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

had a...well, a girlfriend. Another girlfriend. But I do.”

“Kenzie, you’ll always care. There’s nothing wrong with that. Hell, I still think it’s weird when Jacey is all over some other guy, and I know it bothers her when I’m with another girl, even though she would never admit it. It’s normal, and you can learn to get past it.”

I lay my head back on the bricks. “I hate it. I wish it would just go away.”

He leaned his head parallel to mine. “I know Gage is my brother, but he can be a little...insensitive. And I know it’s weird, being back here for the first time in so long and seeing them again, especially together. But you’ll find someone else, you know. Surely you’ve got plenty of guys back in Rochester chasing you down.”

I snorted. “Yeah, most high school guys just love a girl like me.”

“Well, I wouldn’t know anything about most high school guys...but it’s their loss.”

I tilted my head and saw the side of his cheek. What a cheesy line, I thought, but his eyes were slanted toward me and he was smiling. I couldn’t help but smile back. It was as if our entire conversation earlier had been forgotten — or at least the awkwardness of it. I wondered if he had been entirely truthful about his feelings for me being in the past.

“Kenzie are you hungry? I know you didn’t eat much at dinner.”

I shrugged. “I could eat. Why?”

“There’s this great little diner around the corner that nobody knows about. Come on, let me buy you dinner. It’s the least I can do to make up for these crappy past few months.”

He held out his hand. I hesitated, but took it and pulled both of us up. He had soft hands, and when he took my hand at dinner he had only cupped my fingers. This time, he laced his fingers through mine and kept holding them on the way to the car. Once I climbed into the passenger’s seat, the leather was cold and I stuck my hand in my jacket pocket and felt something hard. It was the emerald bracelet Gage had given me for Christmas.

I wasn’t sure why nobody knew about this diner as Matt claimed, but I had a feeling it had to do with its remote location and most Immortals’ desire to be seen at every possible occasion. Which was too bad for them, because they didn’t know what they were missing. It was a 1950’s theme diner complete with waiters in those cute white hats, a fully functioning jukebox, and a black and white tiled floor. There were even cardboard cutouts of Elvis Presley, that pre-collapse singer who was so popular.

“Gage and I found this place when we first moved here,” Matt said. “I haven’t been back in awhile. Most of the time the people I eat with want to eat somewhere else. Somewhere more showy, I guess. Except I never understood what the hell that thing was.” He pointed to a jukebox in the corner and I covered my mouth.

“Are you laughing at me?”

I smirked. “No, of course not. That’s a jukebox. My grandpa used to have one. Here, put a quarter in.”

We flipped through a selection of songs neither of us recognized for a few minutes before finally selecting a random song. I was the one who suggested dancing but Matt didn’t seem hesitant to go along. We were the only ones at first and most people stared, but several joined in. After a couple of fast songs, a slow one came on and we swayed to the beat. I rested my head on his shoulder and a lock of his hair caught on my nose. He smelled sweet. His hands gripped my waist a little tighter and I began to relax.

Our food was ready by the time the song ended so we sat in a booth by the window. There wasn’t much to look at other than a gravel driveway surrounding the trees, but it was peaceful. Sometimes after a song ended I heard the crunch of car tires against the gravel, though the place wasn’t busy. Matt and I talked and joked like old friends, which I guess we were.

Just as we were finishing our food, my phone rang. I pulled it out and made a face; it was Gage. I knew taking off without telling anyone where we were going wasn’t the wisest thing to do, and I had expected someone to call earlier. Though I certainly hadn’t expected it to be Gage.

I didn’t want to answer but did anyway. “Hello?”

“Where the hell are you?”

I shrugged, even though I had purposely left the video screen off and knew he couldn’t see me. “Out.”

“Why did you leave without telling me? Is Matt with you? Do you really think you can just take off like that?”

“Woah mom, slow down. I can only answer one question at a time.” Matt was looking at me by now. ‘Gage,’ I mouthed, and he nodded.

I heard Gage sigh, his breath crackling in my ear. “What is going on, Kenzie? Why did you guys just leave? I was worried about you.”

“Worried? About little ol’ me? Now, why on earth would you possibly be worried about me? You’ve got a new girlfriend to worry about, silly boy.”

“Don’t play this game with me. You can’t just leave with my brother and not tell me where you’re going.”

“Actually, Gage, I believe I can. Matt’s a big boy and you obviously don’t give a shit about me because...well, why would you? Have a nice life, darling!” I ended the call and giggled. “Are you ready, Matt?”

He didn’t say anything but got up out of the booth. As he climbed into the driver’s seat, I pulled the emerald bracelet out of my pocket and left it in the cup holder of his car.

Matt drove me back to Luke’s apartment and walked me to the door. We stood under the dim porch light outside the lobby. He cleared this