Ariana flinched. Was that a threat? Was this girl going to hurt her? Or worse, hurt Thomas? She cast a frantic
glance toward the rest-rooms. Her first instinct was to search for Daniel. To find someone, anyone, who could
protect her. But she stopped herself. Daniel could never, ever find out about this girl. She knew too much.
More than too much. She knew everything.
But how?
"Don't bother," the girl said smoothly, without turning around. "I'll be gone before he gets back."
227
Ariana felt as if someone had bound and gagged her. She was mute, powerless. At the mercy of this stranger.
She swallowed the thick lump in her throat.
"Who are you?" she finally managed, her voice strained and unfamiliar. She was definitely no longer in
control. She tried to fight the nausea that rose up in her stomach. This wasn't happening. It wasn't possible.
The nightmare was supposed to be over, dealt with. "What do you want?"
"It doesn't matter who I am. But what I want is Thomas," the girl snapped. Suddenly, her eyes were ablaze
with light. It was as if the very mention of Thomas's name had brought her to life. Ariana clutched her own
arm under the
table, held on for dear life. "And he used to want me. Everything was perfect. We loved each
other. And then one day, he told me that he still loved me, but that things were too complicated between us."
She blinked, her eyes boring through Ariana. "And then he found you."
Ariana shook her head slowly. This girl wasn't making any sense. Sure, Thomas had a reputation on campus,
a reputation for getting around. But this girl definitely wasn't an Easton student. Ariana didn't recognize her
face. But that voice ...
"I always knew I was going to get him back." A faint, faraway smile surfaced on the girl's lips. "You're just a
blip. We were meant for each other."
The girl was insane. "Thomas is with me now," Ariana said, trying to keep her voice level. She slipped her
hand into her bag, and her fingers closed around a pen. "Not you."
228
"That's what you think," the girl said, laughing strangely. "But you're going to stay away from him. Unless
you want your other boyfriend to find out about what you've been up to."
Ariana said nothing, gripping the pen so tightly that her hand began to tingle, numbness slipping over it.
"You remember, don't you? All those things you did. Things that I'm sure Daniel would be very interested in.