Uncharted Fate by Cynthia Racette Read Free Book Online

secretarial school or nursing.
    The following week, Mallory came in as she sat dejected at the kitchen table, her chin propped in her palm. Anna looked at the clock and noticed it was five-thirty. Her heart gave its customary flutter. That time again .
    "Hi," she said. "It’s late. Where’ve you been?"
    Mallory shot her a hostile look and dumped her books on the table. "Why? You checking up on me?"
    "Yes. You’re not grown up yet, you know." Anna made herself walk casually over to the refrigerator to take out the last three hot dogs for supper. "You usually get home around two-thirty. Did you stay after school for French Club or something?"
    "No, I dropped out of my clubs. They were boring." She stood, defiant, in the middle of the kitchen floor, her arms crossed. "Terry Baker and Kevin and I went window shopping after school. Then we hung around downtown."
    "Hung around? Hung around where?"
    "We all got milkshakes at McDonald’s."
    "How did you get a milkshake? You don’t have any money."
    "I got some from Terry."
    "I don’t like the idea of you borrowing money from other kids to have things like milkshakes. Particularly since you won’t be able to pay her back."
    "Terry didn’t lend me money, she gave me money."
    "Even worse. Who’s Terry? You never mentioned her before." Anna closed the refrigerator door and faced Mallory, her hands on her hips. "And Kevin? You’ve never mentioned him before, either."
    Mallory flipped her hair over her ear with her fingertips in an insouciant gesture. "Oh, I’ve known Terry a long time. I never hung around with her, that’s all. And Kevin is her boyfriend."
    "Boyfriend? Is she in your class? None of your other friends have started going out with boys."
    "Lots of girls have boyfriends." Mallory grimaced. "Adrienne and Chris seem terribly dreary lately. They never want to do anything fun. Probably why they don’t have boyfriends. I haven’t seen them in a while. Terry is in my homeroom and I heard her say she was going shopping after school. I asked her if I could go and she said sure."
    "I don’t think I like all this much." Anna frowned. "What stores did you go to?"
    "Nowhere special. Around downtown." Mallory looked exasperated. "Dad never cross-examined me like this. He trusted me. I was his baby girl." Tears started to gather in her eyes. She blinked them away.
    "Downtown? Then you didn’t take the school bus home?" Anna persisted.
    "Of course not."
    "Then how did you get home?"
    "Kevin’s brother’s in high school and he gave me a ride."
    Anna’s brewing anger erupted and she strode forward until she was right in front of Mallory. "You rode home in a car with Kevin’s brother? Kevin, who you only met today and his brother, who could have been any kind of weirdo for all you knew?"
    "Moth-er. Don’t be Stone Age. Not every man in the world is a rapist." She turned to walk haughtily to her room, but Anna caught her arm.
    "Maybe not, young lady. But you know better than to accept rides from strangers. Some of the high school boys who own cars do a lot of joyriding. Next time you let someone give you a ride, make sure you know him well enough to trust him to drive careful and to bring you straight home. You got that?"
    "I got it," Mallory sneered. "Loud and clear. Now if you’re through with your lecture, I want to play a CD Terry gave me." She swung her purse onto her shoulder and stalked off to her room, slamming the door.
    "God, she’s getting to be a real drag since Dad . . . left," Mallory mumbled to herself as she threw her jacket on the floor.
    She plopped herself down on the bed and took the CD out of her purse, peeling the wrapper off. She put it in her stereo, laid down on the bed, slipped on the earphones, and turned up the volume. Closing her eyes, she let the strident base of "Smashing Pumpkins" latest album pound her ears with noise.
    With the volume turned up so high, she could close her eyes and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist.

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