Broken Hill High (Broken Hill High #1)(59)

“And he actually wants to be with you, like, full on, boyfriend/girlfriend, lovey-dovey type of shit.”

“I think so,” I say.

She bites the inside of her cheek as she gets lost in thought. “I think you should go for it.”

I raise my brow at her. “And just forget about the past five years?”

“No. I mean, forgetting all that would be impossible, but I think if he works for it, you could learn to forgive him. I think you guys would actually be pretty good together,” she tells me. “He’d be intense, but a good intense.”

I think it over for a bit before falling back into the couch. “I don’t know,” I say. “There are a few things he needs to sort through first,” I tell her, thinking of how he couldn’t tell me why he treated me the way he did for the past few years. “After that… we’ll see.”

“Yeah, well,” she says with a sigh. “It’s about the same with me and Maxen. He claims he’s not a girlfriend kind of guy, yet he hasn’t left my side. He even introduced himself to my mom.”

“Shit,” I gasp with wide eyes. “How’d that go down?”

“Good,” she laughs. “I don’t know how he did it but he has mom eating out of his hand. She’s constantly asking me to invite him over.”

“Holy crap,” I laugh. “That’s funny.”

“I know,” she laughs as another text comes through, lighting up my phone on the coffee table. I lean forward and scoop it off the table before reading over the text.

Nate – I got your shit out of your locker. Bring Brooke back to my place.

I pull myself off the couch and pull Brooke up behind me. “Come on,” I tell her, “We’ve been summoned.”

“Huh?” she grunts as she grabs her things off the coffee table.

“Ditching party at Nate’s place.”

A grin sweeps across her face. “Hell yeah,” she says before ducking past the kitchen and grabbing a banana out of the fruit bowl.

We walk out and before we know it, we’re pulling up at Nate’s place to find not only his car but all the guys’ cars. We walk on in and she does her usual look around, still not used to being here.

I lead her straight through the house and to the den where I know they’ll all be and a moment later, I drop down into Nate’s lap while Brooke gets pulled down between Maxen and Jesse, which is where we spend the rest of the day.





Chapter 20


The bell for our Friday lunch rings and I let out a sigh of relief as I pack up my things. I’ve been suffering through this class for an hour too long and all I want to do is dig into my lunch and possibly convince Nate to meet me in an empty classroom and screw my brains out.

I walk down towards the cafeteria with Bec rambling on about the first football game of the season tonight and groan as she demands my attendance so us four girls can ogle the football team as they run up and down the field. Though, for the first time since being at this school, I couldn’t think of anything worse.

I mean, sitting up in the stands watching Josh being the star he pretends to be while Elle shakes her ass for attention, I mean, hard pass. I’d rather spend my afternoon sitting in the garage watching Nate work on his car and listening to whatever ridiculous jokes Jesse wants to throw my way.

I spy the bathroom coming up in the hallway and I look across to Bec. “I’m going to pee real quick,” I tell her. “Can you grab me something to eat? I’m starving.”

She rolls her eyes and smiles. The girls have gotten used to my new eating habits over the last few days though, whether or not they know the reason behind it is completely lost on me.

Bec continues down the hall towards the cafeteria as I duck into the bathroom. I quickly pee before washing my hands and tidying up my hair in the mirror. A second later, I step out of the bathroom with a grumbling stomach and make my way towards the cafeteria.

I’m just about there when a hand grasps my elbow and tugs me hard into the broom closet. I gasp at the suddenness of it before I’m slammed up against the wall with hands roaming over my body and someone’s lips crushing down on mine.

At first, I assume it’s Nate, but the smell is all wrong. The lips are wrong. The taste is wrong.

The lights are off, but it’s not too dark to make out Josh standing before me. Though, even if I couldn’t see him, it wouldn’t take me long to realize whose hands are pulling at my shirt.

With his lips crushed on mine, I pull my hands up in between us and try to give him a hard shove. Josh moves back all of one step before coming back for more. It’s enough to allow me to pull in a harsh breath but not enough to move out from around him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I yell as I continue to push him away.

With his size and strength, there’s not a lot I can do, especially as he grabs my hands and slams me against the wall again. “Stop fucking pushing me away,” he demands as he ducks his head down towards mine again.

His dirty lips are on mine again and I rip my head to the side. This can’t be happening. I need to get out of here but I’m stuck. “Get off me,” I yell.

Josh adjusts my hands so both my wrists are locked in just one of his as he slaps his other hand over my mouth. “Shut up,” he demands as he grinds his erection into my stomach while also pinning me to the wall with his body. “You’re fucking mine,” he growls. “I’m just taking what you should have given up weeks ago.”