Rising Tide: Dark Innocence (The Maura DeLuca Trilogy Book 1) (10 page)

I was shocked by the deep meaning the
words of the song held.  Was he trying to tell me he felt
that
way
about me?

When it ended, I started it over
again and stumbled over to my bed, clumsy because of the mistiness the song had
brought to my eyes. 

I plunked down on my side and
picked up the rabbit.  He was brown and white…mostly white, but with brown
suede in his ears and on the bottoms of his big, back feet.  His nose was
sewn with a brown thread that matched the suede.  The little tag still
hung from one of his ears. 

It was a Gund!  One of the
expensive, luxurious plushies from the jewelry store in the mall!  That
was all it took to make the tears spill over.

Ron had even written that this
special stuffed animal was from him to me on the tag.  I tried not to read
too much into the fact that he wrote “Love, Ron,” without much success.  I
also saw that this little guy’s name was Timothy.

Well, that explained the extra-long
bathroom trip earlier.  I had been worried he might be sick…or worse
looking for a way to escape the house without notice, after my little stunt in
the kitchen.  He must have had help from Caelyn getting Timothy upstairs
unnoticed.  I hadn’t seen him carry that in….not that I’d been overly
observant when he’d arrived.

I sighed.  He was obviously
far too good for
me
.  But I decided to enjoy the moment
anyway.  I hugged the bunny close and settled in under the covers.  I
managed to listen to every song once…and get back to “Endlessly.”  I
drifted off to the crooning of the lead singer, promising me Ron was mine for
keeps.

In the morning, I was determined to
catch Caelyn and talk to her about my bizarre behavior of the night
before.  But…of course she’d slipped out of the house before I’d even
gotten up.  Either she wasn’t lying about the early morning meeting, or
she was trying very hard to avoid me. 

I quickly forgave her abandonment
though, when I saw what was waiting for me under the warmer.  A big plate
of scrambled eggs and a
very
rare steak.  I was eating as I walked
to the table. 

After I’d gulped down the delicious
meat—Caelyn was right protein was good—I realized I didn’t exactly know what
time Ron was coming to pick me up.  In my haste, I went screaming up the
stairs, almost breaking my legs when I tripped near the top. 

The shower was probably the most
hurried of my life.  I skipped drying my hair in favor of looking for
something to wear.  I skimmed through the dresses hurriedly.  Caelyn
hadn’t even put a pair of pants on me until I was about twelve, so that
probably explained my preference.  There was just something about the way
a skirt swirled, unconfining, about your legs.  I very much preferred the
way it felt than jeans hugging tightly against my skin.  Like my mother, I
chose simple, classy, but casual designs in dark colors. 

Today’s choice was a dark grey,
plain except for the ribbon trimming the edges of the long sleeves and the
bottom of the full skirt.  Of course all my dresses were paired with
tights thick enough to hide the pallor of my long legs.  Light brown Mary
Janes completed the ensemble.

Some light make up followed, but I
still hadn’t dried my hair when the doorbell rang.  I smoothed it down as
best I could before nearly injuring myself, yet again, in my rush to get the
door.

I took a deep breath to calm myself
and opened it, my shaking hands, ruining my attempt to be casual.

He was…breathtaking.  Mine was
stolen right away.  I had no air to say hello with.

He smiled
that
smile, his
smile.  I was awestruck.

Memories of the night before
intruded on the moment.  A tremor of worry at how the night had begun…the
amazing movie and…

“Thank you for the Timothy!” 
I leapt at him, and he caught me up in a hug, “And the songs,” I added at his
ear.

“You liked the surprises?”

“More than you can imagine.”

He pulled away to look at me, “I
don’t know…I can imagine quite a bit.”

“I loved them,” my voice was heavy,
all weighted down with emotion.  “I just wish you hadn’t spent so much on
the…”

He put his finger on top of my
lips, silencing them.  “Did you sleep good last night?” He asked. 
His finger moved away so I could answer.

“Oh yes!”

“Worth every penny, so not another
word about that, okay?”  He smiled a sly smile.

“Okay.” That smile could have made
me agree to gnaw my own hand off at the wrist.

“So what do you wanna be up to
today?”

“Hmmm, I guess I kind of thought
you’d decide that…I’ve got nothin…” I started to think really hard, though.

He started to speak, but I suddenly
erupted with, “I know!  I want to see your room!  Your house!”

“Sure, okay.  You ready to go
right now?”

I guess my hair would have to drip
dry.  “Yea, let’s go!”

I was fairly bouncing with
excitement when we were in the car.  He, of course, was totally at ease,
singing along with The Spill Canvas on the cd player.  It turned out that
he only lived two streets behind mine, so it was a short drive.

His house was much like any other
on the street, two stories with a garage and a little yard.  We went in
the front hallway and up a short set of stairs into the kitchen.  It was
decorated in cream and brown, copper cookware hanging on the wall.  It had
a very homey feel to it.  Ron dropped his car keys on the small, round
table and pulled me into the living room by the hand.

I was very surprised, to say the
least, to see his mother sitting on the couch.  I suppose I’d just assumed
she would be at work, like my own mother, this early in the morning.  And
was a bit unsure how she would react to our skipping school.

I managed a startled, “Oh! 
Hello!”

Ron chuckled—the traitor—obviously
unrepentant for the lack of warning on his part.  My cheeks started to
burn.

She didn’t seem surprised to see me
though.  “You must be Maura.”  She got up from the couch and extended
her hand, “I’m Debbie.”

I took her hand gently in mine,
saying, “Nice to meet you.”  She was warm, just like him.

I would have been expecting her to
have the same dark brown hair and eyes Ron had, but she was a blue-eyed blonde. 
Her skin was the same deep brown as his was though, and she had the same
dazzling smile.  He must have gotten his hair and eye coloring from his
father. 

“You, too.  Ron has had quite
a lot to say about you.”  She gave me that kind of smile that usually
holds a secret.  I felt my already red cheeks deepen with heat and color.

“Mom,” he rolled his eyes, “you’re
embarrassing Maura!”

“What?”  She feigned
innocence, “Well you do talk about her all the time, do you not?  I’m only
saying what’s true.”

It was his turn to redden a
little.  Debbie gave me a wink, and I knew she was allying with me against
him to make me feel more comfortable.  She was very likeable. 

Ron had had enough of our
camaraderie though, and put an arm around me to steer me towards the stairs at
the back of the room.  “Come on, Maura, and I’ll show you my room.” 
I didn’t miss the teasing look of warning he shot at his mother. 

I couldn’t resist, once we were on
the stairs I asked, “So you talk about me a lot?”  I grinned up at him,
feeling only a touch evil. 

He rolled his eyes, “Females…this
is what I get for putting you in a room together!”  We were at the door to
what must have been his room, then, and he led me inside without hesitation.

I wasn’t surprised to find that his
room was a lot like my own.  Computer desk with monitor, small TV—but he
sported an X-box 360 connected to his, my mouth almost watered—on his dresser,
a rack of video games and dvds.  His comforter was also a midnight blue,
but with a spray of stars and no moons.  I was envious of his matching
curtains.  Mine were the color of my comforter, but plain and unpatterned.

My eyes darted back longingly to
the 360.  “Wow, you have X-box.” I noted, wondering if he could tell how
envious I was.  Caelyn refused to let me have anything other than my
little PS One.  She thought the more modern games were too violent for me
to play. 

“Yea,” he grinned, “wanna play
something?”

When he asked, my eyes immediately
started cataloging his game collection.  “You have
Gears of War
??” 
I’d been agonizing over wanting to play that game since I’d seen the very cool
commercials for it on TV. 

“Let’s give it a go.”  He pulled
the jewel case from its rack and popped the cd out so he could slide it into
the waiting X-box. 

I took the controller he held out
to me, as I eased onto the edge of his bed beside him.  It didn’t take too
long to see what a handicap Caelyn had caused me by restricting my gaming to
the much older system.  It took several minutes just to get the hang of
walking my character around.  Since
Final Fantasy
was a million
miles away from a modern, first person shooter, my kill ratio was excruciatingly
embarrassing.  But seriously, if my mother thought the monsters in this
game were going to scar my young mind or something, she was thoroughly
mistaken!

“Far cry from
Final Fantasy
,
huh?”  Ron asked after the round came to an end.

“Wow, I’ll say,” my mouth still
twisted in frustration.  As I looked up to face him, my gaze fell across
his shoulder to the far corner of the room.  “No way…..”

He followed my eyes.  “Oh,
that?’ he uttered with complete nonchalance.

“
Oh that?
” I mimicked back
at him.  “I didn’t know you played.”  My eyes flicked back to the
pair of guitars, one acoustic & one electric, standing side by side. 
I wondered how I’d missed seeing them before.  “Wow, I guess you’re just
great at everything?”

He rolled his eyes, “Hardly!”

“Play something for me?”

“Awww, c’mon….I haven’t been
playing that long.  Wouldn’t you rather shoot some more monsters?” 
He grinned hopefully.

“Nope,” I crossed my arms and
pulled out my most stubborn pout.  I was fully prepared to sit like this
all day. 

“Wow, that’s impressive….ok, ok,”
he rolled his large, dark eyes, “but it’ll have to be the acoustic. 
There’s no way Mom will be cool with the amp this early in the morning.”

He rose from the bed and went to
pick up the light colored guitar.  He settled back into place at the foot
of the bed, only facing me this time.  After the first few chords, I
recognized the song.  He even sang the words to “Hey There Delilah,” as he
played.  When he got the part about the thousand miles though, I suddenly
got very sad.  So much so that the tears welled up in my eyes.  He
seemed to catch my mood and stopped playing.  I hoped it wasn’t some kind
of sign he didn’t make it to the optimistic portion of the lyrics.

“I guess we have to face it.” 
I couldn’t stand to see such sadness in his eyes.

“We can’t keep avoiding the fact
I’m moving a country away in a few weeks, huh?”  I was embarrassed by the
break in my voice.  I didn’t even allow myself to cry in front of my
mother.

“I don’t want you to go.”

“I don’t want to leave.”  It
was the first time I’d said it out loud.  As sad as I was, it felt kind of
good to voice what had been welling up inside me.

“Maybe you could stay here!” 
His eyes lit up with revelation, “I’m sure Mom wouldn’t mind.  We have an
extra bedroom.”  He’d taken both my hands in his excitement.  You’d
have thought he’d just won the lottery, the way he was grinning.

I, however, did not share his
enthusiasm.  “You obviously don’t know my mother like I do.”

“But you’re old enough to make your
own decisions….”

“But—not old enough to do so
legally,” I reminded him, “even if I could leave Caelyn—er Mom—alone, and I
just can’t do that.  She…well she’s been through a lot, and I’m all she
has.  Even if I could, trust me, she would
never
let me go.”

His mood visibly deflated, “Oh…”

“Can I talk to you about
something?”  I asked.  I wasn’t just trying to divert his attention
to alleviate his sadness, but my last comment reminded me of all the recent
weirdness infecting my life lately.

“Sure,” he made an honest attempt
at a real smile.  My hands were still captured within his own and I was
very aware of their warmth.  Ron started running his thumbs over the tops
of my still-very-cool skin, almost derailing my train of thought
completely. 

I refocused and firmed up my
resolve

“Have you ever felt like…well, like
something weird is going on?  Like things about you are changing for no
good reason and you’re not sure why?”

“Hey, I’m a teenage guy.  Are
you kidding?”  The last word came out as a chuckle.

I rolled my eyes.  “Ok, I’ll
give you that one, but I’m being serious.”  I lowered my head, because I
was afraid of what my expression might look like to him.  “Sometimes I
wonder what’s happening to me.”

When I brought my eyes back to his
face, he wore a very serious expression.  I felt his hands tighten around
my own.

“Just what exactly do you mean,
Maura?  Is something wrong?  Is there something you’ve been keeping
from me?”  This all came out in a rush, so that I didn’t really have time
to answer the first two questions.  I pondered a moment over the last,
because the answer to that one was a definitive, “yes.”

My hesitation only agitated him
further, “Maura!!”

I suddenly wished I hadn’t broached
this topic of conversation.

“You know what, I think it’s just
like you said and is all normal, teenager type stuff.”  I brightened my
tone in order to sound more convincing.

“If it were about normal stuff, I
don’t think you’d look half as worried as you did half a minute ago.”  He
eyed me with suspicion.

I laughed, hoping to throw him
off.  “Well, it’s just changes in things.  Like my hair…and
cravings…normal stuff, really.”  And completely whacked stuff like
thinking my own blood tastes awesome!  I kept that part to myself.

He was quiet for a long moment, and
then resigned himself to acceptance.  “Well, you know…if there’s ever
anything
you want to talk about, I’m here.  And I’d hope if anything was wrong,
you’d let me know about it—that you trust me at least that much.”  His
eyes were all soft and faintly misty.  I felt like I might fall into them,
like a fish racing down, down into the safe blackness of the ocean
depths. 

“Oh Ron, I do trust you!”  I
just don’t want you to run screaming away.

“Good,” was all he said.  Then
he took me surprise by pulling me into his arms.  We sat like that for
what seemed like a very long time.  I pushed the side of my head into his
chest as hard as I could to better hear the steady, comforting sound of his
heartbeat. 

Finally, he said, “Do you want to
give the monster hunt one more chance?”

“You bet!”

When I woke up, Ron was still
asleep.  Before starting the game again, we’d crawled up to the top of the
bed so we could rest our backs against the headboard.  When his beefed up
soldier had started trying to walk through a wall, I’d looked over to find him
sleeping.  I’d watched his peace-filled features, memorizing them for the
time when I wouldn’t be able to see him every day….every week….every month….how
long would it be until I could see him again, after we moved so far away? 
Would I even get to see him ever again?  No!  I pushed that thought
from my mind and promised myself that, of course, we would find a way to see
one another someday soon.  I would hold onto that.  The last thought
running through my head before succumbing to sleep myself, was the observation
that his lower lip was just a bit more full that the upper one….