Broken Hill Hearts (Broken Hill High 4)

Brooke looks on but her face certainly isn’t the happy one I’d expect from a best friend. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she sighs. “It’s just.. all you guys are paired up. Even Jesse managed to convince some poor girl to date him and all I get is a screwed up ex wanting to play games with me.”

“You’ll find someone,” I tell her, trying my hardest to be encouraging, but we both know there’s no one here that’s good enough to hold her attention.

“Whatever,” she scoffs, getting back to picking up debris. “At least I still have Bry.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “But she’s single because she wants to be. You know, none of this getting distracted by boys bullshit before going to Yale.”

“I know,” she laughs.

We get busy with our work and I can’t help but look around the football field. There are people everywhere. Even Ashley Samuels is here pretending to be a model student. If only the world knew what she was capable of. Brooke notices what’s caught my attention and she can’t help scowling either. “Shouldn’t she be in a mental institute by now?”

“More like jail,” I scoff.

“Have you worked out Nate’s plan yet?

“Nope, but he better get a move on. I can’t wait much longer. I mean, she’s so fake. Just seeing her walking around thinking she got away with it kills me.”

“Agreed,” Brooke says. “Just say the word and I’ll solve all your issues in one quick swipe.”

I let out a heavy breath. “No, Nate will come through. He always does and I don’t doubt that when he does, it will be brutal.”

“Ok,” she mumbles, clearly wanting to follow through with her plan. We get back to work and it’s not long before Brooke is groaning to herself. “Oh, geez,” she says under her breath. “What the hell does she want?”

I look up to find Phoenix slowly moving in beside us with an innocent smile plastered across her fake face. I knew this was coming, but I really hoped today wasn’t going to be the day. I mean, why can’t these bitches leave me the hell alone? “What do you want, Phoenix?” I murmur as I focus my attention on what Brooke is doing.

“I just wanted to see how you were,” she says, as innocent as ever. “I heard that you broke your arm.”

I narrow my eyes on her. “What game are you playing? You’ve never given a shit about me before. Why the hell would you start now?”

She lets out a slight huff, hating being questioned. “I want to make nice, ok? You’re Nate’s girlfriend and one of Jesse’s best friends. They’re my brothers and for some reason I can’t explain, I’ve always craved their attention. I want them to acknowledge me as their sister and have a relationship with them. Is that too much to ask?”

“Yes, it is,” I tell her. “First off, they’re not going to appreciate you trying to worm your way into their lives by using me, and secondly, they couldn’t give a shit about you, especially after you outed me for having bulimia and seducing Jesse, knowing he was your brother. I mean, are you crazy?”

“Hey,” she demands. “I went down with that ship too. The whole world didn’t need to know what I did to Jesse, but I told them anyway. I lost being captain because of that. I was doing them a favor by letting them know and all I got was shut out.”

“You’re just proving my point that you’re crazy. You could have come to us quietly and explained what was going on. You knew Caden was cheating on Trish the whole time. You knew the boys had a sister they didn’t know about. You had eighteen years to come clean and you didn’t, and most of all, there was no excuse for seducing Jesse. That’s just sick. Do you have any idea how traumatized he is by even the thought of what he did with you? And because of all that, those boys will never give you the time of day. They have literally no respect for you at all. You should back off now before you make things worse for yourself.”

“But-”

“No, Phoenix. Back off. You’re only going to cause more damage. Maybe the boys might come around in a few years and somehow learn to forgive you only because your blood, but not now. To them, family is the strongest bond to exist in this world, yet they feel absolutely no loyalty to you. You fucked up something that could have been amazing.”

I look up to find Nate walking our way with his eyes narrowed on Phoenix. She follows my gaze and sees that I’m right. “Fine,” she sighs as her eyes drop to the ground. She slinks away just moments before Nate reaches us.

“What the hell was that about?” he asks, taking the trash bag out of my hand.