Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,20

mouthing my name, and I realize he’s looking for me. I take several steps back until I blend into the darkness. But when I look up, I see my father standing over Nicky’s body sprawled on the floor and I freeze.

He just hit her…

Oh my God.

In that moment I realize something, I’ve seen this before. My father has done something like this before.

Just then, my father looks up, craning his neck out like he’s trying to see something. Is he looking for me? Can he see me? Shit!

In that moment, he turns around and walks out of the room. I’m tempted to go back and bang at the door and demand that Nicky let me in, but I see her sitting up straight, and she looks in my direction and shakes her head, waving her hand for me to go.

With tears running down my cheeks and a numbness I know I won’t be able to shake falling over me, I turn around and run, leaving behind everything.

The woman who raised me is dead.

My birth mother loves me.

My father is a monster.

And I… I’m alone.

I run down to the beach but when I get there, I’m hit by this sense of heavy dread, and I come to a stop. I can’t breathe.

I clutch my throat with one hand and start clawing at my chest with the other. I feel like I’m being weighed down. It’s the bag!

I quickly pull it off me, throwing it as far away from me as I can as I pant for breath. I double over, my heart racing wildly.

Why am I running? I can’t leave Nicky in there with my father.

What exactly is going on here?

Nancy is gone…

I gasp and tears start running down my face. I have no idea what time it is but when I hear Julian calling my name, my heart stops. I try to pretend like I didn’t hear him as Courtney’s words and Nicky’s warning ring clear in my head, but Julian doesn’t care.

He ambles over to me with Cole right behind him with an apologetic look on his face. There’s so much mistrust in me right now but I know that anything I do or say right now might put Nicky in danger, so I school my features as best as I can and listen as Julian tears me apart, shredding my broken heart into a million pieces with his drunken slur.

Everything he says washes over me like water off a duck. It doesn’t stick, but it sinks in for some reason.

“You’re corroding…”

Nancy’s dead.

“Your heart is already corroded, empty, rotten…”

“Run Mia!”

“I fucking love you, Mia and you know what? I wish I didn’t,” he shouts, stopping my heart.

I look up into his eyes, the darkness closing in on me and realize one thing, this is the last time I’m ever going to see his gorgeous face. The last I’m going to be around his magnetic pull but the feeling that’s swirling through my veins, tightening my insides, pulsing through my core as an aching coldness freezes my heart…that’s hate.

He says he loves me, but his actions and those of his family prove otherwise.

So, when he turns away and walks away from me, not bothering to look back, I know, I’ll never be able to kiss him again.

SCANDAL! BALLET QUEEN, NANCY MONTAGUE LIED ABOUT HER HEALTH AND FINANCIAL STATUS.

Heartbreaking news today from the world of dance. Beloved darling and one of the greatest benefactors of ballet, the graceful Nancy Montague, a prima ballerina that shook the world when she first started dancing , is reported to be terminally ill.

Leaked medical reports have shown that Nancy was diagnosed with ALS three years ago—but never came out publicly about her deteriorating health.

A reliable source close to the Montagues has assured us that the situation is really bad. Nancy’s health seems to have worsened over a very short period of time and now, it won’t be long until Nancy Montague has to take her final bow. It just won’t be on her beloved stage where she enchanted the world with her unmatched dance skills.

But the question now is, why didn’t she come out with this? Is it because she wanted to guarantee her royalties? Or did her pride get in the way? Which is such a shame, she could have been a great ambassador for the ALS community.

Young ballerinas, pay attention, this is not the way to go. Lies will stain a good legacy but as we might remember, that’s not all the skeletons