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

out for?” When Luke was younger, he had had a particularly interesting fantasy about someone named Wonder Woman.

Jacey scoffed. “Forget it,” she said and squished her now empty cup. “Placeholder isn’t the right word.” She threw the cup onto the curb and it hit the concrete with much more force than I had expected.

The next weekend was Elizabeth’s Halloween party. “Be sure to wear a cute costume!” she said to me as she bounded out the door after biology. With all the preparations she’d been talking about lately, I was surprised she came to class at all.

Back when my parents first got married and some people actually read for fun, there was a really popular book series about a wizard boy named Harry Potter. Mom used to read the books to Luke and me before bed as kids; we had always loved them but had yet to find anyone who shared our interest. Naturally, when I told Jacey the idea the week before the party and explained the series to her, she scoffed.

“Have you ever been to a Halloween party, Kenzie?” she said.

“Well...no.”

She sighed. “Tell you what. Show me the costume you’re thinking of wearing, and I’ll tell you what you should do.”

So I messaged her a picture of me in a tight black sweater, skirt and stockings with black flats. It was exactly the kind of costume my friends back home would have worn for Halloween, but Jacey had replied with a picture of some costume I didn’t recognize. It was all black too, but there was far less of it.

So I ended up at the party as some random animal prostitute, I don’t really even remember what. I do remember pulling a long jacket tightly over my body as I walked out the door so Luke wouldn’t see me. I definitely remember Elizabeth greeting me at the door in an outfit even more revealing, carrying a telltale plastic cup in one hand while using the other to keep her balance. I couldn’t tell whether her lack of coordination was from the six inch high heels or the amount of stuff in the red cup she had already drank.

Elizabeth didn’t have a house of her own, but her apartment rivaled even some of the nicest houses in my neighborhood. A sprawling foyer with marble floors was decorated with painted pumpkins and a Frankenstein figurine I knew had to have cost her several hundred dollars. The living room was bigger than most electronics stores I had been in and a spiral staircase wound up the back wall to an ornately carved door. The bannister was decorated with orange and gold streamers, and the entire room was covered in fog and filled with other people wearing skimpy outfits and carrying red plastic cups. I was admiring the streamers on the punch bowl when I felt a leathery hand squeeze my shoulder. I shrieked.

“Woah there, little lady.” Gage turned me around to face him. He was dressed in full cowboy gear, including a hat that covered most of his face. “I know it’s Halloween, but am I really that scary looking?”

I sighed. “Don’t do that, you jackass.” He laughed and leaned in to kiss me.

“So how does it look?” he said. “Elizabeth and Matt and me spent two hours in some party store picking it all out. And of course she made us put it all up.”

“It looks good,” I said. “I didn’t know you helped decorate.”

He nodded and grimaced. “She called me from the store and asked if we could help. Guess she’s no Martha Stewart.”

“Woah Gage, you know who Martha Stewart is?”

“Amazing, isn’t it? My mom used to practically worship her. Apparently reruns of some old show she used to have still air on TV in the mornings. She watches them sometimes on her days off. And every now and then when I’m home, she’ll watch them and forbid me from changing the channel.”

“And you can’t go in another room?”

“Nah, too lazy.” he said. “Want some punch?”

“That depends,” I said. “What’s in it?”

“Knowing Elizabeth, probably a little of her good friend Captain Morgan.” He stretched. “Want me to get you a glass?”

I shrugged. Why not? I was here and I couldn't think of a good enough reason to refuse. Besides, it’s not like there were going to be any negative consequences. Right?

Gage drove me, Matt and Jacey home later that night. Somehow I'd convinced myself that it would be okay to have that extra cup of punch and felt a little dizzy; I lay my head against the back of the seat and closed my eyes.

But that didn’t last long. There was a noise from the back seat. I twisted my torso around to look; Matt’s arm was around Jacey and she was giggling. She kissed him gently and laid her hand on his cheek as the kiss grew deeper. His hand crept to her waist and he leaned down, positioning them lying down in the backseat.

“Yuck,” Gage said. “What are you guys doing back there? Making a porno?”

Jacey broke away. “Shut up Gage.” She giggled again and buried her mouth in Matt’s.

Gage craned his neck to look closer. “Seriously, can you guys be a little bit quieter? I don’t want to have to...oh shit.”

He slammed on the brakes. Just a few feet to our side, another car honked and drove away, its tires squealing on the asphalt.

“Woah,” Jacey said.

“Are you guys okay?” Gage put a hand on my arm and craned his neck back toward the backseat.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Matt said. “What the hell was that?”

“Guess I just wasn’t paying attention.” He sighed, but his hands were still shaking.

“Are you okay Gage?” I said. “Do you want me to drive?”

He shook his head. “No, I’ll be fine. But seriously you two, stop making out in the backseat. It’s way too distracting.”

chapter nine

Matt had a poetry reading a few days later and Gage talked Paige and me into going with him. It would be a first for