Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,28

dots her brow and she starts trembling in place, her hands clenched tightly as she stares like a dead fish at Nicky.

“Do they know about that horrendous part of you, Courtney?” Nicky taunts.

“Please…” Mom croaks and I almost reel back. “Please don’t.”

“The weather must be nice up there on your high horse looking down on the rest of us mere mortals,” Nicky says, “I might be many things, Courtney, but I would never beat a child up, starve them almost death and keep them isolated until my husband who doesn’t love me has no choice but to ignore that child, just to silence and appease the demons in your head.”

“Jesus,” Cole mutters.

“I would never do that. Even if that child wasn’t mine.”

“Holy shit.” Cole whispers as all the blood in Liam’s face seems to drain in an instant.

Beat up a child?

Starve them almost to death?

I stagger back like someone just punched me. I feel sick to my stomach and the fucking thing in my chest is in so much agony, I want to reach in and pull it out, maybe everything will hurt less.

“No,” I whisper to myself, shaking my head vehemently. No…

“What is she talking about?” Liam shouts in horror, staring at our mother who looks more like a stranger in that moment. But all I see, all I hear, is Aiden begging for help as my mother ignored him.

“Mommy, Aiden needs our help.”

I remember now what she said.

“No, he doesn’t.”

7

The build up into anger is like the striking of a match.

Everything feels normal for a second before the intensity of the flames lick across my back, making my blood boil. My body is tense, my shoulders tight and my jaw’s ticking to the uneven, hard rhythm of the pounding thing in my chest.

This can’t be real.

But it is.

I remember the scars on Aiden’s body.

I remember the way he used to shy away from Mom whenever she was in the room, the way he used to clam-up when she was around. I chalked it all up as nerves, that ‘our’ mother made him feel strange, but I think somewhere in the back of my mind I always knew that she resented Aiden—knowing Liam, he probably knew that too.

For a long time, I told myself that mom was cold and almost indifferent toward Aiden because he was different, but now I know better. It’s like the truth has just been dipped in hot, liquid tar and then poured down my back because the truth is, Aiden wasn’t Courtney’s biological son.

And so, she did whatever the hell she wanted, punishing him for sins that weren’t his to answer to.

I’m strangely aware that there’s shouting and screaming happening around me, but all I can think, all I hear, is my brother.

“You had no right!” someone screams.

“They had a right to know how evil you are,” Nicky responds calmly.

It’s crazy how anyone can say that with a calm finality, like discussing the weather or food choices on a menu.

“Get the hell out of my house!” Mom cries, but her voice is more of a scratching sound on a chalkboard at this point, jarring me out the strange state of mind I’ve just fallen in.

“What the hell is she talking about?” Liam shouts now, his face clouded in anger, outrage and shock in his eyes. It’s like a bomb waiting to detonate, destroying everything in its path. Hell, it already did. “Tell me she’s lying, Mom!”

Courtney just stares at Liam, her mouth opening and closing like a fish.

She beat my brother.

Aiden was scared of her.

She’s the reason he had night terrors.

“It was you.” I clench my fists so tight, I’m losing feeling there bit by bit as I look up at my mother, feeling sick to my stomach. “It was you.”

“Juliana, my baby…”

“You tortured Aiden?” I whisper. A dangerous, electric shiver going down my spine. My vision seems to dim at the edges, my breathing now labored as my chest constricts so tight, if I make a move wrong, I might snap in two.

“Julian,” she cries, but I can’t see her. I can’t see anything really. “Please…”

“You hurt him.”

“J, calm down bro,” Cole warns. I see him step in my direction from the corner of my eye, his stance ready and cautious. “Just breathe.”

How do I do that? How do I take a breath when my own mother tortured my brother?

“Julian, please, I was young and stupid…” Mom cries. “I didn’t know any better.”

“You’re the reason he had nightmares, the reason he screamed at