The Immortals by Mary Hallberg (chrysanthemum read aloud txt) 📗

“He’s cute though,” one of the girls said. “Does he have any brothers?”

It occurred to me that there was a chance none of them knew who the Cavanaghs were. Sure, a lot of people kept up with Immortals like they used to keep up with actors and musicians, but not everyone knew all their names and faces. Or maybe they knew about the Cavanaghs and didn’t like them for some reason, so they never bothered to memorize what they looked like. It was hard to imagine people disliking the Cavanaghs; they had been so nice to me the previous week. But some people didn’t like any Immortals simply because they were…well, Immortal.

“Yes, he has a brother,” I said. “But he’s way too young for you.” There was no way they’d figure it out now. Half the people in the country had younger brothers.

She pouted. “That’s too bad. You guys are cute, though.”

“I really don’t want to talk about this.”

“Oh come on, at least tell us his name,” Luke insisted. “I want to know the guy who’s taking out my baby sister."

I bit my lip. I wanted to tell them everything: That his name was Gage Cavanagh, that he was an Immortal, and that he was cute, smart, sweet and every other damn cliche in the book. But I couldn’t. I would never hear the end of it from Luke or anyone else. But I would never hear the end of it now if I gave them nothing.

“Okay, fine!” I threw up my hands in mock surrender. “His name is Gage.” I grabbed several rolls of sushi and went upstairs.

Several years ago, I heard a wise intellectual philosopher — okay, I actually read it in an old magazine — say that at the end of a first date, you’ll know if there’s going to be a second date. And sure enough, Gage called me two days later to arrange the second date I knew would come.

It was torture waiting for him to call. I zoned out through my morning classes, making a mental note to never again condemn Elizabeth for doing the same thing. I tried to put on a normal face for Luke so he wouldn’t badger me. I even took a vague interest in one of his crime shows. Not the one with the Gage look-alike, of course, because it would have been a dead giveaway when I started giggling every time he came on screen. A few times I looked up his number in my phone and almost his the ‘talk’ button, but resisted. If I’d learned anything from Luke about dating (other than the unwritten rule that older brothers pester their sisters constantly about their boyfriends), it was that if a guy wanted to call you, he would call. And he did. That Friday night, we went to party at his house.

The kitchen was filled with people when we walked in. Matt greeted us at the door, his arm loosely around Paige, who I vaguely remembered from The Lab. She greeted me casually and Matt didn’t look at her as he pointed us to the kitchen island, filled to the edges with plastic cups and half eaten bowls of chips.

I spotted Elizabeth almost immediately. I had barely talked to her that week, but hadn’t thought much about it; she wasn’t my favorite person to talk to, so I didn’t exactly miss it. She was talking to a girl I didn’t recognize and fixing her long bangs with one hand while she held a plastic cup and cigarette in the other. She whispered something to the girl and they turned their eyes to me, giggling. Elizabeth took a long drag on her cigarette and blew smoke in my direction, laughing. I should have been worried, but I was too happy that I was here with Gage. They were probably just making fun of my hair or something, one of those silly things girls do.

In the opposite corner of the room, I saw a woman named Corrina Girard. She was only a few years older than me and a member of the Underground. She was a TV reporter from the main Necropolis news channel; I had seen her on a few broadcasts when Luke left the TV on after his crime shows. He left it on because he said the news was important, but I think it was mostly because Corrina was hot. And she was very pretty, with pale skin and dark brown hair. In addition to the news, she was also some sort of tabloid writer, famous for making the Immortals even more famous and, in some cases, actually making people Immortal. She was looking at another girl's purse label; they were probably discussing name brands, something I didn’t know much about. I was still wearing bargain bin jeans, the kind that have holes in them not because holes used to be trendy but because the jeans were old.

Gage laced his fingers through mine. “Come on, let’s get something to drink.” He led me to a table on the other side of the island, which held a large punch bowl probably filled with a lot more…well, punch than I felt comfortable drinking. After my experience at The Lab, I wasn’t eager to have another drink, but it seemed like I was the only one. Elizabeth and Jacey both had plastic cups in their hands, and drank from them often. Elizabeth especially. Did she not remember that night? She drank twice as much as I did, and couldn’t have felt much better afterward, even with all those extra doses of TNV.

Corrina joined Gage and me by the punch bowl. “You must be McKenzie,” she said. It wasn’t really a greeting, just a fact. “Hey Gage.”

“Hey Corrina. How’s the new book coming? Who’s it on again?”

She poured herself a glass of punch. “William George, the guy who invented the EED.”

“The what?”

“Electronic Eavesdropping Device.” She chuckled. “That’s the real name for