Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
He didn’t seem fazed by my outburst. He smiled, and gosh, was his smile always like that? Did he always slightly nuzzle his bottom lip before talking? “A brand sent me a free collection of their colognes.” He held his arm out in front of me. “This one is called Bliss. Do you like it?”
I want to drown in you, Aiden Walters.
I swatted his arm away even though I wanted to rub my nose against his wrist for the remainder of the day while inhaling his lemon drop scent.
I shrugged and cleared my throat. “It’s fine.”
Like you.
You’re fine, Aiden.
So, so unbelievably fine.
He took a long sniff of his wrist and nodded. “I like it.”
“I like you, too,” I replied.
“What?”
“What?” I echoed. I shook my head. “I mean, I like it, too. The smell. I was talking about your cologne.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want me to buy you ice cream after school?”
I grumbled and grimaced but didn’t want him to think I was acting strange for any other reason outside of perhaps being on my period. “Ice cream would be nice.”
13
Aiden
* * *
Well, I’ll be damned.
Hailee had a crush on me.
Unlike me and my top-notch acting skills, my best friend was terrible at trying to hide her feelings. Hailee Jones wore her emotions on her face as if they were stitched in place against her skin. It was one of my favorite things about her—how easy it was to read her. Sometimes, I wondered if everyone could read her the way I could or if I’d just become ultra-tuned in on every little curve that fell against her face.
I couldn’t think of anything better than this outcome. I’d been walking around with the secret that I had feelings for my best friend, so to discover that she had feelings for me was a dream come true. Now, I wasn’t too self-conscious about bringing it up to her, either, because it was clear she felt the same way.
I couldn’t wait until morning to tell her exactly how I felt.
14
Hailee
* * *
The next morning, I waited at the bus stop. Aiden came bouncing out, extremely excited and wide awake.
“Too much energy,” I muttered to him, still rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
“Never too much energy,” he said, grinning widely. “You look beautiful today.”
“What?” I asked. Was I hallucinating? Did I pass out at some point and end up in a deep coma? Do people dream while in a coma?
“I said you’re beautiful, Hailee.”
“Oh.” I grimaced and narrowed my eyes. “Why did you say that?”
“Because it’s true.”
“Oh.” He had a goofy smile on his face. I cocked an eyebrow. “What is it?”
“I’ve been thinking.”
“That’s a very harmful thing for a brain like yours.”
“Yeah, not going to lie, it’s been a rough few hours. I wonder if people get headaches from thinking too much.”
“Probably just you.”
He smiled. Gosh, I loved his smiles the most.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked, trying to shift the conversation to make my butterflies disappear.
“Skipping school today.”
I snickered. “Yeah, right.”
“With you,” he added.
I looked at him, confused. For a second, I thought I imagined the softness in his eyes, the somberness to his stare, the honesty in his words. Yet when it stayed longer, I swallowed hard, noting that the butterflies affecting me only grew in intensity.
“You want to skip school today?” I echoed his question.
“Yes.”
“With me?”
“Uh-huh.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Did you kill someone or something? Do you need an alibi?”
He laughed. “No. I just want to go on a date with you.”
“I just don’t see why—” Wait. Pause. Did he say date? Like D-A-T-E? Like date-date? With me? With me-me? “What did you just say?”
“I want to take you on a date.”
I blinked at him so repeatedly that I was shocked that my eyelashes didn’t fall off. “Like, a friend-date?”
“Yeah, sure. Or… more? A more-date.”
Oh my gosh, I was in a deep coma.
“But, if you wanted to go on a more-date with me, that would mean you like me more than a friend-date.”
“Yeah.”
Why was he acting so calm, cool, and collected about this? Why weren’t his eyes bugged out like mine from this reveal? How long had he been sitting on these feelings?!
“Why would you want to go on a date with me?!” I barked. My nose flared with irritation. I didn’t even know why I said it so aggressively. It was as if my emotions didn’t even know how to act anymore. I was malfunctioning in the worst of ways right in front of Aiden. My mind, body, spirit, soul—all those things that made me who I’d been were under major attack. Every inch of me was starting to sweat. Was my tongue sweating?
No, Hailee, that’s your saliva, idiot.
“Because.” He shrugged. “You’re the person I think about when I’m not thinking at all. You’re also the person I think about when I’m thinking too much. You kind of just live in my thoughts when they are calm and wild. Like, some people have thoughts, and I have Hailee. So I want to go on a date with you.”