Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,89

her voice shaky. There are still tears in her eyes. I haven’t seen this much water works from her in all my life.

“Were they asking you more questions?”

She nods.

“About him?”

“Uh yes,” she sniffles. “But don’t worry about that.”

Here we go again. Keeping secrets from me with the whole, ‘trying to protect me’ bull.

“Are you all right?” I whisper. She’s trembling from head to toe as she looks at me. Her hand is raised as if she wants to reach for me, but she stops herself, then looks into my eyes.

“May I?” she whispers, tears glinting in her eyes as she looks at me.

My throat tightens as my heart pounds in my chest.

I heard what the doctors were saying when they were asking me vague-like questions.

If I felt any other aches in my body.

If I remember what might have happened to me.

If I had an idea of how my body came to be like this…

They were asking without really asking, but the anxiety that bloomed in my chest was worse than their inquisition because even with all this faking, I have blocked memories, hours that were unaccounted for when I was drugged.

I woke up shivering and bleeding in that freezer with a blank mind, I remember that, so now I wonder, what happened before that? Kristine couldn’t answer me.

I nod and she quickly grabs my hand and settles on the bed beside me.

“The doctors just told me that everything seems to be working as it should, well, I mean…”

My ‘amnesia.’

“I know what you mean,” I whisper.

“Yes, so that means you can leave this place and we could go home.”

Home.

Where is home exactly. To the house Courtney owns? What happened to her, anyway? But that doesn’t matter, I can’t leave here without seeing Julian.

“That’s good,” I mutter sadly.

I can feel her stare and I know she wants to say something. She’s been trying to talk about Nancy, thinking I’m struggling with the news of her death, but I think I’m starting to really accept that Nancy is gone. However, I do have one question.

“Is it true?” I mutter, trying to swallow the ball in my throat.

“What is, sweetie?”

“What you said before,” I whisper. “That Nathan killed my… I mean, Nancy?”

I feel her tense up beside me. Then she looks up at the open door, then back at me. In the blink of an eye, she gets up and quickly goes to close the door after looking out at the hallway as if to check if someone is coming.

“What are you doing?” I whisper, my heart kicking into cruise all over again.

She shushes me by placing a hand on her lips, then she grabs her bag and starts digging around for something. She fishes out her phone, then the next thing I know, she starts playing a static-like sound, maybe it’s white noise.

“Lie down, baby and pretend you’re falling asleep,” she whispers.

It’s the look in her eyes that makes me follow her instructions. She looks at the closed door, then raises the volume of the white noise and comes back to sit on the bed. This time, she clutches both my hands and leans in.

“I know what you did, sweetheart,” she whispers, her warm breath washing over my face at her closeness. My heart starts beating so hard, it feels like it’s going to burst in my chest. “And I know what you’re doing now.”

“What?” I stutter. Does she know? “What did I do?”

“Hey, it’s okay, Mia,” she whispers. “I know why you’re doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“Pretending like you don’t remember.”

Ah shit. So much for my Oscar worthy performance of pretending.

I could try to act like I don’t understand what she means but that would just be a waste of time.

“How did you know?” I mutter, my cheeks flaming with embarrassment.

“I knew the meant you started you talking about that bastard beating Nancy up.”

Ah yes. She jumped in just like that and added more information about Nathan’s abuse and his manipulation that I had forced myself to forget.

“God, I had this feeling that you knew… especially when you jumped in about Nathan wanting to sell me years before.”

“Oh, Mia,” she cries. “I really thought you forgot about that night.”

“It all rushed back to me in the moment.” All of it. With vivid clarity.

“At first I thought you were just saying but I saw it in your eyes, you were remembering,” she says with a heavy sigh.

“So, what happens to him now?”

“The police are taking this matter seriously, and well, with yours and my statement,