Dominion (Guardian Angels) - By Melody Manful Page 0,80
college?” By the time my mother was done with her questions, Gideon didn’t know which question he should answer first, and my mother expected immediate answers.
ALMOST PARADISE
“We whisper prayers, and shout out curses
to fight these demons and hope they disappear.
We hide scars, and tear through pains
so we can try, and disguises all our fear.”
Melody Manful
Gideon survived my mother’s interrogation. When she finally allowed me to take him back up to my room, she said she’d be popping in every fifteen minutes, and she stayed true to her word.
“Your mother scares me,” Gideon had said the second time my mother checked on us.
“It’s about time someone scared you,” I teased.
My mother allowed Gideon to stay the afternoon, and she even invited him to join us for dinner. I should have known she’d use dinner as an excuse to ask him more questions. Gideon was a good guest, and he answered each question as much as he could. At every opportunity, I tried to turn the conversation away from Gideon and on to something else.
Being who she was—fashionable, friendly, and open toward everyone—I was kind of surprised to watch her deliberately torture Gideon, and just because I said he was my boyfriend. She wasn’t all, “I’ve got my eye on you, young man,” when she thought Tristan and I had something going on.
Gideon did look like he was scared of my mother, because I could visibly see him thinking twice before speaking.
“See you tomorrow,” I told Gideon as I followed him to the door. Shortly after dinner, my mother decided it was time he went home and prepared for school tomorrow. And since we told her his car was parked outside the gates of our house, he had some distance to walk to it.
“See you,” Gideon said and then looked up at something behind me. When I turned, my mother was standing there, staring at him.
“Goodbye, Gideon,” she said.
I turned back to Gideon. I knew he wasn’t really going away—he would end up in my room seconds after leaving my mother’s sight—but I still wanted a goodbye kiss. I knew my mother was standing there to make sure I didn’t get it.
Gideon kissed my forehead lightly and said, “Tomorrow.” And then he walked away.
I closed the door behind him and turned to my mother. “Mom, you didn’t have to be so mean to him.”
“Mean to him would have been asking him to leave when I found him inside your room,” she said, obviously still angry at catching us together. “No boys in your room without me in the house.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about him. I was going to.”
“A boyfriend. I thought you and—” She stopped herself. “He seemed like a nice boy. You tell him that, and I’ll deny it. I need him to be scared of me.”
“He is scared of you. And I know what you were about to say. Tristan and I are just friends.”
“You said it, not me.” She took my hand, and we headed toward the sitting room.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To have the talk.”
I stopped dead when I realized what she meant. “Mom, Gideon and I haven’t even—”
“As a mother, it’s my job to have this conversation with you, so it’s either you hear it now or later.”
I knew she wasn’t going to let it go. She was doing this because she had walked in and caught us kissing.
By the time my mother was done with her speech, though, I was ready to sign a pledge saying I’d never have kids. When she finally released me, I went back to my room and found Gideon, his sister, and Tristan waiting inside. They broke into laughter the moment I closed my door.
“I told you her mother was scary,” Gideon sounded like he was happy to have been correct.
Valoel was still laughing when she said, “Now I believe you.”
Tristan and Valoel left shortly after. Gideon stayed, and we talked more about his world. I made sure not to ask him anything regarding his whole evil nature because I wasn’t sure I could handle him talking about it.
When Monday morning came, Gideon and I survived my friends, too, who were surprised that we were dating, and questions began to circle concerning Gideon’s absence the week before.
Sarah didn’t stop asking me why Gideon was the one who ended our phone conversation. Since I didn’t want to tell her about my first kiss just yet, I went with, ‘I’ll tell you later.’