Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,78
since I kissed Mia and a thousand days, five hours, and eight minutes since she immediately turned her back on me and used that tongue for her other high quality skill; setting shit on fire, i.e, my fucked up world, which includes and is indeed limited to, my family’s best kept secret, Aiden.
But even knowing all that shit and how talented her wicked tongue is, I can’t seem to shake her. It’s like she got under my skin somehow.
The truly fucked up thing is, I don’t want her to go anywhere. I want her to stay where she was born to be, right under me.
Of course, I prefer to hear her scream and gasp my name while she’s under me, looking up at me like she did when I kissed her that first time, but we have all the time in the world to put her in her place.
I’ve had my hands full with taking care of Aiden, keeping Liam out of trouble and trying to abate my anger but fuck, I need to deal with her. I want to talk to her, I want to see the look on her face when I touch her, when I kiss her and remind her that she’ still on my shit list. Which is why tonight is the night to stop all this shit.
Mia invades my mind when I don’t want her to, causing all sorts of havoc in there. I hate that she fucks with my concentration, especially when I could use the energy and time thinking about far more important shit than her, like looking out for my brothers in this crumbling house, littered with landmines and two people who should’ve never been parents to begin with.
“Where’s Aiden?” I question my mom when I get downstairs. She’s on her phone, shopping bags around her. She just got in then. “I don’t know.”
She never knows anything about Aiden.
“Have you seen him today?” I grit out, my fists clenched so tight as I stare at the impassive look on her face.
She shrugs a careless shoulder. “I’ll check on him later.”
“Don’t bother,” Dad says as he passes the room, going to his office. The fuck. It takes effort to hold my tongue and turn around so I can look for Aiden before I leave for the game. I find my brother in the sunroom at the back of the house, with his nurse helping him eat.
“Hey buddy,” I call as I enter the room so as not to scare him. He looks up, a big smile on his face.
“It’s game night, right?” Aiden questions, his eyes bright with excitement making me smile.
“Yeah, buddy.” Tonight, we put Clintwood Academy on notice. “Tonight’s the night.”
“May I come too?” His eyes widen with a bit of desperation that tugs at the faulty thing that heaves in my chest.
I crouch down before him, making sure not to disturb the IV in his arm that seems to be killing him faster than the fucking blood cancer. I touch his arm, noticing the one of the many small scars that cover his body. The back of my mind tingles, as if an elusive memory is telling me that I already know but for the life of me, I have no idea how this happened to my brother.
I would ask him again, but each time I do, he gets agitated to the point where I can’t calm him down. I need to find out what happened to him. These didn’t just happen.
“Come on, buddy, we talked about this.” I feel like shit, refusing him like this. It’s not like before when the world didn’t know he existed—Mia took care of that—it’s that, he’s sick and there’s nothing anyone can do about that. I need him to stay here where he’s somewhat safe.
“But I feel so much better tonight. I didn’t throw up and I finished my food, ask Lilo.”
Lilo, the name Aiden calls Liam probably because of that shitty cartoon they watch when one of them can’t sleep. (I try not to judge, most of the time.)
“I know you did, buddy.”
“So why can’t I go?” Aiden’s voice drops to a low pitch, the light in his eyes dimming just a little bit. Fuck, I hate this. It would mean the fucking world to me if he came to watch me play but I can’t put him in danger.
“Well, because the stadium is full of crazy, loud, and sweaty people,” Cole says, walking into the room, almost bouncing with energy, obviously