Page 33 of Northern Stars

“And you are the most beautiful, smart, and powerful woman alive. Do you understand?”

I smiled. “Yes.”

He kissed my forehead. “Get some sleep. I’ll make you and your mother waffles in the morning. Love you forever.”

“Love you longer than that,” I replied, something we’d been saying to each other for as long as I could remember.

I fell asleep that night, unable to control my dreams, but I wasn’t mad when they went to Aiden. Dreaming about him always seemed easy.

11

Aiden

That Monday after the party,I could tell Hailee was nervous about going to school. We sat on the bus, and I could feel her energy was off.

“You good?” I asked.

She nodded. “I’m good.”

“Liar.”

“Yeah.”

I squeezed her kneecap. “You’ll be good, though.”

“Swear?”

“Swear.”

“Do you think he feels bad?” she asked as the bus pulled up to the school building, speaking about Carlton. The little amount of respect I had for the asshole completely evaporated after what he’d done on Saturday. Truthfully, I always knew Hailee was too good for him. There was nothing about Carlton that read “good enough” to me. Not even for friendship.

“If he does feel bad, he’s too much of a little shit to admit it. If he doesn’t, he’s more of a dick than I imagined.”

“I bet he doesn’t feel bad. Now, all the popular kids are talking to him because it’s funny.”

“It’s a weekly trend. They’ll drop him just as fast as they picked him up.”

“I hope he bruises when he falls,” she muttered, disdain in her voice. Her afro was pulled into a big puff that morning, and she wore an oversized sweater with leggings and tennis shoes.

“If you want, I can make sure that he bruises,” I offered, a tad joking but mainly serious. All I wanted to do was pound my fists into Carlton’s head and make him feel an ounce of the pain he’d put Hailee through. I knew she was hurting even more than she was letting on. Hailee did that often—kept her biggest hurts to herself.

“No, Aiden,” she sternly stated, looking my way. She gave me a hard, authoritative glare and pointed a finger my way. “Do not do it.”

“I was joking.” I snickered, tossing my backpack higher on my shoulder.

“No, you weren’t.”

No. I wasn’t.

“He’s been staringat you from a distance all day,” I groaned, finding Carlton, yet again, creeping on Hailee from a distance. He hadn’t had the balls to walk up to her and apologize, and I’d even seen him trying to play it off with some football assholes who mocked the whole situation. He seemed more excited about getting attention from people who didn’t give a damn about him than the attention from the girl who would’ve given him the best friendship he’d ever have.

I wondered how many other idiots threw away something good to be deemed as cool.

Color me shocked when Carlton approached Hailee and me at her locker after last period. He didn’t seem as cocky as he had when talking to the football players and cheerleaders, though. He seemed more like his normal, wannabe cool self.

“Hey, Hailee. Yo-You think we can talk?” he asked, scratching his fingers against his neck. I didn’t know why that annoyed me so much, but it had. Everything about the guy annoyed me, but it wasn’t my place to tell him to fuck off. That was all in Hailee’s hands.

Please tell him to fuck off.

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