Broken Hill Hurt (Broken Hill High 3)

I woke up in the back of an ambulance holding Brooke’s hand as a paramedic hovered over me, saying things that I couldn’t make out. Someone told me to stay still while Brooke cried and eventually, I ended up here, still without a clue where the hell Nate was.

It was easily the worst moment of my life. Brooke stayed with me as we waited to hear what was going on with Nate. All she could tell me was that he was still out when our ambulance took off. I remember mom running in with tears streaming down her face. She pulled me into her arms and held me so tight. It hurt like a bitch, but all I could do was hold onto her and cry. The rest is all a blurry mess.

Except for when Jesse came in.

I would have been in this hospital bed for at least two hours before he appeared in the doorway. Relief poured over his face the second his eyes landed on mine. “Thank fuck. You’re ok.” I searched his face, desperate for the answers I’ve been dying for since the second I woke in the ambulance. “He’s fine,” Jesse said, walking into the room. “I broke a rib doing CPR, but he’s good. Stable.”

I closed my eyes as the relief washed over me.

Now, two days after that, I’m more than ready to get out of here. I’ve been poked and prodded at by nurses and doctors, reprimanded for not wearing the oxygen thingy in my nose, and nearly tube fed when I refused to eat from my throat being too sore.

My voice is scratchy as hell but in a few hours, I’ll be discharged and finally sent home where mom can fuss over me all she likes.

Nate has been a few doors down, but naturally, we’re not allowed out of bed to go and see each other, but that didn’t stop Nate from walking down here in the middle of the night and climbing into my bed. He held me all night, refusing to release me for even one second.

Neither one of us slept, despite how desperately our bodies needed it. We needed each other more.

We gave mom a bit of a shock when she walked in the next morning. But just that one time, she let it slide. She sent him straight back to his room with specific instructions to keep his ass there. I think she blames him for what happened. Maybe If we weren’t together, I wouldn’t have been in that boat shed in the first place, but that’s not fair. I was the one who stormed down there. I was the one who had the problem. Not him. Never him.

I tried explaining that, but all she did was shush me and make me drink more water, saying my throat needed to heal.

It’s only a few hours before I’m due to be discharged when Jesse walks in. “Shouldn’t you be at school?” my mother reprimands.

He scoffs and leans over to kiss her cheek. “How could I go to school with all this excitement?”

“I think excitement is the wrong word, sweetheart,” she says, giving him that ‘mother knows best’ tone.

“Compared to the rubbish those teachers were spouting at me this morning, I’d definitely say all the excitement is here,” he tells her. “Besides,” he adds, pulling a little brown paper bag with the logo from the café downstairs from behind his back. “If I were at school, how would you have gotten this caramel slice?”

“Really?” she asks as her eyes widen. She takes the little bag from Jesse and instantly peeks inside. “You’re an angel,” she tells him with a sigh of relief. “But I’m assuming this is to butter me up so I’ll leave Tora alone for a while?”

He gives her a tight smile. “Well… when you put it like that it sounds bad.”

She rolls her eyes and gets up from the chair beside my bed before giving Jesse a stern look. “Don’t let my daughter ride off into the sunset with your brother while I’m gone.”

Jesse salutes her. “Yes, ma’am,” he grins.

“You,” she says, looking down at me and giving me the stern mom look. “I’ll be back in twenty minutes. If you’re not right here when I get back, there will be trouble.” With that, she takes her caramel slice and walks out the door.

Jesse instantly takes her place and pulls out his phone. He brings up Nate’s number and hits call before talking into the phone. “Come down to Tora’s room,” he says. “Mumma bear is gone.” He hangs up and looks down at me to see my scowl. “Still haven’t got a replacement phone?”

“Nope,” I grunt before having a moment of silence for my fallen phone which turned into a mangled piece of metal during the fire. “Mom refuses to leave me long enough to go and get one.”