"You lost your license?" he said, raising an eyebrow.
Ariana took a deep breath. The key was not to babble.
"Yes," she said.
The man hit a few keys on his keyboard. Then he glanced at the screen and at Ariana. Then at the screen, then at Ariana. Her fingers automatically closed around her forearm. Sweat prickled along her brow and her underarms started to itch. He was checking Briana Leigh's old picture against the girl standing in front of him. This was it. He was going to call the police. Ariana glanced at the phone on his desk. Imagined she saw his fingers twitch in that direction.
"Says here you've got blue eyes," he said.
Ariana's throat was so dry she wasn't sure she could speak, but she was going to have to. She glanced over her shoulder. Briana Leigh's
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face was now buried in the Vogue. This was a huge risk, but it had to be done. She released her arm. Her fingers had left behind four long red marks on her skin.
"They're contacts," Ariana said quietly.
She leaned toward the putrid man and popped out the right contact, exposing her true eye color. He grimaced and hit a key on his computer.
"Never understood how people could stick their fingers in their eyes," he said.
Ariana bristled. If Briana Leigh had heard that she was definitely going to start asking questions. She quickly glanced over her shoulder. Briana Leigh was reading some article about Sarah Jessica Parker, her leg bouncing up and down with impatience. If she had overheard, she certainly wasn't showing it.
"All right, Miss Covington. Want a new picture?" the man asked.
Ariana replaced the contact and blinked a few times to make sure it was in place. "Definitely."
The man clucked his tongue. "You girls always do. Step in front of the camera."
He nodded to his left and Ariana slid over to stand in front of the blue backdrop. Now that she was past the inquisition, she couldn't believe how easy it had been. Somehow she controlled the huge, giddy smile that was trying to push its way onto her face and put on her prettiest closed-mouth smile instead. This was, after all, her first official photo as Briana Leigh Covington, one she would have to look at for years to come. She wanted it to be a good one.
Ten minutes later Ariana was holding an official Texas driver's
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license with her picture next to Briana Leigh's name. Briana Leigh pulled a pen out of her purse and signed the back of the license with a flourish. Ariana had always been good at forgeries--the note she had written to Reed from Thomas had kept the girl off her trail for a good couple of months--so she could have signed it herself, but she figured there was no reason for Briana Leigh to know about that particular talent.
"Nice to meet you, Briana Leigh," Briana Leigh giggled, handing the ID back to Ariana.
"And you, Briana Leigh," Ariana replied, grasping her friend's outstretched hand.
"This really is going to work," Briana Leigh said with a smile.
Ariana took a deep breath and felt totally at peace. "You know, I think it just might."
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LOST
Ariana was looking forward to putting her new hair up and taking a nice, long, self-congratulatory lounge in the pool when Briana Leigh suddenly turned off the road onto a drive braced by two austere-looking gray pillars."What are you doing?" Ariana asked, looking up from her Vogue.
Suddenly the car emerged from between two thick hedges and all Ariana could see for miles were headstones. Headstones, mausoleums, freshly turned earth. The graves went on for miles. Instantly Ariana's palms began to sweat, and the air-conditioning seemed to be blowing heat. She could feel her breath grow short.
"I need to make a stop," Briana Leigh told her.
"Here? Why?" Ariana blurted.
She glanced at Briana Leigh's profile, her heart racing. Briana Leigh's gaze was trained straight ahead, her hands at ten and two on the wheel. What was this about? Had she somehow been wrong about