Last Christmas (Private 0.60)

froze. "Thomas," she croaked, pushing him away. "Stop." Bile rose in the back of her throat. She was seeing

things. She must have been.

"What?" He squinted quizzically at her. "What's wrong?"

Her body felt as though it had been filled with lead, but her mind was racing. Screaming. It wasn't possible.

He couldn't have.... She forced herself to sit up. Reached for the object and held it in front of Thomas,

shaking the snow from it. She was going to throw up.

"What's that?" Thomas asked.

"Daniel's hat," she managed, fighting the nausea that swept over her. "He must have been here. He must have

come back for me."

"No," Thomas said, looking around nonetheless. "He left this morning. This hat could belong to anyone. It

could be Eli's or some other moron who was up here smoking."

But Ariana knew better. The hat was brand-new. Obviously unused. It was too much of a coincidence. Daniel

had been here. He must have found out somehow and now he was watching her. He knew what she had done.

89

BREAKING AND ENTERING

***"He knows." Ariana stared straight ahead, still clutching Daniel's hat. Numb to the icy chill that grippe

d

her body and refused to release her. Numb to the snow that seemed to fall harder with each passing second.

She felt nothing but fear. Every muscle in her body tensed, like those of a frightened, trapped animal.

"Ariana."

Hearing her name on his tongue made her want to cry. But she couldn't. The fear rose up in her throat, made

it hard for her to breathe.

"Every guy on campus has a hat like that. It's like seeing a polo shirt in the snow and being positive it's

Daniel's." He tugged the hat from her grip and chucked it into the woods. "Let's get out of here. It's freaking

freezing."

Ariana nodded. "You're right." She let him pull her up and dusted the snow from her wet jeans. "That hat

could be anybody's."

90

She was simply repeating the words Thomas wanted to hear. A small part of her knew she was being

irrational, thinking Daniel was here, but he was the worst person to have seen them. The one person who