Page 118 of The Originals


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Sean has to stop first at the post office to mail some photos for his mom. It sounds weird, but the normalness of running errands with him warms me. We take Sean’s car because mine’s almost out of gas, and when we’re out on the main roads, he cranks up the music and we both sing out of tune.

“What’s going on with that Petra girl?” Sean asks when the song’s over.

“Betsey set up a time to talk to her on the phone this weekend,” I say. “She’s going to try to see if there’s a good time to ask if she wants to do a DNA test.”

“I’d like to be a fly on the wall for that conversation,” Sean says, laughing. “I like Airborne Toxic, too; want to take a DNA test to see if we’re related?”

“I know; me, too,” I say. “But Bet will figure out a way to ask her.”

We chat through the commercials about nothing, then The Bravery comes on. He turns it up again.

“I love this song,” I say.

“I love you.”

It’s so nonchalant—his eyes still on the road—that it takes a second to hit me. When it does, I suck in my breath and look sharply at him. Feeling my stare, he smiles, but keeps his eyes on the road. I look away and roll down my window a little, because suddenly I feel hot. We get caught at a light and when he stops, he looks at me.

“Lizzie,” he says. I look at him.

“I heard you,” I say, smiling.

“Yeah, but it came out wrong,” he says. “I think about it all the time—I think about you all the time—and it just came out sort of… light. But I mean it.”

I have to look away from his intensity: I glance at the stoplight to make sure it’s still red.

“Lizzie,” he says again, drawing me back in. He touches my right jawline with three fingertips. “I’ve never said it to anyone else, but I know what I feel. I’m completely serious when I say that I love you.”

Beep.

Beep, beep.

Hooooonk!

I know the light’s turned green; I know the other drivers are mad. But I don’t tell him to move. Instead, I say:

“I love you, too.”

At the post office, Sean parks in the spot farthest from the door and then reaches back and grabs a box. He opens his door, then looks at me.

“Wanna wait here or come in?”

“Let’s go.”

The line is long and narrow; Sean stands behind me with a hand on my hip, whispering weird things into my ear to pass the time.

“Do you think Ella and Betsey will fall in love with me, too, since you did?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” I say, laughing. “You’re not that awesome.”

“Funny,” he says. “Hmm… I wonder if the Original will inexplicably fall in love with me, too?”

I roll my eyes, not justifying that one with an answer.

“Hey, what if your mom lied about there being an Original and she just cloned herself?”

“We don’t really look like her,” I whisper.

“What if you’re a clone of a famous person?” he says quietly.

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