Into the Deep Read Online Free

bursting out. People stop and stare, but I don’t care. I bend close to the floor and try to hold myself together, to stop my sanity from shattering.
    Charlotte kneels beside me, stroking my back. “Buzz off, everyone, there’s nothing to see here.” She leans closer. “Shhh, it’s over now.”
    Her words calm me and I slowly pull myself together. I wipe my nose and cheeks with the sleeve of my T-shirt and shift to sit on my butt. As I stretch my legs out, Charlotte asks, “Did I see what I think I did or was it my imagination?”
    A fresh wave of tremors spasm through me. “If you mean the giant sharks trying to kill me, again, then yes.”
     

Chapter Four
     
    Charlotte drops me off after school and, though a few hours have passed, the incident with the sharks replays vividly on a loop through my mind. My fingers shake when I reach out to open the front door. As much as I want to deny it, I’m certain what happened was because of me, no matter how insane it sounds. Explaining it to my mom is going to be tough, considering she warned me against the trip in the first place, which is troubling. I steel my resolve and vow to not fall apart as I did in front of my classmates.
    Mom is in the kitchen working on dinner and I pause to study her, momentarily distracted. Barefoot and wearing low slung capris, stiffness holds her spine straight. She should let go of her worries and get out in the world, live a little. As far back as I can remember there’s never been a special guy for her. She doesn’t date and it’s a shame. My mom is quite a catch and it would have been nice to have a father figure around.
    When she turns to greet me, blonde hair swishing around her shoulders, I’m frightened by the hollowness of her cheeks. “Hey, how was your day?” She says it lightly, but I hear the slight inflection in her tone and what she’s really asking. Now, I’m doubly suspicious. It’s ridiculous. There’s no way Mom knew the fish would freak out.
    “Well, the fish followed me, like I was some marine Pied Piper, and a couple of really big sharks tried to bust through the glass to get at me. Other than that, it was fun.”
    I had hoped my joking tone would alleviate the shock, hers, and mine, but it does the complete opposite, considering my bottom lip is trembling and my voice cracks. Her deep green eyes grow huge and she latches onto my wrists.
    “Tell me exactly what happened, Zoey.”
    “Why, Mom? Did you know something like this would come up?”
    “What happened?” she repeats through a tight jaw, her green eyes flashing.
    “No, not until you tell me what’s going on. You warned me against the field trip and then all this weird stuff went down. Plus, there’s the fact it was sharks, again . What’s wrong with me? You’re lying and I’m sick of it!” A dreadful thought occurs to me. “You’re not dying are you? Am I?” The idea of her being ill turns my stomach.
    “Sweetie, no one is sick.” Yet, I watch her age ten years in front of me. She releases me and massages her temples. “There’s a lot for me to explain and you deserve to hear it all, but not tonight, not yet. I need more time. We’ll deal with it soon, I promise. Now, talk.”
    I wish she’d get mad, give me a reaction other than defeat. When she doesn’t, I give in and tell her the story. Her color is bleached away with each word, deepening the lines I hadn’t noticed in her face before. Again, I am gripped with the desire to demand that she talk to me, but she won’t. It’s pointless to push it. She holds the power.
    Instead of returning to the kitchen, she retreats to her room, and I’m left with rocks of anxiety in the pit of my stomach as I finish the lasagna. Like a spoiled child, I freeze her out exactly the same as she’s doing to me. I’m sick of feeling as if an anvil is dangling overhead, ready to drop at any second. I’m scared and have no idea why. It doesn’t help that I’m so self-conscious anyway, but she