Puck (Broken Hill Boys 1)

Ever since that day, he’s never spared me a second thought, but for some Godforsaken reason, I’m always extremely aware of him.

As if sensing my eyes on him, his gaze falls down to mine and his eyes narrow. He looks at me as though I’m some kind of stranger or a puzzle that he doesn’t care to work out, but all I know is that we’re locked in each other’s gaze, both unwilling to be the first to look away.

My cheeks begin to flush with the intensity of his eyes upon mine and something tells me that he knows exactly what he’s doing to me.

It’s like drowning in a pool of blue opal. Damn, I’ve never noticed just how blue his eyes were before. They’re startling and it’s impossible to look away, especially with that tanned skin and dark, messy hair that has me wanting to run my fingers through it.

What the hell is this and why is my heart racing so damn fast?

Puck Jones is a tall glass of hard liquor, completely and utterly dangerous, which is probably why most of the girls around the school are so into him. Though it’s not just him, it’s all five of the boys; Nate and his brother Jesse, their cousin Maxen, and of course Jesse’s best friend, Tyson.

Anger instantly sweeps over me and I find myself desperate to slam my fist into his gut for the little sad kindergartener who was left without a friend, but laying an unwanted hand on Puck Jones, or any of his friends for that matter, would not be wise.

These guys are not the kind to back down from a fight, even against a girl. No matter what, they always get their way and they always get what they want.

Before I have a chance to ruin my whole senior year, Nate’s shoulder charges into mine and I wobble back a step. His girlfriend, Ashley barks out a sharp laugh as Puck’s hand shoots out. He captures me around my wrist and steadies me on my feet, leaving my skin burning from his touch.

The words ‘thank you’ are on the tip of my tongue, but before they have the chance to be spoken, he disappears into the crowd, leaving me gasping for breath.

What the hell was that?

I’m left feeling breathless and as Brooke checks that Tora’s doing alright, I pour myself a hard drink and throw it back.

Sorry, Bry. There’s no doubt about it, we’ll definitely be walking home tonight.

Brylee cheers as the shot flows down my throat. Despite her goodie-goodie ways, there’s nothing she loves more than having shots at a party and letting loose, she loves it, even more, when we get to do it together.

Usually, we make a deal that one of us gets to drink while the other stays sober. It’s rare that we get to party together, but tonight, I’ve changed the rules and that’s exactly what we’ll be doing.

With Tora feeling better about her Nate encounter and no one picking up on my Puck one, we head back to the dance floor and make it our bitch.

The four of us have been friends all through high school but my friendship with Brylee goes way back to elementary school when I tripped on the playground and got covered in mud. She tried to help me clean up, and in doing so, we both ended up worse than what I started. We’ve been inseparable since our lunchtime detention that day, making this whole Yale and Harvard thing so much worse. There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s going to get in, and I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself when that happens.

We dance until our legs get sore and even then, we continue on. The night is incredible and the liquid courage pulsing through my veins has made it possible for me to put Puck to the back of my mind.

Josh Henderson makes his appearance once he’s got Tora in his sights and we all laugh as he makes his way across the dance floor. A path seems to clear for him wherever he goes and I watch in amusement as the cheerleaders try grabbing for him.

Josh steps up in front of Tora and hardly gives her a chance to say hello before his lips are crushing down on hers with his tongue forcing its way inside her mouth.

I watch in disgust. That looks wet, like really wet.

Brooke, Brylee, and I watch the show each with a different expression on our face. Brylee watches on in awe, thinking just about everything is romantic while I cringe at the way Josh seems to be eating her face. I mean, Josh is hot, but what he’s currently doing to Tora definitely is not. Brooke laughs beside me before giving Tora an encouraging thumbs-up, always down for a little action.