Last Christmas (Private 0.60)

Thomas typed in Daniel's birthday. It didn't work. Ariana jumped off the desk and picked up Daniel's books

from the floor. "Come on.

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You've got some dishes to do." She arranged the books haphazardly across the desk, even though it pained

her not to leave a neat stack, and turned for the door.

"Wait. Give me one more shot." Thomas bent over the keyboard.

"No, we're leaving." She chose to ignore the dog-eared issue of Maxim next to her foot and focused instead

on the screen as Thomas typed the word password into the prompt box.

Welcome, Daniel Ryan! flashed on the screen, and a picture of Daniel holding his lacrosse stick glowed

behind his desktop icons. Her heart sank.

"Unbelievable." Thomas smirked. "You're dating a tool, you know that?'

"Shut up," Ariana replied through her teeth.

"We'll try his IM conversations first," he said, skillfully clicking his way through Daniel's saved

conversations.

"For the record, this is wrong," she announced, even though her heart was pounding from the intrigue .Morbid

curiosity was definitely getting the better of her. "We shouldn't be doing this."

"It's a little late for that kind of talk," he replied, scanning the list of conversations. He opened one and

skimmed it, laughing quietly to himself. "Oh, this is good."

"What?" Ariana's heart thumped. He looked like he'd just hit the jackpot.

"Just read."

Thomas shifted the laptop screen in her direction. Her heart sped up as she read the first lines of the

conversation.

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RyanLAX (8:07 P.M.): U there? Come overAnge101 (8:08 P.M.): Can't. Too much work for tomorrow.

Tomorrow night if you're good.

RyanLAX (8:11 P.M.): Any way to convince u?

Ange101 (8:13 P.M.):You have something in mind?

RyanLAX (8:15 P.M.): Come over and find out

Ange101 (8:18 P.M.): Need a hint first

RyanLAX (8:19 P.M.): Hint: u won't need ur clothes