Chapter 24: Mother Knows

I sneak back into my hotel room. My mother however notices and by the look on her face she knows, that I was out all night with Blake. I'm old enough now that she can't tell me what to do, but her opinion and disapproval of me make me want to back up into my turtle shell.

My mother is playing on her phone, and her eyebrows are crossed. She looks back and forth between her phone screen and me. It's five in the morning, but she still has a sternness about her that is off-putting and terrifying, like the time I was grounded for a month for stealing a pocketful of candy in middle school.

"Cora, you and I have a lot to talk about."

Mom hands me her phone, it's open to the university staff directory. The photo of Professor Blake Oakley is smiling in his staff photo, and the gig is up. She's figured out who he is, and there's no reason to pretend he's a graduate student anymore. My mother took it upon herself to do some digging, I was going to tell her eventually but not during fall break.

"