Broken Hill High (Broken Hill High #1)(36)

With that, I start flicking through the pages when the door of the room is pushed open. My eyes instantly snap up and find Nate walking through the door as though he doesn’t have a care in the world.

“Nathaniel,” Mr. Miller reprimands. “What kind of time do you…?” He lets out a resigned sigh. “Never mind. Just take your seat and turn to page sixty-eight.”

Nate doesn’t acknowledge him as he walks up the row of desks and past me. His eyes lock on mine for the briefest moment and for a second, it’s as though I was thrown back to last week. His hard eyes scan over me with disinterest before flicking away and making me wonder if he has forgotten everything that’s happened over the past few days.

I try to ignore it all but find it impossible with him taking the seat directly behind me. I get on with my work and an hour later am relieved when the class is dismissed.

At lunch, I meet Brooke in the cafeteria and get ourselves something to eat. While we’re picking something out, Courtney and Bec come to join us.

We turn around to find our table when I see them all. The group of boys sitting amongst Jesse, though, luckily for me, Nate is nowhere to be seen. Then there are the cheerleaders with one particular nasty glare coming my way from the cheer princess. Next up, Josh’s scowl. I mean, the guy has never been turned down in his life so I’m sure when I told him to back off it would have bruised his ego.

“What do you say about sitting out in the sun today?” I suggest to my group of friends.

Brooke looks longingly over toward Maxen, who’s grinning back at her. “Alright,” she groans as Courtney and Bec shrug their shoulders, not really giving a crap where we sit.

The second our assess hit the ground, Brooke launches into her detailed explanation of her last two nights with Max. She goes from having a cocky attitude to getting a little more reserved and the by the end of the story, she’s blushing and acting as though she’s desperately in love with the guy.

I groan, seeing that she’s already starting to have real feelings for this guy. I mean, he’s a player, through and through. He’s just as bad as Jesse and Nate and she’s going to get her heart crushed.

Towards the end of lunch, I watch as the whole football team and cheer squad comes out of the cafeteria to take advantage of the rest of their break. The football team head down to the field while naturally, the cheerleaders follow, each of them tucked safely under one of the boys' arms.

They kick around a ball while we sit and watch the show.

It’s nearly the end of lunch when Elle’s best friend, Phoenix, points me out. Elle turns around and looks for me and the second her eyes meet mine, they narrow with some sort of nasty plan. She calls out to Josh who looks up at hearing his name before she points me out.

Together they both smirk and start making their way over here. They meet in the middle and beeline for me.

“Shit,” Brooke cringes, saying what we’re all thinking. “This isn’t going to be good.”

“I know,” I groan. “It was bound to happen sooner or later,” I say, watching in amusement as their arrogant grins turn into innocent smiles the closer they get.

“I don’t know,” Courtney says. “They look like they just want to talk.”

I scoff at her. “No way are they just wanting to talk,” I say. “Not after I turned him down and slapped her in front of the whole senior class.”

“Good point,” Courtney grunts.

Our conversation comes to a stop as Elle and Josh reach us with their fake smiles. “Hey Tora,” Josh says first with a strange excitement in his eyes. “What’s going on?”

I narrow my eyes on him, not liking that I don’t know their game plan. “What do you want, Josh?” I question while I busily ignore Elle.

“I thought we could talk,” he tells me as he rubs the back of his head. “I was kind of an ass the other night. I want to make it up to you.”

I scoff and turn my attention on Elle, not believing a word Josh says. “And I suppose you want to talk, too?”

“Look,” she says, instantly jumping on the defense as I get to my feet. “It’s my senior year and I’m not interested in playing games. I have too much riding on my shoulders being the cheer captain and if I want to get into my top choice for college, then I can’t afford any distractions. So, I think we need to put this thing to rest. We should go somewhere private and sort out our differences before things gets out of hand.”

“You’d make a great actress,” I tell her as Brooke, Courtney, and Bec also get to their feet, making it a point that we’re not buying their bullshit.

Elle’s eyes darken and I watch as her jaw clenches while also trying to maintain her innocent smile. Whatever this plan is, it involves getting me alone, and that’s some next level bullshit that I’m not going to fall for. “Come on, babe,” Josh says, reaching out and stroking his hand down my arm. “We only need a minute and then we’ll leave you alone.”

I pull back away from his touch and am about to tell him to shove his head up his ass when an arm is thrown over my shoulder. I startle at the suddenness of having someone so close beside me and whip my head around to find Jesse. Though, I shouldn’t be surprised. It seems that whenever something is going on, Jesse is always close by. “What’s up, Josh?” Jesse says, narrowing his eyes on him as though he knows their secret.