The Zeuorian Awakening Read Free Page A

reason he hadn’t posted a message yet, it gave her time to discuss her plan to attend MIT with Irene and leave town before anyone knew about her transforming. She already packed her bags.
    She cleared her throat and called out, “Hey Irene can we talk?”
    “After you get ready,” Irene said outside her bedroom door.
    Lexi jumped from her chair, knocking it over, and rushed to the door. Irene disappeared behind the wall and started down the stairs, “Can we talk now?” Lexi asked. “It’s important.”
    “I said after you get ready.”
    Lexi opened her mouth and closed it. It wouldn’t hurt for her to take a shower and get dress just in case Irene decided to let her go to MIT.
    She ran into the bathroom next to the hall, tearing off her camisole and bikini underwear. She jumped into the shower and turned it on. A few minutes later, she stepped onto the rug and rushed into her room with the towel wrapped around her body.
    She grabbed a pair of worn jeans from a drawer and pulled them on, grunting the entire time as she tried to squeeze her new curved figure into the unforgiving denim.
    “Hurry up,” Lexi heard Irene shout from downstairs.
    “One more second,” Lexi replied, squeezing a frayed T-shirt over her large breast.
    A cool breeze brushed across her skin from the air entering her poorly insulated wood frame window. The weather already felt like fall, but what did she expect living in the northwest. She slipped on her worn hoodie, warming her chilled skin before rushing out of her room and down the stairs.
    “You’re not going to believe this,” Lexi started to say while entering the kitchen. “I actually transformed last . . .“
    Her words trailed away as she stared at the kitchen table where Irene should’ve been sitting. In her place was a morning newspaper open to the funnies, a half-eaten bagel and a small present with a note next to it.
    She lifted the note from Irene, “Sorry sweetie, there was an emergency at the hospital and I had to go back to work right away.”
    Seriously. Lexi gaped at the note. Irene couldn’t wait five minutes to talk to her. A car engine revved close to the house and pair of headlights beamed through the kitchen window. Oh, Irene hadn’t left yet. Maybe she could stop her before she drove away.
    She tore open the kitchen side door and rushed outside, taking the sidewalk toward the front of the house. The fog swirled around the driveway and grew thicker the closer she came to the road. Irene’s SUV pulled away from the curb and Lexi waved to her, but she continued toward the corner of the block and disappeared into the fog.
    Dammit. She missed her or maybe not. She rushed back inside and grabbed her cell phone sitting on the counter. After the first ring, Irene answered the phone. “What’s up,” she said.
    “Can we talk?” Lexi asked. “There’s something important I need to tell you that had happened to me last night.”
    “What happened?” Irene’s voice sounded alarm. “Did someone hurt you?”
    “No, no.” Lexi said, calming Irene down. “No one attacked me, but something happened after I jumped off the large rock island.”
    “You mean the rock I forbid you to go on after you broke your arm jumping from it last summer.”
    “I know, but—”
    “Yes you do know better,” Irene said, anger radiating off her voice. “I understand yesterday was tough being the second anniversary of your parents passing, but recklessly jumping off a twenty foot rock into the ocean for some type of thrill will not help you get over their loss. It’ll only end in you getting hurt or dead. You may have little regard for your life, but I don’t. Now promise me not to go on that rock again.”
    Lexi wished for once Irene would understand she hadn’t gone to the rock to get a stupid adrenaline rush by jumping off it. She went there to remember her parents and everything they had enjoyed doing together. For some odd reason the rock made her seem close to them, but