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

him locking eyes with Elizabeth more than once when we were bowling?

“I...don’t know.”

He leaned back against the brick wall. “What are we supposed to do? You and me?”

I shook my head. “I’ve never done this before.”

“Neither have I.” Both of us stared straight ahead for awhile, then Gage finally spoke again. “You don’t want us to break up, do you?”

“What? No,” I said quickly. “But I’m about to leave and...come on Gage, we’re kids. And we’ll be two hours away from each other. You had to know this might happen.”

He rubbed his hands over his cheek. “What are you suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting that we put this...on hold.”

He snorted. “On hold? What are you, customer service or something?”

I didn’t laugh. “Come on Gage, it’s not that different. I’ll go back to Rochester, you stay here. I’ll still talk to you all the time. And this isn’t permanent. When you finish school or I decide to come back, if our feelings haven’t changed, we’ll just...”

“Pick up where we left off?”

I nodded. “So it really won’t be any different.”

“Then why do anything at all?”

I rested my head in my hands. I wasn’t sure what else to say, and ended up saying the worst thing possible.

“It just...isn’t going to work.”

Gage bit his lip. I looked away from him and stared at the wall behind us. Finally I saw him stand up. “Well then, I guess that’s that.”

“Gage...that’s not what I meant. I told you I didn’t want to break up!”

“Then what do you want to do Kenzie? You said yourself it isn’t working.”

“Can we just...see how it goes? See how we feel after a little while? On...hold.” I tried to smile.

He shifted his weight. “Okay,” he said. “As crazy as it sounds.”

“What else did you expect from me?” I said.

Finally, he smiled. “Let’s go back inside.” He kissed my forehead gently, but seemed a little too eager to get back in.

chapter fifteen

It was 2 am and I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t know if it was the coffee I had guzzled four hours earlier or the half dozen brownies I had eaten after that, but I was wide awake. I didn’t have homework or the energy to do anything substantial, and there wouldn’t be anything good on TV. So I shuffled to the kitchen and fixed a bowl of cereal. I wasn’t even hungry; it was a habit I had gotten myself into when I moved in with Luke, and it needed to stop. Or so I had been told. Why did I need to learn healthy habits? Because I needed to worry about my health? The TNV took care of all that, and I was still taking it. When was the last time you heard of an Immortal worrying about their cholesterol or working out?

I heard footsteps in the hallway a few minutes later. Luke came shuffling into the kitchen, his too-long pajama bottoms dragging under his feet. “Can’t sleep?” I said. He nodded and I pushed the cereal box toward him. He poured himself a bowl in silence, then sat down without bothering to get any milk and spooned a bit into his mouth dry.

“Doing some research?” He looked at the book I had shoved to the edge of the counter.

 “Sort of. Just thought I’d educate myself a bit.”

Luke snorted but didn’t respond. After a moment he said, “So how’s the crew?”

I scoffed.

He laughed. “Haven’t talked to them in awhile?”

“Some of them.” I hadn’t talked to Gage at all since the conversation that ended with us “on hold.” I had made a point of not talking to Elizabeth — Gage had clearly interpreted our conversation as a break up and moved on. I hadn’t spoken to Matt in awhile either. The only person I still talked to on a semi-regular basis was Jacey, and I had been so consumed with schoolwork that I had neglected to return her last two missed calls.

“Is mom still pissed that you haven’t stopped taking the grants?”

“Mom gets it. She doesn’t like it, but she gets it. I’m not going to stop taking the TNV so I’m not going to stop getting the grants.”

“But isn’t that...oh, I don’t know, cheating?”

“It’s not cheating if I might go back.”

“You might go back?”

“I don’t know.” I took a bite of cereal; it was nauseatingly soggy.

“Do you want to go back?”

“I don’t know!” I snapped. I dropped my spoon back into the cereal; it landed in the milk with a plop. “I miss it.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“I’m scared.”

“Scared of what, Kenzie? That you’ll get your heart broken again? Because that’s not part of being Immortal, it’s part of life.”

“I’m scared that grandpa was right.” I wasn’t going to eat this cereal; I got up and emptied my bowl into the sink. “When you have the world at your fingertips, it’s intense. That kind of power can change you.”

“Come on Kenzie, not everyone’s like that. Grandpa’s stories are his stories. They don’t have to be yours. You knew what you were getting yourself into when you became Immortal.”

I sighed. “No, I really don’t think I did.”

I ended up dozing on the couch watching the 4 am news. Why there was news on at 4 am or what could have possibly changed between 10 pm and 4 am that was newsworthy, I wasn’t sure. Four hours later I woke to my mother’s whispering in my ear.

“Kenzie? Kenzie, telephone!”

I grunted. Who on earth was calling me so early on a Saturday? Unless it was a life or death matter — not that most people I knew had much to worry about — someone was getting an earful.

“Hello?” I grunted.

“McKenzie Palmer? This is Reginald Smith from the Feed the Needy Foundation in The Necropolis. I was wondering if you had a few minutes to talk about our upcoming charity event. Would you consider making a guest appearance?”

I dropped my head on the arm of the couch. “No thank you, Mr. Smith, I am not interested.”

“I would encourage you to at least consider...”

“I said I am not interested.”

There was a pause