Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,105
“The security cameras?”
“Well, I knew you’d worry so Cole checked.”
Of course, Cole would check. I just hope Kristine is doing well. God only knows the shit she went through.
We fall silent again. Minutes, hours, weeks pass before I ask him what’s been on my mind since I woke to a room full of people.
“Are they safe?” I whisper. “Cole and Liam?”
He grows tense behind me, his touch becoming restless. I hold my breath, waiting for his answer.
“They are.”
I blow out a breath of relief.
“Good.” Whatever we do, whatever happens, Liam and Cole have to stay out of this untouched. My father has done enough. “You can’t tell anyone. About my fake amnesia.”
“Your naughty secret to throw every asshole who hurt you to the sharks is safe with me, Little Minx,” he whispers huskily.
I can’t help but smile at that. Where Julian agrees, he really does come through. It’s when he makes a decision about a person based on his own facts and whatever else that floats in his head without stopping to listen to the truth that does the most damage.
“What’s wrong with your arm?” I mutter, my heart breaking in my chest.
“It broke.”
“Did they—”
“Yes,” he grits out the word with so much, I snap my mouth shut. “But I gave as good as I got.”
“I saw.”
It was two on one, but I swear Julian was going to fucking tear them both apart, then throw the remains to vultures with a smirk on his handsome face.
“Does it still hurt?” Julian whispers in my ear, then I feel him caressing over where the gunshot wound is.
“Sometimes.”
More silence. Julian nuzzles the side of my face, his five o’clock shadow prickling my skin, but I don’t move away as I feel his lips brushing over the shell of my ear.
Apologies won’t really help now, they won’t change what happened, but still, we talk about it.
“Will you ever play again?” I mutter. He grows still behind me. Football meant a lot to Julian. I know he was prepared to defy his father’s wishes and his family’s legacy just so he can play professionally. But now, his throwing arm is in a cast, with bandages all over his body, I can only hope, but…
“Not professionally. That’s all gone to hell now.”
Jesus. After everything, he still lost his dream. The hurt in those two words alone, it’s enough to convey everything he’s feeling deep within without me having to prob for more. So, I confess to him my own hurts that I couldn’t face myself.
“I won’t ever dance,” I mutter, telling him what I’ve known for a while. “It’s not for me. Not anymore.”
He doesn’t say anything. He just holds me, silently and I’m grateful for that. I don’t think I have it in me to answer anything else and he gets that.
It’s like we’re forcing ourselves to wade through this pool of boiling lava, talking about the past like this. Only it’s not that far behind us. I can still feel the chill of that freezer around me, the way I lay on the bed, naked… the images are so real, a violent shudder of fear goes through me.
“Did you kill him?” I whisper. I don’t want to say his name, but the change in Julian is instant.
“I was going to.” Those four words hover over us and I hear the absolute truth in them. Julian really was going to tear them apart with his bare hands. “When I saw you, wrapped in that bloody sheet, Little Minx, I knew it was going to happen.I wanted Cole to get you out so I could do what I had to do.”
Suddenly, it’s like I can feel it happening to me all over again. Like I can feel their lewd, disgusting looks on my body and the way Sean Matthews beat me up and then forced my head into my own vomit.
“Hey, hey, you’re not in that hell anymore,” Julian whispers, unerringly saying the words that I didn’t know I needed to hear until now. “You’re with me now. No one’s going to touch you ever again, baby.”
Those words snake into my chilled bones. I know he means it. Julian is not just
Like a child, I cling to those words, terror making me tongue-tied as I twist around to look at him.
“I want to believe you,” I whisper. “But then you’re not mine, are you? You don’t owe me anything. You can go protect about Roxy Bishop for all I care.”