Private 8 - Revelation (14 page)

"Seriously, Reed. It's getting a tad pathetic," Amberly added with a sniff. "And if you're looking for an invite, keep looking."

Noelle and Amberly both laughed and turned back to the window. The party planner followed suit, pointing out the challenges of the

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floor-to-ceiling windows and listing a few ideas of how to deal with them.

"Noelle, enough is enough. I need to talk to you," I said, my voice strong and clear as a bell in the wide room. "It's a matter of life and death."

Noelle tsked and slung her thick hair over her shoulder. "So dramatic."

That was it. I walked right over to her, grabbed her arm, and forcibly pulled her away from the others.

"What are you doing?" Amberly blurted.

Noelle actually tripped sideways, taken off guard by the physical attack. But the moment she composed herself she pulled away, smoothing the front of her knee-length dress. "You did not just touch me," she said.

"I'm sorry, but I had to get your attention," I told her under my breath. "Have you even read any of my e-mails?"

Amberly had almost reached us, but Noelle held up a hand, stopping her in her tracks. The girl looked confused for a moment, unsure of what to do, before she sullenly returned to the party planner.

"Uh, no," Noelle replied. "Those little missives have been directed straight to the recycle bin."

I pressed my lips together, frustrated. "You shouldn't have done that. I--"

"Miss Lange? Everything all right over there?" the party planner asked.

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"Fine," Noelle replied, lifting a hand. "This won't take long. Why don't you two talk Christmas trees? I'm thinking faux, faux, faux. Maybe something in feathers." She looked at me again, her brown eyes bored. "Go ahead. What could possibly be so very important?"

"I think Ivy killed Cheyenne," I told her, my pulse quickening. "In fact, I'm about ninety-nine percent sure she did it. And I think she's going to come after you next."

Or me, I thought, dread radiating through my stomach as I recalled the pills and the defaced photo of myself and Cheyenne. But there was no reason to bring my own peril into this conversation. In order for me to keep Noelle's attention, this had to be about Noelle.Unfortunately, all she did was let out an incredulous laugh that filled the room. "Ivy Slade? That girl does not have the balls. Nice try, Glass-Licker, but no sale."

She started to turn away from me. Classic Noelle egotism. Didn't she get that she was in danger?

"Okay. Let me rephrase," I said, putting on my best condescending tone--one I had learned from Noelle herself. One I knew she would respond to. "What if I told you she's still pissed about how you, Cheyenne, and Ariana left her alone at her grandmother's her sophomore year?"

Noelle whipped around to face me again. I'd never seen her react so automatically, so fiercely. Normally she took a moment to pause, consider, and collect herself before reacting to anything.

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"What do you know about that?" she asked, going pale.

I allowed myself a moment of triumph. Finally I'd done it. I'd actually gotten her to feel that paranoid uncertainty that she made others feel every single day. She didn't appear to enjoy it any more than the rest of us did. And I wasn't even close to finished.

"I know everything," I said, lowering my voice and taking a step closer. "Including the fact that Ivy blames you, Ariana, and Cheyenne for her grandmother's stroke--and death."

Noelle blinked, her eyes filling with something that looked a lot like fear. I was getting to her. She was finally, finally listening to me.

"Don't you think it's all a little suspect?" I asked. "Ivy comes back to school this year and Cheyenne ends up murdered within a month? Ariana's in an institution, so she can't get to her, but you... you're right here. You're next." "Why are you doing this?" Noelle asked, her voice strong but her eyes uncertain. "Why are you trying to scare me?"

"I'm not," I told her. "I'm trying to warn you. I'm trying to protect you."

Noelle looked me in the eye and for a split second, I could see her start to cave. Start to realize that I was still her friend. That we needed each other. That one stupid night with one stupid guy should not get in the way of all that. But then, out of nowhere, her face turned to stone.

"And don't tell me. You feel you need to be living in Billings to properly protect me, right?" She let out a short, incredulous laugh.

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"You're really grasping at straws here, Reed. And desperation, by the way, is not becoming."

"Noelle--"

"I don't need your protection, Glass-Licker. I don't need anything from you," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You know what I think? I think you must have way too much time on your hands over at Pemberly if you're making up stories like this. Way too much time."

Her smile was mocking. She knew I had been watching her through the window on Sunday night. She knew just how pathetic and lonely I was.

"I'm not making this up," I said, needing her to understand. "I'm worried about you." "Well, thanks for the tip," she replied blithely. "I'll make sure to keep an eye out for a wannabe loser wielding pills."

She turned to go again and I knew what I had to do. I didn't want to, but I had to. It was blackmail time.

"You're wrong," I said to her. "You do need me."

Her shoulders slumped dramatically as she turned to me once more. "Oh, really? And why's that? Are you going to teach me all about the ins and outs of NASCAR?"

"A dig at my Middle America upbringing. How original," I said sarcastically. I pulled the Chloe bag out from behind my book bag and dropped it on one of the small Coffee Carma tables. "Remember the disc that came with this?"

Noelle hesitated. This time I knew I had her. She had not been expecting this.

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"Yes," she said slowly. "I believe you destroyed it right in front of my face."

I stared straight into her eyes and just prayed she wouldn't be able to tell that what I was about to say was a complete lie.

"I made a copy. How stupid do you think I am?" I said.

Inside I knew exactly how stupid I was, but she didn't need to know that. She studied my face, and I made sure not to blink. "I still have it, Noelle," I said. "I can zap that information to the entire school, to the entire Easton community--alumni and parents included--at any time. Everything there is to know about you and all my Billings sisters. Out there for all the world to read and enjoy."

Noelle's expression was baffled, incredulous. I had her. I so, so had her.

"Are you trying to blackmail me?" she said merrily. "That is so cute!"

Okay. So maybe I didn't have her.

Her dig got right under my skin. I was losing control of this thing. Losing big time. But I wasn't about to give up just yet.

"Let me back in Billings, Noelle," I said under my breath. "Let me back in or I'll do it. I'll e- mail all the files to everyone we know."

Noelle narrowed her brown eyes. "Go ahead," she said. "There's nothing on there that I'm ashamed of. And as for the others, if they have skeletons, that's their problem. Go ahead and send it. The aftermath might actually be fun."

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"So you're saying you'd rather have all your housemates and friends humiliated--in some cases devastated--than let me back in," I said, disbelieving.

Noelle smiled ever so slowly, causing my heart to drop to my toes.

"Yes, Reed. That is exactly what I'm saying." 149

MINI ARIANA

I was getting nowhere. With Noelle, with Josh, with my schoolwork. That night I sat at a table on the first floor of the library, staring straight ahead at the spines of the books on the opposite shelf. Didn't even try to pretend I was studying. There was no way I could concentrate.Noelle was never going to let me back into Billings. Josh was never going to let me back into his life. And no one other than Marc would believe what I knew to be true about Ivy. I might as well just flunk out of school. What could possibly be the point of staying here anyway?

"Hi, Reed."

Sabine slipped into the chair across from mine and glanced at my textbook. "English? Good. I'm so behind in English. Want to work together?"

I looked at her eager face, her hair pulled back in a thick French braid, and sighed. "Sure. But I need to refuel. I'm just going to go get

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some chocolate." I grabbed my wallet from my bag and stood up. "You want anything?"

"No, thanks," Sabine said cheerily. So cheerily I was starting to wonder if she thought she could raise my mood by osmosis. So far, not working. But I applauded her effort.

I walked along the wall to the little alcove where the vending machines were housed and waited while a pock-faced boy selected his candy bar of choice. When he turned and saw me, he started visibly then slid away from me like I was on fire. I shook my head and started to feed my coins into the machine. People really were just so juvenile. "Hello, Glass-Licker."

Amberly Carmichael strode into the alcove and leaned one shoulder up against the vending machine, so close I could smell the minty freshness of her breath. She wore a pristine white sweater coat with a faux fur collar and that aqua blue scarf around her neck. Her blue eyes narrowed as she stared me down. Even up close, her resemblance to Ariana was enough to chill my bones.

"You don't get to call me that," I said through my teeth.

"Actually, I think I can call you whatever I want," she said. "You've become that insignificant. It would be sad, really, if you didn't deserve it."

I simply stared at her. I was so stunned by her audacity, I couldn't even begin to address it.

"Listen, Reed." She said my name as if its four letters polluted her mouth. "I heard everything you said to Noelle this morning. You

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should really work on your blackmail voice," she said, lowering her own voice to a near whisper. "I know about the disc. And if you think for one second that I am going to let you make any of that information public, you are sorely mistaken."

Laughter bubbled from my lips. "Oh, am I?"

A cold, angry look flashed across Amberly's face and my heart halted. Ariana. So Ariana. "I would do anything to protect my Billings sisters." Even as my mind drew the disturbing comparisons between this nut job and the other, I had to laugh again. I couldn't help it. Whatever airs she was trying to put on, whoever she was trying to morph into, this little upstart had been in Billings for a few days. I had been there for over a year. Those girls were more my sisters than they would ever be hers.

"I'm glad you think this is so hilarious," Amberly said, putting her hands behind her back. "But I want that disc, and if you don't get it to me by tomorrow evening, you are going to be very sorry."

I could just imagine what amounted to consequences in Amberly's world. "What're you going to do? Throw a Build-A-Bear at my head like your little friend did to you?"

For a split second the old, wide-eyed Amberly was back. Clearly she was caught off guard by my insight into her personal life. Noelle would have been so proud of me. If she'd been at all inclined to feel for me anymore.

"Gee, Amberly, thanks for the warning," I said, seizing my moment. "I'll be sure to keep an eye out for flying stuffed animals."

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I started to walk away, feeling rather good about myself, but her hand shot out and grasped my arm.

"The bill," she said, holding a yellow slip of paper up in front of my face. "For the dry cleaning."

Bitch. Bitch, bitch, bitch.

"You can give me the money tomorrow when you give me the disc," she said with a smirk. She sidled out of the alcove just as Sabine walked in. Sabine looked at me, clearly sensing the thick tension in the air.

"Hi, Sabine," Amberly said brightly as she passed her roommate by.

"Hi," Sabine replied hesitantly. "What was that about?" she asked me the moment Amberly was gone. She glanced at the dry-cleaning slip in my hand.

"Her bill," I said, holding it up. "For the dry cleaning."

The thin paper trembled in my hand. I was bubbling with anger.

"No. I thought she was kidding," Sabine said, incredulous. "You're not going to pay it, are you?"

"Um, no," I replied, crumpling the receipt and shoving it into the pocket of my jeans. "I really don't like that girl."

"Join the club," Sabine said, slipping by me to feed some cash into the candy machine. "I decided I needed some chocolate after all. What do you want? "

"Nothing, thanks," I said, taking a deep breath. "I'm good."

Chocolate was no longer needed. The adrenaline rush should keep me going for at least an hour. And if I never saw mini Ariana again, it would be way too soon.

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DE JA VOMIT I trudged back to my room later that night, my body weary, my eyes at half-mast. I had stayed at the library far longer than I had intended, and I could still feel the hard, uncomfortable library chair pressing into the small of my back. My brain hurt from the number of literary characters and motives and plots Sabine and I had re-crammed in there, and my fingers had atrophied from taking notes. The good news was, I was so tired, I would probably pass out in about five minutes. There would be no lying awake staring at the ceiling and letting the cold, suffocating blanket of loneliness overcome me. No obsessing about my tiny single and everything it represented. No fretting about pills and X'd-out photos and other morbid gifties.But then, in the dimly lit, carpeted Pemberly hallway, about five steps away from my room, a familiar scent tingled my nostrils. I froze. My heart seized with fear and I tried to breathe through my mouth, but it was no good. The smell was so strong I could taste it.

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Cheyenne's perfume. The sickly sweet floral scent of Fleur. It filled my senses. Someone had sprayed it all over the hall.

No. No, not again. Not again. Of all the presents my stalker had left me, this was always the most haunting, the most visceral, the most... Cheyenne.

I stared at the closed door of my room. Someone on the floor was listening to Bach at top volume. My head started to pound along with the racing tempo.