I walk through the doors of one of the biggest parties in Haven Falls with Jesse right by my side. I don’t know what convinced us to come here tonight, but the second the words Haven Falls came through his mouth, I was more than ready to jump at the opportunity.
Jackson and Tyson have tagged along with us while everyone else decided to stay in Broken Hill for the night. Tyson instantly disappears and I watch after him with a sigh. He’s been acting super weird since summer ended and while my head is telling me it’s got something to do with Brylee going away to Yale, my gut thinks I’m being silly. There’s nothing going on between them, at least, I don’t think there is.
I find a few of the girls that I used to hang out with at Haven Falls and they instantly welcome me in as Jesse and Jackson go and fuck around, causing all sorts of havoc just as they usually do.
The two of them together is one thing, but having them together while at an out of control house party is just an accident waiting to happen.
I try to ignore them as I dance and have fun with the girls, though I can’t help but feel that it’s not the same. Being around people from my old school without Henley just feels wrong. It’s not like we hung out with these girls much, we were more of an awesome twosome, but when we did, it was always fun. I hate that things are still bad with her but I don’t know what to do. Every time I even think about talking to her, the image of her with Jackson comes shooting back and my gut twists with betrayal.
Why does it have to be so hard?
As I make my way around, I see guys like Noah Cage and Rivers. They’re the two who would now be in the same position as Jesse and Tyson. They’re at the top of Haven Falls and I don’t doubt that everyone here is watching them with bated breath, just dying to see what they do next.
I see Noah’s sister, Tully, making her way around and then girls like Monica and Candice who were always there to make my life a living hell. Well, look at me now. I have one of the guys that they’ve always strived to be with. I’m so glad I don’t have to put up with that shit anymore. I’m in such a better place now.
I’m busy dancing when Jesse and Jackson come up on either side of me and hook an arm around mine. They drag me off the dance floor until I’m safely standing out in the fresh air. “What the hell was that? I was dancing.”
Jesse throws his arm over my shoulder and pulls me into his side. “I missed you,” he grins wide.
I roll my eyes. He didn’t miss me, they were just looking for a way to get under my skin so they could laugh about it later like teenage girls.
I turn around and when a see a blast from my past, I come to a standstill, sucking in a breath at the sight of Henley Bronx smoking with Spencer Jones. What the hell? Henley and Spencer? What is she doing with him? He’s not exactly a good guy. He’s not the worst, but definitely not a great choice of companion.
Jackson sees it almost at the same time that I do, but unlike me who stopped in my tracks, he forged forward in anger. Jackson plucked the cigarette from Henley’s unsuspecting fingers and dropped it on the ground before putting it out under his shoe.
“What the fuck, Henley? You smoke now?” Jackson demands as Jesse pushes in beside him. I find myself cowering behind Jesse’s shoulder and grabbing his hand, unsure why this seems to be terrifying me.
Henley looks up and down Jackson with a heavy scowl. “Excuse me?” she scoffs. “Since when do you care?”
I can’t do this. I try to tug on Jesse’s hand to pull him away but he’s not going anywhere, not as long as Jackson is standing right before a scowling Spencer. “I’ve always fucking cared about you,” Jackson says. “You were like a kid sister to me.”
Henley flinches at his words and regret instantly seeps into Jackson’s features. That probably wasn’t the best choice of words considering everything that went down. Henley raises her chin while narrowing her eyes, seeming like a completely different person than the one I once knew. “Fuck off, Jackson. You didn’t think that highly of me when you screwed me. How about Kaylah? She didn’t care when she left right along with you. You both abandoned me. I had no one, so don’t come all up in my face pretending to care about me now.”
Fuck, that hurt. I squeeze my hand into Jesse’s and he rubs his thumb over my knuckles, trying to silently soothe me, yet I can’t stop the anger that begins to pulse through me. What about me? She didn’t care about our friendship when she was busy screwing my brother.
Henley watches us with a smug smile playing on her lips as she lifts a bottle of Midori and takes a long sip. As she lowers it, she looks to Spencer. “Take me away.”
He grins down at her as though he’s imagining her naked and I watch as Jackson’s hands ball into fists. Before things went to hell, we were a family. Jackson wasn’t sugar-coating anything when he said she was like a sister to him, she was. She was like one to me too and seeing her like this is hard. She’s a good girl, not this…I don’t even know what she is now.
Spencer begins to pull her away but Jackson isn’t finished. He steps in Spencer’s way and as if on cue, Jesse steps with him, pulling me along.
Jackson looks down at Henley. “What are you doing?” he questions. “Who are you?”
Henley sets her jaw, trying to appear braver than what she is but I see the hurt in her eyes. “Get out of my way.”
Jackson doesn’t dare move, not nearly done here, but Spencer has other plans and steps forward, making the muscles in Jesse’s back twitch. “You’ve already fucked her over, man,” he says. “You looking to do that again?”
Jackson pulls back in surprise. “What? No.”
Spencer scoffs as though he’s won something. “Right, then move the fuck on. She wants to party.”
Jackson shakes his head, his fists clenching at his sides while his jaw clenches. I squeeze Jesse’s hand, silently begging him to do something. This can’t happen. Jackson can’t start a fight here, not with Spencer and certainly not with Henley.
Jesse nudges Jackson and puts a calm hand against his chest. “Come on, man. She’s not interested.”
Henley turns and walks away and I’m left feeling empty. Jackson has a hard time coming to terms with it and has to help himself to a drink. He feels things hard so I’m sure he’s currently flooded with all sorts of self-blame and hurtful thoughts.
I watch Henley go, seeing who she’s talking to and trying to get some sort of idea of what her life is like now, and honestly, what I’m seeing isn’t great. Is this our doing? Did we hurt her that badly that she’s fallen into the arms of guys like Spencer Jones?
Questions flood my mind and suddenly I feel exhausted. “Are you alright?” Jesse asks, turning into me and taking my shoulders. His hands rub up and down my arms and I sink into his chest.
“Can you just take me home?” I ask, really not wanting to be here a second longer.
“Yeah, babe. That’s fine,” he tells me, dropping his hand to mine. “Why don’t we find Jackson and see what he wants to do?”
I nod and let him pull me along. We find Jackson a moment later, throwing back shot after shot and I realize that it’s a lot worse than I had thought. He’s taking this hard. “Come on, man. Let’s get out of here.”
“No, I’m staying. I need to keep an eye on her,” he demands, scanning the crowd for Henley having already lost her.
“She’s not yours to look out for,” Jesse tells him. “She’s got her friends here and doesn’t want you hanging around. It’s only going to end up badly. Give her a few days and then you guys can go and check on her. She’s probably just surprised to be seeing you, and I’d dare say even hurt.”
Jackson’s eyes come to mine and I nod. As much as I want Jackson to stay and look out for her, Jesse has a point. If he was to hang around, it wouldn’t end well. We need to leave before we make things worse. “Come on,” I tell him, grabbing hold of his arm. “We need to go.”
Jackson’s eyes search mine and for a moment, he’s the same brother I had before all this shit went down with Henley
and I realize just how much I miss that guy. His head drops and a moment later, he puts the shot glass down on the table and lets Jesse walk us out.
Chapter 15
Kaylah
I lay on my couch, flicking through Netflix as Jackson walks through the door with an exhausted sigh. He drops down on the couch beside me and leans back into it. “What’s up with you?” I grumble, not bothering to tear my eyes away from the TV.
“Tired,” he grunts. “Just finished training when mom called.”
I chuckle to myself. There’s nothing worse than when mom calls for a family dinner. Don’t get me wrong, the four of us all sitting down and eating together is always great, but mom has a habit of calling family dinners at the worst times, and it’s usually Jackson who gets the bad end of it.
“Quit it,” he says, nudging me in the ribs. “It’s not funny.”
“Yeah,” I grin, looking up at him to see his hair slightly damp from his after-training shower. “It’s pretty fucking funny.”
Jackson rolls his eyes. “Don’t talk like that,” he reprimands. “You’re supposed to be a lady.”
“I’m dating Jesse Ryder. Trust me,” I say with a grin. “I’m certainly no lady.”
Jackson scrunches his face up in disgust. “I really didn’t want to hear that.”
I can’t help but laugh. There’s nothing on this earth better than teasing my brother…except those unladylike things Jesse does to me, of course. God, it’s so damn good, it should be illegal.
My phone rings and being the nosey brother that Jackson is, he leans over to get a look at my screen. “Rocko?” he grunts in confusion. “Why the fuck would Rocko have your number and why the hell do you have his saved in your phone?”
I shrug my shoulders. Do I really want to tell my big brother about that one time at the beginning of my junior year? Hell no. Though the big question is, why the hell is he calling me?
I hit accept on the call when Jackson barks out again. “Speakerphone.”
I roll my eyes and do as I’m told. “Hello,” I say hesitantly.
“Is this that girl who’s friends with my neighbor?”
I let out a sigh. I guess that one time at the beginning of my junior year wasn’t exactly memorable, but what am I supposed to tell him? He’s Henley’s neighbor but she’s not exactly classified as a friend at the moment, especially if you take the other night into consideration. “Umm…yeah,” I say, feeling on edge.
“What do you want?” Jackson spits, knowing exactly who Rocko is after spending way too much time with him on the football team at Haven Falls, and instantly deciding that having him calling his little sister is not something he’d ever want.
“That chick’s in trouble.”
“What? Henley?” Jackson asks as my brows dip down.
“Yeah, her,” Rocko grumbles with disinterest. “She just got fucked up. She needs help.”
My eyes widen as I look to Jackson with a gasp. Fucked up? What’s that supposed to mean? Is she on drugs? Got herself wasted and throwing up? “What do you mean ‘fucked up?” I rush out, demanding answers but the phone line goes dead.
“FUCK,” Jackson roars, flying to his feet.
One second we’re on the couch, the next, we’re out the fucking door.
We drop down into his Charger and soon enough, we’re flying through Haven Falls, both of us sitting in dead silence, wondering what the hell could be going on. What does he mean fucked up? That question won’t stop spinning through my mind and it’s starting to make me feel sick.
It takes us three minutes for Jackson to come to a stop outside her home. The first thing I notice is that her dad’s massive truck is gone, meaning he’s away again. He’s always away and most of the time, Henley has to fend for herself, but she can handle it. She’s strong.
We get out of the car and begin to walk up the path together when Jackson’s hand comes down over my chest, bringing me to a stop. “What?” I say, looking up at him in confusion. He stares at Henley’s house and I find myself following his gaze.
The front door is open and my brows furrow. Henley never leaves the door open like this, in fact, when her dad is gone, she’s even more particular about keeping it locked. It instantly puts me on edge.
We creep forward with caution, unsure of what we’re going to find. “Maybe you should go wait in the car,” Jackson suggests.
“Like hell,” I scoff.
Jackson groans and pushes me behind him in his attempt at being a protective big brother. He steps up to Henley’s front door and cautiously pushes it open. I peer over his shoulder and what we find has me feeling sick. Rocko certainly didn’t prepare us for this.
A gasp sails out of me as Jackson rushes toward Henley who lays beaten and broken on her living room floor. What the fuck is this? What happened to her? Who would do this?
Jackson scoops her up into his arms and as carefully as possible, he walks across the room to place her down on the couch. She looks terrible. Tears are streaming down her face and she looks to be in incredible amounts of pain. Seeing her like this kills me and I hate myself even more.
“What happened?” I demand, still peering around Jackson as he gets her settled on the couch.
She shakes her head and I don’t know if it’s because she’s not ready to talk about it or because she simply doesn’t want to talk about it to us. “What are you doing here?”
“Believe it or not,” I tell her with a slight shrug. “I got a call from Rocko saying that you needed help. We came straight away.”
“Rocko?” she grunts, just as confused as we were.
“Yeah,” Jackson says, helping her to sit up before reconsidering. “Come on, I should take you to the hospital to get looked at.”
“No,” she rushes out in that famous Henley attitude. “I’ll be fine. I just need help up and an ice pack. You don’t have to hang around.”
Jackson looks at her like she’s just lost her mind. “I’m not about to leave you alone with nothing but a fucking ice pack,” he demands. “Is there someone that you can stay with tonight? You probably shouldn’t stay in the house alone.”
Henley rolls her eyes, not liking being told what to do. “Yeah, can you call Tully? She’ll stay with me.”
“Tully?” I say taken back. “Tully Cage?”
“What other Tully do you know?” she throws back at me, making pain slice straight through to my soul.
Jackson steps in and looks back at me. “Go get her an icepack,” he orders. “Find some bandages too.”
I let out a sigh, but it’s not a bad idea. Despite her current state, I’m more than ready to fire back at her? Why am I the one getting her attitude? I’m the one who was wronged here, not her. She should be apologizing not trying to rip me a new asshole.
I make my way into her kitchen knowing exactly where she keeps her medical supplies. After all, I practically lived here and every time Jackson would get himself knocked around by guys like Nate and Jesse, we’d end up here, bandaging him back up.
I rifle around for everything I need and find a packet of peas before wetting a dish towel and taking it back out. As I walk back into the living room, I find Jackson booming with laughter and I scowl at the two of them getting along so well. “What are you talking about?” I ask, letting them know that whatever is going on here isn’t okay with me.
Jackson turns to look at me with a cringe. “Shit,” he says before looking down at his bare wrist. “Is that the time? I got to go.”
“Jackson,” I seethe in a panic, not wanting to be left alone here. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Bullshit,” he laughs. “I don’t want to be here for this showdown.” He walks forward and presses a kiss to Henley’s cheek before looking back up at me. “Clean her up. I’ll wait outside if you need me.”
I scowl at my brother’s back as he walks to the door and at the last minute, he turns and looks back at Henley. “Just remember, the trick with Kaylah is to go for the guilt trip. She�
�s a sucker for that shit.”
That little…
“Jackson,” I snap.
“Make her see the light, Henley,” he calls. “I miss hearing you two singing Taylor Swift at the top of your lungs while momentarily forgetting that you’re not as hard as you think you are.”
I glare at his back and Henley adjusts herself on the couch. “Can’t make any promises.”
“Well, try,” he says with a fond smile to the girl who ruined it all. “I want to introduce you to Elle.”
“Fine,” she says with a small smile and just like that, I know that Henley and Jackson are back on the same page while I couldn’t feel further away.
With a sigh, I decide to get this over with. I drop to my knees before her and hand her the packet of peas from her freezer. I get to work, trying to ignore the tears that begin pooling in my eyes. “Can we at least talk?” Henley asks, sounding hesitant.
I look up at her for a moment before letting my gaze fall away. “Not much to talk about.”
“Bullshit,” she says awkwardly. “How are you?”
I shrug my shoulders. “Pretty good,” I say, filled with hurt. “Broken Hill High is great.”
“Really?” she scoffs making me remember all the times we hated on the place.
She bites down on her lip before finally giving in. “Don’t get me wrong, the chicks there are brutal, but Jesse is there and he’s kind of amazing.”
“I didn’t think you’d have to deal with the chicks if you’re with Jesse? Doesn’t he, you know, keep them away?”
I shrug, putting a bloodied tissue aside and grabbing another. “He thinks he does, but you know how girls are when they want something. We don’t do things the way dudes do.”
Henley lets out a sigh before silence falls between us, each of us deep in thought. “You left, Kaylah. You didn’t even say goodbye.”
I look up at her, my fingers pausing on her skin. “Are you serious? You screwed my brother. You turned out just like all those other skanks who were using me to get close to him.”
“How can you say that? After the years we spent being friends, how could you possibly say that? You know that two-faced, fake bullshit isn’t me. It never has been and it sure as hell never will be.”
Jesse: Broken Hill Boys (Novella 5) Page 9