Cruel Love (Privilege 6)

“Lexa! Lexa!” Mrs. Greene wailed, reaching toward the massive hole in front of her.

Ariana finally turned her head, pressing her face into Jasper’s shoulder. He held her tightly and whispered into her hair, but she couldn’t make out the words. Next to her, Maria sobbed uncontrollably. Here and there throughout the large crowd, sorrowful moans and strangled cries rose up toward the bright blue sky, as several of the mourners found themselves unequal to the task of holding it all inside.

“Can we get out of here?” Ariana whimpered.

“Of course,” Jasper said.

The people on the outskirts started to break away. Ariana looked around and saw that many of her classmates were exchanging hesitant glances, unsure of what to do. Across the way, April held hands with Kassie Sharpe. Conrad stared at the casket, a rose in one hand, stock-still and bleary-eyed. Tahira and Rob clung to each other as Tahira tried to get control of her breathing. Behind her, Reed Brennan slipped a pair of dark sunglasses over her eyes and turned toward the waiting line of cars.

Ariana’s heart stopped. Reed? No. No. No. What was she doing here? She took a step toward the casket—toward Reed—and almost tripped as Jasper started to tug her the other way.

“Ana? Where are you—?”

Reed could not be here. She had no right. No place. Ariana’s fingers curled into fists as her vision started to prickle over with gray spots. Suddenly, the drumbeat that had been silent for the past two days thrummed to life inside her skull.

She must die … she must die … she must die …

Then Reed turned and looked right at Ariana. And it wasn’t Reed at all. This girl’s face was wider, her nose broader, and in a black Calvin Klein she was certainly dressed better. Slowly, Ariana’s eyes cleared and her body temperature began to cool. The drumbeat quieted to a dull thud.

“Ana? Are you okay?” Jasper asked.

Ariana turned, the wind tossing her hair in front of her face. She saw that a few of their other friends had gathered to wait for her. Adam was there with Quinn and Jessica, two of the sophomores who used to wait on Lexa hand and foot. Soomie, however, was nowhere to be found. Ariana could scarcely believe that her friend would miss the funeral. Ariana thought back to the other day—Soomie rocking back and forth on her dorm room bed—and felt a thump of foreboding. Her friend’s absence could only mean that something was very, very wrong.

“Yeah … yeah, I’m …” She glanced over her shoulder, but the Reed-like girl was gone. Palmer was walking off in the opposite direction between his parents, his head bowed. Conrad still stood over the grave, staring into it, one red rose hanging limply from his fingers. “Let’s just go.”

She looped her arm around Jasper’s and Maria took her other hand. Together they began to walk slowly toward the parking lot. Tahira and Rob caught up with them as they made their way over the clipped grass, skirting ancient headstones and stepping around a recently covered grave.

“When’s everybody leaving for Thanksgiving?” Maria asked, sniffling.

“My parents are flying here and we’re all going to my cousins’ house,” Rob said, holding Tahira tight to his side.

“And since my family is in the UAE, I’ll be going with him,” Tahira said.

“I’m hopping a train in less than an hour,” Adam said, tugging a pair of cotton gloves onto his hands. “That’s why I had to bring this.” He gestured toward the Atherton-Pryce duffel bouncing against his hip. Sticking out of the outside pocket was a copy of a local newspaper, and a smaller headline caught Ariana’s eye.

GEORGETOWN SOCCER STAR INJURED IN CRASH

“Adam, do you mind if I …?”

Hands trembling, Ariana plucked the paper from the pocket.

“Sure,” Adam said. “Go ahead.”

Ariana stepped carefully, keeping pace with her friends as she scanned the article. Her eyes instantly found Reed’s name and her mouth went dry. Apparently, one of her teammates had gotten drunk and tried to drive home from a party. That was why Reed had been at the hospital the other night.

What are the chances? Ariana thought now, carefully folding the paper and handing it back to Adam. What are the chances that we would both end up in the same ER on the same night because our friends were hurt?

It was fate. It had to be. Someone had put Reed right in front of her that night for a reason. All of this was Reed’s fault, after all. If Reed had never come to Easton Academy in the first place, Thomas Pearson would still be alive. If Thomas were alive, Ariana never would have gone to the Brenda T. and met Kaitlynn Nottingham. If she’d never met Kaitlynn, she never would have known Briana Leigh Covington existed. Briana Leigh’s death was on Reed’s head. As was Brigit Rhygstead’s, and Lexa’s as well. Clearly, Reed had been placed in that ER on that very night because the universe was trying to balance itself. The universe wanted Reed dead.

She must die … she must die … she must die …

“Come on. We’ll drop you off at the station on our way back to campus,” Jasper offered to Adam.

“Cool, thanks,” Adam said, smiling gratefully.

Ariana forced herself to look straight ahead and not stare at the newspaper now coiled into a tube in Adam’s hands. The universe was trying to tell her something, and she had now gotten the message loud and clear.

It all came back to Reed Brennan.