Page 186 of The Compass Series

HAILEE

T he 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.”

“Is it opposite day?” I asked.

“It’s not opposite day.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

“Tom,” I breathed out.

“Yes, Jerry?”

I didn’t know what to say or do. I felt frozen in my spot because he was saying the things I’d wanted him to say, but for some reason, that scared me.

“Hailee.” He glanced down the street again. “I really want to spend today with you and go to the movies and to lunch with you. And cross off the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off bucket list item with you. And look at you. And date-date you. But if we do this, we have to go now.”

“Now?”

He looked down the road and then back to me. He took my hands into his and moved in closer. We were holding hands as a more-type holding hands, or maybe it was a friends-type holding hands. Who knew anymore? Not me, not I, not Hailee Jones.

“Now,” he echoed.

I said the only thing I could think to say. “Okay.”

With that confirmation, Aiden yanked me toward his backyard, where we hid out until after our school bus left without us. His parents were already out of the house for the day. His dad had gone into Chicago to network with others in Aiden’s industry until later that night.

Aiden grabbed the keys to the spare car in their driveway, opened the door for me, and we were off to watch a movie at eight in the morning.

“When we get there, you can have anything you want. I’ve got you covered,” Aiden said.

“I can pay for my stuff.”

“That would be a friend-date. This is a more-date, remember?”

“This isn’t the 1920s. A woman can pay for her own date.”

“Do you want to pay for your own date?”

“Of course not. Why would you even ask that? I’m old-fashioned in certain ways, Aiden.”

He laughed. “You’re the most confusing person I’ve ever met.”

“You already knew that and still decided you wanted a more-date with me. Who’s the real confusing person here?”

“Fair enough.”

I got comfy in the car, leaning my seat back as Aiden said, “Will you split a dog with me and share the popcorn?”

“I’m not that hungry.”

“Liar. I hear your stomach growling. Please don’t tell me you don’t like hot dogs and popcorn anymore. I can’t take much more heartbreak.”

I snickered. “I do like hot dogs and popcorn, but you do know what a hot dog is made of, right?”

“As a guy who eats the school chicken patties, I can assure you that I am not too worried about what’s in a hot dog.”

I glanced over at him to find him with that stupid smirk that I loved. “I’ll split a popcorn and dog with you.” We arrived at the theater, and I realized an important detail that was missing. “What movie are we seeing anyway?”

“I don’t know. Whatever’s playing at eight in the morning.”

“You lead, and I’ll follow,” I said, allowing him to pull me along. “Oh, by the way, in the past thirty seconds, I came to a realization.”

“And what’s that?”

“I want my own hot dog. No splits.”

The movie was long and boring, and Aiden and I were the only ones in the theater.

That somehow made it even more fun. We talked through the whole thing and laughed the whole time.

I didn’t know when it happened, when I became so comfortable being around him, talking, saying more than “yeah,” but I was glad that it did.

Hanging out with Aiden that morning would be a core memory of mine.

I didn’t know my heart could feel like that.

I didn’t know I’d ever be able to unlock a new level of happiness.

Aiden didn’t finish his hot dog, but he didn’t look at me sideways when I finished it for him.

He didn’t judge my appetite or mention me shoving handfuls of popcorn into my mouth.

He just looked at me with those blue eyes that read nothing but kindness.

When I looked into those eyes, it was as if they gave me permission to be myself wholly and completely.

He felt safe to me. I didn’t know a haven could be a person until that very morning.

We watched two more movies after that. The last one being the worst.

“That movie was awful,” I remarked as I walked out of the theater in a giggling fit.

“It was pretty bad,” Aiden agreed after he tossed out our popcorn container. “But somehow, it was still the best movie experience of my life.”

“Me too. I now understand why people skip school.” I spun in a circle. “This feels free. Do you feel it?” I took his hands into mine and began spinning with him. “Free!”

We spun faster and faster, chuckling like kindergarteners during recess until I lost my footing a bit.

Aiden was quick to pull me in closer to him to steady my unstable steps.

He pulled me into his chest and held me close.

Our spinning came to a halt as we stood on solid ground, yet somehow I still felt as if I were spinning round and round.

His eyes were dilated as he stared at me.

I watched as his stare moved from my eyes to my lips.

My eyes fell to his mouth as it parted, and he whispered, “Free.”

His hands moved to my lower back, and I grew a little closer to him. My hands landed against his chest as I stared up at him once more. “Free,” I softly replied.

Were our thoughts the same?

Was he thinking about kissing me the way I was thinking about kissing him?

Was his heart beating forward, then backward, then sideways, too?

Were his thoughts still spinning at full speed ahead?

Were his lips soft?

Did he know I wanted him to be my first kiss?

Did his heart want to know mine the same way my heart wanted to know his?

“Hails,” he breathily sighed. Our faces were so close that his word warmed my skin.

“Yeah,” I breathed back, my stare on his lips. His full, plump lips.

“I’m thinking about doing something right now.” His fingers slightly massaged my lower back, creating a wave of rippled nerves throbbing between my thighs.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” His teeth slowly grazed against his bottom lip. “Are you thinking about it, too?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Yeah?”

I giggled, but this time it was nervously. My butterflies were intensifying, my nerves were a wreck, my anxiety was heightened, and he smelled so much like lemon drops, which was my new favorite scent. “Yeah.”

He brought a hand up to my mouth and gently brushed my bottom lip with his thumb. “Hailee, I?—"

“Are you Aiden Walters?!” someone blurted out, making me jump what felt like five feet away from Aiden. Our intimate moment was ambushed by three girls, squealing like crazy over Aiden.

“It is him! Oh my gosh! You are so hot,” one of them breathed out, jumping up and down.

The other one, the redhead, told him that he was the most talented person in the world.

Then they all begged him for photographs.

Aiden’s whole body shifted into a different demeanor, and he turned up his charm factor.

He instantly went into actor mode and was so kind to the girls, giving them the photographs and autographs which they begged for.

Shouldn’t you people be in school?

Wait, I should’ve, too. Still, they just ruined what was bound to be the best moment of my life.

“I’m sorry, ladies, I’d love to chat more, but we have a meeting to get to,” Aiden said, stepping over toward me.

The girls looked in my direction, and the redhead blurted out, “Is that your girlfriend?”

“Of course, it’s not,” the other replied.

What was that supposed to mean?

The way she eyed my body up and down with a look of disgust showed exactly what she meant by her commentary. Within an instant, I regretted eating that popcorn and the hot dogs.

Aiden’s reaction was the opposite of mine, though. His wasn’t shame; it was anger. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded, his kind persona fading as his nostrils began to flare.

“No offense.” The girl giggled. “She just doesn’t seem like your type.”

“My type?” he barked. His tone made it out as if he were about to snap at these strangers. Before he could, I put a comforting hand against his shoulder.

“Let’s go,” I whispered.

“They’re assholes,” he mumbled under his breath.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But let’s go.”

He did as I said as I tugged him away. By the time we reached the car, Aiden was still sitting in an energy of rage, but still, he opened the passenger door for me. Even in his anger, he was still so gentle with me.

He climbed into the driver’s seat and shut his door. His hands gripped the steering wheel, and he shut his eyes as he released weighted breaths of irritation.

I sat in silence for a moment. “Aiden, it’s okay. I?—”

He held a finger up to silence me, then went back to holding the steering wheel.

When he was ready, he turned to me, and his eyes were packed with so much emotion and sincerity that I felt tears pushing to the forefront of my eyes.

“Everything about you keeps me in awe, Hailee. From your face to your waist and from your hips to your thighs, you are remarkable. Every inch of your being is something I long for. But it’s not just the physical stuff either, even though holy fuck, your physical stuff,” he groaned in delight as he bit his fist jokingly, making me laugh.

Then he grew more somber as he continued.

“Your body, mind, and spirit, I want it all. You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met, Hailee Jones, and I’m in love with you.

You’re the kindest, funniest, most caring person in this world, and I’m in love with you.

You have the most stunning brown eyes I get lost in, and I’m in love with you.

You have a smile that I dream about constantly, and I’m in love with you.

You’re gentle and strong, and I’m in love with you.

And every time someone disrespects you, it sets off a rage inside me because you are the most incredible person I’ve ever met, and I’m in love with you. ”

He had tears rolling down his cheeks from either rage from the others or from his love for me. Maybe it was a mixture of both. Aiden didn’t cry often, and he didn’t cry easily, so the fact that he felt safe enough to show that side of him in front of me made me feel so much joy.

I wiped his tears before leaning toward him and placing my forehead against his. “You’re my best friend, Aiden.” My mouth was millimeters away from his. My heart was racing faster and faster, pounding wildly against my rib cage. I leaned in, brushing my lips against his. “And I’m in love with you.”