Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,22

look on his face. He marches over to me and I prepare myself, waiting for the inevitable swing of his fist to my face.

“Have you been online, you asshole?” Liam seethes, then punches my jaw. I reel back, grit my teeth and stare at my brother not knowing what to say.

“Whoa, calm down buddy,” Cole rushes to block Liam.

“She never wanted her family shit to be aired out like dirty laundry and now they’re ripping her apart on there,” Liam shouts. Fuck.

I massage my jaw but honestly, I’m fucking relieved that he did that. This kind of pain is better than what’s happening inside my chest.

“Liam—” I start but he cuts me off.

“She’s gone. Her mother is dead and it’s all your fault!” he points at me then pushes away from Cole, starting to pace. Cole glances at me but I look away, walking over to the window as I silently look out at the beach where I last saw her.

How did I not see the pian in her eyes? How could I have been so selfish?

Behind me, someone switches on the large TV and just like Liam said, the commentators are talking about Nancy. Earlier it was all about how sick she was, now, they’re just displaying all her supposed failures, the divorce, how broke their family is… shit I hope Mia isn’t listening to this shit.

“How the fuck did they get all this information?” Cole questions, pissed off.

“Really?” Liam scoffs. “That’s what you’re concerned about right now?”

“It’s a valid question, bro,” Cole says. There’s something about the way he says that, that has me turning around to look at him.

“Why?” I question. I can see the wheels turning in his head. He rings his fingers together like he’s trying to piece a complex puzzle together.

“I mean, think about it,” he starts, muting the TV. “Nancy has been sick for years, she got divorced and I assume they have been bankrupt for a while, but Mia managed to keep a lid on that shit.”

“So what?” Liam asks, his eyebrow raised. My body is tense, ready to see if my best friend is thinking what I’ve been trying to figure out since I woke up.

“So, why now?” Cole questions, looking between Liam and I. “Why are they talking about her illness now when she just passed last night? Someone obviously leaked that shit, and whoever that person is, they don’t know that Nancy passed away last night.”

“Well, that isn’t a hard one, is it, Sherlock?” Liam says sarcastically. “If you’re looking for someone with that kind of grudge, someone that will go to the ends of the earth just to hurt a person, I suggest you look no further than this house. I think you’ll find it full to the brim with haters that can’t let shit go.”

“I didn’t fucking do this!” I explode, unable to hold my tongue anymore. I don’t know how to do this without giving in to my anger or exposing myself like I did with her the other night, showing her every part of me. And now… she’s gone. “You think I don’t fucking want her back? How do you think it makes me feel to wake up and know that I fucked up?”

“Yeah? Am I supposed to believe that you actually care for her now? That you wouldn’t rather see her get a taste of her own medicine, something like your version of poetic justice?” Liam fires back.

“What happens between me and Mia is none of your fucking concern,” I grit out, wanting so bad to punch my brother, but I don’t.

“It concerns me when she’s the only one who actually trusts me with myself!” he shouts. “She doesn’t look at me like I’m a liability that’s going to destroy her life. She doesn’t keep information about how my older brother died. She has never looked at me with distrust.”

The fuck?

“Is that what you think of me?” I question. “You think I look at you like you’re a liability? To who? Me? You think I don’t trust you?”

Tense silence falls over us as we stare at each other. It feels like a cold breeze just wafted in the room but neither of us will back down, both of us too stubborn to look away. We’re at the very peak of this fucking mountain, faced with the truth that neither of us wants to face.

“Fuck, J, what do you expect me to think, huh?” Liam says, pacing from one end of the room to the