also because Blake thinks he’s too good to live in the dorms, which is why his dad got him a luxury townhouse off campus with gated security.
“Hey, Garret.”
I hear Courtney behind me and feel her arm around mine. Just what I need. Jade seeing Courtney hang all over me like we’re really dating, which we’re not.
Courtney is the fake girlfriend my dad picked for me. I live in a world of fake relationships and this is one of them. I went to high school with Courtney and although she’s hot, I never wanted to date her for real. She’s one of those girls who expects to be treated like a princess. Her dad spoils her rotten and she expects every guy she dates to do the same. She’s completely self-centered, believing the world revolves around her.
“I just got back from Italy.” She moves closer so that her body is pressed into my side. “I called you several times but you never returned my calls.”
“I’ve been busy.” I don’t look at her when I say it, hoping she’ll just go away. She doesn’t.
“What did you do all summer? Did you go to your place on Martha’s Vineyard?”
“No. I had an internship in DC.”
“I thought you hated politics.”
“My dad made me do it. I was working for one of his senator friends.” I take a step back so our bodies are no longer touching. Courtney doesn’t like rejection, so she moves closer, still latched onto my arm. “Courtney, this is Jade. Jade, this is Courtney.”
“Hi.” Courtney glances at Jade, completely uninterested. See? Self-centered. The world revolves around Courtney. We’re just here to serve her. And since Jade has nothing to offer Princess Courtney, she’ll be ignored.
Courtney focuses back on me. “You need to be at my parents’ house next Saturday at 2. Don’t be late. And for dinner wear that light gray suit with the blue tie. I’m wearing a blue dress and we need to coordinate.”
Now she’s telling me what to wear? I yank my arm away from her. “Yeah, I got it, Courtney.”
“God, what was that for?”
I don’t look at her and I don’t answer her.
“You’re such an ass sometimes, Garret.” She storms off.
I’m happy I made her mad. Maybe she’ll go complain to daddy and force him to get her a new fake boyfriend.
“So you two have a date next week?” Jade asks me.
Now I need to somehow explain this. Since Jade’s not rich, she doesn’t understand how this works. How my life is like a never-ending play, scripted out for me with strategically placed actors. It makes sense to me because it’s all I know, but to anyone else it would seem crazy. So I can’t tell Jade the real story about Courtney. I need to make something up.
“Her parents always have this huge end of summer party. It’s next Saturday and I told her I’d go.” It’s at least somewhat true.
“Is she your girlfriend? Or ex-girlfriend?”
“I don’t want to talk about her, okay?” That sounded kind of harsh but I didn’t like Jade calling Courtney my girlfriend. I don’t want her thinking I would really date someone like Courtney. If Jade thought Courtney was my type, she’d never go out with me.
I feel another girl behind me and I know exactly who it is by the smell of her strong perfume. Sierra’s arm wraps around my waist and she kisses my cheek.
“Haven’t seen you since Cabo. You should’ve called me when you got back. Or are you still dating that boring chick from DC?”
“She’s not boring. And no, we’re not dating anymore.”
Actually, Sadie is kind of boring, but I’m not going to admit
that to Sierra.
“So you’re single again?” She leans in so that her lips are by my ear. “What are you doing later tonight?”
I push her away. “Shouldn’t you be with Luke right now?”
“Luke cheated on me with Kelsey. You didn’t know that? God, I thought the whole town knew.”
Jade’s standing there looking around the crowded room. She seems nervous. “Garret, I think I’m gonna leave.”
Sierra turns to look at Jade. “Oh, hi. What’s your name again?”
“Jade. You came to my room earlier.”
So they’ve met. And from Sierra’s tone, I can tell she’s targeting Jade as her next victim. She and Ava need someone new to bully. And who better to bully than a girl who’s poor and not from around here? There’s no way in hell that’s happening. If Sierra and Ava even think about doing something to Jade, they’ll have me to deal with. And I don’t play nice with bullies.
“Yeah. You’re from Ohio, right?” Sierra asks Jade.
“No, Iowa.” Jade sounds annoyed, as she should be. This is now the second time people have mixed up Iowa and Ohio. She must think people from Connecticut are really stupid.
“How did you end up at Moorhurst? It’s such a small college and it’s so far away from Ohio, or Iowa, or whatever.”
Sierra purposely said Ohio again just to be a bitch. To show she doesn’t give a shit about Jade or where she’s from. Looks like Sierra and I will be having a little chat, sooner rather than later.
“I’m here on scholarship,” Jade says. “The Kensington Scholarship.”
Shit! My pulse shoots up as I realize my identity is about to be revealed and my chance to get to know Jade will be over. No. That can’t happen. I need more time with her.
Sierra turns to me and smiles. “Aww, that’s so sweet of you.”
My jaw clenches. “Shut up, Sierra. Just go.”
“I didn’t know you were so attentive to the scholarship winner.”
I’m now certain Sierra’s going to spill my secret. She knows I’m lying to Jade and she wants to be the one to tell her. And not for Jade’s benefit, but to make Jade feel bad. To make her feel like she’s stupid for not figuring this out. Or to make Jade think I purposely hid my identity to try to get her to sleep with me.
I really hate Sierra.
She looks at Jade. “Has he given you a tour? Shown you his room?”
That’s it. I’m not letting Sierra have the control here. I’ll decide when Jade finds out my secret and it’s not going to be right now.
I take Jade’s hand. “You’re right, Jade. This party sucks. Let’s go.”
“Where are you going, Garret?” Sierra asks as I drag Jade away from her. “You can just take her in one of the rooms here.”
I need to get Jade out of here. Fast. I don’t know what I was thinking taking her to this party in the first place. There are too many people I know here. And they all know my reputation.
I used to sleep around a lot. I used to go to parties and take girls in rooms. Girls I didn’t know and didn’t talk to afterward. It’s not like I was being mean to them or blowing them off. I made it clear up front that I didn’t want a girlfriend. That it was just a one-time thing. And the girls I was with were okay with that.
So yeah, I’ve had a lot of one-night stands. I’ve always been popular, and in high school I played just about every sport and was quarterback of the football team. I’ve never had a problem getting girls. Or sex.
I never thought there was anything wrong with that, but now I’m not feeling so good about it. A girl like Jade wouldn’t want to date someone like me. She has higher standards than that. She’s already let me know that by not falling all over me like most girls do. She’s making me work just to hang out with her and normally I wouldn’t waste my time if a girl made me do that. But with Jade, I find myself wanting to work hard. Wanting to make her like me. And respect me. And be the type of guy she would consider dating. But Sierra might’ve just ruined my chances of that ever happening.
I keep hold of Jade’s hand and lead her out the front door. She tries to pull away, which makes me hold on even tighter.
“What was she talking about?” Jade asks.
I don’t answer her. I just head to the car.
Jade yanks her hand back. “Garret, she acts like we’re going to have sex or something. Like you’re using me for sex.”
I keep walking and notice Jade is no longer beside me.
I hear her behind me. “Is that why you’re being nice to me? Is this all some game you’re playing? Get the naive new girl to sleep with you?”
It hurts to hear her say that. I don’t want her thinking of me like that and I definitely don’t want her assuming that was my motive with her. Would I like to sleep with Jade? Obviously, yeah. She’s freaking hot. But I want to take things slower with her. She’s not a one-night stand. She’s not a girl I’d sleep with and never talk to again. She’s different. And it makes me want to be different.
I turn around and walk back to where she’s standing. “Seriously, Jade? Why would you listen to a bitch like Sierra? You barely know her and now you believe her over me? Sierra makes up shit all the time. She does it to cause problems. Her parents even made her see a counselor when she was 12 because she made up this story about a teacher flirting with her. She’d never even met the guy. She’s a total liar.”
It came out sounding angry and I didn’t mean for it to. I’m just so pissed at Sierra and pissed at myself for bringing Jade to this stupid party.
“I think I should walk back.” She goes around me.
“Jade, no.” I take her hand, gently holding it so she knows I’m not angry, at least not at her. “It’s dark and it’s not safe to walk alone. Plus there’s no sidewalk. You could get hit, especially wearing that dark shirt.”
Just the thought of her walking on that road makes me panic. There’s no freaking way I’m letting her walk all the way back to campus on a dangerous road in the dark.
I take her over to my car and open the door. “Please. Just get in the car. It’s still early. We can go somewhere else. You want some dessert?”
“I guess we could do that.” She doesn’t sound thrilled about it but she at least agreed to go.
I let out an internal sigh of relief. Now I need to figure out where to take her. This is such a small town that there isn’t much here. Just a few restaurants and a lot of them are fast food. I want to take Jade someplace better than that, which means we need to drive to a different town. I wonder if she’d go for that. Probably not.
I drive down the main road, smiling when I see the red train car up ahead. It’s perfect. The train car restaurant I went to as a kid. I was just there last night getting a burger and I really wanted to order the sundae my mom always got me on my birthday. But I didn’t have anyone to share it with and I wouldn’t share it with just anyone.
It may just be a sundae to anyone else, but to me it’s a memory of my mom. She’d order me the biggest sundae on the menu. It was so huge I’d always share it with her and my dad. They’d sit across from me in the wooden booth, holding hands. And my dad would kiss her when I wasn’t looking. As a kid, I didn’t like seeing them kiss. But now, when I think back, it makes me realize how much my dad loved her. He doesn’t love Katherine that way. Not even close. He had a different love for my mom. Real love. And then she was gone.
My dad never liked the train car restaurant. He grew up going to fancy restaurants and this is not at all fancy. But my mom grew up on a farm in Indiana and was used to eating at diners, so this place made her feel like she was home. She loved it, and my dad loved her so much he’d do anything to make her happy, which is why he put up with going to places like this.
Since we didn’t live in this town, we usually only came here for my birthday. I always got a burger, and then for dessert the three of us would share the giant sundae. They call it the Boxcar Bonanza. My dad would only eat the ice cream, leaving the cookies for my mom and me to
share. I always let her have more of them because I knew they were her favorite.
God, I miss her. I miss her so much it hurts to even think about her.
“You’ll like this place,” I tell Jade as I park in front of it. “They have great desserts.”
“Did this used to be a real train car?”
“Yeah. They have the history of it on the back of the menu.”
We go inside and sit at one of the high-backed wooden booths. Jade smiles as she checks out the place with its black-and-white checkered floor and cherry red drapes. No other girl I know would go to a place like this. It’s not fancy enough. But Jade seems to like it.
The waitress arrives and I order. “We’ll have the Boxcar Bonanza. Two spoons.”
She nods and goes back to the kitchen.
Jade shuts her menu. “Did you just order for me?”
“No, I just ordered for us.” I recline a little in the booth and my leg brushes against Jade’s under the table. I’d like to leave it there but I move it so she’s not uncomfortable. “I used to love this place as a kid. They have great burgers.”
“Excuse me, but going back to what just happened. I don’t care for the way you just ordered without even considering what I wanted. It’s rude. Maybe I won’t like the Boxcar whatever it was.”
“Boxcar Bonanza. And you’ll like it. Everyone likes it. It’s their special dessert.”
I’m a take-charge type of person and I don’t think Jade’s used to that. I think she’s usually the one in charge and she isn’t sure what to do when the roles are reversed. But I’m starting to think she likes it when I take charge. It can be exhausting to always be the one in control.
And in the short time I’ve known her, I’ve figured out Jade makes decisions that aren’t always good for her. Not that I know what’s good for her, but I do know it’s not good to spend your first day away from home sitting alone in your room. I also know it’s not good to starve yourself because you don’t have spending money and are too stubborn to accept help.
“And we have to share it?” she asks. “Maybe I wanted my own dessert.”
Garret Page 5
