Breaking the Arm, Healing the Heart
Ashley Andrews
Ashley Andrews
Copyright © 2012
AshleyAndrewsBlog.com
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All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.
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Other Books by Ashley Andrews
Bleeding Love
The Heaven I found in Hell
Contents
Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter 2: Payback's a Bitch
Chapter 3: The Devil's Lair
Chapter 4: A Perfect Fit
Chapter 5: How to Start a New Year
Chapter 6: The User and the Used
Chapter 7: Some Love School, Everyone Loves Gossip
Chapter 8: Just Keep Using Me
Chapter 9: Places Where The Cool People Hang Out
Chapter 10: Commit That Deadly Sin: Envy
Chapter 11: A New Home, A New Attitude
Chapter 12: Liar, Liar Pants on Fire
Chapter 13: Trespassing Territories
Chapter 14: Damn High School
Chapter 15: Adventures of the Homeless
Chapter 16: Dateless and 'In Like'
Chapter 17: The Color Green
Chapter 18: Just Like a Fish
Chapter 19: Nights to Remember
Chapter 20: Day of Hearts
Chapter 21: Epilogue
MORE
Chapter 1: Prologue
Sicily Carmichael, together with her two best friends Bailey Hahn and Vanessa Prescott, removed their new Prada sunglasses the moment they stepped onto the marble floors of the Pacific Vista Mall.
"So, where do we go first?" Bailey asked the head cheerleader of Sun Coast Valley High.
Sicily looked at her friend before she shrugged her shoulders at the blonde. She wanted to shop, that was a given, but she didn't know where to start. She had just bought some new clothes a few days ago and had spent the entire day going to all the shops in this exact same mall. There wouldn’t be anything new. It was all just going to be the same things—except she remembered seeing a dress from Zara on some style magazine. She curved her lips into a small smirk before she tossed her medium brown hair away from her face. “Let’s go to Zara.”
Sicily looked at the shop mannequins. Some were dressed poorly in dull colors like grey or black, while others were draped in orange, purple, and yellow. She immediately liked the one displaying a purple halter-top mini dress. She felt the cloth -silk, and then looked at the price tag. It cost a hundred dollars.
"Not so bad," she said to herself as she touched the hem of the dress with the tips of her fingers.
"It's pretty," Nessa said. "It would be great for the New Year's party that Zane always throws."
Zane Lowe was Sicily's best guy-friend. They had known each other and been close since kindergarten. They became more than friends about three years ago when they first entered High School. Then they broke up a few months later when they realized that best friends would be all they would ever be, nothing more, and nothing less.
Along with the best friend title, Zane was also known as Sicily's protector, which meant no one messed with her. Because Zane was the captain of their school's basketball team, no one dared to stand up to him. Well, one guy was always trying to pick a fight with Zane. Lucas Mercer. Lucas, or as Sicily preferred, Luke-ass, was the only exception.
"Maybe I should," Sicily said to both friends with a twinkle in her eyes. "This will give Mallory and example of how to dress."
"Is she even going?" Bailey asked, tying her blonde hair into a messy ponytail. "Eww."
"You guys know Zane," Sicily replied with a mischievous smirk. "He'll do anything for a great party even if he has to invite Lucas' ex and my archenemy."
Mallory Jacobs was the head cheerleader of Marina Del Ray High, their school’s arch rival. Marina High and Sun Coast High were considered the top two schools in the state. They were also two of the best schools in the country. The students at the two schools excelled both in the academic and athletic aspects of their lives.
Sicily, Bailey, Vanessa, Zane, Lucas and Mallory were the crème of the crop, the best the two schools had to offer.
"Lucas and Mallory already broke up?" Vanessa asked, shocked by the latest gossip. "Since when?"
"Since Lucas walked in on Bryce eating the hell out of Mallory, duh," Bailey answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
"It's good to know our boy's growing up." Sicily said sarcastically.
Bryce Carlen was part of Sicily's inner group. He attended Sun Coast and was the point guard of the school's basketball team. He was also Zane's best friend. Together the two were always getting into trouble for their naughty escapades. Once and awhile their schemes included the girls, and often ended in detention. Bryce Carlen was his school's most renowned player; he was famous for is success with the ladies.
Even though Zane was much hotter than Bryce, the other guy scored more girls just because he worked at it. Zane didn't bother trying, he just took what fell into his lap. And right now that was Mallory. She may have just cheated on Lucas, and let Bryce have at her, but she was also the most beautiful girl in Marina. Sicily had to give her rival that. So when she’d gone after Zane, he hadn’t turned her down.
"So are you getting the dress?" Vanessa asked, looking slightly impatient with the wait. Vanessa knew Sicily had the most money among the three of them. In fact if she wanted to, she could probably buy the entire store. She thought about the waste of time and effort they spent gossiping about Mallory and Lucas, their rivals.
When Vanessa moved from New York during her sophomore year she got dropped into the middle of the feud. And still Vanessa hadn’t been able to piece together how they had all started hating each other. She had found out that until the seventh grade Mallory and Sicily were best friends.
"Yeah, I am," Sicily said, disrupting Vanessa's thoughts. Sicily turned her back to her friends and headed over to the cashier to pay for the dress. She got out her Gucci wallet and removed a hundred and ten dollars from it before she handed the money over to the salesperson.
They decided to go to Victoria’s Secret next. Sicily was so bored with this she wanted to scream. They needed to liven things up. She turned and looked at her friends. “Last one in the changing room with three bras to try on, buys lunch,” she challenged, and then she turned and ran. The small group shoved their way out of the store and out into the mall, racing in their high heels and laughing.
Victoria’s Secret was just a few doors down so it wouldn’t be much of a race, Sicily knew, but it got them moving. She’d run in and snatch up three bras in her size. She knew exactly the ones to get and where they were in the store as she’d just been in a few days before. Sicily glanced behind her to see how much of a lead she had.
And slammed into what seemed like a mountain of flesh. Hard. She felt one of her three-inch heels sink into something soft and her body twisted, her elbow connecting with a face. She watched in horror as she knocked someone to the floor and Sicily couldn’t help followed them down.
She heard him hit the floor, something crack, and then she landed on top of him, knocking the breath out of him in a hard gasp.
She heard the guy suck in air and yelp in pain.
Sicily rolled off the body that had kept her face from meeting the floor, and sprawled beside him. She watched he
r shopping bag skid across the polished surface and saw Vanessa move to retrieve it.
"Shit," Sicily cursed to herself when she realized what had happened. Before she could move or turn to see if she could help the guy she’d mowed down in her dash to Victoria’s Secret, another guy leaned over the man beside her.
"Lucas, what the hell happened?" He leaned down and tried to pull the downed man to his feet by his arm. "Are you okay?"
"Ouch! Don’t do that. God, that hurts. What the hell!" Lucas shouted. "Get away from me, Zack!"
The injured man carefully sat up and cradled his injured arm in his good hand. He tried to get his feet under himself to stand up, but couldn’t do it without using one of his hands and he didn’t appear to want to let go of his injured arm.
Oh, man, she thought, staring at his arm and how it bent at kind of a weird angle. It looked like she’d broken one of the guy's arms. Her gaze moved from his injury up to his face, she was about to apologize when her eyes met the furious glare of her enemy. “Lucas!” she spit out.
"You," he said menacingly. "What in the hell were you doing!” He put his uninjured hand onto the marble and tried to push himself up and stand. But he ended up slipping, falling and shouting even more due to the pain. He shot a string of curses at no one in particular, until his grey eyes landed on Sicily once again. “You! Oh, my God, you stupid idiot! You broke my fucking arm!"
Sicily had been dealing with Lucas’ attitude toward her for years, his venom didn’t phase her in the least. Besides she wasn't the kind of girl who was threatened by a guy's strong build, deep voice or tall height since she was surrounded by varsity ball players almost all the time in school. Besides, her best friend was big.
She looked at Lucas without showing any emotion before she bent down so that their eyes were on level. Instead of apologizing for her actions as she would have if it had been anyone else on that floor she couldn’t resist adding fuel to his already crazed temper. "One, I am not stupid," she said with a smirk on her face. "And two, who knew a girl was strong enough to break your arm? What a great story that will be to share with everyone at both our schools."
She touched Lucas' arm and he hissed when she pressed her finger into his skin. It hurt, she knew it hurt. If Lucas were someone else, anyone else, Sicily would have helped that person right away. But this was Luke Mercer, the guy Mallory had betrayed her for, the guy who had broken Sicily’s heart when she was in Middle School. The guy she really hated.
In those days she may have been completely spoiled. And she probably acted as if the world listened to each and every word she said, but she still had a heart. The only bad thing about it was that it was very choosy, and unfortunately for Lucas, Sicily's heart wasn't going to help him after what he put her through in the last few years, or after the way he’d talked to her a few minutes ago.
"Don't you know what this means?" he said, his tone still venomous.
Sicily shook her head, no. Her smirk had disappeared and was now replaced with a look of thoughtfulness. It had been a long time since she’d seen Lucas' this close. The last had been at the town's park, when they were all at the same Middle School. He had the same jet-black hair that he had back then, although it seemed shorter now. He was just as good looking now as he was then.
Sicily couldn’t lie about that, even though she hated the guy to death, her angst towards him never affected the way she saw him physically. He was tall, probably about six-foot-four, dark, because of his tan, and handsome, with those mesmerizing sometimes-hazy grey eyes and a sharp jaw line. Before she could continue studying his features, he stopped her and continued the argument.
"Basketball season starts in a week, ditz!"
"And?" Sicily asked even though she really didn’t care. She got to her own feet and looked down at Lucas, sitting on the floor looking furious, and some how pitiful.
He glared at her again. She raised her eyebrows at him and stuck a hand down, intending to help him to his feet.
He batted her hand out of his face, the irritation clear. "How can I play with a broken arm?" he practically shouted.
Sicily started. Shit. Zane and Lucas played the same position. They were the forwards of their respective schools, the captains, the playmakers, the star players and the ones who would make most of the baskets during the game. In short, they were the most important.
Coaches like to tell their players that there was, “No I in team.” But that was pretty much a rah rah deal. In high school there would be no team without players and team leaders like Lucas. He provided much of the confidence and bravado needed to push everyone to excel. Both Lucas and her best friend Zane had egos the size of Asia. After having listened to Zane rant about basketball a gazillion times, Sicily knew how Lucas would feel about this right now. He’d be scared, angry, and really pissed off.
But then she remembered their past history and once again, her smirk was back on her face. "Sucks to be you,” she said. “You aren’t going to be able to play, are you?”
"Like I didn't know that, Barbie," he said, looking at the cheerleader in disgust.
"Gee, I can already foretell the future, Luke. With Marina High School without its number one player for the season, and Zane feeling just great…how do you think this year will end? I’ll bet on Sun Coast!" Sicily said with a wink.
She knew she should pity Lucas for his current condition, but after calling her an idiot, a ditz, and Barbie within the span of twenty minutes, why should she care how he felt?
"You little wench!" he said, trying to stand up again.
Sicily hooked her finger under Lucas' chin to lift it up as she wanted him to meet her gaze. The first thing she noticed was how soft his skin was. She quickly shook her head and refused to think like that. She smiled an evil and very pleased smile at him. "I'll be watching the games," she said before she took Lucas' good arm and helped him stand up, whether he wanted her to touch him or not. "And so will you."
With the rest of the group trailing behind, she took charge. Taking Lucas to the nearest hospital and calling her parents to let them know what happened since they were close friends of Lucas' mom and dad.
She never could have foreseen the consequences of her mad dash through the mall, not only for Lucas, but for herself.
Chapter 2: Payback's a Bitch
"But that’s not fair?" Sicily shouted at her parents as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Why do I have to babysit a seventeen-year old?"
The moment Sicily's mom and dad got her call regarding Lucas and his injury they called his parents to deliver the bad news. Together, both sets of parents headed over to the hospital to check up on Lucas, who at the moment was wearing a sour look. He disliked the fact that he was going to get a cast on his arm for a month and a half, but what sucked more for him was that he wouldn't be able to play basketball. His parents tried soothing him, even bribing him just to calm him down, but there was no backing off for Lucas. He’d been mean, and mouthy, a relentless ball of anger focusing all his angst on her.
"Consider this your punishment," Sicily's mom finally as ran a hand through her blonde locks, which Sicily obviously didn't inherit. "Next time you'll know better than to run through the mall where obviously you can injure some unfortunate person."
Sicily mimicked her mom’s actions, running her hand through her hair. Only Sicily’s hair was a dark brown with a light scattering of red highlights. She let out an exasperated sigh as she realized she wasn’t going to have a choice but to do what she was told. Her parents were taking a hard line on this. And she’d be doing it alone.
Vanessa and Bailey had left her the moment they got to the hospital while Zack and Tanner were told politely by Mr. and Mrs. Mercer to let their son rest during and after his operation.
The hospital room was large, and private, since Lucas’ family was loaded and money was no problem.
But breathing hospital air, starring at the hospital walls, were going to make her hyperventilate. She hated it here. All eyes were on he
r and she tried hard to suppress a laugh at the irony of the situation. Instead of watching Lucas, the injured one who had plaster on his arm and was lying helplessly on the hospital bed, both sets of parents and Lucas himself were staring at the cheerleader as they discussed her punishment.
She usually enjoyed basking in attention, but not at the moment as she didn't have the upper-hand. "It was an accident!"
"Accident or not, you should've been watching where you were going, and you know better than to run inside a shopping center like that," her father said in a tone that sent shivers up and down her spine.
Her dad was another one who just demanded attention, not in the same way that Sicily did. When he walked in the room you noticed. He had a powerful presence, no matter if he were at the office, the mall, or even at home. His deep voice carried conviction and purpose, whether it was in a courtroom or here at the hospital.
"I wasn't walking on the street," Sicily pouted, struggling to get him to see her side. "Don't tell me to look left and right and wait until the stoplights turn red."
A snicker erupted from Lucas and that earned him a glare from the other seventeen-year old in the room. She knew her father hated being disrespected or disobeyed, and Sicily just did both. If she were an animated character, her ears would probably be shooting fumes of poisonous gas. Luckily, she was able to control herself from saying anything drastic. She knew whatever her father said was final, and so, she decided not to waste her sweat and saliva trying to change his mind.
"Fine," she said as if she was forced to say it. "It's only a few days until we have to go back to school anyway."
Lucas chuckled but instead of him receiving another venomous look from Sicily, he got a clueless one with her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “What?”
Her father sighed. "Sicily," he said warningly. "You'll take care of Lucas until he gets better. When school starts you'll have to help him every day once classes and your extra curricular activities are done. Oh, and on weekends.”
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