Privilege

by Kate Brian

  Ariana watched Briana Leigh carefully. She knew all of this already, but she was curious as to how good a liar Briana Leigh was. Once she got to the fairy tale, would she have any tells?

  "Kaitlynn lived here with my mom and dad and kept going to the day school she'd been in before her parents were killed. Then, after my mom died, Kaitlynn and my dad... they kind of had an affair," Briana Leigh said, her face turning pink with what appeared to be embarrassment. She glanced at Ariana in the mirror and Ariana feigned surprise.

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  "No way. Wasn't she kind of young?" Ariana said, forcing a horrified grimace onto her face.

  Briana Leigh swallowed hard, disgusted. She tugged harder at the scarf. Her fingers were starting to turn red. "Sixteen. The only thing I can think is that my dad was so broken up over losing my mom, he just kind of lost his mind, you know?"

  Ariana stared at Briana Leigh. There were no tells. No blinking or touching her face or looking away. And the whole scarf thing, it just seemed... genuine. Like she was trying to keep from crying out in anger. Trying to hold a hundred different awful emotions inside. A creeping sensation tugged at Ariana's heart.

  "I'm sure that's what it was," Ariana said, realizing Briana Leigh was waiting for a response.

  "When I was home for Christmas that year, I walked in on them...." Briana Leigh paused and closed her eyes, unable to look at Ariana for this part. She yanked at the end of the scarf and gritted her teeth.

  "Oh my God." There was a lump in Ariana's throat now. "What did you do?"

  "I freaked. I told my father he had to end it or I would never be able to look at him again."

  Here the tears really started to fall. Briana Leigh wept silently, her head bowed. Ariana waited in silence. The creeping feeling intensified. It was so powerful she had to acknowledge that Briana Leigh was telling the truth. There was nothing disingenuous about her. This moment... it was raw. Real.

  "So he did. He ended it." She stopped yanking on the scarf and

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  brought her trembling, purple fingertips to her forehead. "And she killed him."

  Ariana felt as if she was about to throw up. What was she supposed to believe? Briana Leigh's confession seemed so genuine. Was it really possible that Kaitlynn had been lying to her all this time? That she was actually guilty? Had that note Ariana had found in Briana Leigh's father's office been started by him? Maybe he had planned to break up with her by letter, but had been interrupted by Kaitlynn and never had a chance to finish writing.

  My dear Kaitlynn...

  Ariana got up and crossed over to the desk, just to give her jittering nerves some sort of outlet. She pulled a piece of paper from the drawer and started to fold. Halves, then quarters, then eighths... The systematic motion calmed her slightly. Allowed her to think.

  Mr. Covington had started that letter. It made sense. So much more sense than the idea of Briana Leigh writing to Kaitlynn in prison.

  "Oh my God," Ariana said breathlessly.

  "It gets worse," Briana Leigh said, finally turning to face Ariana. She leaned back against the dressing table and took a deep breath. Ariana attempted to focus. She wanted so badly to be wrong now, instead of then. She wanted to find the lie behind Briana Leigh's eyes. Wanted to believe Kaitlynn, as she had so trustingly for the past year and a half. "During her trial... this awful, long, drawn-out trial, she tried to pin the whole thing on me. She said that I had done it so that I could get my inheritance and that I had framed her. But it was totally ridiculous. I loved my father and he always gave me everything

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  I wanted. I didn't need my inheritance. Plus her fingerprints were on the gun, not mine."

  Ariana blinked. Was that true? But then, something like that was easily explained. Maybe Kaitlynn had held the gun at some point, but that didn't mean she'd fired it. And Briana Leigh could have been wearing gloves when she'd done the deed....

  "And I had an alibi. So they called me to the stand, and when I was telling the court where I'd been at the moment my dad was murdered, Kaitlynn had a fit, screaming about how I was a liar and a spoiled brat. The whole thing was just too awful. We were best friends and she took my dad from me. And then, as if that wasn't enough, she sent me this letter...."

  "A letter?" Ariana asked.

  "From jail," Briana Leigh said. "Do you want to see it?"

  Did she want to see it? Ariana was practically salivating to see it. She tried as hard as she could to keep her face placid. "Sure."

  Briana Leigh left the room and Ariana found herself staring into the mirror. Staring into her unfamiliar green eyes as she tried to keep a handle on her emotions. This couldn't be. It just couldn't. Kaitlynn was not a murderer. Not sweet, innocent Kaitlynn. It was just not possible. There was no way Ariana could have been so very wrong about her.

  Within moments Briana Leigh had returned. She handed Ariana a letter that was so worn it seemed as if it had been folded and opened and refolded hundreds of times. Instantly, Ariana recognized the standard-issue stationery of the Brenda T, with the prison's seal in the

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  ^^^194

  center of the top of the page. Her fingers trembled as she looked down at the hand-scrawled note.

  Kaitlynn's handwriting. No mistaking it.

  Briana Leigh,I thought you were my friend. I thought we were sisters. But clearly you care about no one but yourself. You broke my heart up on that stand. I was so sure you were going to stand up for me. Going to set me free so that at least we could be together. But you had to go and tell the truth? Do you even realize what you've done to me? My life is over. And it's all because of you.

  I'm glad I took your father away from you. I wish you could have seen the petrified, pleading look on his face when I shoved the barrel of the gun between his eyes. I know I'll never forget it. Because it was the moment I ruined your life, you ungrateful little bitch. It was the moment I made sure you'd be alone forever, just like I will be.

  Sweet dreams, BL.

  Love and kisses,

  Kaitlynn

  Ariana's hand dropped along with her heart. She couldn't believe that the Kaitlynn she knew had written such awful things, but there it was, staring her right in the face. She had been duped. Duped again by someone she loved. What was wrong with her? She had

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  always prided herself on being able to read people, but clearly she was always wrong. Always wrong about the people closest to her. Her first boyfriend, Daniel Ryan, Thomas, Noelle, and now Kaitlynn. Everything she had believed for the past year and a half had been a lie. She was so, so stupid. Her fingers closed around her forearm and clamped down.

  For the second time in as many days Ariana saw her long-term dreams go up in smoke. There would be no perfect house with Kaitlynn in Australia. The Kaitlynn she thought she knew had never even existed. Ariana was so disoriented she had to sit down on the bed again to catch her breath.

  Briana Leigh crouched to the ground and picked up the letter, which had fluttered to the floor.

  "Scary, isn't it? I can't believe she was ever my friend."

  Ariana swallowed against her dry throat and nodded. She knew the feeling.

  "My father was all I had left. And now every single day that I'm in this house I'm reminded of him and of her and of what she did to us...." Briana Leigh let out a long, shuddering sigh. "I can't take it anymore. I just want to get out of here and start over with Teo. Is that so wrong?" Briana Leigh said, her face desperate. "To want to start over? I mean, it is my life."

  It sounded so familiar Ariana wanted to cry. Or laugh. Or throw something. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her frayed nerves. When her mind cleared again, she realized that, as awful as Kaitlynn's betrayal was, it made what she was going to do next so much easier. She

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  no longer had to concern herself with fitting Kaitlynn Nottingham into plan B.

  Buoyed by this realization, Ariana looked over at Briana Leigh. Everything hinged on what sh
e said next. Everything.

  Briana Leigh teared up again and Ariana shoved aside all her confusion and self-loathing, compartmentalizing it to deal with later. She pushed up from the bed, walked over, and hugged Briana Leigh. The girl hugged her back tightly--so tightly she almost squeezed the breath out of Ariana. It was as if Briana Leigh hadn't been hugged in years. Ariana closed her eyes and hoped she got the next words right.

  "No. It's not wrong. But your life isn't over. You have AthertonPryce. It's only for two years and then you can do whatever you want," she said, pushing her hands into the back pockets of the jeans she had changed into after shopping. "I would kill to go to Atherton."

  "Yeah. I suppose," Briana Leigh said automatically, drying her cheeks with her fingertips. "It's too bad you can't--"

  Briana Leigh stopped and her eyes suddenly lit up. Ariana's heart stopped beating.

  "Wait a minute."

  Briana Leigh walked past Ariana over to the bed. For a long moment, her back to Ariana, she clung to the post at the foot of the bed, bringing her other hand to her mouth. Ariana could hardly breathe.

  Please. Please, please, please...

  Suddenly, Briana Leigh turned around. Her eyes were bright with excitement. "What if you go to Atherton in my place?"

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  Perfect, Briana Leigh, Ariana thought. You got there even faster than I thought you would.

  She let out a slow breath. "What?"

  Inside, Ariana was doing a happy dance. Even after everything she had just realized about Kaitlynn. Because her plan B was working. The plan B she had devised thanks to that loser bleach blond back at the boutique. The reason she had revealed her "lie" to Briana Leigh. But now, of course, she had worked it so that Briana Leigh would think it had been her idea all along.

  "I'm serious!" Briana Leigh said. She looked around the room as if the details of the plan were falling into place all around her. "You go to Atherton-Pryce Hall and I'll go to Ibiza with Teo!"

  "I think you've lost it," Ariana said, stepping toward Briana Leigh with a concerned look on her face. "How are we supposed to do that?"

  "Easy!" Briana Leigh announced. "Nobody at the school has met me. I did my interview by phone. And even if they've seen a random picture here and there, so what? You said yourself some girl mistook you for me today. You definitely fit my description. The hair, your nose, our sense of style. We could be twins!"

  Ariana pretended to be considering this for the first time. "But what about your grandmother?"

  Briana Leigh rolled her eyes, growing impatient. "She'll still be getting progress reports and whatever--they'll just be about your performance, not mine! It'll be perfect!"

  Ariana started to smile. "Do you really think we could pull it off?"

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  "Why not? And this way you don't have to go to some crap-ass public school and I don't have to leave Teo! It's a win-win!"

  Slowly, Ariana lowered herself onto the bed. She looked up at Briana Leigh, chagrined. "I can't believe you would do this for me. After the way I've lied to you..."

  Briana Leigh sat down next to Ariana and gave her an "oh, please" look. "Forget about it. You've been through almost as much as I have," she said. "How could I not understand?"

  "To pull this off, we can't tell anyone. Not even Teo," Ariana warned.

  "Duh!" Briana Leigh poked Ariana in the shoulder. "It'll be our little secret."

  Ariana smiled. She was about to get everything she wanted. And maybe, just maybe, she had made a new friend in the process. Kaitlynn could rot in prison forever for all she cared. Briana Leigh was the victim here. Briana Leigh was the one who needed her help. And by assuming her identity, Ariana really would be helping her new friend. They would both be able to live the lives they'd always wanted.

  "So, what do you think?" Briana Leigh asked, tossing her hair back. "Tomorrow we go to the DMV and get you your very first license as Briana Leigh Covington."

  Ariana's smile lit her entire face. "Sounds like an amazing plan."

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  TOO FAST

  Atherton-Pryce Hall. I'm going to Atherton-Pryce Hall.Noelle would be so, so jealous.

  Ariana imagined her old friend's face if she were to hear that Ariana was strolling the hallowed grounds of A.P.H. For once Noelle's legendary composure would crack. Her brown eyes would go wide. Her jaw would drop. She would, for once, be jealous of Ariana.

  Why? Because the perfect, indomitable Noelle Lange had actually been rejected from Atherton-Pryce Hall. It was a little-known secret she had confessed to Ariana one drunken night during their hazing period at Billings House. She had been rejected, and, try as he might, not even her daddy, with all his money and connections, could get her in.

  And now Ariana Osgood would be going there.

  She was too giddy to sleep, thinking about the classic uniforms, the ancient library, the fresh-faced students, the cozy dorm rooms.

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  Ariana could picture them all as if she was already there. She imagined herself sitting on a beautiful lawn, reading Walden in the autumn sun, surrounded by friends....

  Friends. Kaitlynn's pretty face suddenly swam before her eyes, and Ariana's heart grew sour and black. Lying there in bed, she felt the deep humiliation of Kaitlynn's duplicity all over again.

  "That bitch. That lying, psychotic bitch," she said through her teeth, flushing red hot from head to toe.

  The anger grew so fierce she started to tremble. Clinging to a pillow, Ariana forced herself to breathe.

  In, one... two... three...

  Out, one... two... three...

  Think about Atherton-Pryce. The future. The future is all that matters.

  Gradually Ariana's pulse relaxed and she was back in her daydream. Floating on a sea of plaid wool skirts and falling leaves and thick textbooks. Lost as she was in her thoughts, it took a good few minutes for the music to seep into her consciousness. Once she heard it, she realized it had been playing for a good while. She sat up in her bed, her pulse skipping ahead. It was a violin. Almost eerie in its solitary beauty.

  Ariana slipped out of bed and walked over to her bedroom door. When she cracked it open, the music didn't grow any louder. Not inside the house. Which had to mean...

  A thrill ran down her spine as she turned toward the veranda. She tiptoed quickly over to the sliding glass doors and looked out. Her

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  heart stopped beating. Hudson was standing beneath her window, wearing a white button-down shirt and jeans, serenading her with his violin.

  It was, without question, the most romantic sight Ariana had ever seen. Could this day possibly get any better? She quickly checked her hair in the mirror and smoothed a few errant auburn strands. For a brief moment she considered covering up her white satin negligee with her robe, but then felt a thrill of naughtiness and decided against it. Hudson had gone to all this trouble, and besides, she was feeling carefree tonight. Why not let loose a bit?

  Hardly daring to believe what she was about to do, she slid the door open and stepped, half-dressed, into the warm night air. Hudson's bow paused for only a moment over the strings, but Ariana could tell he was intrigued.

  "What are you doing?" Ariana whispered. "Are you insane?"

  "Just seemed like a good night for a concert," Hudson replied, still playing.

  Ariana leaned into the railing around her veranda. The skinny strap on her right shoulder slid down over her arm. "And what do you expect in return for this concert?" she asked, feeling devilish.

  Hudson stopped playing. "No expectations."

  "Maybe you should come up," Ariana said, her heart pounding.

  "Maybe?"

  "No. You should definitely come up," Ariana replied.

  Hudson quickly placed his violin in its case. "I'll be right back," he whispered.

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  Then he turned and ran off around the north side of the house. For a second Ariana was confused, but then Hudson returned, toting a ladder under his arm.

>   "I noticed this when I was sneaking around the house," he said, placing the top of the ladder against the side of the balcony.

  "So why didn't you just bring it with you?" Ariana asked.

  Hudson looked up at her. He was already halfway up the ladder. "Didn't want to be presumptuous," he said with a grin.

  Ariana stepped back as he hoisted himself over the railing. She held her breath while his eyes trailed over her body, and wondered how see-through the nightgown might be in the moonlight. Her heart gave a thrill as she realized she didn't care. Let him see everything. She was letting go.

  "You're gorgeous," he said.

  Ariana grabbed his shirt, pulled him to her, and kissed him. He tripped forward as she backed into her room, pulling him with her. Before either of them could come up for air, her fingers were on the buttons of his shirt, shakily but purposefully working them open. As she pushed the shirt off his shoulders and ran her fingers down his chest, she let out a little gasp. His body was even more perfect than she had imagined.

  Hudson pulled back, his eyes heavy.

  "What? What is it?" Ariana asked, worried he was changing his mind.

  "Nothing. I just wanted to look at you," he said.

  Ariana smiled and sat back on her bed, inviting him to look all

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  he wanted. Hudson slowly, deliciously approached and slid onto the covers next to her. He touched her face with his fingers before leaning down to kiss her again. Taking his time, he let his fingers travel down her neck and tickle her collarbone. Then he softly, cautiously, pushed the left strap of her nightgown down her shoulder. Ariana smiled beneath his kisses. She liked that he moved slowly. She wanted to savor every second of this.

  Then he moved on top of her. Ariana froze.

  Thomas's face flashed through her mind, so vivid he could have been right there with her. Thomas's weight over her. His crooked smile as he swooped in for a kiss. And then his blood.

  His blood... his blood... his blood... everywhere.