Nate clears his throat, stealing my attention away from my girl. “Puck,” he says giving me that tone that says it’s time to get down to business. “Who was it?”
I let out a sigh, feeling like shit that I wasn’t able to work it out. I should have been better than that. “I don’t know,” I tell him with regret. “They hit me from behind. I don’t really remember much more than that.”
“Fuck,” Nate curses. “Whoever the fuck it was better watch out.”
“No,” I demand, wishing I could sit up and face him man to man. “This one is mine.”
“Fuck that,” Maxen says. “You can hardly fucking move. Your arm is broken, man. You won’t be throwing punches any time soon. Just leave this shit up to us.”
I let out a frustrated huff and look up at the ceiling, slowly counting backward from five to rein in my anger. “I guess I don’t have a fucking choice then.”
Tora goes through my options and explains how I should be talking to the school and despite how badly I don’t want to do that, I don’t doubt my mother has already made the call. In fact, I should be going over what happened as the cops will probably be here soon to take my statement.
Nate grows fidgety beside Tora and now that he’s satisfied I’m not about to die, he’s more than ready to get this shit handled. He looks across at Jesse and then to Max before turning to Ty and making me groan once again. “I know that look.”
“You’re good if we go?” Nate says with a cringe. “We’ll stay if you want.”
As much as I’d like them to stay, I also want to know who the fuck did this, and if anyone is going to get the answers, it’s my boys. “No,” I sigh. “Go. I want to know who did it and I want them to pay.”
Nate nods and a moment later, the boys start heading for the door, leaving me to suffer through an endless gossip fest with the girls. These chicks are cool and all, and I’m thrilled to have Courtney here with me, but fucking kill me. Listening to this shit is worse than getting jumped.
Tora gets a call from Nate after a few hours who explains that they got absolutely nothing and with night falling, my parents send everyone home, but Courtney hangs back, silently waiting until the door closes, finally giving us the first bit of privacy we’ve had all day.
She steps into me, running her fingers down the bruising across my jaw. “Are you really okay?” she murmurs, still looking horrified that this has happened.
I reach up and catch her hand in mine, ignoring the pain that shoots through my arm. “I’m fine,” I tell her, squeezing her hand. “Better than fine.”
“You’re a shitty liar, Puck.”
“It made you smile though.”
Courtney rolls her eyes but has a hard time wiping the grin off her face. “I kind of hate you. You know that right?”
“Uh-huh. You hate me so much that you let me fu-”
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” she laughs, covering her ears and pretending as though nothing happened, though she can’t deny it, no matter how hard she tries. That moment was fucking perfect and I’ll be there to remind her every moment of every day.
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever felt a chick come so hard. You were squeezing me so-”
“PUCK!” Courtney shrieks in embarrassment, throwing herself down on the bed beside me and slapping her hand over my mouth. “Will you stop? Someone could walk in and hear you.”
“Let them hear,” I tell her, curling my good arm around her waist and pulling her in tighter. “It was fucking incredible and you know it.”
A pink flush spreads over her cheeks and she looks away, unable to handle this intensity between us. “I think I should probably go so your mom can stop pretending that she’s holding it together.”
I shake my head despite the way it makes the pain scream in the back of my neck. “You’re not going anywhere, not yet, babe.” With that, I tug on her waist until she falls down into me.
Courtney blanches as her hands shoot out to catch her fall, but I’ve got her. There’s no way I’m letting her get hurt, not now, not ever.
I bring her down until her face is hovering just above mine. Desire grows in her eyes and for a moment, I fear that she’s going to chicken out, but she closes the gap. She brings those rosy lips of hers down on mine and gives me the softest kiss I’ve ever felt, and I know that without a doubt, the second I can, I’ll be making her mine.
Chapter 12
Courtney
Fuck, I hate hospitals. They’re an endless reminder of bad times for me. First, there was my aunty who suffered through the burn unit after a horrendous house fire when I was a kid, then my grandfather passing of liver failure two years ago, and now Puck.