Ageless

Ageless

Copyright 2012 Cege Smith

Smashwords
Edition

Visit Cege's website and blog
at
http://www.cegesmith.com

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Flip City Books

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The evening started out entirely
benign. After exhausting various Internet resources, Violet Swanson
found herself once again on her way to the library across campus.
She didn’t really mind; the library was like her second
home.

While she was there, she figured
she’d rework her term paper for what felt like the tenth time, so
her book bag was heavy with the research material she needed. She
had just left the dorm parking lot to cross the quad when a sleek
blue car caught her attention as it pulled up to the sidewalk curb.
A well-manicured female hand was waving out the window and
gesturing for Violet to come over. Although she was slightly
annoyed, she couldn’t keep the grin off her face when the passenger
window rolled the rest of the way down, revealing her best friend,
Margo Duncan.

“You look like you could use a
drink,” Margo said with a matching grin. “We’re on our way over to
Mike’s house. Jump in.” She reached behind her to unlock the back
door.

Violet peered past Margo at the
driver of the vehicle. As she suspected, Mike Brennar, Margo’s
on-again, off-again boyfriend, was at the wheel. It looked like
they were on again. He was messing with the knobs on the radio and
looked bored. He waved in her direction.

“I have to get these books back and
then grab a few more so that I can finish my term paper,” Violet
said, shaking her head. “It’s due on Monday. I can’t
tonight.”

Margo sighed heavily and blew a
stray chestnut hair away from her forehead. “Vi, I’ve told you a
thousand times that you don’t have to work so hard anymore. We’re
seniors. School’s over in less than two weeks and it’s Saturday
night.”

Violet bit her lower lip. She hated
that she had to work so hard for her grades, but Violet needed the
4.0 to have a shot at a full scholarship to Brown University. She
was grateful for the chance to finish out her high school career at
Bayersfield. It was one of the most exclusive prep schools in the
country and would definitely help her chances of getting into the
Ivy League college. Unfortunately, Violet knew that she couldn’t
count on her grandparents to continue their generous educational
support once she turned eighteen, and she wasn’t sure that she
wanted them to even if they offered. Violet had grandparent
issues.

“I can’t, Margo. Not tonight. You
guys have fun,” Violet said with a small wave as she stood upright
again. Then she turned to start walking again.

She heard the car door open and
then Margo’s low voice as she told Mike something. Then Margo was
next to her slipping her arm into hers. “I tell you what. I’ll walk
you to the library and help you get your books. I know you’ve got
your laptop in that bag of yours, so you can just do your work at
Mike’s house instead of the boring old library. Then as soon as
you’re done, we can party a little bit.” Violet opened her mouth to
protest, but Margo held up a hand. “In less than two weeks the
summer starts, and you'll disappear off to Brown and no doubt start
a new and glamorous life without me. As your best friend, I insist
that you spend as much time with me as possible before we are
separated forever.”

Violet couldn’t help but laugh at
Margo’s dramatics. Even though Margo transferred into Bayersfield
halfway through the year, she had quickly gained a crowd of friends
and had no problem being cast as the lead in the spring play and
taking over as captain of the debate team. Margo was dangerous when
she put her mind to something. Violet looked over her shoulder at
Mike’s car. “What about him?”

“I told him to wait in the car.
C’mon, let’s get this party started.”

Violet reluctantly let Margo lead
her across the expansive lawn of the quad. Margo insisted on
bringing her up to speed on the latest school gossip since they had
spoken the day before. It never failed to amaze Violet how much
Margo knew about the details of their schoolmates’ lives. It
definitely was stuff that the school wasn’t going to put in the
admissions brochure. Then the library loomed in front of
them.

Margo had a sly grin on her face.
“Last one in is a rotten egg.” Then she grabbed Violet’s bag off
her shoulder and raced for the door.

Violet followed her friend up the steps, right
behind her as Margo shoved the glass door open and strode through.
She was already halfway to the return desk when Violet caught up to
her. The few students that were around were staring at them. One
thing about Margo, she always liked to make an entrance.

“Slow down! My laptop’s in that bag
so take it easy,” Violet said as she tried to take her bag out of
Margo’s hands.

Margo easily batted her hands away
and brought the bag down on the desk with a light thump. She looked
at Violet and rolled her eyes. “Chop, chop. Books in. Books out.
We’ve got places to be.”

Violet realized then that until
Margo was back in Mike’s car, she was going to be a huge pain in
the ass. She drew herself up to her full five feet five inches,
which was still several inches short of Margo’s five feet nine.
Then she used her most authoritative voice. “No funny business,
Margo. I mean it. You wait here. I will be right back.”

Margo leaned against the counter
with a grin and looked at her watch. “I’ll give you five minutes,
Vi. Then I’m coming in after you.”

Violet winced. She knew what that
meant. Margo was also fond of making scenes if she felt the
occasion called for it, and Violet saw the twinkle in her eye that
said Margo was gearing up for quite a performance. She turned and
raced for the staircase that would take her up to the reference
section. In her mind she reviewed the list of books that she still
needed to look over for her paper, and hoped that she wouldn’t
forget any in her mad dash.

Through the railing of the second
floor, she could see Margo hadn’t moved, but her foot was tapping
on the floor as she watched Violet’s progress through the stacks.
Violet found one book right away and counted off two more rows.
That book took her another minute to find and she started to
panic.

As she came out of that row and
looked over the railing, Margo waved with a smile and then pointed
at her watch. Violet groaned and raced down to the last aisle on
that floor. She had one more book to grab. As she dashed into the
aisle she promptly ran into a wall. She went flying backward and
landed hard on her butt as books in her arms went up into the air.
The wall, as it turned out, was a tall, extremely well-built man
and as he turned toward her, her mouth fell open.

He was...beautiful. Lush black hair
fell in soft curly waves around his face, and his lips were full
and slightly twisted at the moment at seeing her sitting there on
the floor. His skin had the olive complexion that being so fair
herself she had always envied. But it was his eyes that held her.
Violet’s parents had named her after her unusual shade of purple
eyes, and now she saw the same color reflected back at her. She had
never seen anyone with eyes like hers before. He was definitely
older than Violet by several years, and she immediately wondered
what brought the Grecian god to the library of Bayersfield
Prep.

He looked equally surprised to see
her and she realized that he was waiting for her to speak. She had
run into him, after all. She shook her head to try to gather her
thoughts again. What had she been doing? “I’m sorry,” she finally
managed to sputter.

The man said nothing, but held out his hand to help
her up. She quickly grabbed her fallen books into one arm and
smiled gratefully as she put her other hand into his. Both of their
eyes widened as she felt a shock of warmth and electricity flow
through it. A strong pull had her on her feet seconds later. As
soon as she was up, he snatched his hand away. He still watched her
in silence, and Violet realized that she was staring.

“Two minutes, Vi!” The words were
so loud that they resonated over the balcony.

Violet winced. “Sorry for being a
total klutz. I’m in a bit of a hurry,” she said as she slid around
the man. She looked over the shelf where the book should be and
started to panic as she realized that a small gap existed where the
book should have been. She frantically ran her finger along the
spines of the books around it, hoping that someone had just
mis-shelved it. Mentally, she could hear the tick tock of Margo’s
watch ticking away the last remaining seconds before all hell would
break loose.

“Is this what you are looking for?”
an amused voice behind her said.

Violet turned back to the man, who now was holding
up a book and smiling at her. She glanced at the title and saw that
it was indeed the missing book.

“Yes,” she said. Her heart
fluttered just a moment as she basked in the warmth of his smile.
She blinked. There was something strange about him, like if she
listened to him for too long she’d forget the rest of the world
existed. “I’m sorry, are you using that? If not, I really need it
to finish my term paper and if I don’t get downstairs and check it
out now, my friend is going to embarrass the crap out of
me.”

He looked at her with his strange
eyes and then back down at the book. “Interesting topic for a term
paper.”

Violet flushed, but felt a small
rush of anger. She and her advisor had several disagreements about
the topic. He thought it was too fantastical to be taken seriously,
where Violet argued that she could bring logic and analytical
insight to it. There was a reason she had pushed so hard to do it.
“The only way to stand out around here is to be willing to go out
on a limb and not talk about all the same old boring stuff that
everybody else does. Plus I think it’s something that’s fascinating
and warrants more discussion in general.” She didn’t know why she
was explaining herself to a total stranger, and so she stopped.
“Can I have the book please?”

He paused as if considering, and
then handed the book to her. “All’s you had to do was say please,”
he said. The corners of his lips were curled upwards and Violet
wondered if he was laughing at her.

“Thank you,” she said
primly.

“I agree that the topic is one that
could warrant further discussion. I wasn’t trying to offend,” the
man said.

Violet could tell that he wanted to
say more, but she couldn’t focus on him. She was amazed to find
that anyone, especially a guy who looked like him, would want to
talk to her at all. It wasn’t like hot guys came along talking to
her every day. Then she heard Margo’s voice below in warm-up
mode.

“I’m sorry, I have to go,” she
said. She knew she’d be even more embarrassed if Margo caused a
scene. She brushed past him and hurried down the stairs, right as
she saw Margo float to the center of the lobby with her arms
crossed in front of her chest and her hands clasped. She was
getting ready to sing, and Violet had no desire to find out which
show tune Margo had chosen to belt out.

Violet grabbed Margo’s elbow and
pulled her to the check-out machine. Quickly she scanned her
library card and the books, then grabbed her bag. “Okay, okay.
Let’s go.”

But Margo hadn’t moved. She was
gazing up back into the library. Violet followed her look up to the
second floor balcony and saw the mysterious man standing there
watching them. He waved at her, and her heart skipped a
beat.

“You holding out on me, Vi?” Margo
asked. Margo waved back. The man’s smile widened and he rested his
forearms on the railing. He didn’t turn away.