Broken Hill Hurt (Broken Hill High 3)

“That sucks,” he says.

“Yeah,” I murmur. “What are you doing here?”

He goes to answer when Nate walks through the door. He ignores his brother and walks right up to me. I wriggle over and make space before he climbs in beside me and wraps his arm around me. “How come you get to wear normal clothes?” I question, hating that I’m still in this ugly hospital gown which flashes my ass every time I get up.

“Because I refused to wear this stupid thing,” he says pinching the fabric of my gown between his fingers. “Besides, it makes it easier to get around without the nurses noticing.”

“I should have known,” I chuckle, wincing as the laugh tears up my throat.

Pain flashes behind Nate’s eyes as he reaches over to the little table beside my bed and grabs the glass of water. “Drink this,” he says. “It helps.”

I do as he says as he turns towards Jesse. “What’s going on? What’d you find?”

“Find?” I grunt.

“What?” Jesse says, looking at me. “You think that fire was an accident?”

I look away. My mind has refused to go there. I think I’ve been too freaked out to actually think about it but now that he’s in my face telling me things I should already know, it’s a bit hard to ignore. “Are you saying someone tried to kill us?”

“No,” Nate says, squeezing my shoulder. “I think whoever did this was just trying to scare us.”

“Why do you say that?” Jesse asks, probably more on board with my theory. “The door was locked.”

“Because the cops said that whoever did it had tried to put it out,” he says, making me wonder when he spoke to the police.

“What do you mean? How?”

“Apparently there was a burnt jacket that looked as though it was used to try put it out. But that fire was huge. A jacket wasn’t going to do shit,” Nate says.

“We need to get that jacket,” Jesse says.

“Why?”

“Come on, princess. Keep up,” Jesse groans. “The jacket will lead us to the fucker who needs to have the shit beat out of him.”

“Him?” I question.

“Just a guess,” he replies, leaning back in his chair and pulling his phone out again. “Everyone was talking about it at school,” he grumbles.

“What’s new?” Nate grunts. “What’s the worst of the rumors?”

“Oh,” Jesse says with his eyes lighting up in amusement. “There are some pretty good ones, but the best was that after you stood off against Brooke, you took Tora to the boat shed and locked you both in there before setting the fire and killing her.” Jesse looks to me. “Your funeral is apparently on Thursday and kids are lighting candles in front of your locker. There’s a whole fucking shrine.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish I was,” he laughs. “Originally the story was that you were both dead and all the chicks were sobbing, but when they saw me there… well, they figured I wasn’t that heartless to go to school after my brother died. So, at least they got that part figured out.”

I shake my head in disbelief. “Didn’t you guys tell them what really happened?”

“After the fifth time of trying to explain it and not being believed, I just started putting a hand on my heart and saying ‘may she rest in peace’.”

“Jesus,” I grunt. “There’s got to be some bad juju coming your way.”

Jesse laughs and goes to say something when the door of my room is pushed open and a very familiar face steps through. My jaw drops and I’m pretty sure a gasp comes sailing out.

My father steps through the threshold of the room, first his face is filled with worry and concern and I’m about to run into his arms, desperate for my daddy when his concern is replaced with anger. “What the hell is this?” he demands as he takes in Nate laying in my bed with his arms wrapped securely around me. “Get your filthy hands off her.”

I try to say something but not a damn word comes out as all I can think about is why the hell he’s here? And why isn’t he running to me, looking me over and making sure I’m ok like every other father on the planet? I haven’t seen him in well over five months for god’s sake. Why aren’t I his priority right now?

“Excuse me?” Nate says, releasing his hold on me as he pushes himself up off the bed. He walks forward and puts himself directly between me and my father, blocking my view of his disgusted glare. “As I recall, you care more about your work than being her father, so why start giving a shit now?”

“Nate,” I scold in shock. I mean, I knew he was pissed at my father for dropping everything and leaving me and mom behind, but never in a million years did I expect him to let loose on him.