All Chapters of Choosing You: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

ETHANSitting at my desk in the last class of the day, I balance the little laminated card between my thumb and forefinger, still in disbelief. Last night, when I saw it on the floor in the library basement, I didn’t stop to look. Not at first. They were closing and I was trying to get the hell out. I was trying to catch up to her. I wanted to see her with my own eyes. To catch a glimpse of the person that’s been avoiding me like the plague when the lights come on. I wanted to stop her and show her that there’s nothing wrong with me knowing who she is. Honestly, it confuses the shit out of me. I don’t know any girl on or off campus that doesn’t want to be seen by me. I don’t know any that once I say I’m interested run the other way. And she seems to be doing it at every turn. Only, she can’t go far. Not if I don’t want her to. The question is… Do I want her to?I slap the ID back onto my desk. Paisley is the last girl I’d ever suspect. She seems so… unaware. So…concerned with everyone

ETHANIs it only the second day of classes? Because I feel like this shit is dragging already. Economics first thing in the morning and now Literature. I move down the aisle, and find a seat in the back of the room just before anyone else shows up. I like it that way, getting familiar before I have to deal with people staring at me, knowing I’m there. It may not be the entire class, but it’s enough to be annoying. Enough to make me wish I was invisible sometimes. I open my computer and keep my head down, as bodies begin to enter. A few guys, some that I think I actually know. And plenty of girls that I definitely know. I don’t need them to see me. I don’t feel like being social. I didn’t get my share of coffee this morning and I’m not a morning person. My father is the only reason I took morning classes at all this semester. I wanted to impress him. But after the night I had, I’m exhausted. Don’t get me wrong. Even now, I don’t regret staying up to message back and forth on Instagra

ETHAN We enter the next room drinks in hand. Conversation from the kitchen forgotten. At least for the guys it is. I’m still unexplainably wound tight. And annoyed by this reaction because I shouldn’t be worried about Piper when I’m about to meet someone else in minutes. But I’m annoyed at her response back there in the kitchen. She was supposed to back down. Even with all the noise around us, I could hear her words enough that my mind momentarily drifted to her lying spread out in her bed, getting herself off and it hasn’t returned to the here and now. I pull from my beer bottle, and try to shake the image away again. Doesn’t help. “Fuck,” Adam says, slapping a hand onto Antonio’s shoulder. “That chick was hot. Who is she?” Antonio shrugs. Adam nudges my shoulder. “Who was that? I don’t recognize her.” I exhale through my nostrils, hitching my shoulder. “Her name’s Piper.” “Okay,” Adam replies, as if he’s good at remembering names, when we both know how he is. I shrug

ETHAN She was right about one thing. She’s not like the other girls. I gave her a mind-blowing orgasm and she’s ghosted me all week. I don’t know any girl that would do that. I mean, I told her I want to see her again, and she completely disappeared on me. Well, not completely. I know who she is. I’ve seen her. I’ve seen her see me and still nothing. Not even the usual flirtatious hello. It doesn’t add up. None of it, which is the only reason I haven’t called her on her shit. I’m still trying to make it all make sense in my head. Paisley Sullivan? It still doesn’t track. At the party last weekend, I saw her after we met up in the bathroom. It was as if nothing had happened between us. All keg stands and laughter. She was dancing with some guy. A bunch of guys, taunting them with her body, like I didn’t have my fingers all over her pussy just minutes before. And when she saw me, she smirked as though me watching was somehow getting her off. None of that aligns with the person I spent

PIPER Paisley has got a cute cherry red Nissan. But Sabrina’s car is a white convertible. A new model Mercedes that catches the eye of everyone on the road. Paisley loves every second of it, waving like it’s her car and we’re her chauffeurs riding up front. Pulling into the mall parking lot, her enthusiasm hasn’t dimmed. If anything my best friend is getting more out of control. Worse than prom shopping senior year, where she dragged me around until she could find the perfect dress. “Let’s start with underwear,” Paisley says. My stomach sinks to the floor. “You think he’s going to see you in your underwear?” “I should be prepared,” she replies. “It’s Ethan we’re talking about.” Unfortunately for me, Sabrina nods along in understanding. I swallow, with a weak smile, but follow behind Sabrina and Paisley as we go inside the mall. They pick out cute underwear and sexy bras that I can’t even imagine myself in. “Oh my God,” I say with a blush. “Yeah,” Sabrina says, putting m