Private (Private 1)

for Constance’s table, knowing that Missy and the others would get

“You’re not a loser,” I said automatically.

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He pushed back and slumped in his chair. “Yes I am. I’m not

“Like a party,” he said. “We get together whatever alcohol we can good enough for you. I know I’m not.”

find and we all meet up in this clearing—”

He looked so sad and small and sorry all of a sudden that, even

“And you supply the drugs . . . ,” I said sarcastically.

as angry as I was—as disappointed—I felt the need to make him feel

“No!” he blurted. “Not tonight. I won’t. Not if you don’t want

better about himself. I felt the need to protect him.

me to.”

“Don’t say that.”

I took a deep breath. What was I doing here? Did I really want to

“No. It’s true,” he said. “But I can change, Reed. I can change for get involved in all this? But then, something he had said had

you.”

intrigued me.

A lump welled up in my chest and traveled to my throat. No one

“Who’s ‘we all’?” I asked.

had ever made me promises like this before. No one had ever

“Me and the guys and, of course, your little friends over there,”

counted me important enough. Not my mother, not anyone. But I

he said, tipping his head toward the Billings table. “Like Dash could was still wary. This person was a drug dealer, after all. A dangerous go anywhere without Noelle stapled to his side.”

image was one thing. Actual danger was quite another.

And then I started to salivate. Okay. Let’s think logically about

“I want you back,” Thomas said, leaning forward and taking my

this. An illegal party in the woods with Thomas and the Billings hand. He held it on top of the table and stared at it like it was some Girls could definitely get me booted right out of this school and kind of lifeline. “I’ll do anything to get you back.”