by Kate Brian
Kaitlynn barely glanced at the money as she picked it up, folded it, and stuffed it into an inside pocket in her vest. She popped a strawberry into her mouth from her plate and looked at Ariana sympathetically.
"Come on, Ariana," she said, using her real name for the first time. "I hate to see you like this. Don't underestimate yourself. I know you can do it."
Ariana stared Kaitlynn down. What she wouldn't give to be able to pick up that fork and just jab it through the girl's eye. Just have it over and done with right now. She glanced around, wondering if anyone in this place had really noticed her. Had noted her appearance. Wondered if those guys at the counter would try to tackle her when she made a run for it.
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"You may not have gotten Briana Leigh's inheritance money, but you got something much more valuable," Kaitlynn continued in a coddling tone. She looked Ariana up and down and smiled. "You got her life."
Under the table, Ariana's fingernails drew blood. She could feel it creep down her arm, but she didn't flinch. Didn't move. The waitress strolled by and slapped Kaitlynn's bill down on the table. Kaitlynn sighed as she plucked it up and looked it over.
"Of course, you couldn't have done it without the information I fed you those two years, so that means you owe me. I think one million dollars is a small fee to pay for your new life, don't you?"
"What's to stop me from just calling the police with an anonymous tip?" Ariana said through her teeth. "Telling them exactly where the Brenda T.'s most recent escapee is holed up?"
Kaitlynn let out a condescending laugh. "Are you not paying attention? If you do that, the first thing I'm going to tell them is how to find you. All I've done is broken out. You've committed a murder since skipping jail," she whispered, leaning in low over the table. "They find you and you'll fry. No questions asked."
Tears of anger and desperation stung Ariana's eyes. It wasn't her fault, the Briana Leigh thing. It was all Kaitlynn's fault. Kaitlynn's misdirection. Her mind games. Kaitlynn had tricked her into thinking Briana Leigh was a hateful, backstabbing murderer who didn't deserve to live. And now she was holding it over Ariana's head and there was nothing Ariana could do about it. How could her perfect new life already be crumbling around her?
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Kaitlynn rose from the table, placed the bill in front of Ariana, and patted her shoulder. "You'll take care of that, right? I'm sure Briana Leigh's credit card will cover it."
Ariana's whole body trembled from the effort of holding back her fury.
Just grab the fork. Grab the fork and pin her down. It would be so easy. . . .
But of course it wouldn't be. It would be public and messy and basically end her. But it was still satisfying to imagine.
"Oh, and nice try on canceling my phone," Kaitlynn said, pausing on her way out. "Good thing I had Briana Leigh's social security number memorized so I could have it turned back on. Thank that Palmer guy for me, would you? He sounds hot. And if it wasn't for his text, I never would have known where to find you."
Then she slipped a pair of dark sunglasses over her eyes, turned, and shoved the door open with the heel of her hand. Ariana sat, alone and silent, for ten full minutes, waiting for the anger to pass. Waiting for her pulse to return to normal. Waiting for her mind to return to her. Finally, she reached for the bill with a quaking hand, her palm marked with blood. She was a mess. A sweaty, bloody, trembling mess. How had this happened? Yesterday she had been so happy, so full of hope, and now she was sitting in some crappy diner in the middle of nowhere looking like a pathetic waif who'd rolled in off the street in search of charity.
You are apathetic waif, a little voice in her mind taunted her. Look at you. Kaitlynn just took control of your life. There's nothing you can do to stop her.
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Staring at the blood, Ariana felt her meager breakfast making its way up her already sore throat. She jumped up from the table and ran for the bathroom, about to put the capper on what had to be the worst morning of her life. And just like that, she had no control over anything anymore. Not even her own stomach.
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PERSONAL SHOPPER
The moment Ariana stepped inside the airy, sunlit shop, she knew she'd made the right decision calling Lexa. The boutique was called Vintage and the space was two stories tall, with floor-to-ceiling windows for walls. Hundreds of glittering rainbow-colored orb lamps hung from the ceiling like lollipops suspended from sticks. The clothing racks along the walls were stuffed with colorful clothing--everything from pencil skirts to bell-bottom jeans. If it came from another decade, it was represented here, either in true vintage fashion or by current designers doing vintage. As Ariana strolled through, looking for her friends, she heard carefree laughter over the driving disco music and spotted Lexa and Soomie near the back of the store. She felt more relaxed already. She was going to get her bonding time after all.Ariana swung the small, colorful shopping bag that held the box for her new phone as well as a gift for Soomie she had picked up at the wireless store. The new cell phone
Or phones, really--definitely
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qualified as an emergency purchase, which was what she would say to Grandma Covington if the old bat happened to call to discuss the charge. What Grandma C. would never know was that the emergency was a near nervous breakdown on Ariana's part and that this shopping trip was the only possible remedy.
Of course she had no idea how she was going to explain Kaitlynn's hotel charge. Maybe she'd say the card had been stolen. Briana Leigh had been on the careless side. Her grandmother had probably been forced to cancel a number of lost cards over the years. It wouldn't be totally out of the ordinary.
But these explanations were going to wear thin fast. She could only get away with so many strikes before Grandma C. started to get annoyed and cut her off, or at least put more restrictions on her spending. Or even worse, until she got suspicious and dropped in for a visit. Did Kaitlynn really not see the jeopardy involved in all of this? If Ariana got caught, they were both screwed.
But were not thinking about that now, Ariana told herself, running her hand along a gleaming glass counter filled with countless colorful beaded necklaces, sparkling rings, and boho bracelets. If she kept dwelling on Kaitlynn, she was going to drive herself crazy. She needed distraction. And there was nothing more distracting than a little retail therapy. Even if she had to refrain from buying anything for the moment. Another luxury that Kaitlynn had stolen from her along with her pocket money.She grabbed a light blue cashmere cardigan with felt appliqué flowers on the left breast and slipped into it, all the better to hide the
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nasty crescent moon-shaped indents in her arm. Then she plastered on a smile and joined the girls over by the dressing rooms. Reflecting the colorful, retro vibe of the shop, each room had a candy-colored lacquer door, and there were five brightly hued leather benches situated in an arc around them, perfect for impromptu fashion shows. Soomie sat on a hot pink bench, scrolling through her BlackBerry. Lexa hovered behind another, checking out a rack of designer purses.
"Hey, girls!" Ariana greeted them, hoping she sounded at least somewhat cheery.
"Ana! There you are!" Lexa cried, dropping a Michael Kors bag on the floor so that she could hug Ariana.
"You got a new phone," Soomie said instantly, staring at Ariana's shopping bag.
"Yes, I did," Ariana said. She reached into the bag and pulled out the heavier of the two boxes inside. "And so did you."
Soomie' s eyes widened and Lexa's jaw dropped. "The one with the new touch screen! This is for me?" Soomie asked, jumping up and grabbing the box out of Ariana's hands.
Ariana shrugged blithely while her heart swelled with glee at a job well done. "This way you don't have to wait for it to be shipped. I know how important it is for you to be organized."
"She bought you a new BlackBerry?" Maria asked from inside one of the dressing rooms.
"That's so sweet!" Brigit added, her voice coming from behind another
door.
"Ana, you really didn't have to do this," Soomie said.
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"But it was so thoughtful of you," Lexa added, placing her hand on Ariana's back. They both watched as Soomie tore into the box and pulled the phone from its plastic wrapper.
"I think I'm in love," she said happily, hugging it to her shoulder.
"So much for Landon!" Brigit joked.
Soomie beamed at Ariana, her expression completely open for the first time since they'd met. "Thank you so much, Ana. Really. I'm going to call right now and activate it. This is going to make my year!"
"You're welcome," Ariana replied. Apparently she had played her cards right with this one. Soomie had officially been won over.
"You're just in time," Lexa said, grabbing Ariana's hand as Soomie walked off to call her wireless company. "We're trying to decide which dress Brigit should wear when she goes to Princess Tori's birthday-slash-slumber party next month."
"I still think the red," Maria said, stepping out of one of the dressing rooms in a shapeless, mustard-colored dress straight out of the seventies that did nothing for her skin tone and made her skinny frame look absolutely scrawny. Her hipbones jutted out at unpleasant angles and her collarbones and shoulder bones looked like chicken wings. Ariana revised her stance on Maria's effortless beauty--this was plain unhealthy.
"I do too. You haven't taken it off yet, have you?" Lexa asked the ceiling.
"No! I'm coming out," Brigit replied from behind a grape-colored door.
"Wow," Ariana said as Brigit emerged.
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The dress was full-skirted and apple red, with a gold belt and wide neckline, all of which helped to balance out Brigit's slight pear shape. It made her blond hair pop and brought out her rosy cheeks and blue eyes.
"You look positively Scarjo in that," Ariana said, bringing a pleased smile to Brigit's face.
"See? We told you," Soomie said, holding the phone away from her ear.
"There's just one thing," Ariana added, settling herself onto a turquoise leather bench. "Isn't Princess Tori the one from Spain? The one who's known for being . . . slightly less attractive than the rest of the royal family?"
Maria snorted a laugh as Brigit's face fell. "I guess. Kind of," Brigit said.
"Well, then, since it is her birthday, maybe you want to avoid looking that good," Ariana said. "It's like wearing white to a wedding. You don't want to outshine the girl who's supposed to be sucking up the spotlight."
Maria glanced at Lexa. "She's good."
Ariana tried not to beam. It was the first outright nice thing Maria had said about her or to her since she'd arrived.
"Yes. She is," Lexa replied with an almost proud tone.
Okay, what that was about? Was Lexa taking some sort of responsibility for her because she used to know Briana Leigh? But she didn't dwell on it. Instead she focused on the positive. They appreciated her input.
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"What do you think of this?" Maria asked, striking a pose in her ugly dress.
"That? Just no," Ariana said bluntly.
Lexa, Soomie, and Brigit glanced at one another nervously, as if they were afraid of what Maria's reaction to this comment might be. Maria, however, nodded.
"Exactly what I was thinking." She smiled at Ariana. "I'm glad you came along. All these bitches do is 'yes' me to death when we go shopping." Then she walked back into her dressing room and slammed the door.
Ariana smiled to herself. It was just like old times. Back at Easton she was always helping her friends when it came to etiquette and taste quandaries.
Soomie ended her call and tossed her old BlackBerry into her bag. "Well, we have a reason," she whispered. "If she wasn't so freaking paranoid about her body, we--"
"I can hear you!" Maria shouted. "If you're going to talk about me, kindly do it when I'm not around."
Lexa swallowed hard, looking green. "Anyway!" she said brightly. "Brigit, maybe you should get the black dress instead. Thank you, Ana." Brigit slipped back into her dressing room to change, and Lexa sat down next to a pile of shopping bags that clearly belonged to her. "So, Ana, how did your meeting go this morning?"
Ariana instantly thought of Kaitlynn, even though that wasn't the meeting to which Lexa referred, and felt her stomach turn. She forced a smile. "It went well. I think that by Monday I'll have the schedule I want. And I also joined the tennis team."
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"What? No! I was so looking forward to riding with you again!" Lexa lamented, looking positively devastated. This was definitely a girl who not only wore all her emotions on her sleeve, she wore them in big, bright colors. "We were going to kick ass all over the eastern seaboard with you on the team!"
"Lexa told us you were some big jumper champion," Soomie added. "Why would you just give it up?"
"I didn't just give it up," Ariana replied. "I haven't ridden since the seventh grade. I just lost interest in it."
Briana Leigh had, of course, still ridden all the way up until the summer before she died, but they had no way of knowing that.
"I can't believe you could just lose interest in something when you were that good," Lexa replied.
"Well, I did," Ariana said with a shrug. "I'll leave the riding to you, Lexa. From what I understand, you don't need me anyway."
"Yeah, but Tahira doesn't exactly need you either," Soomie said matter-of-factly.
"Soomie!" Lexa scolded, swiping at the girl's knee.
"What? I'm just warning her." Soomie laid her new BlackBerry aside.
Ariana felt her stomach twist. "Tahira's on the tennis team?"
Soomie nodded. "Ana, there are three things you need to know about the tennis team. A) It's Tahira's baby. APH didn't even have a team until she showed up at school and basically whined them into creating one. B) She takes it very seriously. Like, if you lose a match, she berates you for days on end. And C) even if you do win your
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matches, you'd better not be better than her, because then she will be truly insufferable."
Brigit bounded out of her dressing room, back in street clothes, a black crepe frock slung over her arm. "Are you better than her?" she asked, salivating. "Please, please, please say you're better than her!"
Ariana laughed. "I don't know. I haven't played her yet. How good is she?"
"Who knows? We've never bothered to go see her play," Maria said, emerging from her dressing room as well. She had left the clothes she'd tried on behind in a heap on the floor.
"But we'll go now that you're on the team," Lexa assured Ariana. "Right, ladies?"
"Can't wait," Maria said sarcastically.
"Tahira claims she's good enough to be on the tour," Soomie said, rolling her eyes. "Which is highly unlikely." She looked Ariana up and down and tilted her head. "But I bet you can take her," she said with a smile.
Ariana smiled back. She had a feeling that Soomie would have said something a lot less friendly and supportive if they'd had this conversation an hour ago. Now she knew she had Brigit, Soomie, and Lexa's good opinion. All she had to do was work on Maria. Which she resolved to focus on from here on out. Her social standing was just as important as her academic placement.
"We'll see," Ariana said.
"Can we bounce? I'm so over this conversation," Maria said,
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curling a lock of hair around her finger and tilting her head. "And I need an espresso, like, yesterday."
"That'll make three this morning," Soomie said.
"And no food to speak of," Lexa put in.
"God! Fine! I'll have a scone. Let's just go," Maria said. She turned and stormed out of the store, shoving her sunglasses on as she walked outside.
"Ballerinas," Lexa said under her breath. "Can't live with 'em ..."
"Can't feed 'em," Brigit joked.
Ariana gave them a slight smile as she followed Brigit to the cash register, watching Maria through the glass doors. She was starting to understand a little better why Maria always
seemed so tense and mood-shifty. Not eating and downing espressos could do that to a girl. "Were you going to buy that sweater, miss?" the salesclerk asked, eyeing Ariana suspiciously.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Ariana said, her face flushed as she snapped back to the present and realized she was going to have to expose her arm. How was she going to explain away the fresh cuts on her skin? "I forgot I was wearing it," she stalled.
"It looks really nice on you," Brigit said. "Here."
She reached up and yanked the tag off at the back of Ariana's neck, then handed it to the cashier. "Add it to mine."
Ariana's blush deepened. "Brigit, no. You don't have to do that."
"You just kept me from making a huge fashion faux pas," Brigit said. "Consider it your personal shopper's fee."
Ariana smiled. "Thanks."
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"Anytime. I'm so glad you're here, Ana. It was getting a little boring, just the four of us."
It took all of Ariana's inner will to control her giddiness. She had already made herself indispensable. This was where she belonged. This was her future. Kaitlynn was in her past. Now she just needed to figure out how to keep her there.
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A DECISION
The late-summer sun beat down on Ariana's back, searing the skin on her neck. She shifted uncomfortably in the heat, cursing herself for scratching her arm so badly yesterday at the diner. Everyone else on the quad was wearing tanks and tees, keeping as cool as possible. But not Ariana. No. She had been forced to wear a long-sleeved boatneck tee in order to cover up the ugly wounds. Not only did she feel ridiculous and overdressed, but she was basically melting in the sun."Why don't they hold the debate in the auditorium?" Ariana asked Lexa as they took their seats in the front row of folding chairs, facing the fountain. Two podiums were set up in front of the burbling fountain. Gold would be debating blue first, and the winner of that debate would be facing gray. Each team had to prepare both pro and con arguments, and the side they would argue would be determined by luck of the draw.
"I guess they like to have as many outdoor events as possible before
