Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,38
pain in her voice clear as day. “I’ve been subjected to this for a pretty long time.”
“How?” She chuckles, but it’s dead and flat, my chest aches. “Is it because of me?”
“You liked him, well, I thought you liked him. So, I was jealous of you and I thought I could get him from under you, just to spite you.”
“And the ‘him’ we’re talking about is…?”
“Shane.”
“Ah.” Figures.
“I thought you liked him but you… I have to hand it to you, Ice Queen, you didn’t even seem like you cared. You never flinched when I paraded myself all over him at school, hell you never looked twice or noticed how I practically fell into a monster’s lair. It was as if you were in your own world.”
I look away, thinking of the weeks that led to Nancy’s death and suddenly all I feel is shame and guilt.
“Kristine, I—”
“But then I soon realized you didn’t give a damn because you were now existing in a whole new world! A world that included the fucking amazing gods of Palos Verdes, the sexy Fitz brothers.”
My heart starts beating as melancholy and a wave of heavy sadness slam into me. I miss my boys. I want them all, at least to see their beautiful, perfectly chiseled faces and the eyes that captured my heart right from the start, just one more time. To see them and forgive past hurts because now, the future is highly uncertain.
“When?” I whisper. “When did you know?”
“The night of the race,” Kristine says. “Everyone saw that pissing off show Liam Fitz put out to fuck with you, but it was the way Julian handled you and the way you screamed when his car went up in flames… that bomb was meant for Julian. You knew that too because your reaction… it put you on their radar.”
I jerk up right, biting down on my bottom lip as pain screams at my body, but I need to hear this.
“What do you know?” I ask, tears welling up in my eyes. Kristine holds the answers I need, and it seems we’re currently alone. I don’t look at the huge warehouse full of rusty, old industrial equipment as I clutch the sheet to my body. Kristine must have taken this from the uncovered machines. “You have to tell me, Kristine, what do you know?”
“I really shouldn’t…”
“Kristine!”
“We don’t have any time. They’ll be back soon,” she says, her eyes wide with fear, but I’m not having it.
“Where did those bastards go?”
“Well, after they took that picture to send to your man and touched you a bit—”
“What?” I screech, unable to stop myself.
“Shh, don’t start freaking out now!” Kristine rushes, looking around nervously like she feels eyes on her already.
“Kristine, you have to tell me,” I croak. “What did they do to me?”
She eyes me through that one eye, and my stomach rolls, the meaning of that look making me want to throw up.
“Oh, God, no,” I whisper, shaking my head, the smell of blood now strong. I start feeling woozy again, but I can’t lose consciousness now.
“No, no he didn’t go all the way. I’m so sorry, Mia,” she says softly in a voice I haven’t heard from her since we first became friends. “They drugged you and you were out of it, so Sean, he arranged you in a certain way on this bed and then his brother…”
“I know all that. They took pictures. I was still awake.”
“And a video.”
“What?”
“Sean was touching you and they took a video…” she trails off, but I’ve already got the mental picture of what happened.
The sudden silence is almost deafening, but the horror that slams into me at the thought of what Julian might’ve seen.
Me, like this? Jesus Holy Christ.
When I look down at my arms and wrists, I can see my self-inflicted cuts, both fresh and old.
The two weeks without Julian were the hardest to me. Emotionally, mentally, I was a mess but now this? And all thanks to my father?
“What-t,” I stutter. Clearing my throat, I decide to put that aside and focus on the now and what I can potentially change in my immediate future. I don’t want to be that bitch who’s found dead in some abandoned warehouse/slaughterhouse with a funky stench of death hovering in it. I wouldn’t even be surprised if this place also saw swine flu by the looks of it. “What happened the night of that race, Kristine? Did you know those bastards were going to attempt to kill Julian?”