Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Northern Stars is an angsty, new adult, second chance standalone romance from Brittainy Cherry.
Breaking up with your high school sweetheart was one thing.
Breaking up with a famous Hollywood actor? That was a different situation.
I’d been in love with Aiden Walters since I was a little girl. We’d grown up as neighbors in our small town. He was my first love, and I was his. I was there when his career took off, and I was certain I’d always be a part of his life.
But just when his Hollywood star began to really shine, the internet blew up with the news of his real-life girlfriend at home. When I realized he was spending more time defending me than focusing on his career, I did the only thing I could do - I let him go.
Five years later, he was back home staying in the only hotel in our small town. Of course, it was the one I managed. I was forced daily to see the man whose heart I’d broken all those years ago.
The man who now resented me.
The man who grimaced with annoyance every time he looked my way.
The man who swore he’d never speak to me again.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Part I
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
-Marcus Aurelius
1
Hailee
Eight Years Old
* * *
Aiden was the kind of kid who made it easy to hate him.
“You can’t do that!” I screeched at Aiden, annoyed with his stupid face. He’d reached his dirty hands back into the cookie jar with the cookies I’d baked with Mama for later that day. Mama had already given us each a cookie before we played in the backyard. After we came back in, Aiden snuck into the kitchen and climbed onto the countertop. He was breaking all the rules!
“I can do it if you’d shut your fat mouth, chipmunk cheeks!” he replied.
I huffed and puffed out my cheeks, feeling my face heat as my balled-up hands slammed against my waist. “I don’t have chipmunk cheeks!”
“Then why do your cheeks look like a chipmunks?!”
“At least my face doesn’t look like a gorilla’s butt!”
“I’d rather look like a gorilla’s butt than have chipmunk cheeks.”
“I hate you, gorilla butt!”
“I don’t care, chipmunk cheeks!” he shouted back.
Aiden Walters was a pain in my butt. He was always getting himself in trouble, and I was always trying to stop him from doing stupid stuff. Most of my day was spent telling him no, and most of his day was spent ignoring me.
I climbed up on the countertop next to him and yanked the cookie jar out of his hands. “At least my head isn’t fat like yours!” I said, sticking my tongue out at him.
He grabbed the cookie jar back and slightly shoved me. “Your head is bigger than mine!”
“No, it’s not!”
“Yes, it is! It’s so big! It’s bigger than an elephant’s head!”
I grabbed the jar and tugged it toward me. “Shut up, Aiden!”
“You first, Hailee!” he shot back as he tugged it more.
We went back and forth with a tug-of-war, shouting at one another until Mama entered the kitchen.
“What’s going on in here?!” she yelled.
Aiden and I both got so spooked by her voice that we let go of the cookie jar. It crashed to the ground and shattered into a million billion trillion pieces.
Aiden and I froze in place.
Our eyes darted to Mama.
Then to the broken cookie jar.
Then back to Mama.
Then back to the broken cookie jar.
“He did it!”
“She did it!”
We said it in unison as we pointed toward one another, blaming each other for the mess in front of us. Of course, it was Aiden’s fault, but he was a big fat liar. I was surprised his pants weren’t on fire by how many lies he told.
“I swear, Mama! It was him! He was trying to take more cookies, but I told him not to take more cookies, but still, he tried to take more, cookies, and and—”
“She called me a fat head, Penny, and said I have a face like a gorilla butt!” Aiden said, pushing out his bottom lip and letting his eyes glass over. Oh my gosh! He’s so dramatic!
“He called me a fat mouth and said I had chipmunk cheeks!” I shot back. “I don’t have chipmunk cheeks!”
“Do too!” Aiden mocked.
“Do not!”
“Do too!”
“Do not, not, not!”
“Do too, too, too, tooooooooo!” he sang.
For a boy who was the same age as me, he sure acted like a baby.
Mama didn’t look like she cared for our excuses or bickering. She lowered her eyebrows and combed her hands over her afro puff before nodding once. “Get down now, the both of you. You know the drill.”
Aiden and I both groaned. “But!” we screeched at the same time. I hated that we did things so much at the same time because the last thing I ever wanted was to be the same as someone like him. I hated our same moments. They made me so mad. Our different moments were the best because if I was different than him that meant I wasn’t a fat head gorilla butt.