AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My parents walked over to me and told me to come home with them, to give the Joneses time with their daughter.
I felt sick to my stomach as I sat in my bedroom after everything went down. Mom came into my room after a while and sat on my bed beside me. “What you did today for Hailee took a lot of courage. You did the right thing by telling her parents.”
“Then why do I feel so awful?”
“Because sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing.” She kissed my forehead. “Hailee will be okay, and you both will be okay together. Just give it time.”
“She’s going to hate me.”
“No. She’ll be upset, but that’s expected. I know for certain she could never hate you, though.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re you, Aiden. Because you’re you.”
Hailee textedme after Thanksgiving telling me she was pissed at me but still loved me.
I was almost certain she’d made a pros and cons list of never talking to me again, so I considered that a win. I could deal with her being mad at me. I couldn’t handle her not loving me anymore.
After Thanksgiving, she’d missed a few days of school as her parents worked to help her.
Each day at school when I walked by Cara, she’d give me a smug expression. As if she was proud of what she’d done. All because I didn’t want to date her. All because I chose Hailee over her and her egotistical ways. All because I said no.
Imagine being so bitter and sad with yourself that you felt compelled to ruin someone else’s life. I didn’t even understand why people cared what others looked like, big or small, tall or short, but they did. It was as if they tried to make themselves feel better about their sad, pathetic lives by belittling others. Because if others felt unworthy, then maybe their sad existence would’ve felt more fulfilling to them. It was ass backward, and it took everything in me not to cuss Cara out for her tactics, but I knew that would only make things worse for Hailee. Plus, my mother told me never to get into big altercations with women. Even though I hated Cara, I wouldn’t disrespect her. My mother taught me better than to ever disrespect a woman. But when a guy had the nerve to say something slick about Hailee?
Well, the gloves came off in those situations.
“Another fight?” Dad asked as I walked into the living room after school. Some asshole was going on about how Hailee would’ve been hot if she’d developed an eating disorder, so I rearranged his jaw. It seemed fitting. My fist was still red from the interaction.
Mom sat on the couch, looking extremely disappointed. That made me feel bad, but I couldn’t muscle up the ability to feel guilty for what I’d done.
“Did you know that this time people got the fight on camera? And that it’s trending on social media?” Dad questioned. I could see the anger rising more and more in his eyes. I glanced at the clock on the wall. Hailee was still at her therapy appointment, so she probably hadn’t heard about the fight. I was already thinking about ways to keep her from hearing about it.
Her parents had her remove all social media from her phone in order to avoid seeing any negative comments, so I knew I was safe from that. She didn’t have to know I was defending her honor. It would’ve pissed her off.
“Aiden, are you listening to me?” Dad barked. “Or have you completely lost your mind?”
“I hear you. But he called Hailee—”
“Hailee,” he said back. “Hailee this, Hailee that. Have you realized how obsessed you’ve become with her? I get she’s been going through a hard time, but it’s not your battle to fight.”
I raised an eyebrow. “It is my fight, Dad. If someone hurts Hailee, they have to deal with me.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“So you’d let someone talk about Mom that way?” I challenged.
His brows lowered as he crossed his arms. “Excuse me?”
“I’m asking if you’d let people talk about Mom that way. Because she told me, you used to get into fights all the time to defend her honor.”
“She told you that?” Dad looked toward Mom. “You told him that?”
“It’s the truth.” Mom shrugged. “And you still haven’t answered his question.”
She seemed oddly calm, even bored with the conversation. She and Dad had been fighting more and more lately. Sometimes I was surprised they were in the same room with one another based on how much they argued.
“I didn’t answer because it’s a stupid question. You’re my wife. Hailee has been your girlfriend for what? Two minutes.”
