Ambition (Private 7)

told me what kind of evidence her parents had discovered that had spurred them to reopen the case. I couldn't imagine what it could

possibly be. The girl had been found alone on her floor with pills and a note. No signs of a struggle. No one in the dorm had heard a

scream. How could she possibly have been murdered?

High on nervous adrenaline, I hurried up to my room and found Sabine sitting on her bed, working on her needlepoint. Big Satur-

day night for my roommate. But then, maybe she had the right idea. Going out hadn't exactly been enjoyable for me, to say the least.

"Reed! It's so early," she said, tucking her needlepoint ring away. She sat up and scooted forward, all ears. "How was the date?" "Aw-

ful," I replied. "I left early and walked myself home." "Oh," she said, sounding overly disappointed. I whipped off Shelby's coat and

started for the closet, but immediately changed my mind and tossed the coat on the foot of my bed instead. "It's no big deal," I told

her, running my fingers through my hair. "So the guy's a jerk. Half the guys at this school are." "Maybe more than half," Sabine said

under her breath."What?" I turned on my computer, more determined than ever to do a little research on Ivy Slade. Now that I had im-

plicated her to the police, I had a sudden desire to back up my claim. To find some kind of evidence that she was, in fact, capable of

very bad things. "Nothing, it's just... I was over at Coffee Carma earlier and Missy came in...." Sabine trailed off, looking squeamish.

My heart thumped extra hard. "Missy came in and what?" "She said she saw Josh and Ivy in front of Pemberly... kissing," Sabine said

with an apologetic look.

The floor went out from under me, but I quickly grasped at the first straw I thought of. "And you believed her?" Sabine's brow fur-

rowed. "You think she lied?" "She's Missy. She hates me. And she would just love to spread a rumor like that." "Oh. Well, it didn't

seem like she was lying," Sabine said. Then, on seeing my face, she quickly added, "But if you think she was, then I'm sure she was."

"I'm sure she was," I affirmed. I hoped she was. Please, God, let her be lying. But I couldn't believe it. I refused to believe it. He

couldn't have really moved on so fast. Despite what I'd heard from Jason, I'd thought they were just becoming friends. Close friends.

Which sucked, but still. It wasn't as bad as the alternative. "Reed... what exactly happened between you and Josh?" Sabine asked. "No

one knows and everyone's speculating.... It might help if you talked about it." "I really don't think so," I replied.

No one was ever going to know that I'd cheated on Josh with Dash. For many, many reasons. Well, aside from the random drunk

and stoned partiers in the hallway that night who had witnessed our fight--but apparently none of them had been from Easton or they

were just too far gone to remember, because so far, there were no rumors flying around campus. Thank God. If the Billings Girls

found out, I was sure that they would be able to forgive me for hurting Josh--they were, after all, my friends, and most of them were

dedicated to instant gratification and having fun above all else. But no one would ever forgive me for betraying Noelle. And Noelle, of

course, would kill me. That was reason enough. "Did he cheat on you?" Sabine prompted, toying with her silver ring. "Did he and Ivy

hookup at the Legacy or something? Because if he did, that's just reprehensible and I'm glad you dumped him. I mean, how anyone

could do that to someone they loved--"

"Sabine, I really don't want to talk about it," I said, cutting her off as the ever-present guilt in my gut started to expand. "Okay. Sor-