Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,67
it doesn’t lessen the brutal effect it has on me.
It’s been a whole fucking week since the night of all horrors. I wanted Armageddon and damned, I got it.
A wretched week since everything went to hell and Mia got shot right in front of my fucking eyes as the shithole we were in burned down all around us.
Seven days since she bled out in my arms and grew deadly still, I swear her heart stopped beating in my arms. And still, I fought my way out of there, walked through raging flames just to get her out and I’d do it all over again if I have to.
I can still feel the flames on my back, licking across the skin there, singing the clothes I was wearing, melting it to my skin.
And now, looking down at the bandages that cover most of my body, around my fucking torso, my arms and my legs, I can see the evidence of my curse, which is fucking nothing in comparison to what my actual punishment should be.
It’s because of me that Mia is somewhere in this godforsaken hospital, fighting for her life.
“Time is a good thing, son,” Dad says. I feel a heavy hand on my shoulder… the only one not useless. “Right now, you both need it.”
“Yes,” the doctor says. “Broken bones take a long time to heal, Julian. Including those second degree burns you sustained from that fire.”
I feel useless. I sit here, shirtless, my leg is in a brace and my right arm is in a fucking cast. My dislocated shoulder was well, relocated but the rest of my arm wasn’t such an easy fix.
I had to have an emergency operation to realign the bones but still, before they even told me, I already knew.
My dreams and hopes of going pro are all but impossible now.
My arm is shot.
“I don’t need time, I need to see her,” I mutter angrily, shaking Dad’s hand off me.
“Well, it just so happens that you can’t do that,” Dad says quietly, sitting beside me on the bed. I can feel his intent gaze on me. I turn to look at him, confused.
“What do you fucking mean?”
“That bastard, Nathan…” I lunge up onto my feet before he can say anything else and head for the door. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“He’s here? That fucker is fucking here near her?” I grit out, stumbling my way toward the door. Just then, the door swings open, and Cole walks in with a grim look om his face.
“Whoa, whoa, ugly duckling, where do you think you’re waddling off to?” he asks, eyebrow raised.
“Get out of my fucking way.” I’m fucking livid at this asshole for so many things I can’t say with Dad and Liam here. “Now.”
He just stares at me, not looking away.
“Block the door, Cole,” Dad calls from behind me.
“Why?” Liam demands. “Let him go. Someone needs to teach that scumbag a fucking lesson.”
“Okay, I think this is my cue to leave,” the doctor says. “Julian, take it easy. You inhaled a bit of smoke, so we’ll be checking your lungs and the respiratory system to see if everything’s a hundred percent back to normal.”
I don’t give a damn if anything is five percent back to normal when the fucker who sold off Mia to the fucking psychopath is close by!
He leaves and Cole ushers me back to bed, silent and thoughtful. When I’m back sitting because there’s no way I’m lying down on this shit until I see Mia.
“When last did you sleep?” Cole mutters.
“Since he fucking woke like an agitated lion from the operation four days ago.”
Cole looks at me, worry in his eyes. Then he quickly glances at my arm in a cast.
A piercing arrow of pain shoots through my chest at everything that will never be. All the plans we made, everything we thought we were going to do, the glory, the rush, the love of the game… it’s now gone. At least for me.
“Yeah well, you need to at least get some juice going of you want to take up that asshole.”
“Hey, hey, no one is taking up anyone here!” Dad says, now pacing from one end of the private hospital room to the other, a worried look on his face.
“What’s going on?” I demand. He’s been like this for days and now I can’t stand it anymore.
He stops and looks at me, then at Liam and Cole. “Liam, stand by the door and check if there’s anyone out there.”