Experiment in Terror 04 Lying Season by Karina Halle Read Free Book Online Page B

frozen, hanging cloud. I flashed her my iPhone in one quick motion.
    “ I don’t know what that means,” she said, pulling her coat in closer. I eyed her feet. She only had her morning slippers on.
    “ It means I know where I’m going,” I replied patiently and gave a final tug on the bag.
    I walked over to her and gave her a quick hug. Her coat smelled like a mist of dated perfume and mothballs. She had that coat for as long as I could remember and wore it almost every day when the winter air hit Portland, yet it still smelled like something out of a 1920’s German film.
    She embraced me back and pulled away with a worried mother look. Sometimes I want to tell her that the more she frowns and twists her lips to the side, the more the wrinkles will come. But that would be cruel and I know she’s aware of it. My mother knows everything about preserving beauty.
    “ I’ll be fine,” I said, even though she hadn’t spoken.
    She just smiled tightly and looked down at the shiny brown/black hairs of the coat. “I know.”
    She looked up and her expression had changed. Now she was the no-nonsense mother I knew too well.
    “ How was your date last night?” she asked. “We had gone to sleep and you weren’t home yet.”
    I almost detected a prying naughtiness in her voice, as if she was hoping I’d gotten lucky or something.
    I gave her a suspicious look. “It went fine.”
    “ Are you going to go out with him again?”
    “ Maybe,” I said and turned back to my bike, ready to not only leave the popsicle stand behind but this weird, awkward conversation as well. “I’ll call you when I get there.”
    She sighed and I looked back at her one last time. She looked fed up but gave me a quick wave.
    “ Be safe.”
    I nodded, slipped on my helmet, took one last look at my Google map directions, and got on the bike. I popped one ear bud in my ear, flicked my iPod to the newest Slayer album and off I went.
     
    ~~
     
    I didn’t start freaking out until I was a Google map-block away from Dex’s apartment. And when I say freaking out, I mean, full-on panic attack. Going up the wrong way on a one-way street didn’t help either. I quickly pulled my bike into a small parking lot between a donut shop and a sleazy motel, got off it and put my head between my legs.
    My entire body was awash with the sickening pins and needles effects that my panic attacks (or extreme nervousness) produced. I was so focused on not losing my breath or fainting out cold in public, that I barely noticed the freezing rain that fell steadily on my back.
    I straightened up, leaned against the donut shop’s brick wall and raised my head to the sky, hoping the wetness would bring some sense of reality to me.
    Sometimes panic attacks did creep in out of nowhere, but I knew this one was the pure product of the situation. Really, there was nothing to be afraid of. I was going to see Dex. Yes, sometimes things between us were a tad awkward when we’d been apart for a while, but even now I didn’t think that would be the case. I had even talked to him the morning before, getting the directions to his apartment.
    I guess I just wasn’t sure what Jenn would be like. And I didn’t know how they would be around each other. What if they were some super-affectionate couple and were kissing every five minutes? The thought of that made my eyes roll back in my head.
    “ You all right, girlie?”
    I blinked hard at the rain and looked over at a young, dreadlocked man who was stopped on the sidewalk near me.
    I nodded quickly, not finding the words and feeling embarrassed.
    “ Least someone here likes the rain,” he said, more to himself than to me, and started swaggering down the street until he was out of my sight.
    I gathered my thoughts and composed myself. I needed to pull it together here and now or this whole week would be a waste of time. If Jenn and Dex were going to be all coupley and cute, so be it. This was just part of the process and I would