Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,37
backpack Nicky packed for me. Opening it, I rummage through the contents. I pull out wads of money. Where did she get this?
I pull out the documents she gave me and notice the name there: Amy Hazel.
Hazel?
That’s Nicky and Nancy’s last name.
I study the picture in the passport and on the ID. The girl looks just like me. From her hair, to her high-cheek bones and her nose, her eyes, everything about her is like me and as I look closer, I realize why, the girl in the pictures is me. But I have no idea when this picture was taken. Why would Nicky have this? And who is Amy?
I have nothing to go on with here, nowhere to start looking, no one to ask because well, I’ve always been lacking in the family department.
All my life, it’s always been Nicky, Nancy and dad, but he was almost always never there. My grandmother passed when I was born, and no one talks about her and if they do, it was always in contempt. I suspected there was bad blood there.
I look into the bag again and my hand touches a small paper. Pulling it out, I notice a number scribbled there. It has to be a phone number, but whose? I know Nicky’s number by head and it’s not this.
I don’t have any other family or friends. I have a number of enemies, of course, people who would rather see me fall than succeed at anything. That fact hasn’t been so obvious to me until recently, but I think I have a foe who might help me.
It’s stupid to think that, but in high school, there’s a lot that can happen. It’s a coin toss more than anything and I’ve run out of luck. I think I knew that from the moment Julian held me up against that damn tree the night of the disastrous race.
Since then, it’s been one tragedy after another and I’ve only managed to hold on because somewhere deep down in me, I thought I wasn’t alone. I thought he actually cared, but God, was I wrong about the whole thing.
First, I need to ditch this car like Nicky instructed. I have no idea if I’m ever going to see her again, but I need to find a way to go back for her. She’s the only one I’ve got left. Which means, number two, I need to get a phone.
With a sketchy plan in mind, I quickly pack the bag again, stuffing everything in. I’ll have a more thorough look when I’m settled somewhere with a clear head.
Getting out of the car, I go around and pop the trunk trunk open.
“Yes!” I whisper in relief noticing the pair of boots and trainers I left in here. There’s also a change of clothes.
I have no idea why Nancy and Nicky always insisted that I keep trainers and boots in the car, always, no matter what. I have no idea why they did it themselves, but they always kept a change of clothes and different pairs of shoes in their cars, like they were ready for a quick escape. It didn’t make sense to me as Nancy never left to go anywhere other than to dance and spend millions, and Nicky was always too unstable to settle anywhere, but I did as they asked anyway and now, there’s a sinking suspicion in my gut about this fucked up ritual of theirs.
God, there’s so much I don’t know. Have I always been this clueless?
Quickly, I remove the shoes I was wearing when Julian took me to the party and wear the trainers instead.
I stuff the boots in the backpack, and then arrange the shoes I was wearing in such a manner that anyone who might come looking would think that I struggled with someone else. I leave one shoe on the road, a few feet from the car, then the other I chuck it on the floor of the driver’s side.
I stand back and look at the scene before me. My car looks like it was just parked there with a hurry, but to an unobservant eye, they might think that another car ran mt car off the road.
The criminal intention of my actions is not lost on me, but if the Fitzgeralds are after me then they have a rude awakening coming their way!
Looking around, I spot a sizable rock on the ground. I pick it up and smash the driver’s window in.