Private 8 - Revelation (19 page)

A hush fell on the cafeteria. An energized, anticipatory hush, but

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a hush nonetheless. Noelle reached for her water glass, took a nonchalant sip, and replaced it on the tablecloth before returning her attention to me, one eyebrow raised. I could just imagine what she was thinking:

This should be interesting.I cleared my throat and began.

"As many of you... well, all of you, know, this has been a rather insane and traumatic semester for me. For a lot of us," I said. "There has been a lot of grief, a lot of upheaval, a lot of rumors--some very true, some very false," I said, the words of my preplanned speech coming back to me in a rush. "But I'm not here to defend myself or clear my name. I think that will come in its own time. I'm here to say that I would never have gotten through any of it without the friendship of Noelle Lange."

Noelle shifted in her seat ever so slightly. I was getting through to her. I had to be. "Noelle is a true friend. She is someone who always has your back. Someone who will do anything for you if you need her. Someone who is creative and good and kind."

At this point I looked Noelle right in the eye. My palms were sweating so badly I was afraid I was going to drop my champagne flute, but I pressed on.

"And I'm sorry if I forgot all that for five stupid minutes. I'm sorry to have thrown away something so precious to me, over something so superficial. A friendship that could have lasted my whole life, over something so fleeting."

From the corner of my eye, I could see that everyone at the Billings

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table was either gaping at me or at Noelle. But the two of us simply stared at each other.

"So here's to Noelle Lange," I said, raising my glass. "A true asset to Billings, a true asset to Easton, and the true friend I hope will forgive me someday."

There was a prolonged moment of silence. I think everyone was so stunned they forgot where they were.

"To Noelle Lange!" Headmaster Cromwell announced finally, raising his glass. Not so much to save me, I'm sure, but to save his ceremony.

"Noelle Lange!" the room echoed.

We all sipped our drinks and I stood there, waiting for a reaction from Noelle. Waiting for any kind of sign. She simply sipped her sparkling cider and looked at me as if she was seeing me for the first time. Then she finally turned back to her table, turning her shoulder to me. That was it. No smile. No nod. Nothing. I dropped into my chair, exhausted, and placed my glass back down on the table. I felt numb all over. As if my skin, my muscles, my bones, had all turned to dust.

"Damn, girl. That took guts," Shane said in my ear.

"But it wasn't enough," I said quietly, the realization seeping into my veins like poison. "Nothing's ever going to be enough."

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***

After Noelle's nonreaction to my speech, all I really wanted to do was retreat to Pemberly and sleep, but Headmaster Cromwell had made it clear this was a mandatory event, so I was in it for the long haul. I sat through coffee and dessert without touching a thing, but no one noticed my dejected state. Because after a few polite bites were taken, the student body got down to the real business of the night--hunting for their gifts. Once a few sophomore girls got up and ventured tentatively toward the tree, half the room was out of their seats and clamoring for their presents.

Suddenly I felt the mildest sizzle of excitement. The night wasn't over yet. I stood up as the rest of my table emptied, trying to keep an eye on Josh. Unfortunately, it took about two seconds for me to lose him in the mayhem.

"Reed? Aren't you coming?" Diana asked me as she pushed her chair in.

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"Nah. I think I'll wait out the rush," I told her. In truth, I had almost zero interest in finding my gift. Aside from a very select few, most of the people on this campus had been shunning me for days. What if whoever had drawn my name had gotten me some kind of gag gift? Like a box full of coal or a dead rat or something. I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle that with any kind of grace.

So instead, I sat back and watched. I watched as people tore through designer paper and whipped open gift boxes. Watched as the girls draped ribbons around one another's shoulders and oohed and aahed over their gifts. I saw quite a few pairs of leather gloves, cashmere scarves, sparkly earrings, and Dooney & Bourke bags. There were also a few creative and fun gifts. A sleek remote-control helicopter that was soon winging its way around the room, threatening to take out the lights. An alarm clock that wouldn't break or stop beeping even if hurled across the room, a claim which was immediately tested by its new owner. One girl screeched so loudly when she opened her gift--a pair of front-row tickets to some sold-out concert--that everyone stopped for a minute and laughed.

Where was Josh? I was dying to see his reaction to his gift. To see if he understood the significance of the paintbrushes--the same ones we'd used last year to fling paint all over his dorm room walls. It had been the first time I'd realized just how much I cared about him. How much he understood me. Loved me. But Josh was nowhere to be found.

Feeling desperate now, I finally moved from my safety zone and did a slow lap of the room, staying on the outskirts by the tables--

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never really approaching the tree. I found Trey and West checking out their new Nintendo DS systems, which had each come with a pile of games, but Josh wasn't with them. Had he left before the gift opening had begun? Had he taken one look at who his gift was from and tossed it in the nearest garbage can?

Soon the crowd around the tree began to disperse and I could tell there were only a couple dozen gifts left. Tentatively, I approached, wanting to check to see if Josh's present was still there. I walked around the tree slowly, carefully, stepping over crushed balls of wrapping paper and discarded packaging. I didn't see the small red box anywhere. Neither did I see anything intended for me. Even though I had been prepared for the worst, I still felt a pang. Ostracized again. Left out of a huge tradition. Whoever had found my name in their mailbox had simply decided not to bother.

"Reed! Reed!"

I looked up to find Constance skipping toward me, her face flushed with excitement. She was waving a white envelope in front of her excitedly, like it contained all the answers to all the questions on all the finals we would ever take. She stopped short in front of me, nearly slipping on some fallen tissue paper, and held the envelope out with both hands.

"From your secret Santa," she said with a huge smile.

My name was written across the front of the envelope. I recognized Noelle's elegant handwriting instantly.

"What is it?" I said, half scared, half elated.

"Just open it," Constance whispered giddily.

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I tore into the envelope and extracted a square white card. An invitation. To Noelle and Amberly's pre-Kiran's-birthday party the following night. My heart expanded so fast I thought I was going to burst.

"She just gave it to me and said to find you," Constance explained, coming over to my side so she could read the invite over my shoulder. "You did it, Reed. You're so back in!" My fingers trembled as I looked at the card in disbelief. "Wait, did she always have my name, or did she trade with someone after she heard my speech?"

"Who cares?" Constance blurted happily. "You're coming to the party. We're all going to Kiran's together. Who cares how it happened?"

The girl had a point. I looked up, scanning the room for Noelle, and found her chatting with some of the Billings Girls over near their table. She glanced over at me as if she knew I was looking, and I held the card up and smiled. In return, she granted me a quick nod of acknowledgment, then refocused on her conversation.

It wasn't much, but it was something.

"I'm so happy for you!" Constance cried, grabbing me up in a hug.

"Me too," I replied with a smile.

Now if I could just find Josh, just hear what he had to say... maybe all my Christmas wishes would come true.

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A NEW CURVE

Shane had received a huge, glossy, hardcover book on the history of Hollywood as her gift, which turned out to be lucky for all of us because it gave us something to block the wind with on the way back to Pemberly. It whipped around us like a cyclone, knocking us one way and then the other as we staggered toward the dorm."What is this, Kansas?" Diana joked, holding her hat down with both hands.

"Yeah. Arctic Kansas," Sonal added, cracking the others up. I smiled and clutched the invitation from Noelle inside my coat pocket. I couldn't wait to get upstairs and look it over again. Make sure it wasn't written in disappearing ink or something. Make sure it was real.

A few yards from the back door of our dorm, we all noticed a tall, burly police officer standing just outside, bundled up in a long coat, scarf, and gloves, his silver shield glinting on his hat. My heart skipped a nervous beat. Our steps slowed.

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"Ladies," the officer said with a nod. His voice was low and rumbling, his dark skin lined with age. "Kindly have your IDs ready to show to the officer inside."

I glanced at Diana and saw that my own fear was reflected in her eyes. What had happened now?

"Ooookay," Shane said, whipping out her key card.

She opened the door and let us all go in ahead of her. Just inside the lobby was another officer sitting at a small wooden table that used to stand under the far window. With his shaggy brown hair and squinty eyes darting everywhere, he reminded me of a nervous mouse. A laptop was open on the table in front of him, and he looked at us briefly as we approached, before his eyes darted away again.

"IDs, please," he said, holding out a skinny hand.

"What's this all about?" I asked.

He sighed, clearly irritated, and flicked his fingers. Didn't look any of us in the eye. "IDs?" As we were fishing our wallets out of our pockets, the front door directly across from us opened and in walked Ivy Slade. I felt all the blood rush out of my head at the sight of her, and the flutter of fear I had felt outside returned with a vengeance. What was she doing back here? Why had they let her go?

Ivy spotted me as she strode by, her eyes narrowed in anger. She said something under her breath but kept right on moving to the elevator. I could hardly breathe. She was back. The stalking, murdering bitch was back. They'd only held her for three hours. And when I got upstairs, she would be right next door. Why had I

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even bothered going to Detective Hauer? Was this all some kind of massive joke to him?

I heard a familiar voice just as the cop at the table snatched my ID from my numb fingers to check it against his computer file. Detective Hauer had walked through the door and was conversing with another officer.

"Detective," I said, my voice cracking.

He looked up and his expression grew instantly weary. Like he so didn't want to deal with me. Well, life was tough. I so didn't want to deal with living next door to a psychopath.

"What are you doing?" I said through my teeth as I approached him. "How could you let her go?"

Detective Hauer squeezed his brow between his thumb and forefinger for a moment before responding.

"I've told you before and I'll tell you again. She's not our girl," he replied. "But what about the photos? And the box?" I blurted.

"They didn't hold a candle to the depositions we've been taking all afternoon and evening," Detective Hauer replied, pulling me toward the cozy seating area off to the side of the lobby. "We found dozens of people to corroborate her alibi, Reed. She and this Coolidge kid stayed at the Driscoll Hotel that night. We have bellboys, maids, managers," he said, lifting his hand to tick them off on his fingers. "Room service receipts signed by her. There's a security tape that's being reviewed as we speak. Ivy Slade had nothing to do with Cheyenne Martin's death."

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I was so stunned my face stung from the shock of it. I had been so certain. The girl had the best motive ever. Plus her behavior... the threats, the icy looks, the attitude, that freaky photo in her room. It all added up.

"Well... what about the picture I gave you?" I asked. "I still say she's stalking me and maybe Noelle, too."

"Her fingerprints weren't found on the print you supplied," Hauer told me in a soothing way. "And she swears she didn't deface her own photo. However, we did find traces of white wool fibers on both prints."

My heart seized. "What does that mean?"

"It means that the same person probably tampered with both pictures and wore white wool gloves while doing it," Hauer told me. "It appears as if you and Ms. Slade have the same stalker. This person is really getting around."

At that I leaned back on the rear of the couch behind me. There was no way I could wrap my brain around this. My stalker was also stalking Ivy? How was that even possible? Who on this campus had a vendetta against the two of us? We were enemies. We hated each other. Why would anyone lump us together? Ivy was a victim too. That might have been the hardest fact of all to swallow. From murderous stalker to hunted victim in less than two minutes. At least this exonerated Rose. If Ivy was innocent, so was she.

"That's why we've stationed officers at each door and inside your building," Detective Hauer explained gently. "Until we catch this

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person and ensure that both you and Ivy are safe, the only people allowed through to the elevators and stairs will be the registered residents of Pemberly."

"I don't believe this," I said, sweating inside my wool coat. "I really don't believe this."

"I'm sorry," Detective Hauer said, pushing his hands into his coat pockets. "But don't worry. We're not going to let anything happen to you or to Ivy. We're going to figure out who's doing all this. I swear."

"Thanks," I said wanly.

"Reed? Are you coming?" Diana asked, hovering in the lobby with the others. She held up my ID, which I'd left with the check-in officer.

"Yeah. I guess," I replied. I pushed myself away from the couch, feeling weak, and looked up at Detective Hauer. "Thanks."