Broken Hill Hearts (Broken Hill High 4)

Chapter 1

On and on it goes.

Two weeks and four days.

Three weeks and one day.

Six long weeks and six fucking days.

Two damn months.

When will this end?

I miss him so damn much.

I have officially been his ex for two months. I still can’t believe it. It hurts every time I think about it; but as time goes by, I learn to manage the pain. No matter how bad it sucks.

I see him every day at school and watching him walk by, giving me one of those sexy smirks that I love so much makes me want to run to him. But knowing how deeply he loves me, combined with the fact we’re not together makes me want to throat punch him.

But I can’t run to him. Not yet at least. Well, to be honest, if I did do that, no doubt he’d catch me and hold me until the pain eases. No matter what our situation is, he’s always ready to give me exactly what I need… mostly.

I am his and he is mine. Right down to the core. I know it, he knows it, the whole damn school knows it, but until we’re able to be the best versions of ourselves, we can’t be together. When we were, we were a ticking time bomb which went off over and over again.

We were lethal together. Each other’s drug which we grew way too addicted to. I relied on it. Hell, I’m still addicted, but for us to work, we need to find a healthy middle ground.

My pity party for one is disturbed when none other than Jesse Ryder comes waltzing into my den on Sunday night. Though, the issue is that I can’t decide if it’s a good or bad thing. “What are you doing here?” I groan as he knocks my feet off the coffee table and strides past me to collapse down into the couch.

A heavy sigh passes his lips as he leans forward and props his elbows on his knees, focusing solely on the floor before him. “I’m in trouble,” he tells me.

I watch him for a moment, but the look on his face tells me this is no joke. The idiot has gone and done something bad that I’m going to have to bail him out of. “What’d you do?” I groan as my mind whirls with the endless possibilities, all of them centering around him getting in a fight with someone he can’t beat. I never thought I’d see the day.

Jesse sighs again as he fluffs a pillow, crashes down onto it, and props up his feet at the end of the couch as though he’s speaking with a therapist. I take a sip of my soda as I impatiently wait. “I’m in love.”

Soda comes spurting out my nose and mouth while I try my hardest to swallow as much as I can. “What?” I shriek as I wipe the soda off my face. “You’re lying right now. Tell me you’re lying.”

He looks at me over the armrest. “Believe me,” he sulks. “I wish I was.”

“Shit, that poor, poor girl,” I sigh. “Who is it?”

His face scrunches up as he turns to face me better. “You have to promise not to say anything.”

“Are you twelve?” I scoff. “Would you like me to make a pinky promise?”

His eyes harden as he watches me. “Fine,” he says, starting to get up. “I’ll go and find someone else to talk to about this shit.”

“No, no, no,” I rush out as the curiosity is nearly too much for me to handle. I mean, I’m trying to act cool, but inside, I’m dying. I need to know, like now. I draw a cross over my heart. “I’ll behave.”

“Good,” he says getting comfortable before holding his little finger out to me. “And for the record, I do want you to make a pinky promise.”

I can’t help but grin as I reach out my pinky and twine it around his. He shakes our hands as he narrows his eyes on me, trying to appear as serious as possible, but this is Jesse Ryder we’re talking about; he can’t pull off serious. It simply wasn’t wired into his DNA. “If you even think about breaking the sanctity of this promise…”

“I know, I know,” I roll my eyes. “You’ll tell everyone that I was crushing on Mr. Thompson when I was ten and how I was plotting to get rid of his wife so I could marry him.”

His eyes sparkle as he watches me. “You know that guy was gross, right? I’ve never seen so much hair on a man in my life.”

“Shut up,” I laugh. “I thought he looked manly.”

“More like an ape.”

I give him a stern look. “Can we stop discussing Mr. Thompson and start explaining why you think you’re in love with some girl you probably only just met?”