Page 157 of The Originals


Font Size:  

Though it feels like we’ve been gone months, we return to our house on the hill five days after we left it. We’ve missed no school; everyone’s still on Thanksgiving break. Nothing has changed, and yet, to me, the world is in color for the first time. I keep checking my driver’s license to make sure it’s real.

I text Sean as Mom pulls the car through the gate:

WE’RE BACK

He responds:

WHEN CAN I SEE YOU?

Smiling, I glance up at my mom in the mirror, at her determined face.

SHE WANTS TO TALK TO US. NOT SURE HOW THIS IS GOING TO GO. WILL CALL YOU AFTER.

>“Of course,” he says. “The bathroom’s upstairs at the end of the hall. You girls can drop your bags in the green room or the disaster with the chalkboard paint.” He looks at Sean. “You can bunk in the blue room.”

I stop in the doorway of a room so cool I want to steal it and take it home with me. There’s funky vintage furniture mixed with clean lines, and girls’ clothes strewn here and there. I smile at the quotes chalked over the bed and the mismatched but harmonious posters on the walls. I notice more than a few photos of a guy who’s not quite as hot as Sean but still double take–worthy. The room is organized chaos.

“I want to sleep in here,” I say to Ella when she walks up behind me.

“Be my guest,” she says. “I’ll take the nice, neat guest room across the hall over this any day, even if I have to share the bed with Betsey. Who could live in here?”

“Me,” I say quietly, but Ella’s already moved on.

I go in and drop my bag on a floral chair, then take a closer look at the photos on the massive corkboard. It’s easy to tell which smiling face is the owner of this room: Pretty, with enviable blond hair and really light blue eyes, she’s the common denominator in the pictures. There she is with the cute guy; there she is with a bunch of girls at an amusement park, caught mid laugh. There she is with a girl with super cool two-toned blond-and-black hair. My eyes linger on the other girl’s hair for a moment, and suddenly, inspiration strikes.

“You guys!” I shout, rushing out of the room and across the hall to the guest bedroom.

“What’s up?” Ella says, turning to face me. She’s got her toothbrush sticking out of her mouth, so it sounds like wus-ah.

“Yeah, where’s the fire?” Betsey asks. She seems more herself now that we’re far away from Colorado, and far away from Mom.

“I have the best idea ever,” I say confidently. “We just need to stall Mason for a few hours. And find a drugstore, stat.”

After we attack the beauty aisle of the local drugstore and the teen section of the discount clothing store, Sean and I hang back at a coffee shop while Betsey and Ella check one more place. We’re just sitting down at a table when his cell rings; he frowns and answers it. I listen to his side of the conversation; when he hangs up, he doesn’t look happy.

“My mom wants me to come home,” he says.

“Today?” I ask, feeling my heart sink.

“Yeah,” he says. “She’s been cool up to this point, but now that you’re safe…”

“I get it,” I say. “I’m surprised she didn’t make you turn around and come home two days ago.”

“She knew you needed me, and she trusts me,” he says. “But I missed Thanksgiving and… you know. Moms.” I don’t really know, but I don’t say that.

“You should drop us off at Mason’s and get on the road,” I say, every part of me wanting to inhale those words back into my mouth.

“How will you get home?” he asks. I consider it for a moment.

“I guess we’ll fly,” I say. “We’ll have to get our mom to buy the tickets, but I’m sure she’ll have no problem doing that if it means we’re coming back to San Diego.” I take a sip of my latte. “I mean, we’ll have our own IDs; we might as well test them out.”

My stomach flips over at the thought.

Sean and I don’t make a big thing of saying goodbye—everyone is watching—but I feel the tug of him when his car rounds the corner and disappears. I can’t help it: I text him.

I’LL SEE YOU IN THREE DAYS, TOPS.

He writes back,

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like