The Complete Private Collection: Private; Invitation Only; Untouchable; Confessions; Inner Circle; Legacy; Ambition; Revelation; Last Christmas; Paradise ... The Book of Spells; Ominous; Vengeance (199 page)
But then there was Thomas. He knew her. Really knew her. She could tell by the way he looked at her when they’d meet in Gwendolyn Hall. It was a mixture of intrigue and attraction. And love.
She’d had it all planned out in her mind—their big reunion, him sweeping her up in his arms, finally able to touch her in public. No more sneaking around in dark corners and basements. No more hiding. They could finally be a real couple.
Her breath caught in her throat when she finally spotted him, strolling around the corner of the cafeteria building. She smiled as she took in everything about him: his tousled hair, his crooked smile. He paused near the door, leaning back against the wall, as cool and detached as ever. Ariana started to raise her hand in a wave.
Then that new girl, Reed Brennan, emerged from the cafeteria.
Thomas pushed himself away from the gray stone wall and fell into step with Reed and her little redheaded friend. He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled it out again, holding something up for Reed to see. Ariana leaned forward, squinting in the sunlight. The realization of what Thomas was holding settled over her slowly. She watched
as Thomas pinched the small piece of metal between his thumb and forefinger.
It was a subway token. Just like the one he’d given her.
Prickly heat raced over Ariana’s skin and stung her eyes. She pulled out her delicate gold chain, where the token had once hung next to her fleur-de-lis, and twisted it tightly around her finger. All summer she had felt the absence of that token, the symbol of her and Thomas. All summer she’d looked forward to the day he would return it to her and she could feel the cool weight of it against her skin again, reminding her of Thomas’s devotion every second of every day. Now she watched as Thomas rolled the token carelessly between his fingers, grinning devilishly at Reed while he held it in front of her. Just out of her reach.
This wasn’t happening. It was not happening. Thomas loved
her.
She knew he did.
But there was no denying what she was seeing. Hot rage bubbled up inside of her. She watched as a warm pink blush surfaced in Reed’s cheeks. Watched Thomas laugh and joke with her. Watched as they stopped at the edge of the quad. As Thomas peered into Reed’s eyes. Ariana was close enough to see the way he looked at Reed. A mixture of intrigue and attraction.
Ariana’s heart pounded wildly. Her dry throat started to close and she had to force herself to breathe.
In . . . two . . . three . . .
Out . . . two . . . three . . .
He couldn’t be interested in Reed. This common sophomore. This was some kind of mistake. It had to be.
He loves
me.
He’s been waiting all summer to be with
me.
But then Thomas handed the subway token to Reed, and the world screeched to a stop around Ariana. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, backing away, still smiling at the new girl. Finally, he turned away from Reed, toward Ariana, the satisfied smile still playing about his lips. Dash and Gage fell into step with him, and they shuffled through the quad, passing just a few feet away from where Ariana was standing.
She had to do something. Had to stop this. The situation was hers to control. She had to be in control.
“Thomas,” Ariana called out, her voice strained.
But he didn’t see her. Or chose to ignore her. Either way, the pain was unbearable.
Suddenly, Mel’s words from that awful encounter in the diner echoed in her mind.
“Everything was perfect. We loved each other. And then one day, he told me that he still loved me, but that things were too complicated between us. And then he found you.”
Ariana’s gaze snapped back to the new girl, still blushing as she gazed down at the token with her friend as if in awe. This new girl had no idea she held everything that was Ariana’s in the palm of her hand. He was leaving Ariana just like he’d left Mel.
A cold, familiar feeling settled over Ariana’s shoulders. So achingly familiar it settled her nerves. Reminded her of how naïve she was. How indescribably stupid and trusting and worthless. Even Thomas didn’t want her. After everything she’d done to be with him,
he’d moved on from her without so much as a word, a glance, a kiss good-bye.
But then, maybe he just needed reminding. Boys were fickle, weren’t they? Especially Thomas. Notoriously so. Perhaps, after a long summer away, he just needed to be reminded of what he and Ariana shared. This Reed girl was just a distraction. A plaything. His chance to slum with a scholarship girl. Once he was done with her, he would come back to Ariana. They had shared a special connection. She was sure of it.
But then Ariana would have to wait. Just like she’d waited all spring and summer. And she was sick of waiting.
A few yards away, Reed glanced up and looked right into Ariana’s eyes. She smiled uncertainly.
Ariana stared back at her blankly, noticing the way her shirt was slightly frayed at the collar. She wondered if anyone would miss Reed if she just disappeared.
ALSO IN THE PRIVATE SERIES
REVELATION
AMBITION
LEGACY
INNER CIRCLE
CONFESSIONS
UNTOUCHABLE
INVITATION ONLY
PRIVATE
Chapter 4: The Official Kickoff
Chapter 24: Calling in a Favor
Chapter 26: Relationship Nuances
Chapter 27: The Footlocker of the Future
Chapter 36: The Upton Olympics
For my sister, Erin, who is really going to love me after this
Not happening. This was not happening.
I walked down the hall of the ICU at Edward Billings Memorial Hospital, trying to look as if I belonged there. Holding my coat closed tightly over my now ridiculous-seeming gold minidress and trying to make the nurses and doctors believe I knew where I was going. But I didn’t. I didn’t know where I was going, or where I was, or how I’d gotten there. I had never navigated these sterile halls, never had to visit this cold, ominous place with its grim-faced orderlies and somber lighting. The one thing I knew was that this could not be happening.
In my mind’s eye, all I could see was the blood. I had woken up on the floor of the solarium in Mitchell Hall, the back of my head throbbing with pain. Noelle had been hosting a preparty there for Kiran Hayes’s birthday fête in Boston, and I had gone to confront Sabine DuLac about her relationship with Ariana Osgood. She had pulled a gun on me, I had blacked out, and when I’d come to, I had
seen Josh’s prone body, his face pressed into the hardwood floor. And blood. Blood everywhere. The scream that had escaped my throat had sounded otherworldly, like something out of a science fiction film. Like nothing that could have come from my own throat. That was when Sabine had realized the bullet had missed me. Even though the gun was gone, even though Trey Prescott and Gage Coolidge were holding her back, she had made one final lunge, intent on strangling me or clawing my hair out—hurting me in whatever way possible. I had thrown myself backward in fear and had bumped into something hard. A second body. Dark hair had been splayed everywhere, arms bent at unnatural angles. Another scream, and after that, everything had become a blur.
The shouting as the police had hauled off Sabine. The Pemberly girl who, splattered with blood, had fainted dead away. The flashing lights of the ambulance. The EMTs shouting for us to stay back as they’d sorted out who was hit and who was unconscious and who might be . . . dead.
Now an orderly shoved a meal cart out of a room and right into my path. I was so startled that my hand flew to my heart. My knees felt like they could collapse at any second. I pressed my other palm against the wall to steady myself, my fingers landing just above a gold plate with a room number printed on it: 4005. Which meant that the next room was 4007. The room I was looking for. The room I dreaded.
Deep breath, Reed. You can do this. You have to do this.
I closed my eyes for a moment. This wasn’t about me. Yes, Sabine had tried to kill me. Yes, the person who, all semester long, I had
thought was my best friend had turned out to be a raving homicidal lunatic stalker. Yes, I had spent months living in the same room with a girl who had then tortured me and drugged me and sent out a lewd video of me to the entire Easton Academy community.
That
was all about me. And I could deal with all of that later.
But right now. This. This was not about me.
I took that deep breath and stepped tentatively into room 4007.
Josh’s eyes instantly met mine, whisking the breath right out of me. I was aware of the machines—the beeping of the heart monitor, the strange twitching lines on the screen, the dripping IV. But for a moment, just one moment, all I could see were those eyes. The relief, the anguish, the longing, the fear. Everything I felt was right there in his eyes. He knew. He understood. But then he broke eye contact, and I dropped back to reality.
Reality, where Ivy Slade lay on a hospital bed, unconscious and pale, her eyelids appearing purple under the fluorescent lights. Tubes and wires and sensors were stuck to her temples and wrists, and her black hair was shoved back from her face in a haphazard, unparted way that she would have loathed if she could have seen it. The white hospital sheets were tightly tucked in all around her, giving her the look of a half-wrapped mummy. Only her arms were free, and Josh was holding her hand. Her delicate, seemingly lifeless hand. My throat went completely dry.
Why hadn’t she stayed outside like the police had told her to do? Why had she run back into the solarium? In all the panic, I hadn’t even realized that she had come up behind me. She didn’t have to be
there. Didn’t have to come with me to confront Sabine. I had even told her not to come along, but she obviously was worried about me in my one-track state of mind. That track being the express train to confrontation with a homicidal maniac.
It was my fault that she was here. All my fault.
“Is she going to be okay?” I whispered.
Please say yes. Please, please say yes.
I wasn’t sure I could handle another death. Another funeral. Another good-bye. I wasn’t sure if any of us could handle it.
“They think so,” Josh replied. He looked hopefully over at her. “The bullet went through her upper shoulder and just missed her lung. If it had been half an inch lower . . . She lost a lot of blood, though, which is why she’s unconscious right now. But yeah, they expect her to make a full recovery.”
My eyes misted over as a crushing weight was lifted from my shoulders. She was going to be okay.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Ivy and I had just started to become friends. If it weren’t for her, I may have never figured out that it was Sabine who was after me. That Sabine was the person who had killed Cheyenne Martin and had tried to make me believe it was my fault.