Private (Private 1)

“What is it?” I asked, pausing.

“My good luck charm. I’ve decided to give it to you because I no longer need luck. I have transcended luck.”

I smirked and tried to sound unimpressed. “Good for you.” My

heart was pounding.

“It is, isn’t it?” he replied.

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I had to struggle to keep from grinning doofily in his presence.

“I have no idea,” I said. “Explain to me what this is.”

So annoying.

Constance laughed. “You used to use them to pay for the subway.

“But really,” I said. “What is it?”

Now they have electronic passes c

alled MetroCards. Geez, Reed.

“It was a subway token. From the days before MetroCards,”

Haven’t you ever been to New York?”

Thomas said, raising his eyebrows.

No. I’d never been anywhere. Not that she needed to know that.

What the hell was a MetroCard?

I stared down at the tiny token, feeling indescribably happy

“I was devastated when they outmoded them. Call me old

until I felt someone watching me. When I looked up, I was looking school, but there’s just something about slipping something solid directly into Ariana’s clear blue eyes. She was a dozen yards away into that little slot and hearing that satisfying plink, then reaping near the stone benches at the center of the quad, but from the

the rewards. . . .”

intensity of her stare, she may as well have been on top of me.

He shook his head wistfully and gazed directly into my eyes. I

My heart skipped a disturbed beat and I smiled automatically—

flushed. Hard. Metaphor intended? Probably. Metaphor noted?

uncertainly. Then she blinked and turned away, leaving me