Unbroken

Leo looked down at me, his crooked smile stealing my breath. “I missed you guys.”

“We missed you, too,” I told him. “It felt like you’d gone away again, but we didn’t want to go to your house or anything in case you were busy.”

Actually, we hovered outside the gates of his house a lot of days, but there was no way I was going to admit that. Or how annoyed Hunter would get when I made it a mission to be there in hopes of seeing a glimpse of Leo.

It was probably unhealthy.

Leo’s gaze turned warm. “It won’t happen again. I’mherenow.”

I believed him.

Leo still had his arm around me as we talked. He wanted to know why I had kicked Hunter in the balls. “He deserved it,” I assured him.

Not even Hunter could deny that. He looked down at his feet a few times, and I didn’t like the way he suddenly retreated, speaking less and listening more. It was a behaviour Hunter was growing accustomed to, and it took a lot to pry him back open again.

I was in the middle of talking about how Hunter stole my breakfast bar right out of my hands when I heard a car screech behind us. I whipped around, watching as an impressive silver car slid into the bus zone. Leo followed my gaze too, but his body tensed straightaway. It took only a second for me to realize why.

The door opened and a tall, slender woman stepped out. Blonde hair done up, dressed in a yellow bodycon dress and high heels, nails done, fake boobs shoved high—

This was Mrs Itani.

The Queen of Brown Bay. The most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen in all my years of life, and I’d only ever seen her from afar.

Leo had made it a point to keep us at a distance, and I learned why in a matter of seconds.

She came bustling at us, her hand out reaching for Leo, but her angry blue eyes were pinned on me.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” she growled, coming between us. Leo’s arm fell from my body as I stepped away quickly. She was so close, I could smell her. Her perfume was mixed with the vague scent of alcohol, her eyes loaded with loathing and drink.

I wondered if she was determined to knock me down on my ass because she kept coming at me, raising her finger in my face as she prodded me on the shoulder with her other hand. My heart jolted, my shoulder already sore as she seethed, “So you’re the blonde trash he keeps hanging around.”

I was too shocked to react. Adrenaline fired through me, and I began to shake. Her glare flicked to Hunter’s as her smile turned sour. “And you’re the other delinquent who’s got his dirty, greasy fingers into my son.”

Leo’s reaction was immediate. He stepped in front of her, shielding me from her as he said, “Go home, Ma.”

“Not without you,” she retorted. “You don’t have to do this to win their favour, you know. They’re grimy little sponges, Leo—”

“Go. Home.” Leo cut in, angrily.

But she didn’t budge an inch, and now we were drawing the attention of the entire student body. I balled my hands, slick with sweat now as my heart hammered harder. I didn’t like confrontations. Didn’t like the way my stomach churned. Fear coated my skin, made my senses blur as I continued to stand still, unable to react.

“She’s nothing like Candice,” his mother argued. “She was proper,clean. That girl didn’t dress like she made trips to a trampy store, Leo.What are you thinking being here?”

My heart dropped, and my face grew hot. To hide my hurt, I crossed my arms to my chest, looking down at the ground. Feeling conscious as ever, I wanted to climb into a hole and disappear. Wanted the shakes to stop so I could breathe and not keep holding my breath until my lungs burned.

Hunter came at my side to wrap his arm around my shoulder, comforting me. He dropped his head to my ear, whispering, “She’s wrong.”

But was she wrong? One glance at me and you knew I didn’t belong in their world. Mrs Itani looked like a beautiful swan, and her son followed suit. Maybe she was protecting him. Maybe she thought we weren’t good for him because she didn’t know us. Maybe that was the problem—she needed to.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I heard Leo say. “But if you don’t go, I’ll tell Dad you came here and embarrassed yourself.’ His voice dropped lower. “What sort of discipline will he have in store for you then? Do you want a repeat of last time?”

Mrs Itani went quiet for a moment. One glance over Leo’s shoulder and I stiffened, pulse spiking. She was looking past him and right at me, and she was trembling in her rage the same way I was trembling in adrenaline.

“What do you want with my boy?” she barked at me, ignoring Leo’s words.

“We’re friends,” I answered in a tiny, quivering voice.

“Are you using him?”