Cruel Love (Privilege 6)

“I can’t believe we have to fly to Texas for this,” Noelle lamented, dropping onto a tall lab stool. “Doesn’t Kiran’s mom know that she lived for New York? If she’s going to be memorialized, it should be there.”

“She wants to do it at home, where Kiran grew up. I get that,” Reed said.

Ariana heard a printer whir to life.

“Just so you know, my mom’s going to be there, and I’m sure she’s going to badger you about coming to St. Barth’s this year.”

Ariana’s arms curled tighter around the stack of musty lab coats in her arms. St. Barth’s. So the Easton crowd was still spending Christmas down there. And now, Reed was a part of it. Reed had probably met Upton Giles and Poppy Simon and the Hathaways. She had probably spent Christmas morning at Noelle’s with all the families. She was really one of them now. And Ariana was not.

Hot fury began to bubble in Ariana’s veins. This was so unfair. She was supposed to be killing Reed right now. Strangling every last breath out of her. Experiencing the most perfect moment of her life. But instead she was forced to listen to this.

“I’ll just tell her the same thing I told her last time,” Reed said. “Thanks for the invitation, but me and St. Barth’s do not mix.”

Noelle laughed lightly. “She can’t argue with that.”

“No one could,” Reed replied. “Besides, Scott is going to Vail with his new girlfriend and Josh invited me to see his parents’ house in Vienna. So I’ll be spending Christmas in Croton, and then jetting to the Continent for a week before going back to the Cape for New Year’s.”

She put on a snotty voice on the word “Continent,” as if calling Europe that was some kind of joke. Ariana gritted her teeth. Reed would never set foot on the Continent if she had anything to say about it.

“God. Who knew you were going to become such a jet-setter?” Noelle said.

“I know, right?” Reed replied with a grating laugh. “Okay. I’m all set. Let’s get out of here.”

“Finally,” Noelle said in a dramatic way.

Ariana pressed back against the wall as first Reed’s coat, then Noelle’s, flashed by the sliver of open space between the two doors.

Ariana’s pulse stopped. Noelle was leaving. It was so unfair. She was supposed to be Ariana’s best friend for life, not Reed’s. For a fleeting moment, she wondered what Noelle would do if she revealed herself to her. Would she be happy to see her? Relieved to find her alive and well? Would she throw her arms around her and hug her and invite her to St. Barth’s for the holiday?

It was a lovely fantasy. But as Reed doused the lights and the two of them stepped out, Ariana knew it could never come true. She could never reveal herself to anyone from her old life. Not even Noelle. Suddenly her heart hurt with a severity she had never imagined before. It was so wrong, that Reed got to be with Noelle—got to laugh with her, know her secrets, go on trips with her. Noelle had been Ariana’s best friend first. Ariana’s confidante. She was just one more of the many things Reed had stolen out from under her. Just another reason Reed deserved to die.

The lab door closed and their footsteps faded away. Ariana held her breath, counted to one hundred, then shoved open the closet doors. Her body felt as if it weighed five hundred pounds, most of the suffocating bulk concentrated in her chest. She let the lab coats slip to the floor as angry, disappointed tears filled her eyes.

She had come here to finally end Reed. Finally end all the misery and suffering. Finally win justice for all of those who had died. But she had been thwarted by her own best friend. Why did these things keep happening to her? Why couldn’t she catch a break? Why couldn’t she, for once, get what she deserved?

THE OBLIGATORY ENTOURAGE

“Here’s your latte and cinnamon scone, Ana.” Quinn placed the cup and plate on the marble table in front of Ariana on Saturday morning and stood back with a smile, smoothing her long, strawberry blond hair over one shoulder. Jessica hovered there as well, ready to take orders. Ariana looked at her eager face and decided to throw her a bone. “It’s chilly in here this morning, isn’t it?” she said, glancing around as if looking for an open window or some other source of the cold.

“Do you want me to get you a sweater?” Jessica asked, rising onto her toes.

“That would be fabulous,” Ariana replied. “The gray cashmere, I think.”

“I’ll be right back.” And just like that, Jessica was gone, a blur of black curls and blue skirt.

“Anything else I can get you?” Quinn asked. “Otherwise I have a study session for my econ exam this morning.”

“No, thank you, Quinn. You’re dismissed.” Ariana gave a quick wave of her hand to punctuate the statement.

“Okay. Text me if you need anything. Anything at all,” Quinn said as she gathered her things.

“Oh, I will.”

Ariana smiled to herself as Quinn hurried off. There was no better way to overcome a serious failure than to spend a morning being waited on by a team of servants anticipating her every need. When she’d woken up this morning, part of her had wanted to just stay in bed and wallow over her crash and burn at Georgetown, but she had forced herself to get up and go out into the world—to remind herself of the things she had to live for. Like the perks of being Stone and Grave president. Over the past two days, Ariana had received dozens of congratulatory phone calls from prestigious alumni, and gifts had started to pour in from all corners of the globe. Sitting next to her plate right now was a stack of invitations that had arrived in her mailbox just that morning, everything from an invite to a charity event at the botanical gardens, given by a prestigious Stone and Grave alum, to a request for her presence at a luncheon at the Capitol, to a ticket to the New Year’s Eve MTV bash in New York City. Ariana smiled just looking at them. Briana Leigh Covington really was a star.

A star who can’t even execute the simplest plan, a little voice inside her mind chided.

Ariana’s heart sank as the memory of how very close she’d come to being caught yesterday came flashing back in vivid relief. She placed her coffee cup down and gritted her teeth. Why couldn’t Reed have been there alone, like she’d said she was going to be? Why did everyone always have to be so damned unreliable? When Ariana said she was going to do something, she did it. How else were people supposed to make plans?