Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,126
Liam starts. “The truth prevailed. Mia never lied to you.”
It’s like a punch to the gut. I’m silent as I stare at him, like what he’s saying is foreign to my ears but I know it’s not. The thing in my chest is telling me it’s all true.
“Dude, Mia was right about everything she said,” Liam goes on. “She really thought her life was in danger, that’s why she ran.”
“What about when she was missing?” I question.
“She has full and detailed accounts and evidence to match each day that she was reported as missing,” Cole says, looking pleased. “She really does have an IQ that matches Sherlock Holmes.”
I’m tempted to fire back that Shezza is nothing more than a fictional character hyped up by Hollywood, but in this moment, the relief that floods my system is too intense to fire out insults. I wouldn’t be able to do them justice anyway.
“She has evidence?” Dad questions, the tense expression on his face melting bit by bit.
“Yup,” Cole says. “Saw everything myself Records. CCTV footage of the hotel we traced her to that other time. Everything really.”
“Holy shit,” I mutter, running a hand through my hair.
“You do know what this means now, don’t you?” Cole looks at me, a look of relief crossing his face.
“But coach…”
“Is waiting for you back at school, I filled him in on everything.”
“And if Dad can take care of letting the world know of your innocence,” Liam says, looking at our father who nods, taking out his phone to make phone calls, obviously desperate to make sure the Fitzgerald family name is cleared of any public wrong doing. The secret stuff however, will remain hidden in plain sight. “Now you’re all set to resume life as you intended to live it.”
Resume life…
“Mia,” I whisper, searing pain shooting through my insides. The way I treated her….
“She really did come through for you and cleared your name,” Liam says, all the bravado draining from his face. “You’d think we could have shown her a little bit more trust when she practically told us she didn’t do it.”
“I never doubted her,” Cole says with a. grin, the shithead looking like a fucking saint in that moment. Of course, he never doubted her. He adores the ground she walks on.
“Fuck, where is she?” I need to go see her right fucking now. God, I was such an asshole. I shut her out, treated her horribly when she was right all along.
My Little Minx never lied to me. She really didn’t know what her father was doing. Fuck. I messed up big time.
“Down boy, you know how she takes her education seriously,” Liam chuckles at the urgency in my voice.
“Fuck, it’s the first day back to school today.”
Shit, how did I forget that?
“Yeah, Romeo Capulet,” Liam says with a sarcastic bow that makes me roll my eyes. “Her grace, Lady Montague takes her future seriously, unlike some people.”
I deadpan.
“Romeo was a Montague, asshole.”
“Exactly.” He winks, then we start walking toward our cars. “Fuck, I have a lot of groveling to do.”
“Yup,” Cole agrees, grabbing Liam into a headlock to mess his hair up. “You basically accused her of sitting on a throne of lies.”
Liam winces, the color draining from his face. “I couldn’t sleep for days, the look on her face when I said that will haunt me forever.”
Her tears and cries will haunt me forever. But then again, I have forever to make up for it and make sure she doesn’t cry a day in her life because fuck, she was mine to trust and I failed miserably.
Just then, Cole’s phone rings, breaking the camaraderie. When he fishes it out, a frown crosses his face. Then he glances up at me, a hard look on his face that makes the blood in my veins freeze.
“What is it?”
“Where the fuck is your phone?” he questions instead. I reach in my suit jacket for the damn thing that I switched off because I didn’t want to read Mia’s texts. She stopped trying to contact me a few days ago, but I still have a habit of re-reading the texts she sent before, pretending she’s still important to me—which she’ll always be.
“What’s wrong?” Liam demands, looking between us. Just then, his own phone buzzes and he fishes it out.
I press the damn button to power my phone and glance up to look at my best friend as the hole in the pit of my stomach widens alarms blaring in my head. The look on