Otherkin by Nina Berry Read Free Book Online Page B

after school . . .”
    “A boy?” Mom’s eyebrows almost popped off the top of her forehead. “You were out with a boy? ”
    “Yeah. I met him after school and he invited me to a party.” My brain was working overtime. How to make this plausible and yet not give anything important away?
    “You’ve been at a party this whole time?” She exchanged a look of disbelief with Richard. “The only party on the planet without a single phone in it?”
    “It was out in the desert,” I said. That was true. “And I didn’t realize how far out it was till we got there, and by then nobody could get reception.”
    “Okay, okay.” Mom’s hands were shaking. Richard stroked her back, but she started to pace. “So I’m expected to believe that you were at a party in the desert with a boy you’ve never mentioned before, for fifteen hours?” She paused to give me her “I know better than that” look. “Honey, you’ve never even been out on a date.”
    “Guess I have now,” I said, making sure to look her right in the eye. “He didn’t tell me how far it was—somewhere out past Barstow along the 15, like, halfway to Vegas. They had a bonfire next to this big rock formation, and I think I sat in a cactus.” I stood up and tugged the back of my dress around, searching for the holes.
    Mom studied me, as if I were some new life-form she’d just found under a rock. “So you went to a party with a boy. Did you drink any alcohol?” She walked right up and sniffed at me, scrutinizing my face.
    “No!” My voice had the ring of truth in it now. “I swear to you, Mom, I did not have a drink. I just had a soda and a hot dog, and so did Caleb.”
    “Caleb?” Mom’s eyes bored up into mine. I’d towered over both her and Richard since puberty. “So his name is Caleb?”
    Damn. I’d meant to use Jake Peters’s name, but Caleb had slipped out. No going back now. “He’s just this guy.”
    “How crazy was this party?” She took my chin and tilted my head down to look her in the eye again.
    “Marijuana? Ex? Meth?” asked Richard.
    Mom was pacing again. “We’ve been to a few parties in our lives too, you know.”
    “Mom, you know I’m not into that stuff. I don’t like the thought of being so out of control.”
    “Okay.” Mom stopped pacing and gave me a determined look. “It’s nearly six a.m. You and I are going to have a talk. Then I want you to take a shower and get ready for school.”
    School? After the insanity of the past hours, I couldn’t imagine dragging myself to classes. And how was I supposed to get the money to Caleb? “Mom, I’m really not feeling all that hot . . .”
    “That’s what happens when you stay out all night partying,” she said crisply. “Maybe next time you won’t go so far, remember your phone, and come home at a decent hour. Now, excuse us, Richard.” She took me by the arm and led me toward my bedroom. “It’s time for a mother-daughter chat.”
    “I’ll call the police, tell them to stop looking.” Richard walked to the phone.
    I cast a final glance out the front window but saw no sign of Caleb in the gloom outside. Richard mouthed “Good luck” at me as we headed down the hallway.
    “I know you know the facts of life,” Mom said, shutting my bedroom door. “But we need to talk about this boy you’re seeing and why it’s not okay for him to take you out to all-night parties.”
    “He’s not really like that, Mom.” I knew how that sounded as I pulled my dress over my head and slipped off my sandals. I slid the folder onto my desk out of sight. “He got dragged into it too. And before we knew it, we were hours away.”
    “But what does that say about his judgment? And yours?”
    She talked on as I eased out of the brace and stepped into the shower. I’d heard a lot of this before; Mom often babbled her free-living beliefs to me. Only this time she sprinkled in more warnings. I made the appropriate responses from behind the shower curtain as she