Heartbreak High

THREE | CHLOE

I sit at a quiet table in the café and go over my application at Stanford, so I can know where to start with on Aiden’s if he shows up. I don’t know why I have this feeling in my gut that this was a prank and he’ll never show up.

Either way, I wouldn’t miss him, but when he plops in the chair opposite me, I’m truly surprised. “I didn’t know you wear glasses; you look hot.”

I shouldn’t be surprised that this is his way of greeting, but I roll my eyes anyway. “Only when I use the laptop.”

“You looked surprised that I showed up,” he calls me out and I raise a brow.

“Is that something bad?” I ask and lean back in my chair.

“Not exactly, I just didn’t expect you to have so little faith in me when it comes to my future. Do I really look like I don’t give a s**t?” he asks, and I stare.

Yes!

“You’re on the football team, Aiden. You’ll get somewhere no matter if Stanford works out or not,” I reply with a shrug and narrow my eyes at him.

Before our conversation escalates and it all goes to s**t, a group of people walks into the café and my mouth drops open when the first one to walk in is my friend Justin, followed by his new girlfriend Deena and Olivia. He briefly locks eyes with me, and I can see his surprise when he notices who my company is, but quickly diverts his gaze and they pick a booth far away from us.

It shouldn’t affect me so much that he’s with another girl. He’s been parading them since 6th grade, and I was just fine.

“You like him. You like your friend, that guy. What’s his name?” Aiden picks up on my line of sight and smiles knowingly.

I open my mouth and close it twice before I say something. “Justin, and… no. I don’t like him,” I retort as I fix the glasses on my nose.

Aiden relaxes in his chair and spreads his right arm onto the one next to him. “Justine… is a girl’s name, isn’t it?” he asks with a cheeky smile, making me burst out laughing and attracting my friends’ attention.

I shouldn’t be laughing, but I couldn’t stop myself.

I cover my mouth. “No. Justin is a guy’s name. It’s different.”

“What does he have that I don’t? You don’t like me but you like that guy.”

Wow, that was fast. How is he so good at this?

“Are you saying that you want me to like you, Aiden?” I ask with a flirtatious smile or what I think one would look like on my face. I’m not sure I’m very good at this.

“Yes. Everyone likes me, and I’m just wondering why you don’t.”

I sigh and place my elbows on the table. “Well, for one, I’m not popular. I don’t like parties and I don’t gawk at the football team; therefore, you have nothing that I should like if that makes sense.”

“Ouch. I have to admit, that hurts my feelings a little bit, Chloe. Tell me about those friends of yours. Why did they ditch your ass?” he switches it up.

As I said, he’s just way too good.

“They say that I don’t put enough effort into our friendship. I focus on my studies, and they don’t like that,” I reply with a shrug and remove my glasses. I feel like he’s staring at my face because of them.

“I have to agree with you on this one, and while it might seem surprising because jocks don’t usually care about college and they aren’t that bright, I’m not like that. Football is not my future, I always wanted to be a lawyer,” he explains, and I have to admit that I am in a bit of a shock. This is not how I pictured Aiden O’Connor from the distance.

“That’s nice. Never knew that about you. It always seemed like there’s nothing else more important than playing football,” I decide to be honest.

His smile falters for some reason. I ignore it and take another sip from my warm coffee.

“For now. I give my all to football not because it’s what I want to do in life but because… No, let me try this again because that was a lie. I need football to get into Stanford, or any other College for that matter because my parents can’t afford to pay for it even if they tried. I don’t know how you can afford it.”

For a second, a very long one, while I process every word he said, I look at him. I really look at him for the first time and take in his dense brown hair, his perfectly shaped eyebrows, and his muscular jaw.

“I… I got a scholarship, Aiden. That’s why I’m obsessed because one wrong move and I lose that, and that’s just not an option. Don’t get me wrong, my parents would pay for it, but I don’t want them to. After I leave this place, I want to be free of the leash they have on me.”

“They can’t be that bad, are they?” he says with a deep frown and a hint of an incredulous smile.

I snort. “I should’ve been home 30 minutes ago and the fact that I’m coming to the party with you will get me in trouble even though I’m turning 18 next month.”

“You don't have to come to the party if you can't,” he says a beat later and takes a sip of the coffee he's ordered for himself.

I follow his lead and do the same with my latte. “That's just it. I want to. I'm a senior and I haven't been to one single party.”

“Okay. We'll go to the party,” he deadpans.

I'm confused.

“We? As in at the same time?”

And a bit shocked.

“Yeah, of course. I wouldn't just let you show up alone,” he says as if I'm being silly for suggesting it.

That's actually pretty sweet, but he doesn't need to know that.

I clear my throat. “Okay, so... Stanford, huh?”

“Always been the dream,” he shrugs.

I’m actually impressed for once. Who knew that he’d turn me on by wanting to be a lawyer at the same school I do? “Wow, who knew we'd have something in common?”

“Don't sound so surprised. I'm just a normal dude. I like reading as much as I like a good party. I donate to homeless people and do charity work. I am not an arrogant ass, Chloe,” he explains as if he’s trying to prove himself to me, which is both nice and annoying.

I’m almost inclined to ask what he likes to read, but I don’t. “Sounds like your dating profile,” I laugh it off.

Yep, that’s my defense mechanism, humor, and deflection, or so says my mom, the therapist.

“Aww, did you check me out, Chloe Elle Tanner?” he asks with a smirk, and I stand there staring at him for a long minute. No, not staring. Gawking, and I don’t gawk!

Especially at football jocks.

This type of talk should repulse me not make me clench my thighs together.

Fuck me, he knows my middle name?!

“How do you know so much about me? We never even said hi to each other.”

“That doesn’t mean that I didn’t notice you, blondie,” he replies with ease, and I bite my tongue to keep it from throwing something acid at him, also hoping to tone down the blood I feel rushing to my cheeks.

I clear my throat. “I think we need to start working on your application as soon as possible if you want to have a chance. They hate late applicants.”

“Thank you for this, Chloe. You’re the first one to give a s**t about me in a very long time,” he whispers next, and I am completely surprised by his statement, and I don’t even know what to say to that.

“We’re helping each other, Aiden.”

“Yeah, but it’s different. This is about my future when I’m pretty sure you should just tell your friends to f**k off,” he replies, and I snort a laugh.

He’s not wrong, but I just don’t want to leave my friendships in a bad place.

“I just… We’ve been friends forever and I hate spending the most beautiful part of high school without them,” I explain, and he nods.

I close my laptop and place it in my bag to avoid eye contact. I hate the way he looks at me sometimes like he can see right through me and my issues.

“You don’t have to explain your reasons. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate your help.”

“Okay, it’s getting a bit too nice to be around you, so I’m gonna go now, and we can finish this later,” I say with an awkward smile and rise on my feet, readying myself to leave when all my friend’s heads turn toward us.

“Should I pick you up at 8?” he asks and walks me to the door, swiftly placing a hand on my lower back to rub it in their faces, but the tingles that shoot through my nerves become a bit too much.

When we make it outside, I put some space between us.

“I don’t know, maybe a party is not such a good idea, Aiden.”

“I know for sure Justine will be there,” he replies as a way of bargaining.

“Justin!” I correct him.

“Whatever.”

I huff a laugh.

“Okay. But park far away and text me, please. If my parents see you, I’m never leaving my room again,” I say and shoot my hand out for his phone. When he hands it over to me, I pinch in my phone no and save it under ‘My savior’.

Once I hand it back, he laughs and asks for my own phone, which I hand over with a frown. When he hands it back, I find his number saved under ‘McDreamy’ and I can’t contain the laughter that leaves my body.

“Watched too much Grey’s?”

“On repeat, baby.”

I shake my head slowly with a smile and say my goodbye to McDreamy before we part ways.

We have too much in common and that scares me.