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

had homemade chicken noodle soup before. I don’t think my mom has ever made any kind of soup since…”

We stopped outside the living room walkway. A dark haired boy sat on the couch, and he turned around as we came in. “Hi,” he said. “You must be McKenzie.”

“Oh my God,” I said. “You’re Matt Cavanagh.”

I had only been Immortal since the end of July — almost two months at that point. But even before that, I knew who Matt Cavanagh was. Even if I hadn’t heard Jacey ramble about her famous ex for the past two months, I had known who he was for years. Even among Immortals, the most well-known people in the country, Matt was something of a legend.

He'd become Immortal when he was just eleven, when some panel members discovered what a talented poet he was. The panel insists Immortals are chosen for their honorable contributions to society; at one point, you practically had to have instigated world peace to be considered. But these days, when Immortals were chosen for stupid reasons or, in my case, mostly on connections, being a poet seemed like a pretty good reason to be selected. And the rest of his family had been selected for their charity work. His mother had been a social worker even before all this, and since Matt started getting the monthly grants, she didn’t have to work anymore. Even his dad, a doctor, wasn’t working as much, leaving them as well as Matt’s older brother free to build houses and feed the poor.

Matt awkwardly propped his knee on the couch. “Well, I feel like we already know each other,” he said. “But it’s nice to meet you anyway."

“Um, yeah. Could you excuse us for just one second?” I grabbed Jacey’s arm and led her back to the kitchen.

“What the hell was that?” I hissed.

She pulled her arm away. “What’s wrong?”

“Why didn’t you tell me Matt Cavanagh was going to be here? Of all the people you brought over, it had to be your famous ex-boyfriend. Do you have any idea how awkward that is for me?”

“I’m sorry!” she said. “I didn’t know it would be weird. I thought…I don’t know.”

“You weren’t thinking, most likely. And why is he even over here? I thought you were studying.”

“I was. But he called and wanted to talk. And I panicked. I mean, of course I want to talk to him, but what was I going to say? I haven’t been alone with the guy in months. I mean, did he want to talk about us? Is there even an us anymore? Or did he just want to hook up? So I said I would talk to him later because I had to study. And he said, ‘you don’t study.’ And I said, ‘well, someone’s coming over to help me study because we have a big test tomorrow, but you can come, I guess.’ Kenzie, what was I supposed to do? Matt is the only guy I’ve ever dated, at least seriously. I’ve never done this before.”

I sighed. “I’m sorry. Maybe I overreacted. But next time you invite some celebrity over to your house, just warn me, okay? I don’t like getting starstruck in front of people. It’s weird.”

She smiled. “It’s a deal. Come on, I’m going to make you the best soup you’ve ever tasted.” She nudged me back toward the door. “Go keep him company for a little while.”

So I went back to the living room. Matt turned around again. I sat on the couch, removed my shoes, and crossed my legs. I glanced back at him; it was hard to see in the dim light, but he was kind of cute. He glanced my way and our eyes met, but he turned back quickly; I had a feeling he knew what Jacey and I had been talking about in the hallway.

“Sorry I ran out on you earlier,” I said.

“It’s okay. I’m used to Jacey and her friends acting strange around me.”

I nodded. “So what did Jacey tell you about me?”

“A lot. But most of it I already knew. You’re Fred Palmer’s granddaughter.”

“Doctor Fred Palmer,” I corrected him, but smiled back so he wouldn’t take me too seriously.

“My parents loved his book. They think it should be required reading in high school. So teenagers will see how hard it is to raise kids. Sort of a literary birth control.”

I snickered. “Literary birth control. That’s a new one.” I wasn’t sure grandpa’s book was good enough to be required reading, but maybe I was just modest on his behalf.

“Well, what about you?” I said. “I hear you’re quite an accomplished poet.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Well, Jacey seems to think you’re pretty good. And so did the panel.”

“Well, Jacey is kind of…”

“In love with you?”

He didn’t respond. Yikes. I looked back toward the TV, where some news broadcast was wrapping up. “So what’s on tonight?”

He picked up the remote and scrolled through the channels. “Not much. I don’t watch a lot of TV.”

“Me neither,” I said. “Back home, we mostly just watch the news. It’s so different here.”

“I know. I’ve been here four years and I’m still not used to it.”

“Having so many TV channels?”

“Having so much…anything.”

I smiled. “Matt, I think you and I are going to get along just fine.”

Twenty minutes later, the three of us sat in a circle at the kitchen table. Even though Jacey’s mom made a pretty good living at City Hall and Jacey, of course, had her grant money, they only had one full-time servant and she was gone for the night. Jacey’s mom was at some benefit or another and hadn’t even called. We had the house to ourselves.

“So Matt,” I said. “Jacey said you were home schooled.”

“Yep. I’m supposed to be a sophomore, but I almost have enough credits to be a senior. I’m going to graduate early.”

Thanks to Jacey, I knew Matt was a year younger than me, so it made sense that he would be a sophomore. That made