Lesson by Her [Book 1]

Chapter 11

"Where do you think you're going?" Kayla asked suspiciously, as Dusty paced the main area of the trailer. Dusty was wearing skinny jeans with a white T-shirt and black blazer. Her blonde hair sat atop her head in a bun, and smoky makeup and mascara accentuated her eyes. She looked flawlessly beautiful.

If Kayla wasn't so concerned about where she was headed looking so stunning, she'd have been silenced by pride to see her daughter looking so grown up and lovely. "To a party at Cora's," Dusty answered but didn't look at her mother. Instead, her eyes kept flicking to the window and the trailer park beyond. It was five to seven.

"A party?" Kayla didn't sound pleased.

"A small party. Jeez, Mom, I'm eighteen, lighten up."

"Well, luckily for you Dust is staying at his friend Robert's tonight. So I'm not giving you a curfew."

"You're not?" Dusty looked back at her mother in shock.

"No, and don't make me regret it," Kayla said. "But I appreciate that sometimes you just need to be a normal teenager. We need to remember that I'm the only adult here and the only one who needs to behave like one."

"Have you been drinking?" Dusty teased.

"Dusty-Rose." Kayla was appalled but smiling also. Moments like this were rare between them. So often their time together was short and fraught with worries over childcare and money. Kayla hated to offload so much onto her young daughter but felt at times that she had no choice and no one else to turn to.

"Is Cora picking you up?" Kayla asked, noticing how militant Dusty was about checking the window.

"Um, yeah." Dusty quickly bluffed her response.

"I didn't think she knew you lived here."

"She doesn't," Dusty answered. "She thinks I'm at my nan's."

"Ah, a half-truth, then." Kayla nodded. "It's progress, I suppose. One step closer to revealing your secret identity."

"You make me sound like a superhero." Dusty laughed. "Only for me it's backwards. It'd be like everyone finding out that Superman was really just Clark Kent."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. People can surprise you." Dusty didn't answer; she'd spotted a silver Prius pulling into the trailer park and was out the door, slamming it behind her as she left.

****

The revival theater was relatively quiet as a select few patrons piled in to see the movie. Dusty had to admit that she felt awfully grown up to be going to such a place. Her usual hangouts included the mall and whoever's house was the latest location for a party.

It made a nice change to actually be going somewhere interesting. Valentine paid for her ticket, and led her into the darkened theater. They'd purchased two Cokes and some popcorn, not that Dusty had much of an appetite. Her stomach was flip-flopping in nervous excitement.

She kept trying to decipher the situation. She was certain that Valentine had asked her out to the cinema as a pity date. But a part of her wanted to believe it was something more, that maybe she actually liked her. She wished she could talk to someone about it, like Cora or her mom, but knew she couldn't.

For now, it had to be her secret, which meant she was alone in trying to decode the meaning of it all. "The movie can be pretty scary," Valentine warned as they settled into their seats.

She look happy, beautiful, with her snug-fitting dark jeans, her fancy red blouse that dipped low in the back, revealing her toned shoulder muscles, and the fancy boots she wore that were a cross between casual and dressy. She was drop-dead gorgeous. When they walked in, Dusty fought the urge to link arms with her, eager to be close to her.

"I think I can handle some old horror movie," Dusty whispered back to her. She turned her head to speak to Valentine so that their lips were only inches apart.

Dusty heart began to race at being so close to her. Valentine smelt faintly of cigarettes and vanilla. Her smell was intoxicating. "Just don't scream," Valentine warned her. "People in theatres don't react well to screamers."

"If either of us is going to scream, it's you," Dusty teased.

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