"Mom we don't want to call the police," Tori stood next to Andrea taking Nicole's hand, "it will ruin Nico's life."
Andrea is a mother, one that wants to protect her children but she reluctantly admitted she was beat. Lisa Gray's husband was Douglas T. Gray and sheriff of their county. Nothing good would be coming of this, she thought. It made her family seem small and vulnerable.
She looked over her two girls, they were growing into adults to quickly. Tori is outgoing as her hair is blond but with her father's sense of morals keping her grounded. Nicole, on the other hand, was just like Andrea at that age. Seemingly having to experience everything first hand to understand it.
Andrea was encourage that the girls were close again. They had lost the almost twin like connection they had as kids. She hoped this new friendship would last.
"OK, but be careful! This towns rodeo boys are known to get into trouble during the summer." She looked into Nicole's eyes wanting to harangue her for the bad sense of judgment she had displayed. Now wasn't the time, her husband would have said.
"Come on girls lets puts this stuff away," with that Andrea closed the topic off. She would bring it up again later when she could pull her thoughts together. Patting Nicole's head one last time she moved to pick up the dishes from the table. Tori followed her lead and began washing them at the kitchen sink.
*****
Up stairs, in her bedroom, Andrea stood in the shower. The water was still warm but probably not for long. The temperature was beginning to drop. Naked she stood against the wall with her head down as water hit her body from across the shower. She stared down past her breasts, looking at her feet. She wouldn't be able to find the answers to her questions down there.
Turning off the water Andrea grabbed a towel and dried her hair. It was short and easy to take care of. The haircut of a single mother. Finished she hastened to dry the rest of herself. Putting the towel back on its hanger she grabbed her robe. Walking from her room to the hall she stopping at Nicole's door. She briefly knocked and then let herself in. Her daughters don't demand much privacy and things were pretty loose clothing wise around the house. She was used to seeing the girls naked but shocked by what she found in Nicole's room.
Nicole was the artist of the family and it was reflected in the way she decorated her room. Being introverted by nature and given her unique circumstance she didn't have pile of photos of her friends on the wall but instead had posters of places from around the world. Not the common ones like Paris or France but instead Manchu Picchu and the Egypt's Pyramids. The walls had been painted with landscapes of places she and her father had camped together. Nicole had been given a bedroom with her own bathroom like her parents bedroom but it wasn't as big. Still, the bedroom easily held her bed, closet and desk without feeling small.