Last Christmas (Private 0.60)

She opened the first drawer. Gum, old magazines, highlighters, and an article from the Easton Academy

Chronicle about the soccer team's performance in a local tournament. She stared at the crinkled black-and-

white picture of the team huddled together on the field. Thomas grinned back at her, cradling the ball under

his arm. Ariana

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fought the urge to fold the photo up and put it in her pocket. There would be plenty of time for photo ops after

this weekend.

Second drawer. The sooner you find the pills, the sooner you can get out of here. She slammed the top drawer

shut and reached for the handle below it. Two heavy packages of computer paper were stuffed in the second

drawer. Nothing else.The metal tip of the lighter was starting to warm, and she winced against the heat. Mind

racing, she tried to think like Thomas. If she had a reputation for selling drugs, if she'd come close to

expulsion several times, where would she hide her pills? He'd told her they were in the second drawer. Could

he have made a mistake?

She pulled the heavy packages of paper from the drawer. Nothing but smooth wood underneath. She ran her

fingers over the bottom of the drawer, and the wood tilted slightly under her touch. She pressed the far edge

of the drawer, harder this time, and the edge closest to her tilted upward, revealing a stash of prescription

bottles underneath. Jackpot. Only Thomas would think to equip his desk drawer with a false bottom to hide

his drugs.

She lowered the lighter over the bottles and scanned the labels. Ritalin, Adderall, Percoset, Vicodin. And no

two names on the prescription labels were alike. Thomas was running a black market pharmacy from his

second desk drawer. The old Ariana would have been horrified, but the new Ariana just stuffed the bottle of

Vicodin into her coat pocket and shoved the drawer closed. The sound of it slamming made her jump, and a

small laugh slipped from her lips. Thomas was right. She was paranoid.

She pushed herself to standing with her free hand, but something

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on the desk caught her eye. A sheet of paper she hadn't noticed before. Ariana held the flame closer. It was a

picture. As the lines and shadows on the page came into focus, her heart seized in her chest and she dropped

the lighter.

No. No, no, no, no, no. No.

She shook her head in disbelief at the image in front of her. An image of Thomas and her, kissing in Daniel's