Rising Tide: Dark Innocence (The Maura DeLuca Trilogy Book 1) (6 page)

I was confused…wasn’t that exactly
what had happened?

Caelyn chose to ignore my
questioning expression.  “When he finally spoke he merely said, ‘It’s not
you I’m angry with, Caelyn.  Now I simply need to deal with the
ramifications of what I’ve done.’”

“I don’t understand…” I began, but
she put her finger on my lips to silence me.

“Let me finish,” she looked
haggard.  “I need to go to bed, Maura.”

I was terrified she would say
nothing more then, but she continued, “He was so calm, like he’d just settled into
a decision he’d been wrestling with, and now that it was decided, there was no
going back.  And after, we were so happy, until about three months before
you were born.  Then we had a huge fight and…”  She hesitated and it
was like she changed what she was originally going to say, “and he left.”

She rose, and I knew this was going
to be all the story I would get.  I still had what seemed like hundreds of
questions brewing up in my mind.  Were her parents angry?  Had he
ever even seen me?  What could they have fought about that left such
devastating consequences in its wake?  I had to ask the most important
question of all before she left me to ponder all of this alone, while I lay in
the little twin bed.

“Mom...”  I was so close to
finding out the biggest mystery of all.  I whispered breathlessly,” Why
did he leave, Mom?”

She did turn back to me, her
expression unbelievably embittered, “Because we could only come to one
agreement about the course my future should take…..and yours, as well.”

Broken.  That was the best way
to describe my poor half-hearted mother.  That was the way my father left
her, so she couldn’t help it.  And when I came home from my doomed outing,
I was afraid what was left of her just might fall to pieces.  As Ron
walked me up the front steps, I cringed away from the expression she’d have
engraved on her face when she saw my scantly covered body, the blood dried into
my hair from the ugly wound in my head…the boy I was with…

“Are you sure you want to come
in?”  I hated the fear that permeated my voice.  I didn’t know if I
was more afraid of Caelyn screaming at Ron before she knew what had happened,
or her falling apart in front of him after she’d heard everything.

It was too late now…he was ringing
the doorbell.  He looked so much braver than I felt.  I could see the
anger that had crept back into him in the hard set of his lips, the flash in
his dark eyes.

It didn’t take long at all for
Caelyn to tear the door open, anxiety all over her face.  She looked at
Ron, dumbfounded.  She must have caught sight of some part of me, because
she instantly peered around his shoulder then to find me, standing meekly
behind him, clad only in a boy’s shirt that just barely cleared my hips.

“Maura?! What the…” her eyes fairly
popped with dismayed astonishment.

“Hi Mom.” What an asinine thing to
say.  I should have at least started with, “I’m okay.”

Caelyn just stood there with her
mouth hanging open.  I felt the fear turn over, like a living thing, in my
stomach.  How was I going to survive this?  How could I even begin to
explain everything that had happened tonight?

Luckily I had Ron.  “Hi, um,
Ms. DeLuca,” he started out sounding very shy, but as my mother’s brows
furrowed closer together, he put a stronger edge to his voice.  “I came to
bring Maura home.”  She was still scowling.

“Um…I’m Ron by the way,” he put his
hand out to her.  She ignored that entirely.

My mother’s look was venomous,
“Maura!  Get in the house this instant!”

Oh boy…she thought Ron was at fault
for whatever imagined atrocities were going through her brain right now.

“Mom!”  I was desperate to put
everything right, despite how much trouble I knew I’d be in.  “You have it
all wrong!”

“I said GET IN THE HOUSE!” she
screamed at me, absolute fury flying from her eyes.  I’d never seen her so
angry before and I was terrified.  “Do I need to ask you again?”

“N-n-no ma’am,” I stuttered. 
I hurried past Ron, but not without looking up at him with apology in my
eyes.  I felt horrible for his being put in the middle of all this just
because he’d happened to save my life.

Once inside, I steeled myself to
try to talk to my mother.  “Mom, will you please just let me…”

“Don’t say anything, Maura,” her
voice shook.  “Do you have any idea what you’ve put me through tonight?”

I was confused then.  Did she
want me to stay quiet or answer her question?

Ron saved me again.  “I think
I can explain,” he took a tentative step onto the living room carpet.

I didn’t like the way Caelyn’s head
snapped around when she looked at him.  “What was your name again?” she
asked viciously.

I saw him swallow hard as he
answered, “Ron.”

She turned on him then.  “Well
Ron
,” it sounded like she’d chewed on his name before spitting it out,
“do you mind telling me why it is you’re out with my daughter…when she’s
supposed to be with Katie Parker?   And after you’ve answered that,
I’d
really
love to know why you would bring her home wearing only
that
!!” 
She pointed the index finger of her shaking hand at me, standing on the plush,
blue carpet next to our couch, holding onto its arm for support, my knees
knocking together.

Ron went a little pale…I couldn’t
stand to see my hero wrongly accused.

“Mom! Listen to me!  If-if it
weren’t for him, for Ron…Mom I’d be
dead
right now!”  I shouted it
all out quickly, before she had a chance to silence me again.

“What…” she suddenly looked like
she might have a fainting fit, as well, reaching out to catch the doorframe for
support.  Ron, ever the gentleman, steadied her by stepping over to let
her lean against him.  I was surprised to see her reach up to grip his
considerable shoulder.

She blinked her eyes heavily and
then looked at me again.  “What did you just say, Maura?”

“Mom, Ron…he just happened to be
camping near to where we went swimming…”  I just lied a little bit.

“Swimming?!”  Caelyn’s eyes
burned again, “You never said anything about swimming, and at this time of
year? What were you thinking?”

“I guess you didn’t tell your mom
where you were really going?”  Ron raised an eyebrow at me disapprovingly.

My cheeks burned at that.  I
noticed Caelyn look at him with a little more softness then.  Oh well, at
least one of us would be off the hook.

“I didn’t,” I admitted, “but if I
can get back to defending you….”

“Continue,” he said calmly.

“Don’t you think you should go put
something else on, Maura?” Caelyn interrupted sharply.  This probably
meant two things.  One, she didn’t want me to continue standing here
half-dressed in front of our male guest.  Two, she was going to pump Ron
for information in case I was holding out on her about anything else.  I
couldn’t really blame her, Caelyn wasn’t used to having me lie to her about
anything.  I didn’t think it was a good time to tell her I’d merely
started acting like any other normal teenager. 

“Yes,” I sighed and trudged up the
stairs to my room.  I could hear her start before I’d even cleared the
last step.

“Ron, just where were all of you
tonight?” 

I hoped she’d at least let him
explain that he wasn’t part of that horrible group who’d devastated me
earlier.  I was trying not to think about what they’d done, but it keep
invading my consciousness, making me feel nauseous every time it permeated my
thoughts.  I’d always known I was different, but I never imagined that
difference could make me so hated.  I wiped fresh tears away, as I entered
the safe haven of my room.

I dug out my favorite fuzzy
pajamas, not caring if Ron had to see them.  My gaze fell with longing
onto my PlayStation, and I couldn’t wait to escape into some
Final Fantasy
VIII
.  But…I doubted I would get much of a reprieve from the lecture
my mother was sure to deliver tonight, and I wanted to take a shower. 
Finally get warm all the way through to my bones…and wash away the blood—thank
God Caelyn hadn’t noticed—that was grossly matted into my hair.  I kept
catching its metallic scent, and for some reason that was really bothering me,
it kept capturing my attention like a mosquito buzzing at my ear.  At
least I’d managed to hide the gash up next to my temple with my hair.  The
water was really going to make it sting…

“Mom!  I’m going to take a
shower, okay?”  I yelled down.

“You’d better hurry because we
still need to discuss a few things, Maura!”  She still sounded angry, so
Ron must not have gotten to the part about my absolute humiliation.  I
wondered if she would grant me a small bit of absolution for suffering through that.

The water was delicious.  So
warm, and a momentary escape from my mother’s wrath.  As it poured over my
face, it ran into my mouth and
tasted
delicious.  I must have been
dehydrated because I suddenly felt thirsty.  Cupping my hands together, I
caught the stream running over my face and drank deeply.  It just tasted
so
good
.  There was something about it I couldn’t quite place like
honey, copper honey was the image my mind threw at me...I opened my eyes to
look at it then, only to find my hands full of bloody water. 

Of course!  The stream from
the shower was pouring over my wound, mixing with the blood caked there. 
To know I’d been enjoying the taste of my own blood made my stomach roll in
protest.  I barely managed to escape the shower and kneel in front of the
toilet before I was sick.  Maybe I’d done more damage to my head than I’d
realized…

I went back downstairs, once I was
warmed and pajama-clad, tentatively, taking the stairs extra slow so I could
hear any bits of conversation taking place.  It was much quieter than I
would have expected.

“I…still can’t believe anyone
would…”  I heard Caelyn’s voice catch with a sob.  She was
crying?  I hesitated now, one sleep-sock clad foot hanging in air, above
the next stair.

“I know.”  Ron’s voice had
that same edge it’d held when I’d first woken in his arms a couple of hours
ago. 

My foot came down, though I hadn’t
known I was taking the next step.  The stair creaked and it was abruptly
quiet.

“Maura?” they both called at once.

“Who else?” I joked, but no one
laughed.  I tiptoed the rest of the way down the stairs, making my
presence as unobtrusive as possible.  I peeked cautiously around the
corner, to find Ron and Caelyn sitting on the couch.  There was a cup on
the coffee table in front of him.  Shane now sat in the easy chair off to
the side, holding his cup up and drinking from it.  So both of them were
in the house…and Caelyn had made them some sort of hot, comforting
beverage.  I took both developments as sign things were at least a little
better.

Ron caught sight of me then and
smiled warmly.  That definitely made
me
feel better.  Until
Shane’s eyes looked up, met mine and then took me in from top to bottom.

He roared with laughter, “All you
need to go with those, Maura, is a big, fuzzy teddy bear.”

My mouth fell open with shock, and
I was suddenly self-conscious of the bunny appliqué on the front of the blue
pajama top…and the same pattern covering the matching bottoms. Stupid…but I’d
never really thought of them as childish—until now.  It wasn’t like I’d
had much of a choice anyway; nearly all my sleepwear had some sort of animal,
star or heart-shaped pattern.  I’d have to ask Caelyn to let me buy my own
night clothes from now on…well, when she was on affable speaking terms with me
again.

Ron defended my honor by hurling
one of the throw pillows at Shane, as soon as Caelyn got up to go in the
kitchen. 

“Hey!” Shane complained as it
smacked into the side of his head.

“You had it coming,” I said softly,
as I entered the room.  It was dangerous to be enjoying myself too much at
this point.  I opted for sticking my tongue out at him, rather than run
the risk of speaking anything else.

I sat down lightly beside Ron, my
head brimming over with a hundred questions.  I just looked up into his mocha
eyes, instead of speaking any of them.  When Caelyn came back I jumped
lightly and moved a few inches away from him.  I could tell she didn’t
like my reaction.  But, she composed herself quickly, though her eyes were
red around the edges, and I knew for certain she had been crying.  To my
surprise, she set a cup in front of me too.  Hot chocolate.  With
marshmallows even.  Ron must have worked some kind of miracle.

I looked up at her questioningly.

“I found out what happened.” 
Her voice started to tremble and I saw the tears well up in her eyes.  It
seemed like she was taking this even harder than I was.  She struggled to
compose herself, “But that still doesn’t let you off the hook completely.”

I’d been afraid of that, but it was
only fair.  I’d been, atrociously, not myself lately.  Lying, cutting
class, going places I know my mother wouldn’t approve of.  I hung my head,
“Yea, I didn’t expect it to.” 

I caught Ron glancing at me on my
right.  He looked surprised, like he’d expected me to put up more of a
fight. 

“Well, I hate to do this, but
you’re grounded until the move.”

Ron looked a little more now like
someone had punched him in the stomach.  Had he been planning things to do
with
me
?  I still couldn’t believe the attention he’d paid me thus
far.  He was too beautiful to be with me. And didn’t he have a someone to
give a certain expensive birthday present to?   His eyes reflected my
own face back to me.  I saw that I looked disappointed.  I wasn’t the
only one.

Caelyn cleared her throat
loudly.  She might be Ron’s biggest fan after finding out he’d saved me,
but that still wouldn’t be enough for her to approve of my having a
relationship at my age.  Much less, falling head over heels, only to leave
him behind and make myself miserable for months…and probably calling up
unpleasant memories of loss for her, too.