I’ll never forget that night, shit hit the fucking fan and it ended with a boom. The boom being my car of course, but it’s not like I could hold it against him. Nate warned me, an eye for an eye and he came through. He took my car from me just like I’d done to him.

I tried to clear that one up a few times but in the end, Nate Ryder and his boys are going to believe what they want to believe. They’re the act first and listen later kind of guys and unfortunately for me, I was on the losing end of that one.

I still don’t know if they ever figured out the truth, but to be honest, I don’t particularly care. Josh got his head kicked in by Nate and the second he was able to walk again, I gave a repeat performance. After all, the fucker cost me my car.

Had it been anyone else who set fire to my car, I would have gone after them, but it was my actions that caused Nate to lose his beloved Camaro, so I took the loss and ever since then, I’ve been working my ass off to afford my new Charger.

I pull up in the student parking lot of Broken Hill High and roll my eyes as my sister grabs her things and lets out an irritated huff at having to put up with me this early in the morning. God, I fucking love her, but she’s really been giving me a hard time since I messed up her friendship with her best friend, Henley.

I did the unthinkable and slept with my sister’s best friend. To be fair though, while I did fuck things up in a big way, Kaylah is the one making it worse by not forgiving either of us. I can’t imagine what Henley is feeling right now, especially considering Kaylah and I transferred to Broken Hill only a few days after it happened. Henley must feel so alienated right now and to make matters worse, Kaylah has refused to speak to either of us. Though, she has no choice when it comes to me. We live in the same house and I’m making it impossible for her to ignore me.

Kaylah gets out of my Charger and walks ahead. “You can’t ignore me forever,” I remind her.

“Shut up, dickhead. I can and I will,” she says over her shoulder, getting looks from the few girls around her.

I jog to catch up with her, throwing my arm over her shoulder, knowing just how much she hates it. “Come on. When are we going to talk this through? I’m your big brother and Henley’s your best friend.”

“Exactly my point,” she seethes, trying to keep her voice low. “She was my best friend and you screwed her. Both of you betrayed my trust. How am I supposed to trust you again? I’m at a new school thanks to you and now I’m too freaking scared to get close to any of the girls here because all I can think about is that you’re going to try and get them in bed the second my back is turned.”

“Who knows, maybe they’ll try and get me in bed,” I tease, earning myself a sharp glare. I let out a sigh. “What’s the big issue? I’ve been with your girlfriends before and you’ve never had a problem with it.”

Kaylah jams her elbow into my ribs before pushing me away and making my arm fall heavy at my side. “She was my best friend. Henley was the one person I could trust not to fall for your ridiculous charm and you couldn’t just let me have this one thing.”

“It’s not like I intentionally went out to sleep with her, it just sort of happened. It was a one-time thing.”

“Oh, great,” she says, throwing her hands up dramatically. “Well, I’m glad you ruined our relationship over a one-time thing. I hope she was worth it.”

Damn it.

Kaylah stomps off towards the entrance of Broken Hill High and I give her space to calm down. Going after her now will only result in a full-blown, sibling argument that I really don’t want to happen in the hallways of our new school where we each have our own battles to face.

I’m left behind in a cloud of doubt as I dawdle up to the entrance. I really fucked things up this time. Though being a fuck up just seems to come naturally to me.

Maybe it’s time to start turning things around. While everything is going great on the field, everything else is a disaster and what kind of man will I be if I let this shit continue? Despite the accident with Nate being just that; an accident, I’m still not proud of myself. I should have fought harder to clear the air, instead, I allowed it to spiral out of control into this monster that I can no longer handle.


Tags: Sheridan Anne Broken Hill Boys Romance