Page 105 of The Originals


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“Is that weird?” I ask.

“Not at all. Follow me.”

He leads me by the hand through the doorway off the dining area. There’s a long hallway with several open doors on either side; we walk all the way to the end, passing what Sean points out as Harper’s room, an office, a spare bedroom, a single bathroom, and finally, his “lair.”

It’s sparse and incredibly neat. The walls are stark white with white wood detail on them. There’s a mattress and box spring on the floor in the corner covered with a solid navy-blue quilt. Next to the bed is a low industrial metal nightstand; there are a desk and a shelf made out of the same material on the far wall. The desk is tidy, with an older laptop hooked to a flat-screen monitor and several binders stacked to the side. The bookshelf looks like it was once organized, but now books are lying horizontally on top of the vertical stacks.

“You need a bigger shelf,” I observe.

“Yeah, but I like that one,” Sean says, walking to the far wall and opening a door. His closet is neat, too. He pulls striped socks out of one of those hanging organizer things.

“Is your room always this clean?” I ask, looking around.

“Would it freak you out if I said yes?” he asks, grinning while offering me the socks.

“Not at all,” I say, taking the socks and sitting down to put them on. They’re black and yellow like a honeybee and way too big for me, but something about wearing them feels nice. “School spirit,” I say about the colors.

“Go, team,” Sean says sarcastically.

“Oh, hey,” I say in a whisper, glancing at the door. “What’s your mom’s first name?”

“Harper,” he says in a matching whisper. “Why? Did you think that was her last name?”

“Yes!” I say, laughing loudly, which makes Sean laugh, too.

“Don’t worry, everyone does,” he says. “Her last name is Kelly, just like mine.”

“Your parents didn’t give you your dad’s name?”

“No, thank god,” Sean says, rolling his eyes.

“What is it?” I ask, standing and moving so I’m right in front of him.

“Not telling,” he says in a low, sexy voice.

“Come on,” I say, “I told you I’m a clone. The least you can do is tell me your dad’s last name.”

“Hooker,” he says flatly.

“Did you just call me a hooker?” I joke.

He shakes his head at me but doesn’t answer.

“Your name would have been Sean Hooker?” I ask, biting my cheek so I don’t burst out laughing.

Sean nods. “I don’t know why he never changed it,” he says. “But that’s not my problem anymore.” His tone is serious; my smile fades. Wanting to take his mind off bad memories, I lean up on tiptoe and kiss him gently on the lips. He smells like outside.

“Thanks for having me over,” I say before I kiss him again. “And thanks for the socks.”

“Anytime,” he says, leaning in. Just then, his mom calls “Cookies are done!” from down the hall, and we jump apart like startled cats. Sean smiles sheepishly and nods in the direction of the door; I float down the hall behind him, loving the feel of my toes inside his striped socks.

After snacks and some pleasant parental conversation, Sean and I go back to the living room and sink into the couch. I scratch Dumptruck while Sean texts back one of his friends. When he’s done, he takes a picture of me with his camera phone.

“Let me see it,” I say, grabbing the phone. “I have to approve it.”

“You always look good in pictures,” he says.

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