Cruel Kisses: It’s Just High School #2

by Mpofu, Thandiwe

  “Holy shit!”

  Why didn’t we think of this earlier?

  I push away from my car too and fish out my phone. I quickly type in my password and bring up the surveillance app that shows the CCTV footage from the cameras around the property and inside the house that dad had installed when I was younger.

  Now that I think about it, did he have cameras placed in the house to monitor Courtney when Aiden was there as well. Was dad watching out for my brother all long? I don’t dare trust him to go that far for him, but there was something about the way he confessed that morning. Anything is possible with him and until I find out what, everything’s up in the air.

  I quickly type in the dates and an estimated time of when everything went down.

  I stop when I see Mia cutting through the property from the tree-line, headed for the house with her phone pressed to her ear. Who was she talking to?

  I press play and watch as she hesitates in front of the house, then she seems to psych herself up because she steps closer to the door and enters the house.

  I watch the way she holds herself, so different, like her guard is up, like the first time she moved in our home. I want to reach in and scoop her up in my arms and just take her to my bed where she let me actually see her. The real her. All soft, vulnerable and honest.

  “There’s your mother,” Cole says, jerking me back to reality and he’s right.

  “Courtney,” I mutter, staring at the two women in the hallway.

  “She’s still your mother,” he counters, peering over my shoulder.

  “Shut up!”

  We watch in silence as they talk. You can clearly see from Mia’s body language that whatever Courtney is saying is upsetting her.

  Courtney keeps talking, and I zoom in to see Mia’s face. Her face is impassive. If she hadn’t let me see her real self, I wouldn’t have been able to see that her armor is taking hits after hits with each word my mother utters.

  Fuck.

  When she’s on screen, she’s all I see. Soon after that, Mia walks over to Nancy’s room, but she hesitates to open the door and when she does, she freezes, standing so still in the doorway with her eyes wide.

  “Shit, y’all should’ve put audio with this shit,” Cole whistles. “Oh, to be a fly on that wall.”

  Some areas of the house have audio, not this part. I have no idea what happens next because the cameras in Nancy’s room were disabled.

  “Fuck.”

  Dad must have done that. There used to be cameras in there, I think. I fast forward the footage, looking to see when Mia came out of the room, but as I do, I see the other log in on the system and my blood runs cold.

  Someone else has had access to this footage already.

  “Son of a bitch,” I grit out, wanting so bad to throw my damn phone away when I re-read his name, thinking I read it wrong due to my heavy insomnia.

  “What?”

  “Someone else was in the system, checking the footage,” I grumble. Cole looks at me then he cracks a wide smile that pisses me off.

  “Of course, he did!” Cole laughs. “Shit, told you that kid is smarter than you give him credit for.”

  Fucking shit.

  “When did he log in?”

  “Two days ago.”

  “Well shit, Lilo’s been Lilo for real! That’s my boy! You’re getting slow in your old age.”

  The fact that I can’t get track his phone, he’s been covering his tracks because he’s been on a solo mission for the past four days—and making headway as it seems. That clever bastard.

  “Well, at least that covers it,” Cole mutters, now relaxed. “He’s obviously two steps ahead of us in finding Mia. Shit, they might be together right now.”

  I don’t like the way those words feel or the images they conjure up in my head. There’s chemistry between my brother and Mia. I knew it and I hated it! Because when it really came down to it, I knew what would happen would be irreversible.

  “No, he isn’t. If he found Mia already, we’d know. He hasn’t found her.”

  Liam can track the obvious route, but I’m stuck on what Cole just said about Mia not setting the damn house on fire.

  Mia was the type of girl who lashed out only when it was necessary. Others could refer to her as a bully, an Ice Queen, but I knew she never felt any kind of satisfaction or joy in giving someone a bloody read, embarrassing the hell out of them. She wasn’t wired that way.

  She cared. She felt and she was so fucking full of emotion that she chooses to shut herself down just so she doesn’t have to feel any of them.

  Which is why she tried to drown herself when Courtney revealed the truth about her mother. Or when she wouldn’t let go of the glass that was slicing through her palm.

  Mia was complex but she was mine.

  So, what did she do after passing out? Who got in her ear before I saw her out on the beach?

  “What are you looking for?” Cole questions.

  “Something.” I hope I’m wrong.

  I fast forward the footage until I see nurses and doctors running into the room Nancy had been laid up in. Then I press play and watch the moment Mia passes out, right by the door, her beautiful face looking distraught.

  A pair of paramedics rush to her and put her on a stretcher and take her out of the room. But instead of taking her out to the ambulance, they follow Nicky to the east wing of the house.

  “Nicky,” I mutter, seeing what Liam must have seen when he saw this footage, because that’s where his log ended. He didn’t go further than that.

  “What?”

  “The sunroom,” I mutter and Cole comes to stand beside me, both of us peering down at the iPhone screen.

  Nicky was with Mia after she passed out.

  I access the cameras at the east wing of the house and watch as the paramedics rush back—sans Mia or Nicky—and my suspicions are confirmed. I fast forward the footage and watch as Nathan stalks down the hallway like he knows where he’s going and reaches the door where Mia and Nicky entered, but haven’t come out of.

  “Why is Nathan Montague walking through your house like he knows the place?”

  Because he does…

  Why did dad warn me about this man? What’s his deal besides hurting Mia the way he did? I think it’s more than just affairs and careers. Something like that is too personal and bloody.

  We watch as moments later, Nathan stalks out of the room, his body language tense, his chest heaving like he’s out of breath. Then a few minutes later, Nicky comes out clutching her cheek.

  “My God,” Cole mutters. The bruise on Nicky’s face from four days ago wasn’t there because she fought with Courtney; Nathan beat her that night.

  The fuck. If he laid a finger on Mia. Jesus… this is fucked up.

  “How did we not see that?” Cole questions, disbelief in his voice.

  “How could we, when she decided to cover her bruises up by picking a fight with my karate loving mother?”

  “Okay, so, where is she? Where is Mia?” Cole questions.

  I keep staring at the screen minutes after Nicky and Nathan are gone but I know Mia’s not coming out of that room.

  She’s not coming out because she’s not in there. She must have used the back door, but why? Did something happen with Nathan or did something happen with Nicky before Nathan entered the room?

  “I think we need to pay the grieving aunt/fake mother a little visit, don’t you think?” I seethe.

  “You think a woman like that will talk?” Cole mutters, straightening up now. “Besides, isn’t she still at the funeral home getting ready for tomorrow?”

  “I don’t care where she is, I’ll hunt her down if I have to. We should’ve demanded answers from her that morning. She obviously knows where Mia is.”

  “And if she refuses to tell us? Which, in case you haven’t added in your shitty calculations, is highly likely, what then?”

  “We just have to make sure not to take no for an answer.”

&n
bsp; Cole passes me the last bit of the blunt. I take a long, drawn out hit before stomping the thing under my boot.

  “What’s going to happen with her now that we know your father never loved her?”

  “That right there, is what I want to see.”

  And with that, we get in our cars and speed back toward the house. Cole really doesn’t have to come with me, but I know why he’s been spending time with me lately, watching me closely like I’m a recovering meth addict.

  He thinks I might go off my rails—he isn’t wrong—but mostly it’s because he doesn’t want to face his sister at home.

  Family is a pain the ass.

  12

  In my rush to question Nicky, I completely miss the other car parked in the driveway. All I know right now is four days have passed without Mia is ninety-six hours too long and it ends now, no matter where she is.

  So, when Cole and I get in the house and head for dad’s office—because let’s face it, a guilty asshole is a cooperative asshole. He’ll definitely know where the woman he’s been using is—it takes me all but three seconds to sense that something isn’t right.

  Before I take another step, something shifts from the corner of my eye. When I turn to look at what the hell it is, a tightly clenched fist comes flying straight for my jaw.

  On impulse, I duck easily enough and then shift around, light on my toes, evading the next sloppy punch aimed at my gut and then I come face to face with Nathan Montague.

  The man is drunk, I can smell the stench of scotch from where I’m standing, watching him closely.

  “You!” he barks, waving a shaky finger at me. He’s unsteady on his feet, shifting from place to place like he’s going to fall flat on his face. If he chooses to fall on his back, he’ll definitely crack his thick skull. Either one would be fine by me, I don’t particularly care. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

  “Mr. Montague, please calm down,” Cole says, regarding Mia’s father like one would a bomb that’s about to go off.

  “Shut up!” Nathan bellows, turning around to wave that same finger at Cole. “Stay out of this!”

  He turns around to stare at me with bloodshot eyes, the rage there making me tense up and it all makes sense. He was here waiting in the shadows of my home, waiting for me. Why is he here and who gave him privileges to drive up to the house and enter it like it’s his?

  “You fucking bastard!” Nathan shouts, his eyes bloodshot and wide. “Where is my daughter?”

  Something in the way he demands that makes it seem like he doesn’t particularly care about his daughter but that he controls her. That’s what abusers have in common, a shitty sense of entitlement.

  So, let’s play, Nathan. Maybe I might snap his neck now and say it was a freak accident.

  “Hmm, you finally noticed her absence after four days, huh?” I mock, regarding him with a cool look that apparently makes him even angrier as he attempts to punch me again.

  “You smug piece of shit! Just like your father.”

  I duck again, swiftly moving to the side, evading his poorly executed punch, but he trips over his own feet and almost falls flat on his face, so I have no choice but to catch him before he falls and hits his head on the hard floor.

  “Don’t touch me, devil’s spawn!” he shouts.

  Hmm, my pleasure, asshole.

  I let him go and watch as he fights to stay upright. When he regains his balance, he points again at me.

  “I’m going to fuck you up!” he bellows again, his words slurred and almost indecipherable. “Where the hell is my daughter, you son of a bitch?”

  “You really do need to calm down,” I say, fighting to remain calm, but he cuts me off as he waves his finger in my face.

  “Don’t you dare tell me to fucking calm down,” he seethes, then balls his fist again and aims for me, but I easily avoid him. He then grabs me with his other hand and wraps it around my neck just as the door to dad’s office opens in a rush and pounding fooststeps come racing down the hall.

  “What in God’s name are you doing?” Dad demands as he steps out of his office, a frown on his face that quickly fades away when he takes in the scene before him.

  Without another word, he runs down the hall and tackles Nathan to the floor.

  “Get off me!” Nathan yells.

  “How dare you attack my son in my home?” Dad seethes as he starts punching Nathan so brutally, for a second I think of pulling my father away.

  They soon switch positions and Nathan starts reigning down punches of his own, which my father does his best to avoid, ramming an elbow to Nathan’s face, causing blood to come gushing out of his nose.

  “You and your fucking vermin DNA!”

  “Who the fuck do you think you are, coming into my house?” dad shouts back, but Nathan doesn’t care as they struggle.

  “Where is my daughter? What have you done with her?”

  Just then, Liam walks down the hallway, casually eating an apple like he’s having a perfect summer’s day. What the fuck? He stops short as soon as he sees what’s going on.

  “Oh my God,” Courtney gasps. I look up and notice her standing in dad’s office doorway, her mouth hanging open as she also takes in the bloody fight in the middle of the hallway. I guess she and dad are still in some kind of plan? What is she doing here?

  Cole glances at me, but I ignore my mother and stare down at the two men fighting on the floor, rolling around with their hands around each other’s throats.

  “You fucking bastard!” Nathan shouts. “He’s just like you, touching shit that isn’t his! She’s mine!”

  Just then, Nicky comes running down the hall, a distraught look on her face, but she hasn’t noticed what’s happening because she starts speaking. “Has anyone seen Mia? I can’t find her anywhere…”

  But she trails off as soon as she sees her MAYBE soon to be husband and her one-night stand going at it like feral beasts.

  “Good God, what’s going on here?” she gasps, looking at us, her voice high pitched. High-pitched and fake. What exactly is she playing at?

  “It’s pretty obvious isn’t it?” Liam scoffs, folding his arms, looking thoroughly entertained as he leans back on the wall, biting into his apple.

  “My God, John, Nathan, stop!” Nicky cries but Dad grabs Nathan by the collar and starts punching him and they tussle and roll in the hallway, not likely to stop any time soon.

  My money’s on dad. I’ve always known I got my anger from him. Courtney was a close forty percent but getting anything from her was a sick realization after finding out what she did to Aiden.

  “Why bother?” Mom says, waving a careless hand in the air at them. “If they want to act like hooligans, let them.”

  “They’ll kill each other, please stop them!” Nicky cries, tears rolling down her face. “John stop!”

  “You took her away from me!” Dad growls. “She was never yours.”

  Both my mother and Nicky tense as soon as those words are said. They both look down at my father, eyes narrowed because we all know now, dad’s not talking about Mia. This is more than that.

  “Oh, come on now, Johnny,” Nathan spits, a taunting grin on his face. “She chose me. She chose me over and over again for years.”

  The growls that escape dad’s lips is a sound I’ve never heard before, like it’s been trapped inside his soul for a fucking long time and now he’s only going to exorcise his demons and I realize then, he’s going to kill Nathan if we let him.

  Looking up at Cole, he nods and we both move at the same time to separate the two. Dad would have to kill Nathan on his own time. I didn’t come here to witness a murder. I need to find my girl first, everything else is secondary that her.

  “Dad, stop,” I grit out low in his ear as I pull him off Nathan with considerable effort.

  “Yeah, you heard your filthy son,” Nathan taunts, spitting blood, his once slurred speech now a bit more intelligible, like dad knocked around the alcohol in his system.

 
; “Oh, shut the fuck and get the hell out of my house!”

  “It’s not your house.”

  “I don’t give a damn, if you ever lay a finger on my son or anyone of mine, I swear to God, Nathan, I’ll…”

  “You’ll what, asshole?” Nathan shouts back. Dad is tense, watching Nathan with a glare so cold, I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of it. “Besides, Johnny boy, what would dear Mommy say?”

  Mommy?

  I glance up confused, looking between the two men. Liam’s apple drops to the floor and rolls toward my mother who stands silently in the corner, a tight expression on her face.

  “Mommy?” Liam questions, now stepping closer to the shitshow. Cole is still holding back Nathan as I am with dad.

  “Aw, look at that, John, your disgusting offspring doesn’t know about our beautiful history together.”

  “You’re a delusional, pathetic drunk,” Dad spits, pushing out of my hold. “Wherever Mia went, she is far safer and better off without you.”

  That enrages Nathan all over again.

  “Wherever my daughter went?” he scoffs, shaking off Cole’s hold. “You think I’m stupid? You think I don’t know what he did.”

  He points at me as his seedy gaze shifts to look at me. “Look at you, cowering behind your asshole, disgrace of a father who didn’t have a mommy.”

  “Ah, come now Nathan, are you still bothered and hurt about that shit?” Dad taunts, the icy tone of his voice making me tense up as I listen to the beginnings of something particularly sinister, the telltale sound of devastation. “You did say it’s our history.”

  “Shut the hell up!” Nathan shouts.

  “You talk about your mother like she ever gave a damn about you! She never loved you and you know it!”

  “Is that why you did it then, huh?” Nathan shouts. “Is that why…”

  “I never had to lift a finger with your whore of a mother, Nathan. You know that. Your malignant bloodline knows that too,” Dad seethes. “Now, take your bleeding nose and your busted knuckles out of my damn house. Let me not find you here, ever again.”

  “Why the fuck do you think I’m here for? They found her car!”