Forever Seventeen - To Be Rewritten/Edited

Chapter 6: Dangerous

Chapter 6

Dangerous

　

　

My mind was racing and my heart was pounding as I was making my way into Carter’s living room. He was nervous, I could feel it now. He must have stopped blocking out my gift. But why now? Why couldn’t he have done it once we were away from other people?

“Sit.” he orders. I then sit down in his black leather couch. He then walks out of the room, and into, what I assume, is the kitchen. I hear the sound of a refrigerator opening, the pushing of stuff around, and the refrigerator door closing. A second later he steps back into the living room clutching onto two cans of Coke.

After handing me my drink he sits down in a chair across from me and stares at the red can.

Worry.

I could feel it; he was worried, along with nervous. What is he going to tell me? Do I even want to know? I already hate being an immortal, and I have a bad feeling that whatever he is going to tell me isn’t going to make me like much more than I do now.

Silence is supposed to be quiet; relaxing at times. But this, the silence, is loud. The awkwardness of it fills the air, it’s so thick, I can almost see it. I then clear my throat to relieve us of this. He then meets my gaze, but says nothing. He’s procrastinating.

“So, um, how long have you been this way?” I finally ask.

“What do you mean how long have I been this way? I’ve been this way since I was born.” he says, making me feel stupid.

“Since you were born?” I say, mostly to myself. What does this mean? Was I born this way too?

“Yes, since I was born.” he answers. “We were all born this way. Even you.”

“But I thought that…well. I thought that something caused this… I don’t know, magic maybe?” I say.

“Are you serious, Ebony? Magic? No, no, no. Far from it. You inherited this curse from someone.” he says, finally opening his can.

“Inherit? You mean you can inherit immortality?” I ask.

“Yes, its a chromosome mutation.” He then takes a deep breath and continues. “It’s kind of like twins, it can skip generations, but sometimes many generations. The mutation could disappear for about two hundred years, but pop up, just like that. Something about that mutation stops our aging process in our adolescent years. Usually happening between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. There’s not been much research done on this. So far I know of only one immortal who researches on our kind, but I haven’t talked to him for about ten years. Something could have changed since then.”

“Ten years?” I say, baffled. “How old are you?”

Carter then get really quiet and looks down and sighs. “I’ve stopped counting. After so many centuries, age becomes meaningless.”

“Centuries?” I say, shocked. My mind was literally spinning. I almost couldn’t believe it myself. “Well, what year were you born?”

“Sixteen seventy three.” he says, bracing himself for my reaction.

“What?! You were born in sixteen seventy three? That would make you, what?” I then pause, and calculate it up in my head. “Three hundred and thirty seven years old?”

He then smirks at me, “I suppose it does.”

“But who could of I inherited this from? I didn’t even know immortals existed till I realized I was one. Does that mean that whoever I inherited this from is still alive?” I ask, feeling amazed at the possibility.