Afterthought: A Sententia Short Story (The Sententia) (6 page)

I glanced up at her face, trying to determine if she really needed a book. Not that it mattered. I closed the ledger I’d been pretending to write in and set down my pencil. “I’m sure I could,” I told her. It was, after all, my job.

Her eyes darted toward the staircase where a pair of women were rounding the landing to the second floor. So it wasn’t a book she was looking for. Just privacy. “I’m not sure yet,” she said hastily. “I’m still deciding between two research topics. But later?”

Sure. I smiled at her, because that was my job too. And I did love my job. “I’ll help you find your seat then.”

I lifted the counter hatch and stepped through, offering her my elbow like the true gentleman I wasn’t. Her hand on my arm, I escorted her to the lounge area. The few other students were watching us now, the ones who weren’t Alex’s friends probably already whispering, but I didn’t care. Gossip was nothing new. Better it was about me and Alexis than someone less innocent than either of us.

“M’lady, your court.” I bowed slightly as I released her onto the couch where her two friends waited. They laughed and fidgeted, making space for their queen. To her, I said, “Just let me know when you decide what you need,” before I walked away.

“
I
know what she needs,” one of the others called. I shouldn’t have smiled, but I did.

While I sat behind the counter waiting for something to happen, I wondered about Alex and why she hadn’t given up yet. Why, when she could have anyone, she wanted me. Maybe that
was
why, because I refused. Because she didn’t know what I was really like, or had been anyway. Or possibly it was because I was poor enough her father would disapprove. Not that I was poor, exactly. We made enough of a living on the bookstore that my Historian stipend went into savings. But “enough of a living” wasn’t really much.

Maybe it was the opposite. Despite that I was a small-town bookseller, I
was
still Dan Astor’s nephew of a sort, and the closest thing he’d probably ever have to a son. Maybe Mr. Morrow approved of me more than anyone. That was an interesting thought. Alexis always wanted what her father wanted.

Or maybe it was because unlike most everyone, I didn’t expect anything of her. And the reasons I liked her had nothing to do with her family and only a little to do with her looks. None of those reasons were enough to make me want to date her.

But then who did I want to date?
Really
date, not just. Not just that. I wouldn’t be that guy again, which is why I had to stop glancing at the lounge to see when Alex needed “help.” Going upstairs with her would only make things worse. Make
me
worse. I hadn’t spent all this time by myself just to go backwards.

After so long now, a year or more, I felt like I was waiting for the girl who’d make me want to be better.

“Did someone just
go upstairs?” I stepped from the back room in time to see a slim figure and swish of long, dark hair vanish up the central staircase. Jillian was ducking under the counter.

“I just got here,” she replied. It didn’t mean yes or no. From the way she was biting her lip, I knew she had more to say but wouldn’t. I loved Jill, legitimately, but her inability to just spit things out frustrated me the way only family could.

I knew I shouldn’t have left the desk, but the afternoon shipment was my job. I’d had to track down Aunt Mel to pass it off to her so I could go back to the floor. She was better at organizing the Perceptum papers we’d just gotten anyway. Sooner or later every student walked through our doors, and I wanted to be there whenever the new one did. Dr. Stewart had picked up course books during her visit, the contents of which suggested the student was a junior, though he—or she—was taking sophomore science and a senior lit elective. I
should
have asked Alexis. She’d know. Her goddamn sweater had me not thinking straight.

“Shit.” I ducked back into the stairwell. It could almost have been Alexis I thought I’d seen, but not quite. There was something less calculated in the girl’s movement. Plus one more glance at the lounge told me Alex was still there. Today could have been the day I followed her, not regretting it until it was already too late. Instead, I snuck up the rear stairs to see who else I’d find.

I admit it.
I stepped over the chain across the door between the stairwell and the stacks so I wouldn’t make a sound and took slow, light steps down the aisle like an absolute creeper. I knew every board and creak of this old building as well as the paths around the Academy. If she’d seen me first, I wasn’t sure how I’d have explained myself. But the mystery was what I loved most, which was exactly why Constance Stewart had dangled it in front of me. I’d never gotten to play detective in person before. The chance to observe the girl was too tempting not to go for it. More tempting even than Alexis.

Maybe that explained why my heart was beating too fast.

Or maybe somehow I just knew.

When I first saw her, really saw her, I’d never been more thankful for a photographic memory. She stood still, oblivious to my intrusion, holding a century-old book of poetry as if she didn’t just respect it but
revered
it, as if the words and the perfect leather spine spoke only to her. Dark hair spilled down her back and over one shoulder, partially obscuring a profile I was sure I might beg to see someday turn and look at me like she did that book.

I swear she’s the one,
I thought. And I realized I meant not the one I was supposed to find, which I actually hoped she wasn’t, but The One. For me. I didn’t know why I thought that. I’d not wanted to think it. The closest I’d come to thinking it before was
she’s the one for right
now
.
That’s not the same thing.

Maybe this was the girl I was waiting for.

I had to talk to her.

If I said what I was trying not to think, I’d scare her, or give the impression I was an asshole—or worse, crazy. So I said the first thing in mind that wasn’t
I might just have fallen in love with you
.

“That’s one of our best editions; you must have a great eye.” Which was better than the alternative, but still probably something an asshole would say. Damn. And I’d scared her anyway. She shrieked, a sound of surprise so adorable it was all I could do not to laugh. So I smiled instead. Things got better from there.

While I talked to her—Lainey, short for Elaine—I tried to believe I had that crazy first thought for the same reason I’d almost been ready to find another girl up here: because she was gorgeous and I was lonely. Those two things were true. But they weren’t the reason.

Lainey wasn’t exactly the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. She was something more. The beautiful girl I was most ever attracted to, maybe. The One I had no right or even reason to think that about. But everything I’d never felt for any other girl,
this
girl, this shy girl clutching an antique book like a shield—I felt it. I felt almost knocked over by it and I didn’t even know her. I didn’t even know why.

And then she said it. She
was
the girl I was looking for, and that meant she wasn’t just a girl I desperately wanted to get to know—she was my job. I’d never hated or loved my job more.

“I just started, actually. Apparently I’m a Legacy, but I didn’t know that until three days ago.”

Didn’t know she was Legacy? It was just so…unlikely. I played it cool.

“A Legacy? Really? Who’s your Sponsor?”

“That’s the thing. I don’t know.”

She had to be kidding, or wrong. A Legacy with no Sponsor? That wasn’t unlikely; it was impossible.

I leaned on the shelf to my right, trying to make it seem like I was relaxed, just curious. “You’re on Legacy, but you don’t know your Sponsor?”

From her mouth tumbled the unbelievable details. An anonymous Legacy. I didn’t even know that was allowed, let alone there was one set up. She was a mystery, a
real
mystery, and I wanted more than anything to solve it. To solve her and this crazy feeling I had, that only intensified the more she spoke. With every word, she became more interesting. I told her so, because as much as I had to work with her, I couldn’t help but flirt with her too. I
wanted
to, and so rarely did I do what I wanted anymore.

“Well Lainey, I think you just became the most interesting girl at Northbrook.”

I was rewarded with another flush of her cheeks, one that lit up her features and captivated me. Poetry wasn’t an interest of mine, though I remembered enough of it, but I wondered if there was possibly a phrase in that book she held that could describe her.

She was just about to say something when from the store room below, my aunt’s voice interrupted us again. “Cartwright! I hear you upstairs! I need your help sorting the new collection of—”

Genealogies, probably, she was about to say, or something else that didn’t exactly have to do with running a bookstore. The box crashed to the floor, drowning out Aunt Mel’s next words that the mystery Legacy blushing across from me probably shouldn’t have heard. But that wasn’t really why I knocked the box over.

No. What I’d needed was an excuse. Because I was freaked out. I had to get away from Lainey
—
from this hazel-eyed girl with no parents and pink cheeks and raven hair I had the strongest urge to touch
—
and regroup. Also, I had to talk to Dr. Stewart. An anonymous Legacy and a breathtaking girl? This assignment was sure to be a mess, one that had become exponentially more appealing.

Frightening, too, but I wanted to be frightened.

After the store closed
, I went back to
First Editions
and took her book of poems for myself. I read it that night, memorizing every word.

None of them came close to what I wanted to say.

Secrets, lies, and looming deaths—all things Lainey Young deals with on her typical day of high school. In her senior year at Northbrook, she has even
more
to worry about. Things like classes, college, and especially her boyfriend, Carter Penrose. Because hanging over everything is the brief vision she glimpsed of their future—the one she has no choice but to find a way to change.

To her surprise, she finds one worry she can cross
off
her list—namely Senator Daniel Astor. After a shocking discovery when they finally meet, Lainey realizes maybe she was wrong to distrust the Senator. She relaxes even further when he seems to accept her refusal to work for the Perceptum after graduation. But with her secrets mounting and time to solve them running out, there’s a final secret Lainey hasn’t learned:

Daniel Astor doesn’t take no for an answer. Ever.

Visit
www.thesentenia.com
to learn more!

Are you ready to be
Lost in Thought
? 

Lainey Young has a secret: she’s going crazy. Everyone else thinks she has severe migraines from stress and exhaustion. What she really has are visions of how people died—or are going to die. Not that she tells anyone that. At age sixteen, she prefers keeping her crazy to herself. When doctors insist she needs a new and stable environment to recover, Lainey’s game to spend two years at a private New England boarding school. She doesn’t really think it will cure her problem, and she’s half right. There is no cure, but as she discovers, she’s not actually crazy.

Almost everyone at Northbrook Academy has a secret too. Half the students and nearly all the staff are members of the Sententia, a hidden society of the psychically gifted. A vision of another student’s impending death confirms Lainey is one of them. She’d like to return the crappy gift of divining deaths with only a touch, but enjoys spending time with Carter Penrose—recent Academy graduate and resident school crush—while learning to control it. Lainey’s finally getting comfortable with her ability, and with Carter, when they uncover her true Sententia heritage. Now she has a
real
secret.