Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,17

get to Julian! Because of your sick, twisted vendetta against the boys that are better than you in every way…”

I hear the cracking of the slap before I even feel it. It’s takes me an embarrassing extra second to realize that Sean just slapped me across the face.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch!”

I can feel the blood on my tongue. The throbbing in my head starts intensifying, doubling, taking me over. I wince, my vision doubling for a second. Maybe I do have a concussion.

Shaking my head is so out of the question. I’m not a masochist, but I have no choice but to ride out the pain and focus.

“Truth hurts doesn’t it, Sean?” I mock, my voice hoarse and low. “How does it feel, always being second best at everything, huh?”

“I’ll answer that if you tell me this,” Sean says, his menacing, thunderous face right in my face as he leans down. I can almost smell his foul breath. I almost gag. “How does it feel to be sold by your own father?”

Everything in me halts to a painful stop at those words. A silent gasp escapes my lips like the wind has just been knocked out of me as the meaning of those words settle into me like a plague that quickly breaks down all my defense system, rendering them useless.

“What?” I can feel my heart stutter in my ears, above the throbbing of my head and the soreness of my body. “No.”

No… He can’t have sold me off already, has he? To them? No.

In my panic, I can hear them laughing ruthlessly at me. Mocking me. Making me feel so small and worth nothing.

My self-esteem and confidence are nowhere to be found now, gone and shot to hell from the moment I regained consciousness in the freezer but now, hearing this while I lie bare before them, my body a conundrum of aches and untold horrors, I can hardly breathe, except to deny.

What else can I do?

“That’s a lie…” I whisper and he laughs maniacally. Even I ca hear the doubt in my own voice. “You’re lying.”

My father would never… right?

But he did. My father did this.

He told these guys to abduct me, to hurt me… my own father and now I think that piece of paper I signed… is now in the possession of the most despicable and vile pair of brothers I’ve ever seen.

“Aww, I think we just broke her little heart,” Shane says mockingly, a huge grin on his face. He’s obviously enjoying my pain “Hell, I think she’s about to cry.”

“How?” I croak, blinking rapidly, mentally willing myself to stay present and alert but I’m slowly losing the battle. That contract was supposed to stay under wraps until he fulfilled his side of the bargain—which he was never going to do anyway.

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten what you did today, Mia,” Shane mocks. “But hey, I’m just fucking glad your dearest daddy called us back.”

Called them back? Could it be that the Matthews were one of the bidders?

“Oh God,” I croak, my teeth beginning to chatter as a new wave of pain slams into me. My head starts pounding with renewed vigor. It feels like someone set my face on fire where Sean slapped me.

My lower body is screaming in agony and I realize what I was feeling when I woke in the freezer is nothing compared to this and the drug in my veins.

I’ve never experienced hypothermia before, or having my body begin to thaw in a large room with a cold windy breeze. Everything hurts, and nothing is working as it should.

I can feel my lungs working double time as I fight to catch my breath, but it doesn’t help. It’s as if my body is shutting down slowly but painfully and my heart…well, that’s failing too.

“She’s having a panic attack, give her space to breathe,” that same female voice from before says. I can’t even move to look at who it is, but I can still hear her oh so familiar voice which I still can’t place. Why is that?

“Nah, I think the ice Queen looks fucking great just like this, with her perky little nipples on display. Pathetic. Exposed. Small. Beaten down and at my fucking mercy because Palos Verdes is my fucking town and it’s high time those bastards know it!”

“She needs to get warm, or do you want her to die of hypothermia?” she questions, her voice high pitched and so familiar, but all I can think, all