Aidan's Obsession

11. Emmerson

I'm at the edge of my route, near the erosion area that Larissa said was unsafe for hikers, when I catch a glimpse of someone stumbling out of the woods. On the seat beside me is the high-powered flashlight, and I flick it on, shining it in the direction of the movement, heart thumping. What else lives in these woods? I never asked. Wolves I might be okay with, but if it turned out there was a bear there, I might scream.

But it's not a bear or a wolf. My beam lands on Hailey, dressed in black, carrying a flask and weaving noisily along the narrow path that must have been made by animals.

"Hails?" I call. "What are you doing in the state park in the middle of the night?"

"Looking for you!" She shields her eyes from my light and tips back her flask. "And getting drunk."

My flashlight dances across her dark outfit, along the places that look darker, as though she's been sprayed by something wet. The direction she came from doesn't fit her story, and I narrow my eyes, ready to ask for the truth.

"Can you take me to the security hut?" She slides into the other side of the gator. "I've always wanted to pretend to be important."

"What are you doing here?"

"No cell service. You went dark, so I couldn't just call or text. Had to hunt you down."

"But you didn't come from the direction of town. Why would you need to speak to me in the middle of the night when you know I'm working?"

"You're my bestie. Can't I just miss you?"

"Doesn't make any sense," I mutter.

"I hear you on that," she says, and she gulps more of the liquid from the flask. "Even things I thought I knew are turning out to be questionable."

I pull away from the edge of the park and head back toward the hut. Hailey has always been one to speak in riddles or half-truths, and most of the time, even when I try to guess, I get the essence wrong—assuming she'll even tell me. 

Tonight, I'm not in the mood for guessing games. Besides, a drunk Hailey is impossible. It's probably as simple as she read a map wrong and ended up in the 'no trespassing' area of the park, which is exactly the kind of thing she'd do. Knowing I'd be the ranger to find her would have made her even bolder. I'd never report her.

"I'm breaking up with Brody," I say.

"Cool. Cool." Hailey turns in her seat to face me. "Why? You seem to enjoy the half a spine, half a brain, half a man combo. Your number one selection from the vending machine, according to the words that leave your mouth."

She's mocking me, but it still gives me a moment of pause. Brody is normal, and what happened with Aidan, the way he made me feel, that's not normal. Not even close. Maybe I just need to try harder with Brody, be better. He's not the problem—I am. Just like always.

"What happened?" Hailey asks. "You're overthinking something now. I was being glib."

She meant what she said, but it doesn't matter. I don't know where Aidan came from or where he went. It's possible I'll never see him again.

"I, uh, met someone else tonight," I admit.

Hailey stills. "And?" There's a weird tension coming off her.

"I cheated on Brody."

"Not surprising," Hailey says with a laugh, but it doesn't sound authentic. "Better call that woman who feeds you pills. Get a higher dose. Your impulsiveness is showing. Can't have that. Button you up. Button you down."

"I don't want more pills," I say, and I don't try to hide my annoyance. "I just kinda want to see this guy again. Being with him..."

"Felt dangerous? Out of control?" She swirls her flask.

That's how I normally describe anything impulsive that I do, as though I wasn't able to help myself and I didn't like it. But I'm not sure I'm ready to say out loud how I did feel. We pull up to the hut, and I climb out. Hailey stumbles behind on my heels.

"Being with him was what?" She braces her hands on either side of the doorway into the tiny office.

"It was out of control, yeah..." I shuffle some papers around on the desk and pretend to be interested in what's written there. "But it felt like... It felt like..."

"Jesus, spit it out, Ems."

"Like I was finally being given back something I'd lost or had never been allowed to have, or something..." I trail off, self-conscious. Hailey knows everything I've ever thought or felt, but this admission is more intimate than any that have come before it.

"Must have been some kiss," she says with a laugh. "Who was it?"

"His name is Aidan. I didn't get his last name." The air around me seems to drop several degrees, and I shiver, rubbing my arms.

"Super tall. Dangerous looking. Carries himself like the world could topple off a cliff and he'd watch with glee?" Hailey asks.

Eerily accurate. Except for the nice things he said to me, there was a real arrogance to how he carried himself, as though he was used to everyone dropping to their knees around him. She must see the confirmation in my expression.

"Fuck, no. Just no. Any other Shoreditch. Any of them. Pick one. There are lots of them. Hell, I'll even let you have Kaden. You can have him. I'll do that for you, but do not pick Aidan Shoreditch. That's like... No. You can't. You can't." She shrugs and tips up her flask as though her forbidding it is enough to stop it from happening. "Explains a hell of a lot about the energy in Cape Beatrice tonight. You didn't fuck him, right?"

"No, I mean, yes, but no." I stare at her, trying to replay everything she just said. "How do you know Aidan? Who is Kaden? What the fuck is going on?"

"This isn't how it was supposed to go," she mutters. "He should have done the ceremony before we even got here."

I rub my temples and try to follow her subject leaps. "Hails, you're hurting my head."

"I wonder if you'll remember this tomorrow?" She steps closer to me and stares into my eyes with the same intensity Aidan did earlier. "I might need to tinker a little bit."

"Hails," I say, but this time when the sensation takes over, like I'm going somewhere else, I can't drag myself back. "What are you doing? Hails?"

Is Hailey friend or foe? What do you think?

I have opened my ARC readers for Fallen Crown (releases November 8th), and I've also opened my street team. If you're interested in receiving advanced copies of my published books in exchange for a review or posting about them on social media, I'll drop the links in the comments. This team is likely to get a first look at Miss Matched too, which is releasing with Wattpad Books in June 2023.