“Just shut up,” he said.
And then he kissed her.
“Lexa, where are you going?”
Everyone at the lunch table looked at Ariana, who realized with an embarrassed pang that she had maybe blurted that question a tad too loudly. Lexa paused, half out of her chair at the head of the table.
“To the bathroom,” she said flatly.
Ariana shoved her chair back. “I’ll come with you.”
She dropped her sandwich, placed her napkin alongside her plate, and got up. She hadn’t let Lexa out of her sight for a second all day. She just couldn’t risk it. Not until she made sure the girl was stable. Or decided what, exactly, to do if she wasn’t.
As Ariana followed Lexa to the end of the table and out into the aisle, all she could think about was the fact that the crazy behavior had to stop. She didn’t want to forge a new life for herself. She wanted to live this one.
Even if it didn’t come to that—even if Lexa never mentioned a word about Kaitlynn, even if her ramblings continued to be nonspecific, they had to stop. Because one more nonspecific public rambling was going to get her ousted as president of Stone and Grave. And Ariana couldn’t have that. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to use Lexa’s power for yet, but she knew it was going to come in handy one day. It would be nice if she had some time to figure out how.
“So, you had Ferren for English last year, right?” Ariana asked as the two girls made their way around chair legs and tossed backpacks.
“God. Don’t remind me,” Lexa replied, rolling her eyes.
“I know! She really likes to have a lot of grades in before the end of the term.”
“Seriously,” Lexa said, hugging herself. “It’s like the first half of the semester there’s barely any work, and then she suddenly starts piling it on.”
“At least she assigns good books,” Ariana said. Small talk was so very normal. So very not crazy. “There’s not one I haven’t enjoyed reading.”
Lexa shoved open the swinging door that led to the lobby and the bathrooms beyond. She held it so that Ariana could walk through first “Right. But it doesn’t matter if you like them or not. What matters is whether or not you can remember every character and their motivation.”
“Is that what the test will be about?” Ariana asked, following Lexa over to the bathroom.
“Yep. Trust me. Make a character list, and write down exactly why each one of them did what they did. It’s the best way to study.” She started into the bathroom, but paused. “Oh, and make sure you get the spellings right. She’ll dock you points for misspellings.”
“Noted,” Ariana said.
At that moment, the side door to the building swung open, and Jasper walked in. Ariana’s heart skipped an excited, anticipatory beat, but it was quickly extinguished by guilt. The kissing the night before . . . it had been amazing. But it had also been wrong. Very wrong. She was with Palmer. And Ariana was a lot of things, but she’d never been a cheater.
Ariana glanced at Lexa, who waited just inside the bathroom. Part of her hesitated, not wanting to leave Lexa alone for even a second. But the bathroom appeared empty, and Jasper was sauntering toward her.
Lexa couldn’t spontaneously confess to anyone in the bathroom if there was no one to spontaneously confess to, right?
“I’ll be in in a sec,” she told Lexa.
“Okay.” Lexa let the door close, and Ariana turned to face Jasper.
“Hey,” he said, pausing in front of her with a smile. This time it wasn’t sly, but comfortable. As if he was settling in because he now knew where he stood. Which just made her feel even guiltier, this time over what she was about to do to him.
“Hey,” she said tentatively.
“So listen, I’ve been thinking about your double date last night,” Jasper said.
Ariana blinked. That was unexpected.
“And you know what I think?” He tilted his head, one hand in the pocket of his slacks.
“Um, what?” Ariana asked, taken off guard.
He took a step, closing the gap between them, reache