try, Glass-Licker, but no sale."
She started to turn away from me. Classic Noelle egotism. Didn't she get that she was in danger?
"Okay. Let me rephrase," I said, putting on my best condescending tone--one I had learned from
Noelle herself. One I knew she would respond to. "What if I told you she's still pissed about how
you, Cheyenne, and Ariana left her alone at her grandmother's her sophomore year?"
Noelle whipped around to face me again. I'd never seen her react so automatically, so fiercely.
Normally she took a moment to pause, consider, and collect herself before reacting to anything.
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"What do you know about that?" she asked, going pale.
I allowed myself a moment of triumph. Finally I'd done it. I'd actually gotten her to feel that
paranoid uncertainty that she made others feel every single day. She didn't appear to enjoy it any
more than the rest of us did. And I wasn't even close to finished.
"I know everything," I said, lowering my voice and taking a step closer. "Including the fact that Ivy
blames you, Ariana, and Cheyenne for her grandmother's stroke--and death."
Noelle blinked, her eyes filling with something that looked a lot like fear. I was getting to her. She
was finally, finally listening to me.
"Don't you think it's all a little suspect?" I asked. "Ivy comes back to school this year and Cheyenne
ends up murdered within a month? Ariana's in an institution, so she can't get to her, but you...
you're right here. You're next."
"Why are you doing this?" Noelle asked, her voice strong but her eyes uncertain. "Why are you
trying to scare me?"
"I'm not," I told her. "I'm trying to warn you. I'm trying to protect you."
Noelle looked me in the eye and for a split second, I could see her start to cave. Start to realize
that I was still her friend. That we needed each other. That one stupid night with one stupid guy
should not get in the way of all that. But then, out of nowhere, her face turned to stone.
"And don't tell me. You feel you need to be living in Billings to properly protect me, right?" She let
out a short, incredulous laugh.
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"You're really grasping at straws here, Reed. And desperation, by the way, is not becoming."
"Noelle--"