Broken Hill Hearts (Broken Hill High 4)

“Leave it alone,” she tells him. “I can date whoever the fuck I want.”

“Over my dead body,” he roars at her. “Don’t be such a fucking idiot.”

“Hey,” Jesse demands, angrier than I’ve ever seen him before. He gets up in Jackson’s face and pushes him back a step from his sister. “Leave her alone.”

“Stay the fuck out of this,” Jackson tells him.

Jesse’s eyes flare as everyone around us starts calling out for a fight. I know the look in his eyes, I’ve seen it a million times before and I need to do something about it. Now.

I know this is how I screwed up last time, but I’m not about to let two people I care about beat the ever loving shit out of each other, and besides, circumstances were different. I throw myself between the two guys who tower over me. “Cut it out,” I demand of both of them, shoving my hand upon both of their chests and pushing them back as hard as I can, but let’s face it, it’s not much.

How did my morning become this?

I look up at Jesse who seems to be shaking. “Cool your jets,” I murmur. “If I get another suspension for trying to break up another fight, Nate is going to have your balls. Besides, this is not a good way to impress Kaylah.”

“He doesn’t need to be impressing Kaylah,” Jackson growls.

I turn back to Jackson. “You shut up,” I tell him. “You’re not helping.”

“I don’t give a shit.”

“Yo,” a familiar, very pissed off voice says, suddenly right beside me. “What the fuck is going on here?” Nate demands, looking between the four of us and narrowing his eyes on Kaylah, probably having no idea who the hell she is and why she’s just inserted herself into our drama.

“This piece of shit,” Jackson says, “thinks it’s ok to fuck over my sister.”

“What?” Nate grunts as Jesse growls, “I’m not going to fuck her over.”

My eyes widen as I look to Jess. “You haven’t told him?” I demand.

Nate looks to me in shock. “You knew?”

Shit.

“Well, duh,” I scoff. “Who do you think convinced him to find some balls and actually ask her out?”

“You did this?” Jackson demands with nothing but pure rage.

“Hey,” Nate growls. “Don’t fucking talk to her like that.”

Well… this is getting nowhere.

“Alright,” Tyson says, pushing his way between me and Jess, forcing Jess back a few steps. “This is stupid. Cut the shit.”

“Agreed,” I tell the boys before looking up at Jackson. “You need to go find your sister and apologize for being such a douche,” I tell him before looking over at Jess. “And when he’s done, you need to apologize for being a douche. She’s not going to appreciate this shit. Trust me, no girl wants to put up with a guy who’s going to beat the shit out of her brother every Christmas.”

The boys continue glaring at each other and only stop when Tyson physically pulls Jesse away. The second Jesse disappears from the hallway, Jackson’s glare shoots down at me. “You need to fix this.”

“Fix it?” I scoff. “Can’t you see this is good?”

“Don’t bother,” Nate grunts as he continues staring at me with a deep betrayal. “Jess will fuck it up soon enough.”

“Are you kidding me?” I shriek. “Your brother asked out a girl instead of screwing and leaving her. This is a big fucking deal. How can you not see that?”

“Anyone but her,” he scoffs.

“What the fuck is wrong with her?” Jackson demands, still extremely pissed off, but more than ready to jump to his sister’s defence.

“She shares your DNA,” Nate grunts back at him.

“Jesus Christ,” I groan, throwing my hands up in frustration. “Both of you dickheads stop. Be happy for them and leave it the hell alone.”

Jackson narrows his eyes on me again, huffs, turns on his heel, and stalks away. I can’t help but grin at his back. Situation resolved without a suspension. Bonus points for me.

My smug attitude is quickly cut away when Nate turns his glare on me. “How could you not tell me Jess was dating her?”

“Let’s see…. ahhhh, that’s right. The last time I saw you, you were about to shove your hand down Ashley’s pants for old time’s sake.”

“Come on,” he groans in frustration.

“Besides,” I continue, “It’s none of my business and Jesse said he was going to tell you when the time was right.”

“Bullshit,” he scoffs. “We all know that means he had no intention of telling me at all.”

“Well then, that’s your business to take up with your brother.”

His eyebrows pull down as he studies me. The glare disappears and is replaced with concern. He indicates with his head for me to follow and I do just that as his hand finds the small of my back. “What’s wrong?” he questions, leading me towards the side of the hallway so we can have a private conversation out of the center of the hallway.