Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,8
halt to a stop as soon as her soft, yet cold voice reaches my ears. A cold shiver goes down my spine, my heart starts thundering in my chest as my mouth goes dry. She smiles, knowing the chilling effect she has on me.
“I’m so relieved to see that you’re back and in one piece,” she says, taking another step closer. I’m sure you are, bitch. “How are you, dear? Are you all right?”
She says that like she’s genuinely concerned, if she were though, hell must have frozen over right about now.
“Courtney,” I say, swallowing the ball in my throat so I don’t say what I really want to say. I’m not here for her. “Your concern, is as always, neither welcomed nor wanted, but thank you, I’m sure you tried.”
She smiles sadly, watching me intently. Then she flips her hair over her shoulder—like I sometimes do when I’m ready to piss someone off—tucking loose strands behind her ear, allowing me to see the diamond earrings glittering in the light of the hallway.
Courtney Fitzgerald is an elegant woman, dressed now in a soft cream Tom Ford cashmere sweater that somehow brings out her beautiful green eyes that stare at me with so much pity, it makes my stomach turn. Her black suit pants were tailor made for her, and her signature red bottoms make up the rest of her ‘Idle hands, devil’s work’ attire.
She’s wealthy, stunning, calculated, intimidating and she knows it. Got to appreciate that about the woman, she has never tried to cover her true self in sheepskin. With her, I expect nothing but lethal.
“Mia, I know you must hate me, and I know I’m probably the last person you want to be talking to right now,” she says.
“You got that right, so why don’t you save the rest of what you want to say for someone that actually cares.”
I stare up at her, but I can see the resolve in her eyes, and I know, I’m not going anywhere until she’s done with me.
“You’re going to want to hear what I have to say, I guarantee that.”
“What makes you so certain?” I scoff. “Everything you’ve ever said to me has all been dipped in cheap insults, mockery, and life changing truths. I doubt whatever this is, is any different.”
She shifts her weight from one foot to the other, then she folds her arms delicately like she’s settling in for a battle I want no part in.
“Mia, I know we got off on the wrong foot,” she starts, and I reel back like her words were a physical blow. Did she just that?
“The wrong foot?” I start as anger, sharp and intense, pulses through my system, awakening a side of me I didn’t want to feel—hurt. “Could you tell me, where do you get the nerve to stand there looking all high and mighty, talking shit like that all while acting like the victim in this fucked up story?”
“Mia, I…”
“How is destroying my life, revealing truths you had no right to, buying my childhood home just to rub it in my family’s face, the wrong foot, Courtney?” I grit out, trying my hardest not to let her see the pain or that I’m close to breaking down in tears. So, I bite down on my tongue, hard, until the metallic taste of blood fills my mouth, holding on to the anger. “What part of that is the wrong foot?”
This hurts. A lot.
All I want to do is scream, but I can’t. Not here. I still have a plan. I need to focus on that for now.
“You’re right, I don’t have the right to stand here and try to atone for what I did, but I am sorry.”
“I don’t need nor care for your bleeding apologies, Courtney.”
How is she the mother of the two boys who’ve managed to snake their way into my heart, only to sink their poisonous fangs in there and now, I’m rotting from within?
“I know you hate me and with good reason, but the thing is, right now, this messed up situation you’re in, it reminds me a lot of a dark hole I was in. A personal hell of sorts that I was never able to get out of for years and now, years later, I still have trauma and scars from it.”
It’s the way she says it, her voice now softer, yet her eyes grow harder like she’s remembering a kind of pain that changed her life, that makes me pause. I can