Vanished (Private 12)

I watched over his shoulder until my friends had scurried past. Then I took a deep breath.

“I think it might be Ivy.”

Josh stepped back as if he’d been slapped. “What? Are you crack

ed? Why would Ivy do something like this?”

“Maybe to get back at us?” I said, lifting my shoulders. “I know she talks a big game, but, call me crazy, I don’t think she’s so psyched about you and me getting back together.”

Josh scoffed and reeled away from me like I was so nuts I didn’t even merit an argument. With one long stride he was back on the pathway to the chapel and I was jogging to catch up.

“Josh, hear me out!” I said, grabbing his arm. “Ivy has always hated Noelle. And lately she’s been hanging out with some shady dude who has serial killer written all over him.”

“Come on, Reed. Ivy?” Josh whispered angrily. “I think I know her a little better than you do, and I know she could never do anything like this.”

His comment stung. Did he really need to remind me that he and Ivy had been so very close? Besides, he hadn’t seen all the things I’d seen. Like the fact that Ivy had been waiting in Sweet Nothings when I’d gone there to shoplift. Almost as if she knew what the assignment was and where I would go. As if she wanted to make sure I would complete it. Plus she was the one who’d made a point of telling everyone how much my new necklace was worth. And hadn’t she had her phone out that night in the chapel right before I’d gotten the text with my shoplifting assignment? It all added up.

“Oh, yeah? Well then try explaining to me why, last night, the second that video was done playing on my computer, I heard her laughing in the next room?”

Josh and I both fell silent as Mr. Barber and Mrs. Carr strode by us on their way into the chapel.

“Um, I don’t know. People laugh all the time for all kinds of reasons, Reed,” Josh said impatiently. “Ever hear of the word ‘coincidence’?”

Okay. Now he was being just plain rude.

“There are no coincidences,” I said, leveling him with a stare.

For a long moment he was silent, just gazing back into my eyes as if he was waiting for me to reveal the punch line.

“You know what? You need to tell someone about this,” he said finally. “An adult. Clearly you should not be dealing with this on your own. You’re starting to lose your grip.”

He turned abruptly and speed-walked up the steps to the chapel, twisting sideways to get past a couple of sophomore guys hanging out in the doorway.

“I don’t get you!” I yelled, chasing after him. “None of us thought Ariana was capable of killing Thomas. And Sabine? She was the nicest person on earth until she pulled a gun on me.”

He whirled around and I nearly slammed into his chest. “Yeah, and shot Ivy,” he said. “Ivy’s a victim, Reed, not a villain.”

“Or maybe the fact that she took a bullet because the guy she was dating was trying to save me instead of her is just one more reason for her to hate us,” I hissed, more than a little aware of the fact that dozens of students and teachers were now well within earshot.

Josh’s eyes went cold. Dead, almost. He turned around without another word, trudged over to the senior guys’ section on the back left side of the chapel, and sat down. As I walked past him toward the junior girls’ area, he didn’t even glance in my direction. It was official. If he hadn’t been pissed off at me after the shirtless Upton incident and the Sawyer hug, he was now.

“Hey, Reed!” Lorna whispered, sliding closer to Kiki so I could sit down at the end of the pew next to her. “What was that all about? Josh does not look happy.”

“Trouble in paradise?” Missy Thurber sneered, turning around in her seat to look at us.

“No one was talking to you, Missy,” I snapped.

“Wow. You really are the queen bitch these days, aren’t you?” she replied before facing forward again.

“Everything’s fine with Josh,” I told Lorna quietly. “We’re just having a slight disagreement about what to do for Valentine’s Day.”

“Sometimes I think that holiday is more trouble than it’s worth,” Astrid groused from down the pew.

“Preaching to the choir, sister,” I replied.

I took a deep breath and tapped my foot impatiently as everyone around me whispered and did some last-minute cramming for quizzes or texted on their phones. I wished Double H would get this party started already. I was in no mood to sit in this chapel any longer than I had to. For the first time, I wasn’t dreading one of the kidnapper’s tasks. I was definitely in the mood to blow off some steam.

“Good morning, everyone!” Headmaster Hathaway called out from the podium at the front of the chapel.