Broken Hill Halo (Broken Hill High #2)

by Sheridan Anne

  Is that Jackson? I go to ask Brooke about it when I realize that she actually has no idea who the guy is, so I lean over to the junior on my other side. “Hey,” I ask. “Who’s that kid? Number 44?”

  He looks across at me before following my gaze down to the field. “Oh, that’s their quarterback. Jackson Millington,” he supplies, trying to give me as much information as possible. “He’s good.”

  I nod my head as I watch him running around the field. “Thanks,” I murmur. I hadn’t expected that which was silly of me. Of course, Jackson is their team quarterback.

  I mean, the longer I sit here, the more I find reasons that I don’t want to be here. I find myself wanting our team to absolutely annihilate and pulverize them.

  The teams line up, preparing for kick-off and I watch with interest as Josh gets benched which brings another round of chatter through the stands. When Josh was playing for our team, if he had been benched, it would have been a massive deal, but I guess all sorts of things are changing for him now. He probably has to earn his position on the team, no matter how good he is, or it could be a form of ongoing punishment.

  The game starts and I find myself tuning him out and watching Jackson on the field. He really is good and is putting our team to shame, though, the rest of his team doesn’t quite hold up to his level and our team starts pulling through.

  It’s going to be a close one, and to be honest, Josh used to be our shining star, but now we have this other kid who seems to be able to hold his own, but I’m pretty sure he’s a junior.

  I find myself watching the game with absolute interest and anticipation the further the game goes on. Brooke cheers and squeals beside me while throwing her hands up in the air every time our team scores a goal, but each time they do, the public team follows it up with one of their own. I mean, if I was a nail biter, I’d be feasting on them right now.

  This game is ridiculously good. I don’t know why I’ve avoided it all this time. My eyes flick between the clock and the field. They only have a few minutes left, and so far, the teams are tied, but during this game, I’ve learned that could change in the blink of an eye, though, Jackson has been playing the whole game and he can only carry his team for so long.

  The last thirty seconds appear on the clock and I watch with wide eyes as our team slowly makes their way back down the other end. “Come on,” I yell towards our team even though I hardly know any of them.

  The cheerleaders are going apeshit along with everyone else as the public team truly fight for it, but they’re exhausted, and our team is refusing to ruin their so far undefeated season.

  Ten seconds left and they’re nearly there. The player with the ball charges forward and it’s clear he’s going for it. It’s all or nothing. He sidesteps some big guy on the other team while giving it everything. His teammates are right behind him ready and waiting if he needs them. He feigns left to avoid being sacked before charging right with the ball firmly under his arm.

  Another two come at him and I grab Brooke’s hand, desperate to see how this plays out. Only the kid does this weird spin thing and a bit of fancy ass footwork before clearing them both and diving across the line as nearly every player on the field comes after him. He slams the ball down on the ground just as the buzzer sounds.

  “Hell yeah,” Brooke screams as I jump up and down.

  “Holy shit, that was so good,” I say as I try to calm my racing heart.

  “Did you see that?” Courtney yells while leaning around Brooke to be seen and heard as Bec whoops and spills her drink everywhere. “That was incredible. Best game of the season so far.”

  I can’t help but laugh, and honestly, I’m surprised by my school spirit. Our team cheers and celebrates down on the field as the cheerleaders rush towards them. People start spilling out of the stands and I turn back towards the girls. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  “Really?” Bec questions. “Let’s say hi to the guys first.”

  “Since when are you interested in talking to the football team?”

  A grin rips across her face as she grabs Courtney’s hand. “Since now,” she declares before pulling Courtney behind her and dashing down the stands and onto the field.

  Brooke lets out a huff. “We’re stuck here now.”

  “I know,” I groan as we slowly make our way down the stands behind the crowd.

  As we get to the bottom, Brooke grabs my hand and hauls me off to the side. “I got to pee,” she tells me. “Then we can go and find those skanks.”

  “Alright,” I say as I allow Brooke to drag me along.

  Once she’s done, we walk back down to football field and start scanning through all the bodies. The place is a flurry of activity with people wanting to get out of here, while others are already starting to party.

  Brooke talks endlessly about Maxen while we walk mindless around the people, trying to find Bec and Court. Josh stalks past and I find myself glued to the spot, especially as he sends a heavy scowl my way. He stops in his tracks and turns my way when one of the players from our team walks past and calls out to him. “Hey Josh, how’d you like warming that bench?”

  His scowl turns lethal as he turns his glare on the guy. “Shut the fuck up, Reed,” he growls before looking back at me and continuing to stalk forward.

  Shit. A heavy glare sets itself over my face as I silently beg him to leave me the fuck alone. I don’t want to deal with this right now, though, my only saving grace is that Brooke is with me and there’s a shitload of people around, so it’s not like he can try anything.

  I force myself to find my backbone and open my mouth to tell him where to go when someone cuts me off. “Hey. Tora, right?”

  I look across to find Jackson approaching with a cocky grin on his face and turn back to Josh who instantly stops. His eyes flick between me and Jackson a few times before he turns and walks away.

  A breath leaves me and I turn back to Jackson. “Um, yeah. Hi,” I say, curious what he could possibly want as Brooke looks between us, probably wondering why the quarterback of the public team is talking to me and knows my name.

  “What’s going on?” he asks as his eyes travel up and down my body. He steps right into my personal bubble and grins down at me. “You want to party tonight?”

  “No, thanks,” I say as I step back away from him. “We’re busy.” Brooke’s eyebrows pull down and I silently beg her not to but in, knowing she hates passing up a good party, though, partying with this guy is not a good idea.

  “You sure, babe?”

  “I’m not your ‘babe’,” I tell him. “And yes, we’re busy.”

  His eyes narrow as he considers me for a moment. “That’s right, you’re fucking Nate, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”

  He steps into me again and leans down to me. “You’re right,” he says as his breath hits my neck. “It’s not, but if you’re looking to screw someone who actually knows what he’s doing, then you know where to find me.”

  I bring my hand up and push against his chest, putting some distance between us. “I’m good,” I tell him as Courtney and Bec finally reach us.

  He grins that cocky grin and winks down at me. “Your loss, babe,” he says before stalking away with his hands in his pockets.

  “What the fuck was that?” Brooke demands as I grab her hand and start hauling ass to the parking lot. “Um, excuse me?” she says, not taking no for an answer as the girls follow my lead.

  “It was nothing,” I tell her when she won’t let it go.

  “That didn’t look like nothing,” she says.

  “It was nothing,” I repeat. “He’s just some loser who hit on me at Nate and Jesse’s party a few weeks ago. He’s just like Josh; a loser who can’t handle rejection.”

  “Oh,” she says. “You never told me about that.”

  I shrug my shoulders as out into the parking lot and head for Brooke’s car. “It wasn’t important and besides, that was the night
you first got together with Maxen. I wasn’t going to ruin it to complain about some douchebag trying to hit on me.”

  “Well, aren’t you just the best friend ever?” she grins.

  I wink and burst into a fit of laughter. “You know it,” I say digging through my bag for the car keys and unlocking it. A moment later we pile in and Brooke turns the music right up, saving me from having to discuss Jackson any further.

  We pull up at Bec’s house a few minutes later before we drop off Courtney, who luckily, seems to have sobered up.

  Next up is Brooke’s place. “I’ll pick you up in the morning,” I tell her, seeing as though I’m still driving her car.

  “Alright,” she says as she pushes out her door and rushes towards the house. She turns at the last minute and blows me a kiss before disappearing into her home.

  I get my ass out of there, desperate to get home and into Nate’s arms. I drive down the Ryder driveway ten minutes later, completely exhausted. All I want to do is get something in my tummy and climb into bed.

  Tomorrow is going to be a huge day. It’s Jesse’s birthday and I have a feeling he’s going to be excited; and no doubt I’ll be up until the early hours of the next morning partying with him and probably the rest of Broken Hill.

  I park Brooke’s car out the front and get my ass inside. The whole downstairs area is covered in darkness so I flick on a few lights and help myself to some dinner before turning them off again and heading up to my room with my plate of food.

  I stop by Nate’s room and push the door open to find his room completely empty. Hmm, maybe he’s down in the gym or out.

  Music comes blaring from Jesse’s room and I make my way down there. I knock on the door before pushing it open to find Jesse lounged back on his bed playing on his phone. He looks up as I come in. “What’s up?” he questions.

  “What’s going on? Where’s Nate?”

  “He went out with Parker,” he grunts as his attention goes back to his phone.

  My eyebrows pull down at his tone. “What’s up with you? Why didn’t you go with them?”

  He grins at me as his eyes begin to sparkle. “Well, if you must know, I was buried deep inside a nice warm pu-”

  “STOP. STOP. STOP. I don’t want to know.”

  “He was gone when I got home,” he laughs.

  “Where’d they go?” I question.

  He looks back at me and pushes himself up on his elbow. “When it’s Nate and Parker, you can never be sure. But my guess would be pulling some fucked up pranks.”

  My eyes widen. “What kind of pranks?”

  “Last time they beat the shit out of some kid. The time before that they threw smoke bombs through the window of a public party and smoked them out.”

  “What?” I gasp. “I classify that as a little more than ‘pranks’.”

  “They have a rivalry with some of the public guys. Though, I don’t get why they went tonight. It’s usually a one for one kind of thing and they were already one up.”

  “Huh,” I grunt as I start picking at my dinner. “What do you think they’re doing?”

  “No idea,” he shrugs again. “But I’ll find out soon enough.”

  “I don’t doubt it.”

  A small smile plays on his lips. “Nate likes to brag, but deep down I think he prefers me not to go. It’s his twisted way of protecting me. He doesn’t like it when I do stupid shit. He thinks I’ll go too far and end up in jail.”

  I nod my head, that makes sense. Nate is always looking out for his brother. Taking the blame for things when he had nothing to do with it. He wants Jesse to go far in life, but Jesse’s all about having fun and living life to the fullest, not caring about the consequences. He doesn’t care about his future, though, I’m sure that will change eventually.

  “I don’t blame him,” I grin. “Though, orange will look good on you. It would really bring out your eyes.”

  “Shut up,” he laughs.

  I push my way further into his room and drop down into his desk chair and get stuck into my dinner. “What do you think about the whole rivalry thing?”

  “Doesn’t bother me,” he says. “They’re smart about it. They’ve never been caught.”

  I shake my head. Not sure how I feel about this. I mean, I always knew Nate was capable of doing stuff like this. Hell, I’ve seen the kind of shit he does at parties. He and Jesse are usually the life of the party, but going out to spitefully get payback for something reminds me that under the sweet little nothings he whispers in my ear, he’s still the dangerous bad boy he’s always been. I just hope he’s not doing anything that he’ll regret later in life. I don’t want to be visiting him behind bars.

  I finish off my dinner as I contemplate what’s going on and eventually the tiredness gets the best of me, so I make my way back to my room. I pull off my clothes and crash down into my bed before reaching over to plug my phone into the charger.

  I instantly fall asleep but am woken a little while later to the feel of Nate slipping into bed beside me. “Shh,” he whispers. “Go back to sleep.”

  Too late.

  I roll in his arms and curl into his chest. “Where were you?” I question on a yawn.

  “Nowhere, babe,” he says. “Just settling a score.”

  “Your rivalry against public?” I murmur as my eyes close once again. “Jesse said it wasn’t your turn to settle the score.”

  His body stiffens for the slightest moment before he relaxes again. “Believe me. The second Jackson looked at you and got up in your face tonight, the ball was in my court. The fucker sealed his fate with that move.”

  “Jackson?” I question. “How do you know about that?”

  “I know everything when it comes to you,” he says as he pulls me a little closer and presses a kiss to my temple.

  “What did you do?”

  His chest shakes with silent laughter and I feel his lips pull into a smile against my skin. “You don’t want to know,” he murmurs before his hands start running through my hair. “Go back to sleep. I’ll tell you about it in the morning.”

  “Ok,” I murmur as another yawn sneaks up on me. “I love you,” I whisper into the night before realizing that I’ve just said it out loud for the first time.

  “I love you too, Tora,” Nate says as the darkness claims me, allowing me to fall back into a deep and very welcomed sleep.

  Chapter 6

  “Fuck yeah,” I hear yelled excitedly through the house at what feels like earlier than dusk.

  “Shit,” Nate groans beside me as he pulls me in closer and nuzzles his face deeper into the pillow.

  “What the hell is going on?” I ask with a groan of my own.

  Nate brings a hand up and rubs it over his eyes. “It’s his birthday,” he explains on a yawn. “The fucker never sleeps in on his birthday. He gets too excited.”

  “Damn it,” I moan.

  “Just wait until Christmas,” he warns me before we hear a loud bang. “Shit,” Nate groans again as he reaches for the blanket and pulls it up to cover my chest. “In three. Two. One.”

  The door is busted open with such force that it slams against the wall as Jesse barges his way through in. “Get up, fuckers. It’s my birthday,” he announces with a cheesy grin across his face before he flies over the top of me and squishes himself in between me and Nate.

  Jesse puts his arm around me and I do my best to keep the blanket up. “So,” Jesse says to me in a tone that he reserves for messing with his older brother. “I’m seventeen now. You can officially dump this dick and start climbing in my bed.”

  “Fuck off,” Nate laughs as he grabs his brother and hoists him away from me before tackling him off the side of the bed. The brothers laugh and end up ripping the blanket right off the bed. I let out a squeal, slap my hands over my tits, and run across the room to my closet hoping Jesse didn’t get an eyeful of my ass.

  Nate and Jesse laugh but I don’t find it quite so funny. I grab my robe and pull it over me before wa
lking back out and realizing that Nate has Jesse face down in the carpet so they must have been laughing at that as Jesse’s far too preoccupied to have seen my nudie run.

  I let the boys go as I duck into the bathroom to pee and brush my teeth. When I come out a few minutes later, they’re lounging on my bed with both their chests filled with red marks from where they’ve roughed each other up. Though I’d dare say from the amount of redness covering Jesse’s chest, Nate won this round.

  I walk over and grab my phone off the charger and get a glimpse at the time. “Shit, Jess,” I groan as I drop down beside him. “It’s only six in the morning.”

  “I know,” he grins proudly.

  I shake my head and lean against him as my eyes threaten to close again. “You’re lucky it’s your birthday.”

  “No,” he says. “You’re lucky it’s my birthday.”

  “Huh?” I grunt. “Why am I luc-”

  My words are cut off as Jesse grabs me and throws me over his shoulder before rushing out of my room and heading for the stairs. “Shit,” I gasp. “Put me down.”

  “No way,” he laughs as he hits the top step.

  “Shit,” I shriek again as he bounds down them. I hold on for dear life. I mean, all it would take is a slightly misplaced foot and we’ll both go tumbling down the stairs. Luckily, he makes it to the bottom, but he doesn’t stop there. He rushes through the house with far too much energy and all I can do is hold on for the ride, thankful that I already peed.

  A moment later, he pulls me off his shoulder and drops me into the couch in the den as Nate leisurely make his way in. “Why’d I have to get carried?” I groan. “Why couldn’t Nate go over your shoulder instead?”

  Jesse looks to his brother and I see the sparkle in his eye as he thinks about what I just said. “Don’t even think about it,” Nate grunts as he drops into the couch beside me.

  “So,” I say, looking to Jesse. “What now?”

  The sparkle still remains in his eyes. “Breakfast,” he says as though it’s the most exciting thing in the world.

  Not a minute later, Trish and Cade Ryder appear in the entryway of the den. Cade leans up against the wall as Trish walks straight in and over to her youngest son. Jesse stands up and Trish pulls him in for a big hug. He melts into her, making it as clear as day that under his bad boy exterior, he’s a big marshmallow. “Happy birthday, my love,” she whispers before giving him a big kiss on the cheek and pulling him back by the shoulders. “Now,” she says with a knowing grin. “What’ll it be?”