Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,99
make you fucking secure in this?”
Whoa. There, right there. That’s my problem here. I don’t feel secure so I’m lashing out and making bad decisions and yes, acting like a child.
“Nathan did something to me!” I blurt out, the words tumbling out of me like a torrent of water.
“Mia…” he starts, but I hold up a hand.
“I have no idea what he did. I have no idea when it happened, I still think that Nicky might have lied to me, but there you go.”
We stare at each other, then he sighs, looking at me.
“Courtney physically hurt Aiden when I was a baby,” he says, his voice an angry seethe that stops my heart. Appalled, I bring a hand to my chest and one to over my open mouth. “I have no idea when she started that or what she did to him but as I grew up, I noticed the scars on his arms, on his legs, his back. I just didn’t know what to make of them or who to ask.”
“Oh God.”
“She hurts him to get at my father,” he says, looking into my eyes with an unreadable expression. “All because he was in love with Nancy.”
Jesus.
The depth of how all this is fucked up is crazy.
“The night I left, I saw my father stroke Nicky.”
Julian doesn’t waver, doesn’t blink. He’s not even surprised.
“He’s a fucking coward and I won’t let him find you to hurt or threaten you.”
There, right there. I know I should be moved by the way he just said that, maybe I should appreciate that he cares—and God does he care. I can see the seriousness on his face, but in this moment all I hear is what he just said.
“How do you know that my father is trying to find me?” I croak, my heart beating so hard against my chest.
“What?” he questions with a frown.
“You just said you won’t let him find me,” I say. “How did you know?”
He’s silent for a while and I watch as his Adam’s Apple bobs up and down as he swallows.
“What aren’t you telling me, Julian?” I whisper, but he just stares, his jaw locked, refusing to say a word.
“Please don’t… don’t keep things from me,” I mutter, and he groans, scrubbing a hand down his gorgeous face.
“I’m not keeping anything from you. Nathan was at the house almost every day after you were gone, threatening that he knew we did something to you.”
Shit.
“And Nicky?” I question. “Where is she?”
“Your womb-donor of a mother is still at the mansion, though her terms of stay are unknown. I have no idea why she’s still there, it’s not like John ever loved her.”
I stare at him, not knowing what to say.
Just then, his phone starts ringing and he fishes it out and stares at the caller ID and lets out a soft curse.
“In as much as I bought you up here to fuck the thoughts of my brother out of you, I can’t stay. I have to answer this,” he says, staring at me like I’m a stranger all over again. “Stay away from my brother and don’t you fucking touch your life.”
“Excuse me?” I reel back, eyes wide with shock.
He points at my arms, his eyes narrowed.
“I swear to God, Little Minx, if you lay a finger on your life or you draw a single drop of blood from any part of you as an act of self-harm, I won’t be pleased.”
Before he turns around to answer his phone, I see it again, the disgust that flips my stomach and I know. Things will never be the same between us.
He’s never going to want me anymore because now, now I remind him of some bitch who killed herself in front of him.
Jesus, the comparison alone is daunting and mean. And so disheartening.
So, when he turns around and answers the call, I make my exit. It’s not running away I tell myself as I get in a taxi and head back to Rye’s house, it’s just preserving what’s left of me.
22
“I made you come three times in ten minutes, and you can’t text me back?” I say when I find her later that night.
It’s close to four am and she’s in the studio of her friend’s flat, dancing.
“Hmm,” she hums, a cold, secretive smile on her face. I don’t know how she does it; make it seem like she doesn’t care when I know her heart is fucking pounding just because I’m close to her. “Maybe it’s because I’m