Heavenstone 01 - The Heavenstone Secrets

coming, but I swallowed the lump in my throat.
    “I’m not a princess, Kent.”
    Before he could get out to open my door, I opened it myself this time.
    “Good night, Mr. Pearson, and thank you.”
    “You’re welcome, Semantha.”
    I went up the steps and didn’t turn around until they were nearly at the end of our long driveway. The moment I entered, Daddy came up from his den office.
    “Hey, honey, how was the night? I heard we won the game?”
    “It was exciting, Daddy.”
    “And the party?”

    “Okay,” I said.
    “Well, I promised your mother I would wait up for you. Let’s get to bed,” he said, putting his arm around me. “Was it a big party?”
    “About thirty, I think, but more and more kids began to show up, so it might be a lot more now.”
    “Some of them get out of hand?” he asked softly as we reached the top of the stairway.
    “Some,” I said. “Not us,” I added.
    “I didn’t have any doubt about it,” he told me, kissed me on the cheek, and went to his and Mother’s bedroom.
    I started down the hallway and paused when I reached Cassie’s room. She had deliberately left the door open. I didn’t feel much like spending any time talking about the party with her, but I knew she would only come into my room and wake me if I didn’t go into hers. I took a deep breath and entered. She was sitting up in her bed, reading, and slowly put the book down on her lap.
    “Good,” she said. “Come in.” She patted her bed.
    “I’m tired, Cassie. Can we talk in the morning?”
    “Absolutely not. People forget important details when that much time passes. You want to talk when everything is fresh in your mind. Come here,” she said firmly.
    I approached her bed and sat at the foot of it. I didn’t look at her.
    “Something happened, something bad?”
    I shook my head, but then I nodded. “Kent’s mad at me.”
    “Oh? Start at the beginning.”

    I began to describe the game, and she stopped me.
    “By beginning, I mean after the game, Semantha.”
    “His father drove us to Eddie Morris’s house. There already were a lot of kids there, dancing, eating pizza …”
    “And drinking and smoking?”
    “I didn’t see anyone smoking. Eddie warned them about that and about drugs.”
    “But they were drinking?”
    “The older students were.”
    “No one tried to offer you a drink or a pill or anything like that?”
    “They offered us, but Kent refused. He said he still remembered getting sick from drinking too much.”
    “Umm,” she said.
    “We danced and were having a good time. There was a professional DJ.”
    “Never mind that. Did Kent try to get you alone somewhere? Well?”
    “We took a walk because the party was getting too wild.”
    “To where?”
    “The stables to look at the horses.”
    “Go on,” she said. “Don’t make me pull teeth, either, Semantha. Just come out with it.”
    My throat closed up. I felt as if I were suddenly standing naked. Why did I have to tell her all this?
    “Nothing happened!” I cried. “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”
    I leaped off the bed and charged out of her room, but my heart was thumping so hard when I went into mine that I thought I would faint. Quickly, I wentinto my bathroom and locked the door. For a while, I just stood there, looking at myself in the mirror. Then I undressed, brushed my teeth, and washed my face. When I came out, I thought I would just go right to sleep. For a moment, I didn’t see her. I got my nightgown out and put it on and pulled back my blanket, and then she stepped out of the left corner where she had been standing the whole time watching me. I nearly jumped out of my own skin.
    “Cassie, I’m tired!” I cried. “It’s very late.”
    She didn’t speak. She stepped toward me. “Get into bed,” she said. “Go on.”
    I crawled under my covers, and she sat on my bed and fixed the blanket around my neck and shoulders the way Mother always fixed it. Then she stroked my hair just like Mother, too.
    “Poor Semantha,” she said. “Your first bad sexual experience.”
    I turned away.
    “It’s so much better if you talk about it, Semantha. It’s like eating heavy food before you sleep. It will lie on you all night. He took you somewhere where he could be alone with you, and then what?”
    “I think I got him angry because I was so nervous about being alone with him.”
    “I’m not concerned about his being angry, Semantha. Actually, his being angry tells me quite a bit about him.