Last Christmas (Private 0.60)

protective layers. Leaving her exposed.

Silently, Ariana wrapped her thin camel coat tight around her

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frame to block the wind, but it didn't help. She thought longingly of her white winter coat, now a pile of ashes

in the clearing on the hill. She had gone back there, to the place where she and her friends had partied on so

many warm autumn nights, and burned all the evidence of her two days on campus. The first thing she would

do in Vermont was buy a new winter coat.

Thomas moved closer to her, resting his ungloved hands on her shoulders. Cupping her neck, her jaw, with

his hands.

"Look at me," he ordered. She did as she was told. Looked him right in the eye. "I don't want to do this

either. You know that, right?"

"I know." She nodded, letting him pull her close. She knew he was right, knew this was the only way. And

she wasn't making this any easier for him.

"You remember what you're going to tell them?" he asked gently.

"That I got caught in a motel on the border of Connecticut for two nights because of the snow," she repeated

robotically.

"Good." He gave her a rare, sincere smile. "It's only two weeks, naughty girl.

We can do two weeks, right?"

He nudged her foot with his. The sound of that nickname, that stupid nickname, brought tears to her eyes. She

wiped them away with the back of her hand. Two weeks in Vermont sounded like an eternity. But it was the

only way she'd have an alibi. People to vouch for where she'd been over break. Even if those people had to be

Daniel and Paige Ryan.

"Don't call me naughty girl," she joked lamely.

"Please. You love it." Thomas grinned. But his eyes were blank.

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Dead. And for the first time, she saw that he was just as miserable as she was. "I want you to have

something." He reached into his pocket. It was the old New York City subway token he'd been fiddling with

at the Winter Ball. He pressed it into her hand. "I've carried this around forever. It's lucky. It'll be our thing,

our symbol or whatever."

The sound of sirens punctured the night air, and Ariana froze as two police cruisers sped down the street