Privilege 5 - Pure Sin (9 page)

"Hey. There you are."

Suddenly Palmer's arms enveloped her from behind. She slammed her government book closed over the newspaper, her pulse suddenly fluttering at an alarming rate. If Palmer had noticed that she was staring at an old sports section featuring girls' soccer, he was definitely going to ask her about it. What was she supposed to say? I've suddenly developed an interest in women's sports?

Palmer gave her a kiss on the cheek and lowered herself into the chair next to hers. His eyes flicked to Lexa and Conrad, and he gave Connie a nod.

"So. How's she been?" he asked Ariana.

Taking a deep breath, Ariana laid her government book aside, relieved, at least, that Reed wasn't about to become a topic of conversation.

"Okay. Fine," she said brightly. "They've been over there since before I arrived and not a peep."

"Good. That's good," Palmer said. Still, he kept his gaze on Lexa, as if he was mulling something over. Deciding whether or not to try to have her removed as president, perhaps? The very idea made Ariana sick to her stomach. Lexa loved being president of Stone and Grave. Having that taken away from her would only make her condition worse.

Not to mention that Ariana would never be able to exert her power over Lexa to get things done the way she wanted.

"Y know, I was thinking about it last night and I realized . . . Lexa's actually been acting weird all semester," Palmer said, placing his elbows on

ou the table. He turned toward Ariana and rested his cheek on his fist, as if trying to hide his words from the girl who was yards away.

"Really? How?" Ariana asked, preparing herself to refute anything he said.

"Well, first there was the cheating during welcome week," Palmer said. "That was not her style."

Ariana shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Lexa hadn't had anything to do with the cheating. Ariana had sabotaged one of the other boats for the crew race--and let Palmer blame it on Lexa.

"And then there was that whole thing with Lillian," Palmer continued.

Now Ariana's heart shifted into overdrive. "What whole thing with Lillian?"

"They way she just let Lillian in? Invited her to Stone and Grave?" Palmer said, lifting a shoulder. "We all told her she had to vet the girl, but she was all `Lillian's good people. I like her. Case closed.' It wasn't until later when all the questions were raised about her that Lexa finally started to listen. And then, Lily up and disappears. I mean, how weird is that?"

Ariana forced herself to breathe slowly. Tried to figure out exactly how she was supposed to react to all of this--how a person who knew nothing about any of it would react.

"Well . . . Lillian leaving school . . . that had nothing to do with Lexa," Ariana said.

Palmer looked at her and narrowed his eyes. It was almost as if he was studying her. Almost as if he was thinking that Lillian's disappearance had something to do with . . . her.

"And then there's you," he said.

Ariana's heart stopped beating in her chest. Her mouth went dry, and she reached for her bottle of water, her mind racing. It was never good when people started to ask questions--when they started to really think about what was going on around them, trying to see the big picture. Clearly that was what Palmer was doing now. But how close was he to the truth? Did he really suspect Ariana, or was he just fishing?

"What do you mean, then there's me?" she asked slowly.

"Well, last year everything was normal. So I was trying to figure out what's different and then I realized . . . you are. Y show up on campus and

ou suddenly there's all this . . . drama," Palmer said, sitting back in his chair. "Are you a bringer of drama, Ana Covington?" he said, half-teasing, half- serious.

"Adam's new this year too," Ariana snapped. "Have you tracked him down and blamed him yet?"

Palmer blinked, surprised. "Sorry. I was just kidding," he said. "Thinking out loud."

Ariana clutched her water bottle. She stared at one little drop as it wound its way down from the mouth of the bottle and into the pool of untouched water at the bottom.

Just focus, she told herself. Just breathe. Palmer doesn't know anything. How could he possibly know?

She looked at Palmer out of the corner of her eye, hoping he would be the picture of chagrin. But instead, he was still watching her, as if he was trying to see inside of her. As if there was something odd there that he was trying to understand. This boy needed some serious distraction. And he needed it now.

"Look, I don't know if I'm a bringer of drama or what," Ariana said, turning her knees toward him. "But I do know that thinking out loud is a highly overrated pastime."

She lifted her leg, crooking it over his, and slid even closer. Palmer raised his eyebrows, intrigued.

"Oh yeah? Did you have some other activity in mind?" he said, slipping his arm around the back of her chair.

"Most definitely," she replied.

Then she leaned in and touched her lips to his, fully aware that the entire population of the library was watching them. She cupped her hand around the back of his neck and drew him into her, deepening the kiss and eliciting a moan from the back of his throat. Any second now, this was going to get broken up by one of the librarians, but until it did, Ariana was going to make sure that Palmer was good and distracted.

She was going to make him forget all about Ana Covington as a potential bringer of drama. "So that is when I told Fellini, if you want something done right . . . let me do it!" Maria's father said, his voice booming across the small parlor.

The small crowd that had gathered around Maria's parents laughed heartily, and Mr. Stanzini sipped his mimosa. His slim, couture-clad wife hung on to his arm, her huge sunglasses pushed casually back into her short brown hair. They were every bit as glamorous as Ariana had imagined, but she was having a hard time paying attention to this parental conversation too. She had lost sight of Lexa, which, considering they were standing in the very room where Kaitlynn's death had transpired, was very not good.

"Will you all excuse me for a moment, please?" Ariana said.

Mr. Stanzini nodded, which was enough for her. Ariana shook her head at a passing waiter as he offered another full tray of mimosas and ducked past Mr. Montgomery's elbow as he gestured his way through another story. She saw Jasper eye her with curiosity as she glanced around the room, but she ignored him. There were far more important things on her mind than Jasper and whatever it was he might be thinking.

Finally, out of the corner of her eye, Ariana saw a flash of red. She paused, and her heart squeezed. Lexa was walking through the yard outside the parlor windows. Walking toward the rose bushes.

You let your guard down for two seconds . . .

Ariana rushed to the French doors that led out to the garden. The sun shone down on the lazily falling leaves, and her feet crunched through them as she hurried to join her friend. The disarray of the yard was just another testament to the fact that they had chosen the right burial plot for Kaitlynn. Clearly no one ever came back here. It seemed that the Greenes had even neglected to hire a landscaper to rake the leaves.

Lexa stopped just inches from the recently turned-over earth. She reached up and toyed with her gold necklace, shivering as a cold November breeze rustled the bare branches of the rose bushes.

"What are you doing?" Ariana hissed, coming up behind her.

Lexa flinched but didn't turn to look at Ariana. Her gaze was trained on the base of the bushes. The exact spot where Kaitlynn's body now rotted away.

"Nothing," Lexa said. "Just . . . going for a walk."

Her bottom lip trembled, and tears brimmed in her eyes. Ariana felt the briefest pang of sympathy for Lexa--clearly the girl was not as strong as she'd originally hoped--but the sympathy quickly hardened into anger. This weakness could get them both in serious trouble.

"Y need to relax," Ariana told her, standing just behind Lexa's shoulder. "Whoever Keiko hired to fix the window did a perfect job, and it's

ou obvious no one's been back here and no one's coming back here. Unless, of course, they come out after us."

"I don't understand how you can be okay with all of this," Lexa whispered, not looking at Ariana. "It's like you're a robot or something."

Ariana's face warmed. "Thanks a lot."

"All I can think about when I stand here is the blood. All that blood," Lexa whispered, ignoring Ariana's comment. "It took forever for me to get it off my hands, and sometimes, it's like it's still there."

"Lexa," Ariana said in a warning tone. "I--"

"My life as I knew it . . . it's over," Lexa whispered harshly, turning to her. "It's ruined, all because of her. Because of--"

Behind them, someone opened a window, and laughter wafted its way toward them on the breeze.

"Lexa!" Ariana hissed through her teeth. "Y life is not ruined. Look around." She grabbed Lexa's arms and forcibly turned her, making her look

our back at the huge windows and the party going on behind them. "Y friends are still your friends. Y parents are doing just fine. Everything is just

our our as it was, and do you know why? Because no one knows. And no one else will ever know. Unless you screw it up."

Lexa glanced at Ariana, her eyes wide, as if startled. As if it had never occurred to her until that moment that she was responsible for her own fate. Ariana could have smacked her across the face. Was she the only person around here who knew how to count on herself ? Who knew that the future was all that mattered?

The French doors opened, and Lexa's mother peeked her head out. "Lexa! Briana Leigh! What are you doing out there without coats? It's freezing!"

"We'll be right there, Mother," Lexa said, sounding, thankfully, normal.

"Good. There are some people here your father would like you to meet," Mrs. Greene said. Then she closed the door with a bang.

Suddenly a tear spilled down Lexa's cheek. She clutched her arm and looked at Ariana, sucking in a broken breath.

"Everyone wants me to be normal," Lexa said. "But I don't know how I can be, Ana. I don't know . . . if I can live like this."

I don't know if I can let you live like this, Ariana thought, then flinched. The very idea of it pumped ice-cold fear through Ariana's veins. She didn't want to hurt Lexa. Lexa had been a good friend to her. And she didn't want any more blood on her hands. Not if she could help it. Especially not when she had finally gotten every last thing she wanted. She didn't want to have to do these things anymore. She wanted to live a normal life.

"Lexa, you'll be fine. I promise."

Lexa ducked her head, wiped her eyes with her fingertips, and speed-walked back toward the house. A stiff wind blew a pile of leaves up into the air, where they swirled for a moment before settling again around her feet--over Kaitlynn's grave.

Ariana turned her back to the house, clenched her jaw, and stared down at the ground, imagining Kaitlynn smiling up at her. Laughing at her.

"Y ou're never going to stop causing me problems, are you?" Ariana said under her breath. She stomped once on the ground, seeing Kaitlynn's face beneath her stiletto boot. Then she turned on her heel and, feeling only marginally better, rejoined the party.

Unfortunately, she knew that she wasn't going to enjoy one second of it from that moment on. Because now she was going to spend the entire morning obsessing over plan B--a plan that she had yet to fully consider, hoping she wouldn't need it. Ariana sighed as she closed the door behind her and stepped into the warm parlor. Stupid Ariana. You should know by now. You always, always need a plan B. Ariana stood near the fireplace, sipping her mimosa as she watched Lexa socialize with their friends. The tears were gone, and she hadn't looked back toward the garden once.

Still, Ariana had made progress on her plan B. If she could find a way to make it all come together, she would have a safety net if the world of Briana Leigh Covington came crashing down. But that didn't mean she'd given up hope for plan A. Unfortunately, that plan involved Jasper, and he was nowhere to be found.

"Hey."

Suddenly someone grabbed Ariana's arm and whirled her around and through the open door to the dining room. The lights were dimmer in the wallpapered space, and as Jasper tugged her into the corner, Ariana felt suddenly closed off from the party.

Speak of the devil, Ariana thought.

She glanced past his shoulder toward the far end of the room, where Keiko and the chef were just disappearing through a pair of white doors leading to the kitchen. She and Jasper where completely alone.

"What are you doing?" Ariana demanded.

"I need to talk to you," Jasper replied. He stepped back, putting some distance between them, and Ariana felt slightly more comfortable. He was wearing a light blue shirt under a dark blue sport coat and jeans--the only jeans at the party--but at least he'd had the good sense to wear a pair of Brooks Brothers shoes and not sneakers.

"Good," she said, standing up straight and clearing her throat. "I need to talk to you, too."

Jasper hesitated, pressing a fist into his hand. His eyebrows arched, intrigued. "Okay. Ladies first."

"Okay," she said. She glanced back toward the door to the parlor, considering all the delicate ways she could put this. But then she remembered she was talking to Jasper. And Jasper always appreciated the straightforward approach. Besides, it would be better to get this over with. "Soomie wants to ask you to the ball. Any interest?"

Jasper blinked. His hands dropped to his sides. "That's what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Yes," Ariana replied. She crossed her arms over her chest. "So do you like her or not?"

Slowly, Jasper's lips stretched into a sly smile. "Are you . . . jealous?"

Ariana's jaw dropped. "No, I'm not jealous," she replied. "I actually think it's kind of annoying how you're always flirting with me. Especially considering that I have a boyfriend. And because, apparently, you like someone else."

Jasper took a step closer to her. The look on his face was one of pure self-satisfaction. "No," he said, "I do not like Soomie."