Broken Hill Hurt (Broken Hill High 3)

Dad holds her for a second before noticing Nate is once again in the room. “I thought I made my intentions clear. You were to leave.”

“I thought I made my intentions clear,” Nate replies, still so clearly pissed off with my dad for leaving. “I’m not leaving unless Tora tells me too.”

Dad narrows his eyes on Nate and takes a step closer. I feel like I should warn him who he’s about to challenge, but then, dad’s ego could stand being knocked down a bit. “Tobias,” mom reprimands, realizing dad is about to take on a teenager. “What’s going on? What are you doing here?”

Dad lets out a heavy breath before looking back at her. “I am taking my daughter home.” With that, he turns those angry eyes on me. “I thought I told you to get dressed?”

“I’ll get dressed when I know what’s going on,” I challenge him.

“What’s going on is that your mother has dropped the ball and you’re acting out. I need to set things straight so I can get back to London.”

Anger pulses through me and I’m about to give him a piece of my mind, but mom beats me to it. “Excuse me?” she scoffs. “What did you just say?”

“Alyson,” dad sighs. “Now is not the time. Let’s get Tora home and we can discuss this in private.”

Mom steps closer to him. “I will take my daughter home when the doctor has signed her off properly, not when you deem it a good time according to your schedule.”

“Tough luck,” he says. “She’s already discharged. Time to go.”

Mom shakes her head at him before turning around to me. “Come on, darling. There’s nothing we can do here. Let’s go home before we make a scene.”

Dad scoffs behind her back and it takes everything in me not to grab my glass of water off the table and launch it at him. Instead, I narrow my eyes on him. “A little privacy, please?”

He scowls and looks at Nate. “Out.”

“I don’t think so,” I scoff. “As he said, he leaves only if I ask him too, and right now, it’s you I need space from.”

He looks at me as though I’m some sort of stranger before he turns on mom. “Look what you’ve allowed her to become.” With that, he stalks out of the room and I let out a heavy breath.

Mom falls back into the chair and Nate comes to me. “Are you ok?” he asks. “Just say the word and I’ll handle it.”

“Nate,” I groan. “You only know how to handle things with your fists. He’s the kind of asshole to sue and I’m not letting you get arrested because of him.”

“I give him the ok to try his worst,” mom grunts from the chair. I know she’s joking. She truly loves dad with every fiber of her being but she has a habit of letting a few things slip out when she’s pissed as hell at him.

I roll my eyes and Nate helps me to get out of bed, even though I’m pretty much fine now. He goes through the bag mom bought and finds me something to wear before heading into the bathroom and packing up the few things I have here.

“Let me get my things and I’ll come home with you,” Nate says once my room is packed up.

“You’ll do no such thing,” my mother scoffs. “If Trish found out that I let you walk out of here without being discharged to get in the middle of our family drama, she’ll eat me for dinner.”

“She’s right,” I tell him.

He lets out a heavy sigh. I see the desperation behind his eyes to fight my mom on this but he won’t disrespect her like that. “Here,” he says, handing me his phone. “I’ll steal Jesse’s. Call me.”

“Ok,” I murmur before he bends his head and kisses me. Mom clears her throat and he reluctantly pulls away. He winks before flashing me a cheeky grin. “I’ll sneak through your bedroom window tonight.”

“Again,” mom gasps. “You’ll do no such thing.”

Nate laughs before kissing my cheek and grabbing my bag. He walks out of the room and we follow behind. Nate steps up to my father and drops my bag at his feet before stalking away. Dad groans and reluctantly picks up the bag before leading the way out.

As we step into the parking lot, dad indicates for me to follow him. “We’ll talk in the car.”

“No,” I tell him, staying by mom’s side and showing off a united front. “We can talk at home,” I say, which can be interpreted as, whatever you’re going to say to me will be said in front of my mother.

He lets out another huff and stalks towards his car which must be a rental before mom and I walk towards hers.

“Why couldn’t he have just checked that I was ok and given me a hug?”