Landlocked (A water witch novel) by C.S. Moore Read Free Book Online Page B

around her neck, still clasping her drink. Pulling herself onto the shelf, she wiped her eyes and looked at me.
    “You can’t rain on my parade,” she said and took a drink of her now mostly pool water lemonade.
    “Honey, she just took your parade out with a tidal wave,” Sylvia interjected. “Now get over here and eat.”
     
    ***
     
    After dinner, Clarissa and I decided to catch a movie before she had to go back home. Her sweeter-than-candy dad was gone on a business trip, like usual, and she didn’t enjoy the warm smell of bourbon that hung around her mom. Staying out of her house was a must. So we headed to the small theater downtown that showed movies about two weeks after they came out everywhere else. I preferred books to movies, but a show was always much more fun when I got to watch it with Clarissa. And apparently the one she was dragging me to was supposed to be “He-larious.”
    The sun was still up, but its light was dimming as it headed west, and the Victorian area street lamps started kicking on. They were the original wrought iron ones and very beautiful. The city had them converted from oil to electric and they gave off a warm glow that was almost as sweet as the fireflies sweeping through the trees.
    The peaceful night was disturbed when we turned left down Second Avenue and something that sounded like a jackhammer attacked my eardrums.
    “Holy Hannah!” Clarissa shouted. “What is that?”
    I looked down the street and saw that someone was taking a large drill to the side of the building we were headed for. “It looks like they’re working on the theater.”
    She rolled her eyes. “They need to work on the inside. You’d think they had never heard of stadium seating.”
    I nodded in agreement, though I wasn’t sure why either of us should care. We were both tall. It was the poor shorty’s who got… well the short end of the stick in non-stadium theaters. There was a line in front of the ticket taker’s window and we queued up. The incessant drilling continued, and I turned away from the noise. Clarissa made a gagging gesture and pointed to a couple making out furiously in front of everyone.
    “Ugh, why do people do that?” she asked.
    “Which reminds me… Thanks for making me tell my aunt about Jaron.” I pushed her shoulder playfully. “That was so helpful, and she took it very well.”
    She stretched her mouth into a pained expression. “I’m sorry, sometimes I forget—” The drilling cut her off and she waited for it to stop. “I forget how weird your aunt and uncle are. Don’t get me wrong they’re great, but the way they treat you…” She trailed off, seeming to be lost in thought. “Do you remember in fourth grade when our teacher paired us up and gave us eggs to care for like they were babies?”
    I nodded, wondering what had made her think of the distant memory.
    “Well that’s how they treat you, like an egg baby.”
    I laughed, knowing it was true. “Well I hope they treat me better than you treated yours. If my memory serves correctly, you broke it within the first hour.”
    Her face dropped in mocked despair. “It’s true, poor baby Jessica!” She looked at me straight faced again. “Wait, what reminded you of telling your aunt about Jaron?” She asked and looked behind her at the still embracing couple. “They did! Holy smokes you’re—” The drilling cut her off, but she made an impatient face and raised her voice to a shout. “YOU’RE HOTTER FOR JARON THAN I THOUGHT.”
    The construction noise stopped and everyone was staring at us. Clarissa grinned at me. She was never embarrassed. I was flaming. She turned to look at the movie times. “I’ll bet you can hear that inside. I hope he takes a break during the movie.”
    “I guess I could,” a deep voice chimed from behind me.
    Every muscle in my body locked up and my head started spinning. Oh no, it couldn’t be him. Had he heard what Clarissa said? I slowly turned on unstable legs to have