Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,120
smile, his beautiful brown eyes so bright and beautiful.
“Aww, Cole, don’t tell me you’re going to start crying.”
“Excuse me if I do. The last time I saw you in person, the state you were in broke my fucking heart.”
“Oh, you have a heart, your cold motherfucker?” Liam seethes, shoving Cole aside. “I also want a hug.”
Before I can say anything, Liam has me in his arms as well, but he instead of Cole’s gentleness or even Julian’s careful closeness when he held me, Liam apparently woke up today and chose violence as he twirls me around.
“Ouch, I’m still a whole lot fragile.”
“Put her down, Little Liam. She’s still in pain.”
“Oops, sorry,” Liam says, looking like a little boy who’s just been scolded. “And don’t call me that.”
“Cole, I there any news about Kristine and the baby? How are they? Did you see them?”
“I’m sure J told you she’s missing, but we have people looking for her.”
“Did she take the baby with her?” I ask, realizing that I didn’t ask Julian that.
“Well, she didn’t leave with the baby, Mia,” he says, his voice low and soft.
“She left her baby there?”
“Well, the baby isn’t there either.”
“What?”
“Hey, I got the sense that she had a plan on what she wanted to do when I kept her talking so she wouldn’t pass out on the drive to the clinic,” Cole rushes to say, obviously trying to soothe me. “She mentioned an aunt, but she wouldn’t tell me where this aunt was.”
“But… buts he didn’t leave with the baby,” I whisper. “Shane is out there.”
Cole and Liam share a look before Cole looks at me again. “It’s going to be all right, Mia.”
“Oh God,” I mutter, a shudder going through me. “I thought when you took her, she’d be fine.”
“She will be fine, it’s you and what you did that we have to talk about,” he says, his tone now hard and deep, making me grow still with fright.
“What did I do?” I whisper.
“You know what you did and fuck me if I know what to do with you right now,” he whistles. “I mean you scared the shit out of me when you closed that door in my face, effectively forcing me to break my word to Fitz and fuck, Mia, I’ve been paying for that recently.”
I cringe, seeing exactly what he means.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I just couldn’t leave him in there.”
There’s silence for a bit. Cole and Liam exchange a look, then Cole looks at me.
“Apparently.”
He’s angry with me.
“Nope, you don’t get to be mad at me like that. Both of you show up in here days later, with carts that… I can’t even begin to explain, if I was a clueless desperado, I would have been flattered thinking you missed me.”
“We did miss you,” Cole says softly. “More than you know.”
“But you never came to see me. I bet you were always with your bestie and yet I saw you loitering in the hallway, never coming in.”
It’s as I say that that I realize how bitter I am about that.
“Oh no, no, baby girl,” Cole rushes to say. “We wanted to come in and see you, but we had to keep things hushed so as not to arouse suspicion with that fucking man who calls himself your father.”
“For the record, I was with her every day,” Liam announces.
“What? When?” Cole demands.
“When I left you and that jerk racking your brains trying to find a way to get out of the mess you’re in.”
“Oh, so when you burst out the room, overcome with your emotions, you were sneaking in here to cry your heart out by Mia’s bed?” Cole says nodding his head slowly. “J’s going to love that one, seeing as he only saw her all but twice and got bad news each time.”
They both turn to look at me.
“What? I’m not here to soothe Julian’s complicated feelings.”
“Well damn, good for you!” Cole says. “So these lovely gestures of love and undying devotion are not doing anything for you?”
Gestures of love and undying emotion? Did they read that off of whatever stupid website they bought these from?
“What’s that supposed to be? You didn’t explain.” I point at Cole’s cart.
“The man said you’d know.”
I’d know?
Pushing past Cole and Liam, I walk over to the first cart, the one Liam bought in. I stare at the contents, skimming over the tea and the candy. I look at the teddy bear and the flowers.