Rising Tide: Dark Innocence (The Maura DeLuca Trilogy Book 1) Read Free Page A

ask you if you mind if I go out with some friends
from school on Saturday.”  Best to just get it out in the open. 
Quick and painless, like ripping off a Band-Aid.
    Well, not completely
painless.  “Friends?”
    I guess if I’d been in her shoes I
would have had the same reaction.  In all the years I’d been in school I
hadn’t had anyone over.  Ever. 
    “Yea, I know,” I couldn’t help
rolling my eyes, “I’m not the most social person alive.”
    “That’s an understatement, Maura,”
she looked too serious.  I didn’t know if I would be going with Katie and
the others now, whether I’d promised her or not.  “This is so
out-of-the-blue,” she added.
    “I know, Mom,” I was starting to
get that pleading edge to my voice that she hardly ever heard, “it’s just Katie
Parker and me have sort of been hanging out together at school.  You know
eating lunch together and…”
    She interrupted at the mention of
our neighbor, “Katie Parker?  Cheerleading snot, Katie Parker? Smash
pudding into your hair, Katie Parker?” she asked in disbelief.  Maybe
Caelyn was more concerned about my life than I gave her credit for.
    “Mom!  She’s not like that
anymore,” my mind went back to the conversation I’d had with Katie today. 
There was a really good chance she was exactly like that.  
    Caelyn raised a perfect eyebrow
speculatively.  “Oh she isn’t?”  She definitely wasn’t convinced.
    “Mom,” I was getting exasperated,
“What do you care anyway?”
    She looked a little like I’d
slapped her.  “I care very much, Maura.  I don’t want to see you get
hurt.” She looked a little guilty then.  “I know I may not show it all the
time, and for that I’m very sorry, but I care about you more than anything else
in my life.”
    I was too stunned to speak. 
Caelyn and I simply didn’t have these kinds of conversations.  She usually
strayed from any kind of deep emotion, for which I forgave her.  Despite
my age, I was intensely concerned over anything that might hurt her
further.  I sought to protect my fragile mother constantly.
    “Honey, girls like Katie Parker
will chew you up and spit you out.  Don’t forget, I was a teenager
once.”  Some memory flickered across her eyes and they lost the brief
spark of fury she’d had a moment before.  Her mouth twisted into a frown
and her eyes suddenly glistened, overfull.  I wouldn’t have asked her what
she was remembering for anything.  I knew from counting backward from my
birth year, that Caelyn had been very young when she’d met my dad.  Her
age was my own doubled.  It was hard to believe that she’d had a baby when
she was as old as I was now. 
    I knew she was right about Katie
too…potentially, though.  Not absolutely.  I wanted to try. 
After all what was the worst that could happen?  For once it was nice to
think I had friends like normal teenagers.  
    “Mom!”  I snapped her out of
her day-mare, “Please, come on just let me go ok?  I really want to and
it’s only for a few hours.  Don’t you think I’m old enough to decide where
I should and shouldn’t go?”
    I could tell from the look she gave
me that she didn’t think that at all.  But she merely said, “What time,
where are you going and for how long?” she sighed deeply.
    I didn’t really want to tell my
mother we were going swimming.  This was sure to lead to questions of
whether boys would be present.  I’m sure she would disapprove of the time
of year and the water temperature, as well as the isolated location.  The
bridge Trent had mentioned was part of a deserted dirt and gravel road,
practically in the middle of the woods.  I thought fast.  Too fast.
    “We’re just going out for pizza and
to see a movie,” I blurted out without the benefit of adequate planning. 
The lying to your mom about where you were really going with your friends thing
was a new experience for me.  I knew I’d set myself up for questions