Ageless Read online

  Ageless

  By Cege Smith

  Copyright 2012 Cege Smith

  Smashwords Edition

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

  Book cover design by Flip City Books

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  CHAPTER ONE

  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 sa
id 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.

  “I don’t know who that is,” Violet said. She felt her hackles rise. Margo had a knack for being able to get any guy she wanted, and for some reason Violet was seized by the idea that Margo would snag this guy out from under Violet’s nose. It was stupid and irrational, especially since she had just exchanged a few words with him. But deep down inside, she knew she was hoping she’d bump into him again.

  Just then she heard a car honking outside, and that seemed to pull Margo out of her trance. She pulled her gaze away from the man and focused on Violet. “Mike’s annoyed. C’mon. Let’s get out of here, but you are going to tell me everything about that guy when we’re alone.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Violet wondered for the thousandth time why she had let Margo talk her into trekking over to Mike’s house as she listened to the drunken party going on in the other room. Violet had attempted to close herself away in the dining room down the hall with her laptop and books, but every few minutes someone would wander into the room to try to coerce her to come out and party with them.

  Violet generally liked all of Margo’s other friends, even though she never completely felt at ease around them. As she looked at all the family photos on the walls around the expansive room where she had sequestered herself, she felt a familiar longing and wished that she had come from the same loving background that Mike likely took for granted.

  She felt petty for thinking that way; her grandparents had given her nothing but the best since her parents’ death, including paying for Bayerfield’s not insignificant tuition. She didn’t understand why they had been so insistent; she had attended public school when her parents were alive, but they had insisted on private preparatory high schools.

  Each year, though, they expressed some displeasure with the curriculum, which meant Bayersfield was Violet’s fourth high school in four years. Each one took her further and further away from where her grandparents lived. She wondered if that was intentional. She had never been close to them. They were her father’s parents and she got the sense that something had happened a long time ago between them and her father that she was still paying for. But with no other living relatives, she didn’t have any choice in the matter.

  She sighed. Longing for what she couldn’t have and what she couldn’t change wasn’t going to get her term paper done. She leaned back over the book that she had acquired from the library, and it reminded her of the man that she literally ran into. He was mysterious and strange, and it was driving her crazy that she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She wondered what had brought him to the library when he was clearly older than the student population. Maybe he was visiting a friend on campus. She felt a knot in her stomach, wondering if that friend could be female. She didn’t know anything about him, not even his name, and she kicked herself for being so pathetic that a thirty-second exchange had turned her into such a mess.

  Shaking those thoughts from her head, she studied the text again. The mystery man had been right in one respect. Not many students would think to finish their high school career writing a paper on the legends and folklore surrounding the fountain of youth. But it was something that Violet had become obsessed with a year ago when an irrational idea had taken hold inside of her that if someone could stay young forever, then they essentially found the ticket to immortality. There wouldn’t be any more having to grieve for the loss of loved ones. You would have all the time in the world to enjoy life and all of its pleasures. There would be no more fear and depression and stress around time. It was a utopian life that Violet found a piece of her craved.

  She knew that on the cusp of her eighteenth birthday, she hardly should be worrying about things like mortality, but that all had come to a screeching halt that day four years ago when she lost her parents. Violet was spending the weekend at a friend’s beach house, and her parents took the opportunity to get away for a weekend by themselves. They were coming home late, and the police said that they thought her father fell asleep at the wheel. After drifting into the path of an oncoming semi, they hadn’t stood a chance. Her parents were in their mid-thirties; everyone said it was tragic that they die
d in the prime of their lives. Violet learned that day that no matter how old you are, life is still a cruel taskmaster. She couldn’t count on living forever. No one could.

  At that moment, Margo stumbled into the room and pulled up a chair across from Violet. She had two red plastic cups in her hand and she shoved one of them across the table at Violet. “Here. At least have a little bit of fun.” Her tone was peevish and grated on Violet’s nerves.

  “Margo, I told you I needed to get this done...” Violet started.

  Margo’s hands came up and she waved the rest of Violet’s words away. “You are forcing me to bring the party to you. So drink up.” She raised her glass in the air and brought it halfway across the table.

  Hoping to appease her and get her to leave, Violet reluctantly took the glass and raised it to meet Margo’s. Then Margo brought the cup back down to her lips and waited. Violet rolled my eyes and took a sip. The taste was bitter and when she swallowed it she felt a warm flush immediately run down the back of her throat. “What the hell is in it?” she choked. Margo usually opted for fruity drinks with little parasols.

  Margo smiled slyly. “A new recipe that Tesla whipped up. You like?” Tesla was Mike’s older sister, and from what Violet had been able to gather, the supplier of the party’s alcohol.

  Violet took one more small sip and then put the glass down. With the alcohol content in it, she knew she’d be all caught up to Margo and crew by finishing it. “It’s...different,” she said. “I honestly don’t have that much more left, Margo. If you guys can give me just one hour of peace and quiet, I promise I’m all yours.”

  “So what was up with that guy at the library?” Margo said, changing the subject.

  Violet cringed. She had hoped that Margo had forgotten about him. “He was just some guy that was looking at the book I needed.” Violet pointed at the book in a lame attempt to remind Margo what she was trying to do. It didn’t work.