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Oh. My. Freaking. Gosh.
No. Way.
He got hot!
I slammed my hand against his chest as my excitement shifted into an unexplainable fury. “What the hell?” I spat out. Don’t get me wrong, I knew he’d been getting into shape. We’d video chatted, and I saw him on television, but seeing him in person? Feeling him in person? He was a completely different person than when I last saw him.
He laughed.
I didn’t.
“Great to see you, too, Hailee,” he remarked. “It’s good to be home.”
Was…was his voice deeper than it sounded on the phone? Who was that man standing in front of me? Where was my best friend?
I clenched my teeth and wrapped my hands around his giant biceps as I released a low growl. “What did you do?”
I spent the remainder of the night annoyed, giving him the silent treatment.
Because how dare he do this to me.
How dare he come home looking likethat.
“You couldn’t try harderto look unbothered if you wanted to,” Aiden mocked as he walked over to the bus stop the next morning for our first day of school. We hadn’t been on speaking terms ever since he’d betrayed me in the most lethal way.
My best friend got hot.
Likehot-hot.
I didn’t know how it happened, but somehow over the past year, Aiden had transformed from the chubby boy he’d been all our lives into some superhero-type guy. He was tan and had muscles that could convince any person he’d been eating only chicken breasts for the past year while lifting SUVs for fun.
Aiden went to California for over a year to work on a television series, and he came back extremely fit and attractive, which was so freaking annoying. Sure, even before his time away, he’d had some great acting opportunities, but he always came back looking like himself—a bit dorky and a bit chubby in all the right places. He and I were one and the same in that way—both dorks and both chubs. It was our thing! Dorky Chub #1 and Dorky Chub #2.
We’d had an arrangement, and he went against it the day he decided he wanted to come back home from his year in Hollywood looking like that. Our agreement was a simple unspoken one: remain unattractive throughout our high school years so we wouldn’t be unattractive alone. Then we’d spend our twenties entering our “glow-up” phase. Aiden hated the term glow-up, which was precisely why I used it religiously to annoy him.
Instead of sticking to our ugly phase, Aiden spent the year falling into his prime steak on a Saturday night at a small-town supper club era, and he became unnaturally good looking like the Hollywood star he was quickly becoming.
What a jerk.
All I gained over the past year was thirty pounds and social anxiety. I did start going to the gym with my dad for the past few months to lift weights, but I didn’t get the same results as Hercules over there. Weightlifting helped more with my anxiety and less with my weight. It was what I did when I felt lonely. When I missed my best friend. It also made me feel somewhat like a badass, which was an added perk. But it was clear that Aiden’s and my diet were quite different.
Aiden was also taller than when he left me. I knew it to be true because when he hugged me before he left, I’d be able to place my forehead against his cheeks. Now, when we hugged, his chin pressed against the top of my head.
Or maybe he simply stood taller because confidence did that to a person.
Were his eyes bluer, too? Gosh, I missed his blue eyes. At least those didn’t gain biceps.
Aiden cocked an eyebrow. “Are you still giving me the silent treatment?” he asked, nudging me in the arm.
I stepped to my right and turned my body away from him. He’d been back in town for almost twelve hours now, and I hadn’t said a word to him since I’d seen how he went from looking like Steve Rogers pre-experimental serum from the government to Captain freaking America!!
The freaking nerve!
“Come on, Jerry,” he egged on as he began tapping his hand against my arm.
I whipped myself away from his reach. “Don’t call me Jerry. Only my best friend calls me Jerry, and you are not my best friend anymore.”
Was I being childish? Yes. Was I being overly dramatic? Also yes.
