Private (Private 1)

ing, not breathing, the cold stone radiating chills straight through Takes after his father.”

our clothes and into our bones. The wind rustled the leaves over an

“So you think it was just the alcohol talking?” I asked. My heart unintelligible voice, a muffled shout. Then headlights flashed

actually fluttered with hope.

between buildings and the sound of a car engine faded into the

“Does it really matter?” Ariana asked quietly.

distance. Not until I was enveloped in absolute silence could I find

“No, it doesn’t,” Noelle said firmly.

the will to breathe again.

She was right, of course. I never forgave my mother for all the

“Who was that?” I asked.

insanity she spewed when she was on a drunken rampage. Why

“Who knows?” Noelle said. She didn’t sound scared, but irritated should I forgive Thomas?

that whoever it was had put her out for those thirty seconds. “Reed,

“You do realize that you have to stay away from him now, right?”

listen to me. The good news is that Thomas showed his true colors Noelle said. “The guy is asylum bound if you ask me.”

up there, and now you know,” she said, casting her gaze up toward I swallowed hard and nodded. “Yeah. I think Thomas and I are

the hill. My heart was still catching up and I could hardly focus. “Do officially over.”

not let him back in, do you understand me? If I see you so much as

“Good,” Ariana said.

talking to that jackass . . .”

“You’re better off,” Noelle added.

“I won’t,” I told her, touched by the depth of her passion.

I almost smiled at her conviction. “Why are you guys being so

Passion on my behalf. “I promise. I won’t.”

nice to me?”

It was an easy choice to make now, between Thomas and the

They both looked confused. “We’re always nice,” Ariana said, in Billings Girls. Thomas had made it easy. For all his talk about not a tone that made me think she actually believed it.

wanting to see me get hurt at the hands of the Billings Girls, it was

“Don’t let it go to your head,” Noelle said simply.