Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,35

damn door open and run into the house, straight to my room, making sure not to look at Mia’s abandoned room and yet, feeling the ghost of her absence in my bones.

Not wasting a second, I dial a number.

“Young Fitz.”

“I need untraceable shit.”

“Name it.”

“I need you to track this number and give the location that scumbag is at.” I rattle off his number. I hear clicking on the other end of the line before he answers.

“I’m only able to triangulate where the signal is coming from.”

“Where?” I grit out.

“Right outside Los Angeles.”

“Can you be specific?”

“This is not like before. This phone has location blockers. It’s going to take a bit of time, but I’ll get it.”

“Fine, while you do that, I need something else too.”

I list the shit I need and give him the drop off location, quickly dressing in all black, grabbing all the shit I might needing my room. I can’t even glance at my fucking bed, if I do, all I’ll see is the night Mia came to me, broken and in tears, begging me to let her break even more as she cried naked in my arms, respecting my bed, instinctively knowing what I needed from her and letting me in her soul. I didn’t know I was opening myself up to her too, wanting to taste her, to fuck her, to make her know she was mine.

Days later, I did just that.

Then I fucking blew it.

“Need back-up?”

“No,” I snap, hanging up, then head out the door, using the secret stairs again, I’m pretty sure that now Dad’s getting close, probably rehearsing an entire speech on what I should and shouldn’t do, like I’m the type to stand there like a dumb fuck fool, listening to a man who wasn’t man enough to protect Aiden from Courtney because of a stupid piece of paper.

A piece of paper you’re bound to sign anyway, asshat.

Yeah, well, not if it means losing Mia. All bets are fucking off.

Sneaking into the garage, I quickly get in my car and back out as soon as the garage door opens.

By the time I speed past dad, hearing him honk for me to stop, I’m flying down the private road, knowing that this car doesn’t have some GPS shit for him to locate me.

My jaw is clenched as tightly as my fists on the steering wheel, what I’m about to do playing like a fucked-up tape in my head.

I wait for the remorse, for the guilt to churn in my gut or the fear of taking a life but nothing hits me. I stood there since this afternoon after getting that text and now and did fucking nothing. Now, it’s nighttime and the demons are out to fucking war! I’m going to get my girl.

Chapter Nine

Mia

I feel my hair being smoothed out, pulled back softly as I come to, my consciousness filtering in as slow as before.

At first, I feel like I’m in a bit of Heaven, time is irrelevant as I feel the gentle touch, soothing me but all too soon, the bubble burst as I hear my name being called in an urgent voice.

“Mia.”

I want to roll over onto my side and fall back into slumber. In the dark abyss, there’s nothing but goodness and some semblance of peace. Nothing else seems to matter and nothing is real.

“Damn you, Mia!”

See, I’ve been friends with the dark for a long time, it understands me and knows me. Why would I bother waking up again?

“Mia, wake up for fuck’s sake!”

This time, my eyes snap open at the vehemence of those words.

Blinking, I look up and stare confused into a face that’s peering down at me with wild curiosity, fear and something else I can’t place as I come to.

“Oh, thank God,” the person breathes. “I thought you were dead.”

I groan and then try to get up, but the pain snaps my awareness back into action.

“No, don’t try to get up and don’t make a fucking sound, Ice Queen,” the girl whispers hotly, looking around as she tries to stabilize me, pushing me to lie back again. “You don’t want them to know you’re awake.”

Them? Ah yes, the assholes who did this to me.

“Where… where am I?” I croak, my teeth still chattering but I no longer feel the cold gusts of wind blowing over my body from before. “What happened to me?”

Wasn’t I in the freezer? I’m still on the dingy bed. And slowly, everything rushes back to me and again, the agony