I see a bunch of athletic guys dancing out the back and steer Brooke away towards the stack of red cups that take over the kitchen table. We help ourselves to a drink before exploring the house. We find a few girls that we used to go to school with and catch up before throwing back a few more drinks.
We meet new people and party with the old. We’ve probably only been here for an hour before Jackson grabs both our hands and starts leading us over to the dance floor.
We have a drink and then we have another. Those two are then replaced by some more and before we know it, we’re stumbling around the place with Jackson chasing after us, making sure we don’t run off into the arms of some stranger. For once, Jackson is doing something Nate will be happy about, though, he’d probably argue we were only here because of him.
The music drags us outside and we sway our hips with Jackson awkwardly dancing with us, probably not enjoying this party as much as he had hoped. Lil’ Jon and LMFAO’s song ‘Shots’ comes through the speakers and suddenly every single person in the place is out the back dancing and I have to laugh when the main part of the song comes on and everyone starts jumping while shouting at the top of their lungs, “Shots, shots, shots, shots, shots.” It goes on and on and I have to admit, even though Nate isn’t here, I’m having the best night of my life.
Brooke’s loud laughter draws the attention of Lukas and I groan to myself. How could I have forgotten that we weren’t supposed to come out here? She grins like an idiot as she sees him and her smile has my mind growing cloudy. What was I supposed to tell her about him? The thoughts can’t work themselves out and I shrug it off as she disappears with him, but as he looks back over his shoulder and winks my way, it all comes slamming right back.
“Shit,” I grunt, stomping my foot like a child.
“What?” Jackson questions, amused at my outburst.
I shake my head and the movement has me wobbling a bit. Jackson rights me as I search through the bodies for Brooke, wondering if I can get her back out of his man-whore hands. “Nothing,” I tell Jackson. “I just don’t like that guy.”
“What?” He laughs. “He’s not that bad.”
“Really?” I grunt, wanting to punch him in the throat for even suggesting it, though, I guess he doesn’t know what the guy was suggesting in my kitchen while his dick was still wet from being inside my best friend. “You’ve only known him for a few weeks. How do you know he’s not that bad?”
Jackson scrunches up his face as he thinks it over. “I guess, I don’t,” he admits. “But Brooke seems to like him and that’s all that matters.” I know he’s right on some level, but I can’t find the words to fight him on it. “Come on,” he says, taking my hand and hauling me off the dance floor with a suspicious sparkle in his eyes. “I want to cause trouble.”
“Trouble, you say?” I laugh with a ridiculously bad, old English accent.
“Jesus Christ,” Jackson groans. “This is going to be interesting.”
A few hours later, Jackson and I come stumbling out of the bathroom after making the three cheerleaders who have been in there all night think the place is haunted.
We crash into Brooke in the hallway, who’s jumping around like an idiot, busting to go to the toilet while Lukas stands right behind her. Naturally, I go with her and lead her to a different bathroom, far away from Lukas.
Once she’s done, I mumble something about going a different way. Brooke doesn’t question me and before we know it, we’re by the front door, squeezing our way through. People are lingering everywhere and my guess is that it’s well past midnight, but something has my eyes shooting up from the ground.
Josh Henderson stands right before me, looking at me as though I’m the last person he ever expected to see.
Crap. My eyes cut across to Brooke but she’s way too drunk to even notice what’s right in front of her face.
This is a football party and Josh used to play. Of course, he’d be here trying to get in with all of the players. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
The shock quickly wears off his face and is soon replaced with a quickly spreading grin. He scoffs as he walks forward and every muscle in my body tenses, ready to either run or throw down, but it doesn’t come to that as Josh simply walks past me, looking as though all his Christmases just came at once.
Shit, I’m definitely going to have to tell Nate about this and he is not going to be happy that I’ve kept it from him.
Brooke nudges me, wondering why the hell I’ve stopped in the middle of the doorway and I stumble on through it. I take her out to the street and lead her down to Jackson’s Charger, hoping I can distract her enough that she doesn’t realize what the hell I’m doing. I grab my phone and see three missed calls from Nate and a few texts from Jesse wondering where the hell I am. I ignore them and shoot off a quick text to Jackson.
Tora – We’re out the front. Can you take us home?
Jackson – K. Give me a sec.
We wait for all of thirty seconds before Jackson comes jogging down the street, unlocking his car so we can start getting in. I open the door for Brooke and she groans, looking longingly back up at the party. “I’m not ready to go,” she demands.
“I want to get ice cream,” I tell her.
Her whole demeanor changes and she practically dives into the car with me cheering behind her for a job well done.
Jackson reaches us and I explain that we have to stop for ice cream and because this was all his idea, he’s shouting us. He rolls his eyes and eventually agrees.
Ten minutes later, Brooke is sitting happily in the car beside me, licking her ice cream when she realizes Jackson is driving back towards our place. “What are we doing?” she demands. “I want to go back. Lukas was going to take me back to his place.”
“You don’t want to do that,” I groan.
“And why the hell not?” she argues, looking at me as though I’m the worst kind of traitor.
“Because he’s a douche. Just come home with me and we can talk about it tomorrow.”
“No,” she grunts. “I want to talk about it now.”
“Come on, Brooke,” I sigh as my eyes flick up to Jackson’s to see him watching us in his rearview mirror like a tennis match going back and forth.
“What’s your problem?” she asks. “Are you threatened by me having someone else in my life? Are you jealous?”
“What? No.”
“Then what is it? Why are you trying to keep me away from him? Don’t act like I don’t know what you were doing tonight. Every time he came close you pulled me away. I had to sneak off to see him most of the night.”
“Brooke,” I groan. “Please, let’s just talk about it tomorrow.”
“Fuck, Tora. Grow some balls and just say it.”
“Fine,” I groan, suddenly not feeling like eating this ice cream. “He hit on me in the kitchen last night right after he finished with you.”
“Bullshit,” she snaps, fixing her lips into a tight, unimpressed line. “He went to pee and came straight to bed.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” I gasp, wide eyed. “He peed, came out and got a bottle of water, asked me to screw him, and then went to bed.”
She shakes her head at me, watching me with nothing but a deep betrayal in her eyes. “You’re lying,” she says. “What we have is real. I feel it, Tora. Why can’t you let me be happy?”
“I do want you to be happy, just not with him. He’s a player, just like Max and you’re setting yourself up to get hurt,” I practically yell at her. “He said he wanted a threesome with us. Roommates and best friends. The ultimate fantasy.”
“Jackson, let me out,” she demands.
“Hell, no. It’s the middle of the fucking night. Just keep scowling at each other for two more minutes.”
“Jackson,” she yells.
“NO,” he yells back. “I’m not letting you get gang raped or jumped in the middle of the fucking street because you have the shits with your best friend. That won’t be on my c
onscience. Let me take you home and you two can have it out once I’m gone.”
She groans and sits back in her seat, just staring at her melting ice cream.
Shit.
“Brooke,” I say quietly. “I’m sorry, it’s just-”
“I don’t want to hear it,” she snaps at me. “Just… leave me alone.”
I sigh and fall back against my chair, hating that this conversation has gone this way. Maybe I should have waited until tomorrow or maybe I should have just said nothing at all. All I know is that I feel even worse than when all this bullshit happened in the first place.
Jackson pulls up at our place and she storms inside while I hang back and apologize to Jackson for having to sit through all that. “Sorry you had to witness that,” I tell him with a cringe as I look after Brooke.
“It’s cool. I guess it’s the only way I was going to find out what was going on with you guys. You’re both always so secretive about yourselves.”
I shrug my shoulders and give him a tight smile. “I guess.”
“Look, did that really happen? The shit with Lukas in the kitchen?”
“Yeah,” I tell him.
“Shit. Nate is going to kick his ass.”
“Yep,” I grunt. “Please don’t say anything. I haven’t told him yet and I don’t want him finding out through someone else.”
“Yeah, alright. Do you want me to get Lukas to back off?”
I look back to the house to where Brooke had disappeared and cringe. “Nah, that would just piss her off more.”
“Ok,” he says, reaching out and squeezing my shoulder. “Sorry your night went to shit,” he says. “I’ll see you around.”
“K,” I grumble, watching him go back to his Charger. As he pulls out of the driveway, I turn back to the house and make my way inside. The second I close the door behind me, Brooke slams her bedroom door, letting me know there’s no chance of speaking about this tonight.
With a sigh, I go down to my bedroom and get changed into my pajamas before grabbing my phone. Now it’s time to let Nate and Jesse know exactly what I was up to tonight, and let me tell you, they’re going to be pissed.
Chapter 9
I barge through my front door to find Jesse taking up residence on my couch. He’s laying down with his feet propped up on the armrest, completely making himself at home. “Geez,” I laugh, walking deeper into the house. “Make yourself at home.”
“Yeah,” he grunts, watching my TV, probably using my Netflix account as well, though from the looks of it, he’s not really watching the TV, just has it on as background noise. He’s more interested in studying the coffee table. “Brooke let me in.”
I nod my head as I drop my bag down on the kitchen table before diving through it. My fingers curl around the packaged plastic and I pull it out before dropping down on the couch beside Jesse, making him groan and grunt as he adjusts him to get comfortable again.
“Here,” I say, dropping the packaged plastic into his lap and stealing the remote to put something better on. I prop my feet up against the coffee table and relax back into the couch.
He looks down at his lap before his eyes widen. “A slap band?” he shrieks in excitement before tearing into the packaging and ripping it open. “Where the hell did you get this?”
I smirk as I watch him with the child’s toy. “A store was giving them away and the second I saw it, I thought of you.”
In the blink of an eye, he leans forward and slams the slap band against my ankle. The sharp slap rings out through the living room as my skin instantly stings with the slap. “Shit,” I gasp as the slap band curls around my ankle.
My hand shoots out to retrieve it, but Jesse is already there, uncurling it from my ankle, probably so he can do it all again. I rub the sting on my ankle as Jesse chuckles to himself. “If I knew you were going to do that, I wouldn’t have gotten it for you.”
I feel his laughter rumble right through the back of the couch. “What did you think I was going to do with it?”
“I don’t know,” I groan. “Get your brother. Not me.”
“No way,” he sulks. “He’ll take my slap band away.”
I can’t help but grin as I think of the three of us growing up together and realize Jess is right. Nate would more than take it away. He’d take it, use it on Jess until his skin was red raw, and then hide it away somewhere he’d never find it. Growing up with them was always fun, but not once would Nate let you forget who was boss. Now at nineteen, not a damn thing has changed.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I say as he straightens the band back out, preparing to use it again. I shuffle away just out of his reach. “Get Kaylah with it then. She’s not strong enough to steal it off you.”
A grin rips across his face but a moment later, it falters, making me think something’s up. I catch his eyes and give him a pointed look. I mean, this guy is one of my best friends and if something is going on his in life, I want to know about it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to fix it too. “Jess,” I say, reaching out and resting my hand on top of his. “What’s going on? It’s Saturday. Why are you here and not with Kaylah?”
He looks back down at the coffee table and I realize I wasn’t imagining it. Something is truly bothering him. He looks pained almost as though his heart is breaking and I swear to God, if Kaylah has hurt him, I’m going to rain down all sorts of hell on that girl. Friendship be damned.
Jess shrugs as he flips the slap band over between his fingers. “She-”
The front door is barged open and both our eyes snap across to it, knowing that with Brooke already down in her room, whoever coming through the door is certainly not someone who’s welcome. Except if it’s Nate, of course. Though he tends to use the window just to be a smartass.
Lukas stumbles into my home with the arrogance of an asshole. “Oh hey,” he grins with his eyes roaming over Jesse before coming to a stop of me. “What’s going on?”
Jess narrows his eyes on the guy as he doesn’t wait for a response, just walks through my house, into the kitchen and helps himself to the lasagna I made last night. The very lasagna I was going to reheat for my dinner. “Um…,” I grunt, getting to my feet and walking into the kitchen. “What do you think you’re doing?”
His eyes roam up and down my body before winking at me as though we have some dirty little secret. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
Jesse gets up off the couch and comes to stand directly behind me. I feel his wide chest on my back and realize he’s there as back up, ready and willing to step in if this shit goes south. I mean, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I can’t stand the guy. Something Brooke still can’t seem to see, which honestly has made living together the last few days a bit difficult. “What I mean is; what the hell do you think you’re doing barging into my house and eating my food?”
“I’m here to see my girlfriend,” he tells me as though he has every right in the world to be here. “And it’s Brooke’s house too.”
“Watch it,” Jesse growls from behind me.
I take a step forward but be careful not to get too close to the scumbag. “No,” I correct him. “This is my house. Brooke just lives here, so next time watch wh-”
“Really?” Brooke’s unimpressed voice questions from the hallway. “I just live here?”
Shiiiiiit.
I sigh as I turn towards Brooke. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“No, of course not,” she scoffs as her eyes flick between me and Lukas. “Look, as far as I’m concerned, I do live here which means I should be entitled to have people over. I invited him so he has every right to be here.”
With that, she turns and storms straight back up the hallway.
I look back at Lukas with a scowl and he grins. He winks and follows Brooke up the hallway, taking my fucking lasagna with him.
“He’s an asshole, Brooke,” I call up the hallway.
“And so are you,” she yells back at me.
“Fuck, I hate that guy,�
� I fume, heading back to the couch and crashing down into it in a fit of rage.
“Yeah,” Jesse says. “He’s a fucking douchebag. Just say the word and I’ll get rid of him.”
I think it over for a second before dismissing the thought. “Nah, that will just cause more problems with Brooke. She already hates me as it is. I don’t want to make it worse.”
“Don’t worry,” he says, flopping down into the couch beside me and handing me the slap band. “She’ll see it eventually and when she does, she’ll come back to you.”
“I know,” I groan, cracking the slap band so it stays in a straight line before slapping it against the palm of my hand and letting it rebound into a tight circle. “I just hate the way it is right now.”
“Yeah. You know what you need?” he questions. “You need to go to the gym and beat the shit out of a punching bag. It always works for me.”
I roll my eyes. If I was going to work my frustrations out, then I’d be more inclined to find Nate and have angry, hot sex, rather than work up a sweat and hurt my knuckles. “What I need is for you to distract me. What’s going on with Kaylah?”
Jesse groans. “Do we really need to talk about this?”
“Yes. Something’s going on and you need to learn to talk about shit rather than keep it bottled up, and when it comes to Kaylah, who else can you talk to? Tyson would just tell you to try some BDSM shit on her and all would be right, but guess what? Girls don’t quite work like that, so out with it. What’s going on?”
Jesse sighs before lounging back in the couch and focusing on the coffee table, just as he was when I first walked in. “She thinks I’m cheating on her.”
“What?” I grunt. “What the hell would give her that impression?”
“Because some skank at school told her I was.”
“But… you’re not, right? You wouldn’t do that to her. You love her.”
“What?” he grunts in disgust. “How could you even ask me that? Of course, I’m not cheating on her.”
“Sorry,” I cringe. “But, why would that girl tell her that?”
Broken Hill Havoc: The Broken Hill High Series (Book 5) Page 8