Broken Hill Havoc (Broken Hill High Series 5)

Chapter 1

I barge into Brooke’s dorm room before collapsing down onto her bed, completely and utterly exhausted. It’s only my second week at college and to say I dove right in is a bit of an understatement… or as Nate and Brooke would say, it’s a major understatement.

I’m taking so many classes, but how can I not? I mean, I didn’t come here to fuck around and make friends. I came because I want to be the best damn criminal lawyer this screwed up world has ever seen, and that’s not going to happen if I spend my college years screwing around.

I’m here for a purpose and I’m going to make every single second count.

Even though Nate thinks I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, I see deep within his eyes just how damn proud he is. He loves watching me work towards my future, even if that means I’ve been falling asleep on the couch with my head stuck in textbooks and having shitty, quick meals just to get me by. Though naturally, he’s had a few words to say about that too.

Brooke continues typing away on her laptop, not even bothering to turn around to see who’s just barged into her room. “What’s going on?” she murmurs into the screen.

I throw my arm over my face and close my eyes as I revel in the darkness beneath my lids. “Nothing,” I groan. “Thought I’d crash here before my next class. I don’t want to drive all the way back home just to come back again later.”

“You’re not going to the study hall or the library?” she questions, feigning interest when she’s still focusing the majority of her attention on her laptop.

“I should,” I groan, grabbing her pillow and squishing my head into it. “I was up late last night and had an early class this morning.”

“How late is late?” she asks, finally sitting back on her desk chair and swiveling it around to face me.

“Um, I don’t know,” I yawn, bouncing my shoulders in a shrug. “Maybe two or three in the morning. I was reading up on something from my Political Science class and preparing for English this morning.”

“Tora,” she scolds. “You’re going to kill yourself. You can’t keep this up. And not to mention, if you’re up late every night, you’re going to be too tired to produce good work. You need to reign it in a bit and drop a class. You can pick it up again next semester. Ease into it.”

“I’ll be fine,” I tell her, waving off her concerns for what feels like the millionth time this week. “I just have to find a better way to manage my time.” Brooke grunts with a heavy disapproval dripping from her tone. “Is that roommate of yours due back anytime soon?”

“God, I hope not,” she groans. “That girl is a serious, A-class bitch. This morning, I got out of the shower to find her going through my phone and when I questioned her she shrugged it off as though it wasn’t a disgusting invasion of my privacy and acted as though I was the crazy one. I mean, is she for real?”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish I was,” she tells me. “I put in an application to get a new room. I can’t handle her anymore. The bitch stole my black heels and wore them out. They’re completely fucked now. I had to throw them out.”

“Your Jimmy Choo’s?” I gasp.

She slowly nods her head and I gasp. Brooke is big on her heels and even though something like that wouldn’t bother me quite so much, to Brooke it’s like committing the ultimate roommate crime.

“I don’t get it,” I tell her. “Why are you even doing this whole dorm room bullshit? We live twenty minutes down the road. You’d be so much happier at home and wouldn’t have to worry about locking your shit up.”

“I told you,” she groans. “I can’t handle living with my mom anymore. She’s such a controlling cow. I mean, the second the opportunity presented itself, I had no choice but to jump. And besides, you can’t tell me having a room right on campus hasn’t been beneficial. You’re here nearly every day.”

“Only because it’s convenient,” I say, grabbing the pillow from behind my head and throwing it clear across the room at her. “You’re the one who has to live here and I know you’re lying when you say how much you love it. You hate this place. It’s too cramped and you can deny it all you want but listening to your roommate having phone sex with her boyfriend is driving you insane.”

Her eyes flick away. “I love living here.”

“Liar.”

“I’m not lying,” she defends.

“Brooke,” I sigh, sitting up on her bed to give her the ‘look’. “How long have you been my best friend?”