Broken Hill High (Broken Hill High #1)(24)

“Yeah… not going to happen,” he says, repeating himself.

As I slide my underwear up under my towel, something occurs to me. “Hey,” I say, sticking my head out around the corner to peer at him. “Why haven’t you made any sexual comments about me in a towel yet?”

He smirks as he watches me. “Would you like me to?”

I narrow my eyes on him. “Answer the question, dipshit.”

He rolls his eyes. “Well,” he starts. “There are a few reasons. Number one. You had the balls to put me in my place yesterday. Not many of you girls do that, so from now on, you’ve got my respect. Number two. Seeing a chick walk around in a towel is not exactly a new thing to me.”

“Ugh,” I groan, cutting off whatever ridiculous thing he was about to follow that up with. “How are you such a whore already? You’re only sixteen.”

“Hey,” he defends. “I’ll be seventeen in two months.”

I shake my head in exasperation as I pull myself back into the safety of my closet and work on pulling up my jeans. “You’re an idiot.”

“Besides,” Jesse continues. “Nate would kick my ass if I kept up with the comments.”

“Huh?” I grunt. “How do you mean?”

“You didn’t notice my black eye?” he questions, making me shove my head back around the doorframe. “He wasn’t too pleased that I offered you my bed.”

My eyebrows pull down in confusion as I take in the slight bruising around Jesse’s left eye. “That doesn’t make any sense,” I tell him.

“It does,” he grunts with a knowing smirk that confuses me so much more. Jesse ignores the questioning look I send his way and reaches for my phone. “Could you hurry up?” he says. “I want to get home and go to bed.”

“You haven’t gone to bed yet?” I gasp.

“Nope. Maxen’s party is still going this morning. I only left when Nate demanded I pick your ass up.”

“Oh,” I grunt, taking in my phone that sits happily between his scrolling fingers. I clench my teeth together but decide to let it go. “So, you’re telling me you’re going to act like a decent human being towards me now?”

“Yep,” he says, popping the ‘p’.

“So, I guess I should probably do the same for you, huh?”

“Sure,” he says with a shrug, probably not giving a shit how I treat him.

I chuckle to myself as I start searching for a shirt. “In that case, you should probably know that I’m sick and your face is currently squished into the pillow I’ve been breathing on all night.”

“Ugh,” he says, throwing himself off the bed.

I ignore his grunting and groaning as I finish getting myself dressed. “I’m assuming you cavemen aren’t going to let me leave?” I ask.

“Nope.”

I let out a sigh and start packing a bag. “Here,” I say, throwing a bag at him and pointing towards a whole lot of my school things. I mean, if I’m going to be held hostage at their place then I better have something to do when I’m busy ignoring them, and I refuse to get behind on my school work. Not if I plan on getting into college.

Ten minutes later, we’re sitting in his Escalade and driving back to the Ryder home, the one place I really don’t want to be. “How come you get a car like this and Nate got a Camaro?” I question, looking around at all the differences.

“Believe me, mom and dad would have preferred he got an Escalade too, but he wanted that. They offer to buy one for him nearly every week but he refuses. He loves that Camaro,” he explains. “He bought it about a year ago and spent every weekend working on it so he could race it.

“Seriously?” I question as I try to wrap my head around his story. I mean, I did not take Nate as the kind of guy to spend his weekends like that. I expected wild partying and girls. Not working his ass off in the garage. “I always assumed his weekends were spent four inches deep.”

“Four inches?” Jesse laugh. “Give the guy some credit. He didn’t get his reputation by only having four inches.”

I roll my eyes and am pleased when my phone ringing draws the conversation away from Nate’s dick. I search through my bag until I find my phone and smile down at the screen when I see mom with an incoming video call.

I hit accept as fast as I can and hold the phone up before me. “Hi, mom,” I smile as the realization of just how much I miss her hits me. “How are you?”

“Good, sweetie. How are you?” she says through a bad connection as she sits in my Nanna’s living room beside my father. “I hope you’re behaving for Trish and Cade.”

“I am,” I tell her, ignoring the scoff from Jesse beside me. “What are you guys doing?”

“We’re just check-” she cuts herself off. “Are you in a car?”

At that, my father’s face appears on the screen as he looks at my surroundings. “Yeah, I’m with Jesse,” I tell them before turning the phone towards Jesse then back to me.

“Oh, that’s lovely. How is he? Is he doing well?” Mom asks.

“Ask him yourself. He can hear you, you know?”

Mom rolls her eyes as Jesse responds. “I’m doing fine Mrs. Roberts.”