Free Angelborn by L. Penelope Page B

loony bin or juvie. I’m rich with choices.
    She rests her hand on mine. “All I can say is that I’ll be here for you, no matter what happens. I promise. Always remember that.”
    Her being here when she doesn’t have to be is as much a promise as her words. But I’m not really wired to trust people. I pull my good hand away and tuck it under my other arm.
    Rosie stays beside me quietly until I fall asleep.

Chapter Seven
    I sit next to Genna in the bustling atrium of the library. It reminds me a bit of Victoria Station with its high arched ceiling made of glass. Long wooden tables, each with electrical sockets marring the surface, are evenly spaced. Students sit hunched over their computers, the distinctive bluish glow illuminating their faces. The term makes me chuckle: computer. That was my first job, back when it meant a person who performed maths calculations rather than a piece of machinery.
    I’d found work at an engineering firm and had sat hunched over a pencil and paper making manual calculations day in and day out. It was exhausting, but quiet, and a pleasant break from all the variations of human life that I’d so longed for. I hadn’t expected living would be so overwhelming. I was close to returning to Euphoria to face eternity as a Recordkeeper when I first saw Viv.
    “What are you thinking so hard about over there?” Genna asks, looking at me curiously. I hadn’t realized she’d been paying attention. The expression on her face is identical to Viv’s, eyes sparkling inquisitively, mouth pursed in the midst of a quizzical smile. The shape of her lips is different, though neither matches the lush fullness of Maia’s mouth.
    I force the thought away. Genna is my one. It’s called that for a reason. She’d practically bound with me once, ready to share her soul with me for eternity — I need to focus on that.
    “Do you believe in past lives?” I ask.
    She frowns, bemused. “Like reincarnation? In your past life, you were a cow or something?”
    “Well, sort of. Not really. You were a person. A cow can’t become a person.”
    “Oh. Um, I don’t know. I’ve always believed in heaven, you know? But I don’t think anyone should be discriminated against for their beliefs or anything. No matter how weird they are.” She absently fingers the gold cross hanging on a delicate chain around her neck. I merely smile and don’t point out the irony.
    “So you would never, just for fun, go to one of those regressionists who tell you all about your past lives?”
    “Goodness, no.” She looks like I’ve just suggested she get vivisected, just for fun. “I’m pretty sure that’s blasphemous.”
    Something in my heart sinks. “Are you very religious?”
    She notices she’s holding the cross and lets go, then looks up to the ceiling as if for answers. “I don’t know. I go to church. My parents are more into it than me, though. I just …” She shrugs. “I don’t want to do anything to make God angry, you know?”
    My smile is brittle on my face, but I nod at her as if I understand. As if she’s not breaking my heart into a thousand little pieces.
    “You’re always so deep and intense.” Her eyes dance as she laughs at me. “Do you ever think about normal things?”
    “Normal?”
    “Yeah, like, what’s your favorite movie?”
    “My favorite movie …” I rack my brain for an answer. The last time I’d gone to a movie was when I took Viv to see Gone with the Wind .
    “Umm … I’ve always been a fan of the classics. The Graduate. Citizen Kane. Psycho. ” She furrows her brow. I just picked a few off of a list I’d memorized of the hundred best movies of all time, but it doesn’t seem like the right thing to say. “But really, if I had to pick just one, it would be Terminator. ” She smiles at this, and I release a breath. I stood behind two guys in the cafeteria this morning as they debated the relative merits of the various entries in the Terminator film franchise.
    “What