Broken Hill Hurt (Broken Hill High 3)

Eyes all through the hallway start looking in the same direction, letting me know the school bad boy has just walked in and I can’t help but look too. Nate walks through the doors, looking like the girl equivalent of a wet dream.

He walks down the hallway and winks as he passes me, making me wonder if I’m overthinking the whole ‘not waking up in my bed’ thing this morning. He stops by his locker to throw everything in when Phoenix steps closer to me. “Watch yourself, Tora. You wouldn’t want to start a fight and have your boyfriend try to kill you…. Oh, wait. That already happened.”

I narrow my eyes on her as the mental image of my leg kicking out and smacking her right in the vag flies through my mind. I mean, that would be so damn satisfying, but apparently, I have a problem with violence.

I’m just about to give her a piece of my mind when I decide to be the bigger person. I don’t need to sink to her level and besides, that fire was the worst moment of my life. It was terrifying and I’m not about to let her turn it into something she can use against me. So, instead, I stand tall and let her know she’s got nothing. She pulls a smug smile as if she’s won something and walks away.

“What was that about?” Nate says, coming over and pulling me into his arms.

“You sister subtly suggested that you were behind the fire.”

His face scrunches up in disgust. “Don’t call her that. She’s not my sister.” He looks over my shoulder and his face scrunches again. “Shit,” he cringes. “I didn’t see all that.”

I turn my head over my shoulder and realize he’s talking about the paint on my locker that I’d already forgotten about. I shrug my shoulders. “It was a lot worse,” I explain. “Mrs. Kingsley just carted off a full trash bag of flowers, candles, and teddy bears.”

“Shit, really?” he grins. “I should have beat you here and stolen them. I would have had gifts sorted for you for the rest of our lives.”

I shake my head. “That’d be right,” I tell him before pursing my lips. “Is, um… Is everything ok? You were gone.”

“Yeah,” he says, giving me a smile that doesn’t reach my eyes, only serving to worry me more.

I look up the hallway and see a familiar body walking down it. “Ahh, just the guy I’ve been waiting for.”

“Huh?” Nate grunts as he follows my gaze to his best friend.

I ignore him as I push my way out of his arms and grab the massive candy bar leaning up against my locker. I can deal with the Nate thing later, for now, I owe somebody my life. I walk up the hallway, and when I say walk, I half run to get to Puck and throw my arms around him.

He catches me and wraps his arms around me. “Thank you,” I tell him. “I owe you the freaking world.”

He pulls back. “You don’t owe me anything,” he tells me.

“You saved my life, Puck,” I remind him.

“No, the paramedics did that. I just kept you going until they got there. I got a good feel of your tits too.”

I shake my head and ignore his ‘tits’ comment. He knows what he did was a massive deal but I’m not going to push, not here in front of the whole school. “Here,” I tell him, handing him the massive candy bar which is about the size of his long legs.

“What the hell is this?” he grunts with a smile the size of Texas as he looks at the candy bar in disbelief. “I didn’t even know this shit came this big.”

“Either did I,” I tell him. “But Google did and I convinced the company to make a rush delivery last night.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” he tells me.

I cringe as I look up at him. “Yeah… well, there’s more.”

“More?” he grunts. I reach into the back pocket of my jeans and pull out the piece of paper I’d printed last night and hand it to him. “What’s this?” he asks, taking the paper and unfolding it.

“A weekend in Vegas,” I explain as I watch his eyes scan over the paper. “First class tickets and you’re staying in the penthouse with all the boys.”

His eyes widen as he looks it over. “Are you shitting me?” he gasps as Jesse comes over and plucks the papers out of my hands. “This is too much.”

“You saved my life,” I repeat a little slower so hopefully he’ll understand this time. “This isn’t even close to being enough.”

“So, we’re going to Vegas?”

“Yeah,” I grin. “You can take whoever you want. Your family or the boys.”

“Holy shit, Tora,” he laughs. “This is fucking amazing.”