Page 181 of The Compass Series

HAILEE

“ D ad, what are you doing here?” I asked, confused as my father stood in front of my bedroom door in a tuxedo, looking as dapper as ever.

“I’m your chauffeur for the evening, my lady,” he said, holding his arm out toward me for me to loop around.

“My chauffeur?” I giggled, even though I was far from the mood to laugh.

But I’d cried so much that I wasn’t certain I had any tears left in me.

I’d already wiped all of my makeup off and tossed on my oversized sweats, ready to binge-watch The Vampire Diaries and eat Ben & Jerry’s like a good heartbroken girl.

I arched an eyebrow at Dad. “You’re not wearing shoes. You’re going to drive with no shoes?”

He tipped his invisible hat and smirked. “Where we’re going, we don’t need any cars. Now come on, your date is waiting.”

I was too intrigued to ask more questions, so I looped my arm around Dad’s. He walked me through the house, and my alertness rose as I saw Mama standing at the front door with a goofy grin on her face.

“You look beautiful, Hailee,” Mama said, snapping pictures of me.

I glanced down at my gray sweats and cocked an eyebrow. “Where?”

Dad placed a kiss on my forehead. “Everywhere. You look beautiful everywhere.”

What in the world is going on?

Dad looked down at his invisible watch and then snapped his fingers. “Not to be rude, but we’ve got to get a move on, folks. We have a tight schedule to adhere to, so come on, Hailee. Let’s get going.”

“Get going where?” I urged, but they ignored me.

“Have a wonderful night, sweetheart,” Mama sang before giving both Dad and me kisses on the cheek.

Dad walked me outside into the chilled night air. We didn’t go far at all. Just right next door to Aiden’s house, where Dad walked me to their backyard. The minute we went through their gate, I gasped when I looked around.

White lights were dressed throughout the yard, twisting in the trees and bushes, lighting up the space like never before. To my left was a folding table set up with two chairs. On said table sat a huge bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, a plate of garlic bread, and a tossed salad.

To my right was another folding table with a record player on it, which was playing a Taylor Swift soundtrack.

Aiden despised Taylor but knew that I was a deep Swiftie, so for him to have her music playing meant more than words.

Beside the table were cardboard boxes lying on the ground with the words dance floor written across them.

The broken pieces of my heart were surprisingly still able to beat as Aiden walked out of the house, smiling my way.

“Hey, Tom,” I whispered.

“Hey, Jerry.”

“What’s going on?” I asked as butterflies swirled in my stomach. Since when did that happen? Since when did I get butterflies from my very best friend?

“We are checking off one of the items on our high school bucket list tonight. We are going to a house party together. Well, our version of a house, that is. A backyard edition.”

He took my hand into his and pulled me over to the table of food.

“First up is dinner, which we should probably eat now. Otherwise, it’s gonna get cold.

My mom picked it up about an hour ago, and even though it’s been in the oven to stay warm, it’s not top-notch.

I got your favorite things, spaghetti and garlic bread.

Here.” He pulled out the chair for me, and my cheeks hurt from smiling so much from my best friend’s act of kindness.

I took a seat, and he pushed me in. Then he walked over to his chair and sat down.

Red Solo cups were filled with soda. I looked around and couldn’t stop smiling to myself.

It was funny how emotions worked. How only a few hours ago, I was at my lowest of lows, but then Aiden managed to make me smile when all I wanted to do was fall apart and be sad.

That was my favorite thing about best friends—how they could make the dark days shine with splashes of light.

“I don’t think people eat fancy dinners at high school house parties,” I mentioned.

“That’s because they aren’t cool enough.”

“You didn’t have to do all of this,” I told him.

“I did.”

“You should’ve been at the party with the girl you’ve been obsessed with all these years.”

“I know,” he agreed. “Which is why I’m here.”

My heartbeats.

They fumbled, skipped, and flipped in my chest.

I looked down at my hands and tried to collect my thoughts, but Aiden wouldn’t let me.

“Don’t overthink, Hailee. Just eat your favorite foods and enjoy the night,” he urged.

“I’m actually not eating carbs right now.”

Aiden’s eyes bugged out. “Bullshit. Why not?”

Never in my life did I feel uncomfortable talking about anything to Aiden.

Heck, he was the first person I told when I got my period for the first time, and instead of being grossed out, he went to the corner store and bought pads for me.

Were they the size of Mars? Yes. Regardless, he didn’t get thrown off by much.

Yet telling him about my weight gain and eating problems felt more humiliating than anything else. While he became extremely attractive, I was going in the opposite direction, no matter the amount of time Mom and I spent in the gym together over the last year.

I hated that my first thought the moment I saw the video of Carlton and people laughing about my size was that I had to diet. Not that they were assholes, and they were being jerks, but that I had to diet because there was something lacking within me that made me an easy target for their insults.

I shook my head. “Just not into them anymore.”

He frowned, looking at the plate filled with carbohydrates. “I can order something?—”

I shoved a piece of garlic bread into my mouth and forced out a laugh the moment I saw how sad he had grown. “I’m just joking. Pass me the pasta.”

His hands flew to his chest. “Oh, thank God.” He shook a finger at me. “You had me in the first half, not going to lie.”

“You know me, jokes on jokes.” When was someone going to hand me over my Emmy award?

“Yeah, well, shut up and eat before it gets cold.”

So I did exactly that. We ate all the food on the table, and I loved the fact that I felt comfortable enough to stuff my face in front of the boy who’d been there for me since day one.

I never felt comfortable enough to do that around Carlton.

Once last year, he mentioned how much bread I was eating at lunch, and it kind of stayed in my head a little too much.

I was embarrassed by myself, and ever since then, I’ve watched my carb intake.

I couldn’t stop laughing at Aiden’s lame jokes during our meal. Every girl deserves a best friend like Aiden. The world would be a lot easier to live in if they had someone like him.

After dinner, Aiden brought us wet naps to clean our hands. Then he moved over to the record player and put on another song.

“All right, it’s time to get that first dance out of the way. So come on down and move your hips to Hailee’s favorite Disney song as she takes the dance floor for the first dance.” Aiden held his hand out toward me. “Can I have this first dance?” he asked.

I took his hand into mine, and he smiled as he walked us to the dance floor.

Just then, the song “Beauty and the Beast” came on, my favorite song from my favorite Disney movie.

I smiled a little. “I don’t know if this is what people are really doing at house parties, Aiden.”

“Are you kidding? This is exactly what was happening before I left earlier tonight.”

I gave him a broken smile. “Thank you.”

“Always.”

I lowered my head. “I’m still sad,” I confessed.

Every now and again, Carlton would cross my mind, and I’d be filled with an extreme amount of embarrassment.

But then, I’d shift my thoughts to Aiden, and things would seem a little bit better.

“But I’m happy, too. I don’t know how I can be both things all at once. ”

“I’m not surprised. Nothing about you has ever been simple, Hailee Jones.”

I smirked. “True.”

“You look beautiful, Hails.”

I felt my cheeks heat. I was convinced that more men like Aiden needed to exist. Men who called women beautiful in all their states of being.

I leaned in and rested my head against Aiden’s shoulder as we swayed back and forth to my favorite song. “Thanks for being you.”

After we danced the night away and drank way too much soda from the Red Solo cups, we lay down in the grass and looked up at the stars sprinkled across the sky.

Aiden kept making corny jokes, and I kept laughing.

We talked about everything, and the conversation always came easy.

After a while, we stopped talking, and even our silence came easy.

We listened to the music on the record player, and before I knew it, I was falling asleep with Aiden by my side.

“Cinderella,” a voice whispered, waking me from my sleep as I was lifted into the air.

“What’s going on?” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes as I looked up to see my father carrying me in his arms.

“The clock struck midnight. Time for bed,” he said. I yawned and wrapped my arms around his neck. No matter my size, no matter my age, I was always going to be my father’s little girl.

Dad walked over to Aiden, who was still sleeping, and he lightly nudged him with his foot. “Hey, Prince Charming, bedtime,” Dad said, his voice much sterner than when he woke me up.

Aiden yawned and stretched out as he rubbed his eyes. “Okay, Karl.” He stood to his feet and looked in our direction with his sleep-drunk goofy grin. “Best. Party. Ever.”

I couldn’t help but agree.

“Night, Tom,” I said as I yawned and lay my head on Dad’s shoulder.

Aiden tousled his messy hair and then brushed his hand against the back of his neck. “Night, Jerry.”

Dad carried me the whole way to my bedroom, even when I told him he could’ve put me down because I was too big to be carried to bed by my dad. He lay me in bed and smiled as he kissed my forehead.

“I’m sorry about what happened earlier, Cinderella,” he said. “Sometimes people are stupid and make stupid choices, but that has nothing to do with you. Those people’s words do not get to define you. Only you do. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“And their actions have nothing to do with your self-worth, right? They don’t get to tell you that you’re good enough—you do that. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“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.