Invitation Only (Private 2) - Page 18

some­thing even snarki­er, but then both of them blanched. Had I just sprung horns or some­thing?

“I have to go,” Blon­der said.

It wasn't un­til they had both got­ten up and scur­ried off that I felt a pres­ence be­hind me. Some­how I wasn't sur­prised when I turned around and saw Noelle just com­ing to a stop.

“Oh. Did I scare off your lit­tle friends?” she asked, arch­ing an eye­brow.

“Ap­par­ent­ly,” I said. “Thanks for that.”

“Any­time,” she told me. “Girls have to learn their place.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, my heart still pound­ing.

“I mean they don't get to mess with you, Glass-?lick­er,” she said, sling­ing her arm over my shoul­der. “That's my job.”

I ac­tu­al­ly man­aged a laugh.

“So. How are you hold­ing up?” Noelle asked. 'You must be so sick of all this Pear­son crap al­ready."

My heart turned over, as it did at ev­ery men­tion of Thomas. “Aren't you wor­ried about him at all?” I asked.

Noelle slipped away from me and looked me in the eye. As al­ways, she was near­ly im­pos­si­ble to read. “Reed, Thomas

Pear­son has a way of al­ways land­ing on his feet.”

“If you say so,” I replied.

“You can­not lis­ten to what all the lit­tle id­iots with no lives around here are say­ing,” she said adamant­ly. "Look at Dash and Gage. They've known Pear­son their en­tire lives and they're not wor­ried. Why? Be­cause they know him. And they

50

know that he's out there some­where hav­ing a big fat laugh at our ex­pense."

I smirked sad­ly at the thought. 'You think?"

“I know,” Noelle replied, hook­ing her arm through mine. “Stop wor­ry­ing about him. Be­cause soon­er or lat­er he's go­ing to show up here like it's one big joke and then you are go­ing to be so pissed you wast­ed your time.”

I took a deep breath and let her words sink in. Thomas was fine. All his friends--the peo­ple who knew him best--be­lieved he was fine. They even be­lieved he was go­ing to show up at that Lega­cy thing all ready to par­ty. Who was I to doubt their cer­tain­ty?

“So. Ready for a lit­tle kick-?ass soc­cer prac­tice?” Noelle asked. “I promise I won't lay you out to­day. Wait. Ac­tu­al­ly, I don't.”

I laughed as we head­ed off to­ward Billings to change. A lit­tle kick-?ass soc­cer prac­tice was ex­act­ly what I need­ed.

“What were you crazy kids talk­ing about any­way?” Noelle asked. “Looked se­ri­ous.”

For a split sec­ond I con­sid­ered ask­ing her about the Lega­cy. But I wasn't yet des­per­ate enough to re­mind Noelle that I knew so lit­tle about the in­ner work­ings of this place. I'd just have to keep try­ing to find out on my own.

“Oh, you know, the lat­est in Ve­ra Wang,” I said blithe­ly as we turned up the path to Billings.

Noelle laughed for a long time. “That's what I like about you, Reed,” she said be­tween gasps for air. “Some­times you re­al­ly slay me.”

51

DEAR REED

“Ugh! I just can­not take this sweater one more sec­ond,” Lon­don Sim­mons said, pulling a creamy white cash­mere sweater over her head and toss­ing it at her sil­ver garbage can. Her dark brown hair grazed her bare back, falling in­to per­fect waves.

“Lon­don! You can­not just throw away cash­mere,” her room­mate, Vi­en­na Clark, replied.

Tags: Kate Brian Private
Source: readsnovelonline.net
readsnovelonline.net Copyright 2016 - 2024