Code for "I have no friends," Ariana thought, feeling triumphant on Kaitlynn's behalf. Plus this would also make it much easier to get close to her. A girl with no friends needed one. Badly. No matter how nonchalant she acted about the subject."But you'll get to meet Teo!" Briana Leigh brightened.
"Teo?" Ariana said. "Who's that?"
Briana Leigh looked at Ariana as if she'd just landed from Oz. "Teo. DJ Teo? Have you been living in a convent for the last year?"
Something like that, Ariana thought, her thoughts flashing on her cell, the prison yard, the mess hall. Instantly her heart rate started to quicken.
No. Stop. It's over. She breathed in and out slowly, surreptitiously,
109
so that Briana Leigh wouldn't notice anything amiss. Within seconds she was back in the present. Focused.
"He's only, like, the hottest DJ on the planet," Briana Leigh said, sucking at her teeth, which made Ariana cringe. "And he's also my boyfriend."
"Really?" Ariana feigned interest because she knew that was what Briana Leigh wanted. "What's he like?"
"Beautiful," Briana Leigh said, as if this were obvious. "Plus he totally adores me. He writes me love letters all the time. Real love letters on parchment paper, sealed with a wax seal he designed himself. Every time I get one I feel like Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility."
"Wow. I thought e-mail killed the love letter," Ariana mused, actually slightly impressed by this Teo. And also slightly impressed that Briana Leigh could reference Jane Austen.
"Not for us," Briana Leigh said. "He wants me to have something tangible as evidence of our love. He's so romantic."
"Very," Ariana agreed. Apparently DJ Teo had a poetic side. She wondered what he saw in Briana "Call-Me-Briana-Leigh-or-Die" Covington.
But of course she bit her tongue. Because her feet were tingling pleasantly, her stomach was full, and she had the prospect of an actual party ahead of her. Briana Leigh might have been a lying, conceited bitch. But she was already coming in handy.
110
THE RIGHT THING
"Love the paintings," Ariana gushed, standing in the middle of the amphitheater-size room that was Briana Leigh's bedroom suite. The walls were painted a deep lollipop pink, and all the accessories were black-and-white patterns. A polka-dot love seat, striped pillows, paisley drapes. The bed was done in pink, black, and white silks, and all the wainscoting and molding was painted black. But as offensive as the overdone theme was, none of it was as bad as the artwork. Covering the wall behind her massive bed were four huge original paintings of Briana Leigh herself, each done by a different artist--a different interpretation of the same sexy pose."Oh, yeah," Briana Leigh shouted out from inside her cavernous closet. "I'm thinking about having new ones done. I still had my mother's nose back then."
Ariana leaned toward the paintings and frowned. She actually preferred the old nose. It gave Briana Leigh character. Now her nose was
111
just a normal button. Kind of like Ariana's, actually. She had always found her own nose a little boring.
"I'm gonna jump in the shower," Briana Leigh shouted.
Ariana's heart skipped a beat, anticipating a few moments alone.
"Okay!" she called back.
Ariana stood as still as stone, training her ear on the bathroom. As soon as she heard the water running, she started rummaging through the built-in cabinets along the wall. Expecting to find piles of sweaters and T-shirts, Ariana was surprised to discover that the shelves inside were lined with books. All sorts of books, from fiction to essays to poetry to biographies. Ariana glanced over her shoulder toward the bathroom door--Briana Leigh had just turned on the shower--and studied the titles more closely. They were haphazardly arranged, but they had all clearly been read. As she picked up one book after another, she found that each one was worn or dog-eared or stained. Ariana saw a copy of Atonement, the book she had been reading before her escape, and snatched it up. She flipped to the chapter she had ended on and saw that Briana Leigh had made little notes in the margin.
Ariana was intrigued. So Briana Leigh had a deep side. She put the book down and kept looking, attacking the desk next. There were no documents in the deep drawers--nothing but cute, colorful pens and notebooks and all manner of disorganized desk accessories. No bank statements in the top drawer, either. Then her eyes fell on the Palm Treo sitting atop the desk, next to Briana Leigh's computer.
She didn't have time to power up the laptop and do a search, but maybe Briana Leigh kept her account numbers in her PDA.
112
Ariana hesitated a moment, glancing toward the bathroom and the door to the bedroom, through which a servant could enter at any moment. But if she was caught with the phone in her hand she could always pretend she was simply making a call. She grabbed the PDA, her fingers shaking.
A rapid scan of the memo pad and task feature revealed nothing, so Ariana quickly searched the calendar for birthdates and memorized those of Briana Leigh, Teo, and both of Briana Leigh's parents. Once she finally did find Briana Leigh's account information, she would need the pin number, and one of these might serve.
Ariana put the phone down and paused to listen. With each passing moment her heart was creeping further and further up her throat, but there was no need to panic yet. The water was still running. She moved to Briana Leigh's dresser and opened one of the top drawers. Hundreds of pairs of mangled, unmatched socks met her. This girl was starting to remind her of Noelle, with her chaotic approach to storage. Digging around in the drawer, she felt her fingers touch something that definitely was not a sock.