Freeze (The Jewel Project #4)

Finality

"Ah, damn it!"

Kay jumped as her mother's face suddenly appeared on the screen of her phone. Couldn't she get the hint? She hadn't been answering her phone for two months. The message confirming she was fine sent every other week should suffice.

Now she wanted to freaking Facetime.

"What's wrong?" Kyle asked.

They'd just finished their physical training class at the Academy, the last one overseen by Kyle, and they were the only ones left gathering their stuff. Before her mother decided to join the equation, Kay had been pondering over the dangers of being caught making out with her instructor.

"Nothing..." She fumbled with her phone and dropped it. The distance was unfortunately not enough to break it, but enough to jog the darn thing into somehow answering the call.

"Katherine Dickens!" her mother screeched. "How dare you! Not home for Christmas, not answering your phone, not... Where are you?"

Kay continued to swear under her breath. Deep inside, she missed her mother, but the mother before she took junky Danny's side against her own daughter.

After what happened in France, she decided she no longer wanted the pressure of lying. She also didn't want to give her mother a heart attack so she hadn't changed her number. But that didn't mean she wanted to talk to her.

She raised her eyes to look at Kyle. Of course, he had no idea about her plans, about her relationship with her family.

"Sweetheart?" he whispered.

"I'm sorry. I'll handle it." With a deep breath, she picked up the phone. "Hello, Mother. Just so you know, I answered by mistake."

The affirmation silenced her for a moment. "Where are you?"

"In the gym at the Academy."

"Show me!"

Kay's hand shook. She didn't want to, not really.

"Does she know about us?" Kyle asked quietly.

"Who's there? Is anyone with you?"

Kay shook her head, so tired of all of this.

"Don't you think it's time to come clean?" Kyle's voice was at full volume this time.

The sound of his voice silenced the banshee again. Her eyes widened in shock and her mouth dropped open. Yes, Kyle was right. It was about time she came clean.

"Yes, Mom. That's Kyle. He's with me. We're back together and we've never been happier. I knew you wouldn't like it, so I stopped calling or answering. I'm so tired of your disapproval over this. Over who I am and what makes me happy."

"I don't believe you!" Cassandra said unexpectedly. "You're just trying to aggravate me. I know you've been seeing Danny. He told me so."

That was new. Danny was probably using her as an excuse to fuel his drug habit. Just imagine how much blow pretend plane tickets money could buy.

"Huh, must have missed him. I'd surprise him with a random drug test if I were his mother."

"Don't give me sass and excuses, Kathy! I want to know--" The words died in her throat when Kyle wrapped his arms around Kay's waist and placed his chin on her shoulder.

"Hi, Mom," he said with a smile.

Cassandra Dickens was finally struck dumb. Kay tried not to laugh, because it wasn't funny. She knew her mother enough to tell this was only the calm before the storm.