Sweet Deceit (Privilege 4)

He nodded at Ariana’s envelope, which she’d all but forgotten she had clutched in her hand.

“Now?” she said, looking down at the name Briana Leigh written across the front in silver script. “They told us to wait until we’re alone.”

Jasper smirked. “Do you always do as you’re told?” Kaitlynn let out a short laugh and Ariana’s freezing cold face burned. If there was one thing she hated, it was being mocked to her face. But somehow, being mocked to her face in front of Kaitlynn was unbearable.

“Not always,” she said flatly. “But in this case, yes.” With that she quickened her steps, walking purposefully ahead and leaving Kaitlynn and Jasper behind. She let the door of Privilege House slam behind her, not bothering to pay them the courtesy of holding it open, then bypassed the elevator, knowing they would only catch up with her if she waited. She jogged up the stairs and walked directly to the common bathroom at the center of her floor. No one ever used it because each dorm room had its own private bathroom. Even so, she waited until she was locked safely into the last stall before opening her envelope. She took a few deep breaths, waiting for her pulse to return to normal, then extracted the black card inside. Unfortunately, her breath left her all over again when she saw the task she’d been assigned.

“Catch Palmer Liriano in a compromising position.” For a long moment, Ariana couldn’t move. This was her task? But why? Palmer was a member. Then an icy cold shiver of realization shot through her and she started to shake even more violently than before. Lexa. It had to be. She did suspect something was going on between Ariana and Palmer and this was her way of punishing Ariana for it. She was the president, after all. She would have the power to set the tasks. And now Ariana was totally screwed.

Ariana cursed under her breath and slammed her palm against the stall wall. Hell Week had officially earned its name.

BONDING TIME

“The assignment is not to directly translate the conversations into Spanish word for word, but to really think about colloquialisms and slang,” Mr. Bernal instructed, pacing the front of the classroom. His wiry black hair stuck out in all directions and stubble peppered his double chin. Sometimes it was all Ariana could do to keep from gagging when he walked into a room. She just could not understand people who didn’t bother to take pride in their appearance. “Word-for-word translations often wind up sounding too formal, and descriptive words sometimes have a more exact version in the Spanish, so you’ll really need to dig into your vocabularies.”

Mr. Bernal snorted some phlegm. Ariana cringed and averted her gaze, staring down at the cursor on the screen of her laptop, watching its blink, blink, blink. She sighed and waited for the teacher to say something she actually needed to type.

“ To make it a bit easier on you, I’ve decided to have you work on this in pairs,” Mr. Bernal continued.

Ariana automatically glanced at Lexa, who was sitting one row over,

next to the window. Lexa grinned and Ariana smiled back, but her heart felt tight in her chest. All day on Sunday Ariana had avoided Lexa, trying to figure out how exactly she was supposed to act around her now. If Lexa had set her Stone and Grave task, then clearly she knew something was going on between Ariana and Palmer. But how much did she know? Was Ariana supposed to talk to her about it or play dumb?

The real question was, who was going to mention it first? And if Ariana did, would that make her look weak or strong in front of Lexa—the person who was supposed to be her good friend, the person who was the president of the secret society she wanted to get into more than anything?

The class-ending tone sounded, and everyone started to gather their things. Ariana snapped her laptop closed and slipped it into her bag. Lexa lifted the strap of her messenger bag over her shoulder and fell into step with Ariana on their way out the door.

“Want to get together later and figure out which scene we want to translate?” Lexa asked. The red turtleneck she was wearing brought out the rose color in her cheeks, and her eyes were bright and happy, like everything was perfectly normal and there was no Palmer-shaped elephant between them.

“Sure,” Ariana replied, holding the door open for Lexa as they stepped into the bustling hallway. They sidestepped a freshman couple who were lip-locked next to the water fountain and headed for the stairs.

“So. Aren’t you going to ask me how brunch with my parents went yesterday?” Lexa asked.

Ariana’s heart skipped a snagged beat. She’d completely spaced on Lexa’s state-of-the-union chat with her parents.

“Sorry. Right. How was it?” she asked.

“Stupid,” Lexa replied, gazing straight ahead. “They were all formal with each other. Nobody talked about anything real. They only did it so that the photogs could get shots of the three of us together. My dad even told a lame joke as we came down the steps of the restaurant, just so they’d get all of us smiling. It’s all so fake.”

“So did you?” Ariana asked.

Lexa’s brow knit. “What?”

“Smile,” Ariana said.

Lexa paused in front of the bathroom door near the end of the hall. “Of course,” she said. Like the question of whether or not she was going to help keep up her parents’ ruse wasn’t even a question at all. “Hang on. I need to make a gloss stop,” she said, shoving open the bathroom door.

As Ariana entered the bathroom, Lexa bent down to check under the doors of the two stalls, making sure they were alone. Ariana’s heart started to pound. This was it. Lexa was going to ask her about Palmer. The elephant pressed its massive foot down on her chest, making it impossible to breathe.

“I have a question for you,” Lexa said, dropping her bag on the counter next to one of the sinks. Ariana braced herself. “About Lillian.”

Ariana blinked but didn’t relax. Instead, her pulse started racing in a completely different direction. Lexa dug through the outside pocket of her bag and came out with a tube of berry-colored gloss.

“Okay,” Ariana said warily. She joined Lexa at the sinks, leaning her hip against the counter.

“Does she ever say anything about her family?” Lexa asked, dabbing some gloss on her lower lip. “Any brothers or sisters? Anything about going home for the holidays?”

Ariana swallowed hard. “Not really.”