My heart actually responded to that plea. He sounded so sincere, how could I not? So there I was. I could say no and crush this sweet guy and also obliterate any chance of being asked to the Legacy and seeing Thomas, or I could say yes, go to some fancy restaurant in Boston, and keep the hope of seeing Thomas alive.
In the end, it was no contest, really. My conscience took a dive.
“Okay,” I said finally, nearly choking on my dry throat. “I'd love to.”
142
PRESSURE
My entire life I had always found brushing my teeth to be a soothing activity. It was the perfect time to ponder the events of the day in privacy. To go over the things I might have said or done differently. To pat myself on the back for the things that had gone well. Unlike the parents of every other kid on the planet, my parents had often been forced to yell at me to stop brushing my teeth. Fifteen minutes would pass while I zoned out. Half an hour. It was amazing I had any enamel left.
That night I was somewhere into my second quarter of an hour, my mouth full of foam, when the bathroom door banged open beh
ind me. I nearly choked on my own spit.
“How's it going?” Natasha asked, folding her arms over her sizable chest and leaning against the doorjamb. She glared over my shoulder at my reflection in the mirror.
I leaned over the basin and emptied my mouth into the drain, then slowly filled the cup with water and tipped it into my mouth. After sloshing it around for a half a minute, I spit again. Let her wait. She was only waiting for nothing.
143
“Fine,” I said finally, wiping my face with a hand towel. “I had a great day, how about you?”
“You know that's not what I'm asking,” Natasha said. “What have you found?”
Let's see: a refinery's worth of sugar, evidence of serious psychological self-?abuse, and some Skinamax-?worthy photos. Oh, and a secret, hidden computer with a password-?protect program.
I folded the towel, hung it on the towel ring next to the sink, and turned around, heaving an exasperated sigh. “Nothing,” I said. “I've found nothing.”
I might have told her about the computer if I had thought that the information would get her off my back, even for a moment, but I had a feeling it would have the exact opposite effect. I had a feeling it would only make her turn the screws tighter. And they were plenty tight already, thank you.
'You can't be serious,“ she said as I brushed by her into the room. 'You really expect me to believe that after a week and a half you've found nothing?”
'You can believe whatever you want to believe,“ I told her, sitting blithely on my bed. ”This country was founded on that principle."
Natasha clucked her tongue and rolled her eyes. She pressed the heels of her hands into her forehead like I was giving her a migraine. Good. She deserved mind-?splitting pain. That'd teach her to blackmail me.
“What's the problem here, Reed?” she asked me. “Was I not explicit enough when I told you exactly what I would do if you didn't help me?”
144
“No. You were plenty explicit, thanks. Star magazine explicit,” I told her. “The problem is that if they are hiding anything, they're hiding it very well. This is Noelle we're dealing with here, remember? You really think she's going to leave incriminating evidence out on her bulletin board?”
Natasha unclenched a bit at this. Not even she could argue with that logic.
“Just ... be patient,” I said, wondering how long, exactly, it would take a person with zero computer experience to crack someone else's password. I picked up my copy of Beowulf, which we were reading for English class--at least, everyone else was, while I had yet to have time to crack it--and leaned back on my denim husband. “I'm doing everything I can.”
I settled in and opened to page one.
“Well, do it faster,” Natasha said.
Then she flicked off the light before I could get past the first word.
145
THE PASSWORD IS
After two full mornings of typing in everything I knew about Ariana into her password screen and getting nowhere, I was at a complete loss. I needed help. I needed someplace to start. I needed to pick someone else's brain and get some ideas.