Here’s the second part of the bonus scene from Choosing You, written in Garret’s point of view. If you missed Part 1, read it here.

————————————————————————————————-

I shut the door and let go of Ava’s hand.

“What did you say about my dad?”

She tilts her head and smiles. “We can talk later.” She pulls on my hand as she walks backward toward the bed.

I yank my hand back and she holds on, propelling herself forward, her face landing on my chest.

“Damn, you smell good,” she says, taking deep breaths. “I forgot how good you smell.”

“I told you to get off me.” I push her away holding her in place by her shoulders so she doesn’t fall on me again. “Now tell me what my dad said.”

“So we’re not having sex?”

I roll my eyes. “I’m not interested in you, Ava. I’ve told you that a million times.”

“It’s just sex, Garret.” She lifts my shirt up again and her long red nails scratch my skin. I hate long nails. I always have. “You don’t have to be interested in me. We’re just having a good time.” Her fingers trail down to my belt.

“Stop.” I take hold of both her wrists and hold them out in front of me. “I mean it.”

She looks at my hands on her wrists and smiles. “I get it. You want it rough, huh? That’s so sexy.” She laughs a little. “Well go ahead and take me. Do whatever you want. I’m all yours.”

Seriously? I can’t believe I actually dated this girl.

She steps forward, brushing her chest against mine.

“Ava!” I yell it at her.

“What?” The pout appears, followed by the smile.

“We’re not having sex so just back the hell away.”

She takes a tiny step back. “Then why did you bring me in here?” Now that she knows she’s not getting sex, she sounds annoyed.

“Did you talk to my dad last week?”

“No, I didn’t talk to your stupid dad.” She rotates her wrists trying to free them from my hands. Now she sounds like she’s not drunk at all. So was that all an act? Damn, she’s messed up.

“Then what were you saying just now? You said something about my dad.”

“Let me go and I’ll tell you.” She glares at me, her eyes no longer the wandering drunk eyes she had just seconds ago.

“Fine.” I drop her wrists. “Now tell me.”

“You and I are dating.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m your new girlfriend. I’m taking Courtney’s place.”

Great. Just what I need. A new fake girlfriend. And it has to be Ava? The girl who’s been obsessed with me since middle school? At least Courtney left me alone. She wasn’t trying to get me to date her for real.

“When did you find this out?”

“My parents told me a couple days ago.” She smiles and runs her finger down my chest. “They always thought we made the perfect couple.”

I swat her finger off me. “How many freaking times do I have to tell you to stop touching me?”

“I’m your girlfriend. You have to touch me whether you like or not. We have to be seen in public together and we have to make this look real, which mean kissing, holding hands, dancing together.” She reaches for me again and I step aside, causing her to trip on her high heels, but she catches herself and doesn’t fall. Yeah, she’s definitely not drunk. It was all just an act.

“And my dad agreed to this?”

“I think it was Katherine’s idea but your dad went along with it.”

I take my phone from my pocket and call him. As I wait for him to pick up, Ava watches me, a smug grin on her face. She’s loving every minute of this. She’s wanted this for years and now Katherine goes and hands it to her on a silver platter. I can’t stand that woman.

I hear my dad’s voice. “What is it, Garret?”

“Did you make Ava my new fake girlfriend?”

The phone is silent and then, “Yes, but it’s no different than when you were—”

“And this was Katherine’s idea?” I put the phone closer to my ear so I can hear him because the music is still loud, even with the door closed.

“She thought Ava was a better choice than Courtney because Ava was on that reality show last year.”

“And you just let Katherine do this? You didn’t even think to ask me first?”

“Just calm down. It’s not real. You know that. You’ll just show up at some events with her, take a few photos, attend some charity—”

I hang up on him. I know he’ll yell at me later, saying I was disrespectful for hanging up on him but I don’t care. He was disrespectful to me setting me up with Ava without even telling me. I’m so freaking mad I want to punch in the wall but that would just make Ava happy. She loves pissing me off. I think she even gets turned on by it. The girl is seriously messed up.

“See? I told you,” she says as she adjusts her breasts in her leotard. “If we’re not having sex, then I’m leaving. Could you get me a drink from the bar? I can’t walk in these heels.”

“I’m not getting you a drink. I’m getting the hell out of here.” I open the door and feel her behind me, holding on to the back of my shirt as she wobbles on her ridiculously high heels.

I scan the room, looking for the quickest way out. The room is even more packed than it was 10 minutes ago. But that’s good. I can sneak out without Blake seeing. I check the bar to see if he’s there.

He is. And so is she.

My stomach drops and my heart starts racing. And the music that was deafening just a second ago seems to disappear. Everything around me fades into the background. I don’t even notice the crowds of people. I only focus on the one person in the room who matters. Jade. She’s standing right next to Blake, her head tipped back as she drinks from a bottle of vodka.

Wait–what? Jade’s drinking?

Why the hell is she drinking?

And what the hell is she doing here at the party? At the bar? Next to Blake?

I notice Blake laughing and pointing at Jade. She slowly lowers the bottle and our eyes meet across the sea of people.

I feel Ava next to me. “I’ll just get my own damn drink.”

I ignore her, my eyes still on Jade who has this angry, hurt, horrified look on her face. Why is she so upset? What happened between the time I left for the party and now? What the hell would make her decide to drink vodka with Blake?

I have to get to her. I need to find out what’s wrong.

“Jade!” I yell her name and start pushing people aside trying to get through. But everywhere I turn people block my path. My eyes haven’t left Jade. She’s making her way to the front door, moving much faster than me because she’s small and can fit between people easier.

I barely move two feet and she’s gone. Out the front door. And I have no idea where she’s headed. It’s dark out and way too dangerous for her to walk or run back to campus. A car could easily hit her.

Shit! I have to get to her. I have to stop her before she gets to the main road.

I turn sideways and try to squeeze in between people. I make it a few more feet and then hit another wall of bodies.

“I need to get through!” I yell. The guys don’t move but some of the girls move back enough to let me squeeze by. A few minutes later I’m finally at the front door.

When I get outside, I see the vodka bottle smashed and laying on the grass. I call out Jade’s name and look both ways to see if she’s still around. I don’t see her anywhere.

I go up to a girl wearing a really short black dress and a patch over her eye, which I’m guessing is a pirate’s costume. She looks the least drunk out of the crowd hanging out on the porch.

“Did you see a girl run out of here?” I ask her. “Around 5’5, long brown hair, wearing jeans and a black coat?”

“Yeah, I saw her.” Pirate girl looks me up and down. “You want to go somewhere? Get a drink? This party’s—”

“The girl. Where did she go?”

“What girl?” She starts picking at the black nail polish on her index finger.

I sigh. “The girl I just asked you about. The one who ran out of here. You said you saw her.”

“She went that way.” Pirate girl points toward the main road. “She was running really fast. So you want to go back to my place?”

I take off down the sidewalk, racing to my car, which is way down the street because I got here late. When I get in the car, I check my phone just in case she left me a message before she went to the party. But the only messages I have are from Ava and my dad. I delete them both without listening to them, then toss my phone on the seat.

I drive slowly down the neighborhood checking both sides of the street. It’s been about 10 minutes since Jade left the house and if she was running, she’s likely on the main road by now. It’s a dark curving road and people, including myself, tend to drive way too fast on it. And at this time of night, I know there are people out driving who shouldn’t be, their blood alcohol level way over the legal limit. The thought freaks me out even more.

I turn left, heading toward campus, clicking my high beams on so I can search the wooded area alongside the road. I can’t see her anywhere.

Could she be on campus already? Or did she even go back to campus? She was really upset. Maybe she ran the other way, toward town. I don’t know why she’d do that but I don’t know why she’d show up at a party and drink either, so at this point anything’s possible.

I don’t know what to do. Go to campus? Go to town? Keep searching down this road? Maybe she just kept running.

Campus is just up ahead so I turn and drive down the small road that leads to it. I don’t see her anywhere which makes me wonder if she did go into town. I can’t imagine her making it back here so fast. But as long as I’m here, I might as well check. I park and run inside the dorm and down to her room.

“Jade?” I knock hard several times. “Jade are you in there?”

There’s no answer. “Jade?” I try the door and find that it’s not locked, which is strange because she never leaves her room unlocked. She even locks it when she goes down the hall to use the bathroom. I open the door. She’s not in there.

Maybe she’s in the bathroom. I go down there and knock on the door. “Jade? Are you in there?” Nobody answers so I slowly open the door. There aren’t any girls at the sinks so I walk in and check the stalls. Nothing. All empty.

I go back to her room because I left the door open. When I go to close it, I notice that the clothes she was wearing at the party are lying on the floor and one of her dresser drawers is open. It’s the drawer she keeps her workout clothes in.

I finally know where she is. She’s running. That’s what she does when she’s upset. She runs. And when she’s pissed, she likes to run someplace where she doesn’t have to think about where she’s going. She can just run. Run in circles over and over again until her anger subsides.

I exit her room, closing the door behind me. I bolt out the side door. Drops of rain are falling now and a cold wind whips past me as I take off running to the edge of campus and down the hill.

I stop when I reach the track. She’s there, wearing only a t-shirt and shorts and running faster than I’ve ever seen her run. I walk onto the track, positioning myself in the middle lane and watching as she rounds the corner.

“Jade, what the hell are you doing out here? I’ve been looking everywhere for you! Jade!”

She runs past me, her eyes on the track.

“Jade, stop! Wait!” I yell it again but she just keeps going.

“Dammit, Jade.” I say it to myself as I watch her sprint down the lane.

She needs to stop running. And I don’t mean running like she’s doing right now. I mean the running she does from herself. She needs to stop running from the pain she’s buried so far down that she doesn’t even realize it’s there. She needs to stop running from her past and just face it and deal with whatever it is that’s made her this way.

And she needs to stop running from me. Stop trying to push me away. Stop trying to hide the parts of herself she doesn’t want me to see. Because I want to see it. I want to see all of her, the good and the bad. There’s nothing she could say or do that would change how I feel about her.

I love her. And I won’t give up on her. I never will. I’ll just keep trying.

And eventually, I’ll get her to stop running.