Free Lessons in Love by Clarissa Carlyle Page A

terrified that someone might see them and get the rumor mill turning. All she needed was the suggestion that she was sleeping with a teacher to accompany the revelation of her trailer residence and she’d instantly be an outcast.
     
    She heard his Prius pull away, but she didn’t turn to wave. Instead, she scurried towards her house, already thinking of an excuse to give Claire about why she wouldn’t be able to make the party the following night.
     
    ****
     
    “Where do you think you’re going?” Jackie asked suspiciously as Alex nervously paced the main area of the trailer.
     
    Alex was wearing skinny jeans with a white T-shirt and black blazer. Her blonde hair sat atop her head in a smart bun, and her eyes were accentuated by smoky makeup and mascara. She looked flawlessly beautiful. If Jackie wasn’t so concerned about where she was headed looking so stunning, she’d have been silenced by pride to see her daughter looking so grown up and lovely.
     
    “To a party at Claire’s,” Alex answered but didn’t look at her mother. Instead, her eyes kept flicking to the window and the trailer park beyond. It was five to seven.
     
    “A party?” Jackie didn’t sound pleased.
     
    “A small party. Jeez, Mom, I’m eighteen, lighten up.”
     
    “Well, luckily for you Andy is staying at his friend Robert’s tonight. So I’m not giving you a curfew.”
     
    “You’re not?” Alex looked back at her mother in shock.
     
    “No, and don’t make me regret it,” Jackie told her sternly. “But I appreciate that sometimes you just need to be a normal teenager. We need to remember that I’m the only adult here and the only one who needs to behave like one.”
     
    “Have you been drinking?” Alex teased.
     
    “Alexandra!” Jackie was appalled but smiling also. Moments like this were rare between them. So often their time together was short and fraught with worries over childcare and money. Jackie hated to offload so much onto her young daughter but felt at times that she had no choice and no one else to turn to.
     
    “Is Claire picking you up?” Jackie asked, noticing how militant Alex was about checking the window.
     
    “Um, yeah.” Alex quickly bluffed her response.
     
    “I didn’t think she knew you lived here.”
     
    “She doesn’t,” Alex answered quickly. “She thinks I’m at my nan’s.”
     
    “Ah, a half-truth, then.” Jackie nodded. “It’s progress, I suppose. One step closer to revealing your secret identity.”
     
    “You make me sound like a superhero.” Alex laughed. “Only for me it’s backwards. It’d be like everyone finding out that Superman was really just Clark Kent.”
     
    “Don’t be so hard on yourself. People can surprise you.”
     
    Alex didn’t answer; she’d spotted a silver Prius pulling into the trailer park and was instantly out the door, slamming it behind her as she left.
     
    ****
     
    The revival theater was relatively quiet as a select few patrons piled in to see the movie. Alex had to admit that she felt awfully grown up to be going to such a place. Her usual hangouts included the mall and whoever’s house was the latest location for a party. It made a nice change to actually be going somewhere interesting.
     
    Mark paid for her ticket, like a gentleman, and led her into the darkened theater. They’d purchased two Cokes and some popcorn, not that Alex had much of an appetite. Her stomach was flip-flopping in nervous excitement. She kept trying to decipher the situation. She was certain that Mark had asked her out to the cinema as a pity date. But a part of her wanted to believe it was something more, that maybe he actually liked her. She wished she could talk to someone about it, like Claire or her mom, but knew she couldn’t. For now, it had to be her secret, which meant she was alone in trying to decode the meaning of it all.
     
    “The movie can be pretty scary,” Mark warned as they settled into their seats. He was in his off-duty