"Sterilized, get it?" he said to Ariana, his tone deadpan. He loosened his black tuxedo tie and slung
one arm over the back of his chair. "Because I'm ridden with germs. She's hilarious."
Ariana shifted her gaze and
inched away from Thomas and closer to Daniel, tucking her shoulder
into the crook of his arm.
"Seriously, come to Vermont," Paige said to Isabella, ignoring Thomas as she always did. Even
though he was Dash's best friend and came from one of New York's best families, Paige never gave
him the time of day. "Save me from being the third wheel to the sappy couple over here," she
added, gesturing at Ariana and Daniel with a strawberry.
"Aw, you're just bitter because Brady dumped you the second he got to Yale," Daniel teased his
sister.
Paige's eyes flashed angrily. "Excuse me, I did not get dumped. I broke up with him."
261
Everyone glanced around the table. They all knew that Brady Flynn had booted Paige. Several Yale-
bound Easton alums had witnessed the dumping and instantly texted their friends about it. But of
course no one would contradict Paige--to her face, anyway.
"So what's the Lange family's Christmas protocol?" Isabella asked Noelle, deftly changing topics
before Paige exploded. The last time Paige lost her temper, it had not been pretty. During chores
one morning post-breakup she had reduced the normally tough Leanne Shore to tears, demanding
she remake Paige's bed ten times until the hospital corners were at perfect ninety-degree angles.
Afterward Leanne had spent an hour in the nurse's office with her inhaler, fighting off a panic
attack.
Ariana was proud that she had never broken down like that during hazing. Not in public, anyway.
"The ballet, cocktails with my father's miserable excuse for an attorney and his overstuffed wife.
The usual," Noelle said. "My parents will probably try to sneak in a little face time with the
extracurriculars and write it off as Christmas shopping, meaning they have to buy me more
presents. They get a little ass, I get a little Armani. It's a win-win."
Noelle talked about her parents' affairs like she was giving an oral report on the industrial
revolution. As if there were nothing in the world that could have been more mundane. Ariana
fingered one of her aquamarine drop earrings, envying how everything was so easy, so