Her Legacy

VIII. Confessions

"We don't always do the things our parents want us to do, but it is their mistake if they can't find a way to love us anyway." J. Courtney Sullivan

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Chapter VIII – Confessions

I stared at her, bewildered. I couldn't have heard her correctly. She did not just tell me that I was never to see Shea again based on two minutes of conversation. Two minutes in which he had composed himself pretty well considering she had all but strapped him up to a polygraph machine.

"I'm sorry, what?" I had to have heard her wrong. She would clarify.

Mom's eyes narrowed, and she held her index finger up to me, as if I was a naughty child eating candy before dinner. "You are never to see that boy again," she repeated sternly. "He is not good for you. I forbid it."

My mother had never spoken to me like this before. She had scolded me, of course, but this was something else. Her tone was fierce, yet fearful. Her eyes were wild, and full of apprehension. Her entire body was rigid. It was as if flames were about to erupt from her ears any moment. She sensed danger, but why?

"You ... you forbidit?" I managed to choke out. I was in utter disbelief. "What are you afraid of? That I'll get pregnant? Come on, Mom. You know me. You raised me better than that."

"You heard me, Saraphine," she hissed, once again using my full name. "I made it clear from the start. No boys. Not until you finish high school. Especially not that boy." She pointed at the front door, as if Shea was still standing there.

Little did she know, Shea was probably already in my bedroom, listening to the hellfire that my mother was spitting at him.

She was making me angry. I was not stupid. I wasn't going to get pregnant. Shea was well aware of where I stood on the subject of a physical relationship. "What is so wrong about Shea?" I demanded to know. "It was good of him to come to you first before we go out tomorrow."

Mom laughed sarcastically. "That boy is dangerous, Sara," she insisted. "I won't have you anywhere near him. Going out with him is out of the question. No." She shook her head.

"Dangerous?" I scoffed. "Shea has been nothing but kind and decent to me," I insisted, repeating my words of praise. "He helped me get my job!" I exclaimed. "He helped me to settle in at school and to feel comfortable." People no longer stared at me. Only us, now. "I even told him I'm not comfortable with a physical relationship yet, and he is fine with that!"

"Oh, Sara. Don't be so naïve. He's already got his hooks in you. Of course every teenage boy is going to tell you that he's happy to wait. That is until he gets drunk at a party, much like the one he's attending tomorrow night, and decides to force his good, innocent, all too trusting girlfriend into submission."

Was my mother on something? Where had this person come from? She was usually the most kind, loving and supportive mom around. I loved her to pieces. She would do anything for me, and anything for her patients.

But where did this hate for Shea come from? Was it him, or was it boys in general?

"I'm not naïve," I snapped. "And I'm going out with Shea. You can't stop me."

I could not believe where this conversation had gone. I was not this girl. I was not the rebel who flouted her parents.

But my mom wasn't this person either. She didn't just blow up without a good reason. Fear of teenage pregnancy just seemed too far-fetched.

"You are my daughter, and what I say goes," Mom said firmly. "I would never do anything that wasn't for the benefit of your safety."

"My safety?" I exclaimed. "What are you talking about? Do you think Shea is going to hurt me?"