Broken Hill Halo (Broken Hill High #2)

by Sheridan Anne

  She’s all alone in every way possible and I should be happy about that. It was her idea for Josh to get me alone and to attack me. She had planted the seed and convinced him to film it. They were going to post it on every social media account they could get their hands on and I would have been destroyed. All for what? Turning down the quarterback and refusing to bend to the cheer captain’s will.

  Well, I certainly showed them as neither one of them are the captains of anything anymore. Josh is out of here and Elle is regretting every decision she’s ever made. Though, I had a little help from Jesse when it came to Elle.

  But now, watching her all alone, I can’t help but feel for her. I never had an issue with her before the whole Josh thing happened and she had backed right off after Jesse had threatened to expose her. I don’t like seeing people being left out or hurting and that’s exactly what’s happening to her now.

  “Earth to Tora,” Bec says, clicking her fingers in my face. “What’s going on in there?”

  I flick my attention back to the girls to find them watching me with a strange curiosity. “Oh, ah. Nothing,” I say before I grab my sandwich and dig in. “What’s going on?”

  “Are you serious?” Courtney groans. “Did you really not hear a word of that?”

  I press my lips together and shake my head. “Sorry,” I say as a grin starts to spread over my face. “I was distracted.”

  Court rolls her eyes before lifting her fork to her mouth and jamming her salad in. She chews it for a moment and swallows. “Let me guess,” she says. “You were giving the designated bad boy bedroom eyes and planning your afternoon escape to the empty science lab?”

  “No,” I laugh. “But it’s not a bad idea.”

  “Oh, geez,” she groans. “What I wouldn’t give to have a Ryder brother sharing my bed every night.”

  “First off,” I say. “Nate is taken, so there’s no sharing his bed. Secondly, you don’t want to share a bed with Jesse. He’d chew you up and spit you out. I could see you with Parker, though.” Courtney’s cheeks instantly flush and she looks away as Bec bursts into laughter. “What?” I demand. “What am I missing?”

  Bec can’t control her laughter and goes to talk when Courtney ribs her, trying to shut her up, but a chance at embarrassing her best friend is too good to pass up. “She slept with Parker two nights ago.”

  “What?” Brooke shrieks. “Since when? I didn’t even know you were interested in him.”

  “I know,” Courtney groans as she slaps her hands over her face in embarrassment. “It just kind of happened.”

  “Oh, you mean, you slipped and fell, and his dick just happened to land in your vag? Over and over again?”

  “Well… kind of.”

  “Huh? What’s that mean?” I grunt.

  “You know how I had a flat the other night?” I nod my head and she continues, “Well, he drove past and offered to help me change it, and I wasn’t going to say no, otherwise I would have had to wait for dad to come from the city. Anyway. I was trying to help him and we bumped into each other and I went to fall but he saved me,” she says with a cringe, “and then it just kind of happened.”

  “On the side of the road?” Brooke gasps.

  “No, in my car,” Courtney laughs as her face continues to flame bright red. “Can we get back to the whole football game thing now?”

  “Football game?” I grunt.

  “Who cares about the game,” Brooke says. “I want to know about Parker.”

  “Tough shit,” Court replies. “I’m going to need a few drinks before I can spill the beans on that one.”

  “Really?” I ask with wide eyes. “Is that because it was that good or that bad?”

  Courtney’s eyes begin to sparkle and she can hardly look at us. Brooke nudges me. “I’d say it was that good.”

  “Agreed,” I laugh. “Now, what’s this about a football game?”

  “Tonight,” Bec says. “You know, we’re against Broken Hill Public tonight. It’s on every poster around the school. I want to go.”

  “Really?” I groan as I look around the cafeteria and realize she’s right. There are about four or five separate posters advertising the game for tonight, all of which I haven’t noticed. “It’s just a bunch of sweaty guys running around, chasing a stupid ball.”

  “Come on,” Courtney says. “Have a little school spirit. Besides, it’s our senior year, we’re supposed to get into this shit and cheer for our team. It’s called making memories.”

  I look towards Brooke who’s trying to give me an encouraging look. “Oh, no. You too?”

  “Yeah,” she says. “I wouldn’t mind. I heard the public team are pretty hot.”

  “I wonder what Maxen would think about that,” I muse.

  “Shut up,” she says, elbowing me in the ribs. “We’re going whether you like it or not.”

  “Fine,” I groan, only because the idea of having a bit of a perve is too good to pass up, though, no one is going to come close to the sexy, smoldering dark eyed beast across the cafeteria. “But our team better win.”

  “Our team always wins,” Courtney says as she picks up her bottle of apple juice and takes a sip through a bright pink straw. “You’ll see. It’ll be worth it.”

  “We should make an afternoon of it,” Brooke declares. “We should go back to Tora’s place where there are no parents or little brothers or sisters to get in our way and get ready together. Maybe give Courtney a few drinks so she can spill the beans on Parker.”

  I can’t help but laugh. “I’m in.”

  “Me too,” Bec says.

  We all turn towards Courtney who has stayed awfully quiet and I raise a questioning eyebrow. “Fine, but I’m not spilling too many beans.”

  I grin across at Brooke. “We’ll give her vodka. She gets chatty with vodka.”

  She grins right back at me and nods her head enthusiastically. “Damn straight, she does.”

  We finish our lunch and I duck across to Nate’s table and go to sit beside him, only he catches me at the last second and hoist me down onto his lap before kissing me deeply. As usual, my panties turn into a ball of fire before completely disintegrating from my body, while the rest of me melts. “I can’t wait to get you home,” he tells me once he pulls away.

  I cringe as my arms wind around his neck. “Yeah… about that,” I say, becoming amused by the way his face falls. “The girls and I are going to spend the afternoon at my place then go to the game.”

  “The game?” he grunts. “You hate that shit.”

  “I know, but they don’t,” I tell him. “Besides, I’m trying to be a good friend. I’ve been spending so much time with you lately that I’ve hardly seen them, only at parties.”

  He nods his head. “Alright, but be safe. Josh could show up to that.”

  “I doubt it,” I say. “As if he’d want to show up to watch the game he was supposed to be the star of.”

  “I guess,” he muses as the end of lunch bell rings.

  I climb off his lap and he sends me on my way with a slap on the ass. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  I can’t help but smile and want to dive back in for another kiss when Brooke hoists me away with a hard yank on my arm. “Come on,” she says with a groan. “You get to suck face all night. It’s time for Biology.”

  “Fine,” I groan before I allow her to pull me along. We walk back up the hallway and quickly stop by our lockers before making our way towards our Biology class.

  We push through the doors and collapse into our seats while discussing how Brooke plans on going all out for the game tonight, wearing school colors and all. The door of the classroom opens again and I can’t help but look up at the scowling girl walking through the door.

  Ashley Samuels. Nate’s kind of ex. She still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that whatever was going on between them is over. In fact, it never really begun. She had some twisted idea in her head that Nate was going to fall madly in love with her and they were going to driv
e off into the sunset in his Camaro, where in reality, Nate was using her for sex and kept her around as it held of all the other girls from pining for his attention. Little did she know that he was already mine. He’s always been mine. I just didn’t know it.

  Her scowl doesn’t lift from me for one single moment as she walks from the door, across the classroom, and falls into her chair. Only then, does she pay attention to her friend, Heather, who sits beside her.

  “Geez,” Brooke murmurs under her breath. “When is she going to back off?”

  “This is Nate Ryder we’re talking about,” I remind her. “He’s the hottest guy in Broken Hill. The day she backs off would be the day she dies.”

  “True,” she grunts as the teacher makes his grand appearance. The class falls into silence and I do my best to concentrate on his lecture. After all, I’m thinking about getting into Marine Biology or becoming a Lawyer, so good grades in this class are kind of a requirement, you know, just in case.

  School finishes two hours later and I meet Brooke at her car as Nate had driven me this morning. Actually, he’s been driving me every morning which means my little R8 has been a bit neglected.

  Courtney and Bec show up a moment later and we pile into Brooke’s car before she peels out of the parking lot, cutting off Jesse who has to slam on his brakes to avoid giving her car a new paint job.

  We pull up into my driveway and I remind Brooke of the new code for the gate, not that I’ve used it much lately, but a second later, the metal gate starts peeling away and we head down to my home.

  I unlock the door and pull it open allowing the sense of home to take over, along with it, a hollowness in my chest, reminding me that I haven’t seen my parents in nearly two months.

  The girls pile through the door behind me and each of them dump their belongings on the entryway table before heading through my home and rummaging through the empty fridge. “There’s nothing to eat here,” Brooke complains.

  “Well, duh,” I say as I walk past the kitchen and towards the den. “I haven’t lived here for weeks. What did you expect?”

  “Shit,” she groans. “We should have crashed Courtney’s place.”

  “Nah,” Courtney grunts as she falls into a couch. “My little brother is having his friends over this afternoon. You made the right call coming here. We’ll just order in.”

  “Fine,” Brooke replies from the kitchen before I hear the sound of glass bottles clinking together. I flick on the TV and bring up the Kardashians and get comfortable when Brooke comes in with a warm bottle of lemonade from the cupboard, a bottle of vodka, and a bunch of cups shoved under her arm. “You ready to spill the beans yet?” she says with a wicked smile.

  “No,” Courtney whines as Bec hops up and helps Brooke pour out the drinks.

  “Tough titties,” Brooke declares as she starts passing out drinks. “Start talking.”

  She hands one to me and I decline, realizing that one of us is going to have to drive to the game and back, even though I’m secretly hoping that the girls get a little too trashed on vodka that they’ll forget about the stupid football game altogether.

  Brooke gets comfortable on the couch beside me and turns all her attention on Courtney. “I’m waiting,” she declares.

  “Oh, fine,” Courtney says as she throws back the whole drink. “So, Parker pulled up beside me and got out to help change my tire even though I told him it was fine because my dad was going to come. He gave me this really sexy boyish smile and waved me off before getting the spare. He flirted the whole time, and I swear, watching him change that tire was so damn hot,” she says as her cheeks start to flush with the memory. “I mean, how do guys just know how to do this stuff?”

  “Get to the good stuff,” Brooke laughs.

  Courtney rolls her eyes as Bec lounges back in the couch with her feet up, listening to the story I’m sure she’s already heard a million times. “Alright, alright. Keep your knickers on,” she laughs. “So, he was doing everything and I was trying to be really helpful, you know, like getting the tools and holding the little bolt things so they didn’t get lost, but he didn’t realize I had them. So, he turned to find them at the same time that I leaned in to hand them over and I smacked my head into his and fell back,” she explains as she points out a little bump on her forehead. “I got him pretty good.”

  “Oh, shit,” I laugh.

  “It’s so not funny,” she demands. “It hurt like a bitch. I had tears in my eyes from it. It was so embarrassing, but anyway, I was falling and he completely saved me from crashing into the gutter, and in doing that, he lost his balance and we both ended up going down. So, not only do I have a lump on my head, but I also have a graze on my ass.”

  “Shit,” Brooke laughs. “Let me see.”

  Courtney gets up and turns around before pulling up the back of her shirt and wriggling her shorts down a bit to give us a good view of the bruise and graze that cover the back of her hip and ass. “Wow,” I grunt. “That’s a good one.”

  “Yeah,” she agrees. “So, I was in the gutter and he was on top of me, and we both burst out laughing which is when he just…,” she goes quiet and gets lost in her head. “Kissed me.”

  Brooke starts squealing in her excitement before she leans forward and adds a little vodka to her already strong drink. “What? And then he just fucked you in the backseat of your car?” she questions.

  Courtney looks away and it’s clear that’s exactly what happened. “You make it sound so vulgar,” she says. “But yes, that’s technically what happened, though, I wouldn’t call it fucking. It was kind of slow and intense.”

  “My, oh my,” Brooke laughs. “Are you saying that Parker Jones made love to you?”

  Courtney grabs a cushion and launches it across the room at Brooke. “I told you,” she grins. “It was special.”

  “So…,” Brooke questions. “Are you guys together or dating or something like that?”

  “No,” she says. “I haven’t talked to him since. I don’t know. I mean, I wouldn’t mind dating him, but I’m not sure he’s up for losing his man-whore status.”

  I’d definitely agree with that. Parker Jones is known for his conquests in the bedroom and he’s damn proud of it. I can’t see him giving that up anytime soon. It would have to be one hell of a special girl to get him to change his beastly ways.

  I can’t help but laugh as I turn to Bec. “You have to make it even now,” I tell her. “It’s either Jesse or Tyson. Who do you pick?”

  “Ugh, no thanks,” she groans. “While it’d be fun, I’d probably get an STD from them.”

  “Agreed,” Brooke laughs. “You can share Max.”

  “Gee, thanks,” she laughs before refilling her drink.

  An hour later, the pizza arrives and we spend the next hour eating, drinking, and getting ourselves pumped up and dressed in school colors for what should hopefully be one hell of an exciting football game.

  Chapter 5

  I drive Brooke’s car with the girls giggling in the backseat as I pull into the student parking lot of Broken Hill High. The place is already packed, though I’m not surprised, the game starts in all of two minutes and we have to haul ass so we don’t miss kick off.

  We find a space that’s possibly the furthest spot from the field and get our butts moving while me and Bec hold up Courtney, who’s drunk just a little too much, but insisted she was still fine to come along. After all, she wanted to look at the hot guys with the tight asses.

  The closer we get to the field, the louder the noise is. This must be one of the biggest games in Broken Hill which brings nearly everyone in the community. I swear there must be at least someone from every single household in Broken Hill here tonight.

  As we approach the grandstand we look up into the crowd and try to figure out where the hell we’re going to sit when a group of juniors sees me and instantly starts shuffling aside. “Geez, pays to be Nate Ryder’s girlfriend,” Brooke says under her breath as we start making our way up the
grandstand.

  “It sure does,” I laugh. We get to our spot and I give the kid a smile and say a quick thanks before taking a seat and looking out onto the field.

  The cheerleaders from both schools are doing their thing and to be honest, they’re pretty damn good. Well, the public’s team is better. They’re more about dance, crazy tricks, and making it interesting. Our team is more about trying to be sexy and shaking their asses. Either way, the crowd is cheering right along with them.

  A voice comes over the speakers and introduces the public team to the field, and naturally, half of the crowd go nuts while the other half start booing, which actually just makes it that much louder.

  It’s hard not to get into the school spirit as the first team comes running out onto the field. I find myself on my feet just like everyone else. Hell, I’m even cheering for the wrong team. That is until their final player appears and I realize the person seems very familiar.

  Chatter spreads over the whole crowd and Brooke leans into me. “Is that Josh?” she questions.

  It’s hard to tell from this far away but it sure does look like him. “I mean, it makes sense for him to go to public.”

  “Yeah,” she says. “And to join to the team. He was after a scholarship, wasn’t he?”

  “Yeah,” I agree as my eyes follow his every movement. “But no college team is going to pick him up with after sexual assault charges and an expulsion.”

  “True. He royally fucked that one up.”

  Indeed, he did. I’m surprised he’s even been allowed to play.

  Our team gets announced, and again, everyone goes nuts. I don’t bother watching them come out as I’ve seen it a million times before, so, I just keep scowling at Josh, that is until he passes one of his teammates and I get that same recognition again.