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

Elizabeth hit a button on the phone. At first, I heard nothing but static and distant voices. The voices sounded a bit like mine and Matt’s, but there was no way anyone who didn’t know us could have known for sure. Then I clearly heard Matt say, “There’s something going on and we both know it.”

She fast forwarded and I heard him say, “Can you really look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t have any feelings for me?”

“Yeah, I do,” my voice said.

She stopped the recording. “There’s more, of course. But that’s all anyone really needs to hear. Good thing I decided to come over when I did, right? And I’m really glad Matt didn’t see me when he got out of his car and I followed him up to the apartment. Guess everything worked out for me.”

Of course she stopped the recording there. The rest of our conversation would have proved that our brief romance — if you could even call it that — was now over. And she could easily edit it further to make it even more incriminating. Damn technology and damn her.

I shrugged. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

“Oh, but Gage will think so. He’s blinded by lust for me, remember? He’d do anything I asked. And if I knew half the stuff you’d done, I’d know you weren’t a good person. Oh but wait, I do! And if you don’t start being a little nicer to me, this conversation will be all over the internet by tomorrow morning.”

“You’re a bitch.” It wasn’t the most clever comeback but I was so astounded in the moment that I couldn’t come up with anything else.

She gasped and put her hand over her mouth in mock surprise. “I can have it uploaded by this afternoon.” She stuck the phone in her back pocket and walked out, flipping her platinum ponytail in my direction.

chapter nineteen

I sat on my bed for the next 45 minutes staring at the floor and occasionally folding a towel or shirt and tossing them in my suitcase. I watched a few boring crime shows with Luke during loads. I was about to put the last load in the dryer when there was another knock on my bedroom door. This one, however, was expected and, sure enough, Gage walked through the door.

“Hey,” he said. “You called me?”

I nodded. I had told Gage I needed to talk to him. Surely Elizabeth had uploaded the audio clip and he knew my secret by now, so I had one last opportunity to give him my side of the story (not that getting pissed at the guy you love and kissing his brother out of anger is very substantial). But he said nothing and sat on the pillows beside me.

“Feels like I haven’t seen you in awhile,” he said.

“You just saw me yesterday.”

“I mean lately. You just sort of...took off.”

“I’ve been busy,” I said. “With school.”

He stretched his legs out. “Kenzie, is something wrong? Because the way you talked to me last night…it wasn’t you.”

“I know, I’m sorry. But Gage, seeing you with Elizabeth…I guess I didn’t take it as well as I thought I would.”

He nodded and played with a rip on his jeans. Ripped jeans were coming back in fashion with Immortals, which was pretty funny, considering the rest of us had to wear them out of necessity. “Kenzie…why did you leave?”

“What? Gage, haven’t we talked about this?”

“Not really. You just said it wasn’t going to work and then you just left. But we were fine before you decided to leave. There has to be something else, so what was it?”

“Did you wait five months just to ask me this?”

He shrugged. “I think I have a right to know.”

“You know why I left. This place is insane. We have everything handed to us on a silver platter. Do nothing, get paid. It goes against everything I’ve ever been taught and I didn’t feel right doing it. It was great for awhile, yeah. But you can’t tell me that you don’t feel just a little bit guilty sometimes. Living like this when most of the world is struggling to get by.”

“Kenzie, that’s not our fault. You know that. Just relax, and stop trying to worry about everyone else.”

“Gage, I can’t help it. I’m just trying to do the right thing, but apparently I’m pretty bad at that.”

“What are you talking about? Kenzie, you almost always do the right thing. But that doesn’t mean you know everything. You know, whatever’s on your mind, it’s okay.”

I threw a folded pair of socks across the bed; it landed on top of my already shut suitcase. “No it’s not Gage. I kissed Matt.”

I couldn’t even look at him. “What?” he said.

“Last night. And again earlier this afternoon, before I told him we had to end things. But still...you really didn’t know?”

“No, I had no idea! What the hell, McKenzie?”

“I’m not a good person, Gage. I made a huge mistake. I was only thinking about myself and I hurt the people I care about. I couldn’t get away from temptation, even outside The Necropolis.”

“You can’t use that excuse. Temptation is everywhere and you know that. Don’t be stupid.” He sat up and rammed his hand into one of the pillows. “Jesus Kenzie, how could you do that? He’s my brother! And don’t give me this bullshit about how you’re a bad person because it’s not going to make me feel sorry for you.”

“Why do you even care?” I said. “You have no say in who I kiss. You’ve clearly moved on.”

“Well I had to move on,” he shouted, “Because you were obviously gone for good!”

There was one of those dramatic pauses, like couples have in movies when they’re about to have a breakthrough. Only we weren’t a couple, and we may or may not be about to have a breakthrough.

“What do you mean?” I said. “Of course I wasn’t gone for good. I’m still taking the TNV for God’s sake. I’m still getting the lifetime