Read Online Heavenstone 01 - The Heavenstone Secrets by authors_sort - Free Book Online Page A

building for our family.”
    I nodded, but I wanted to ask her why she didn’t think of her own obligation, too. She told me before I could ask.
    “Just as I do,” she said. “Why do you think it is that I’m so particular about whom I see? I have control of myself, and I want you to have control of yourself. Do you understand me? Do you understand the things I’ve told you?”
    “Yes, Cassie.”
    She pulled herself back and tucked in the corners of her mouth as she looked at me. “I wouldn’t have to do this if our mother had done her job with you,” she said again.
    “She’s done her job. She’s told me about sexual things, Cassie,” I said.
    Her eyes grew colder, darker, as her cheeks sank. She turned in her lips so tightly that little white lines ran above her top lip and below her bottom lip. “Mother told you? What sexual things?”
    “Things. When I got my first period, she spoke to me about what was changing in my body and what I had to think about and what not to worry about.”
    She relaxed again. “I’m sure. That’s Mother. Always looking for things not to worry about, instead of facing the things that we should worry about. Did she tell you what not to do with boys? Well? Did she? Because, as I said, she never did with me.”
    “Not exactly,” I said. She had suggested some ofit, but I didn’t want to tell her that or say anything that might make her jealous. “Not the way you just told me.”
    Her face softened even more, and she smiled.
    “Of course not. Anyway, I want you to come right to see me when you return from the party Friday night. You come to my room, no matter how late it is, understand? And you tell me exactly what you did, what he did, what happened between you. You’ve got to trust me, trust and believe that I will help you. Okay? Will you do that?”
    I nodded, but I couldn’t help the way my forehead folded as I imagined telling her every nitty-gritty detail of what went on with Kent.
    “I don’t want you to be unhappy, Semantha, and I don’t want to stop you from having fun. I care about you, about us, about our family, that’s all. All right?”
    “Yes,” I said.
    “Good.”
    She stood up and looked at me for a long moment, so long that it made me nervous.
    “You’re prettier than I am, Semantha, so all of this is more important for you than it is for me.”
    I started to shake my head. I had always believed I was, but I never wanted to say it or have anyone else say it in front of us.
    She smiled. “I’m not jealous or unhappy about that. We’re two different people. You have your good qualities, and I have mine. Some girls, pretty girls like you, have to depend more on their looks than anything else. That’s fine for them. The only problemwith depending on your looks is the problem of age. Looks degenerate, change, like a lightbulb dimming and dimming and dimming, until it goes out completely.
    “But don’t worry. You’ll always have me beside you, helping you, caring for you. I’ll be even more loyal to you than the man you eventually marry,” she added, and then she did something she rarely did.
    She hugged me and kissed me on the forehead, just the way Mother always did.
    “Good night,” she whispered, and left, closing the door softly behind her.
    I didn’t know why, but I was trembling. She had left me with words that should have made me happy, but they didn’t. And even worse, whenever I had a thought about Kent, about the things she described, I immediately felt terribly guilty. I would have gone to sleep dreaming of sitting next to Kent at the game and then going to the party with him. I would have imagined us dancing, everything, but the moment one of those thoughts came into my mind, I did everything I could to chase it away. I even imagined Cassie next to me as I slept, just waiting for a fantasy to come into my brain. As soon as it did, she would nudge me to make it leave.
    I would have been nervous when Friday came, anyway, but