Pure Sin

  Which, luckily, Ariana Osgood knew how to inflict.

  She took a step forward, ready for however long a search she’d need to conduct, when suddenly, just like that, she was there. Right there. Striding her long, confident, Reed Brennan strides toward the library, her thick brown hair swinging behind her in natural waves. Ariana’s eyes narrowed. Her nostrils flared. She gripped her forearm with her hand and zeroed in.

  Reed was a fast walker, but Ariana quickly closed the gap between the two of them, taking in Reed’s expensive Chloé boots, her designer jeans, her cashmere jacket. Hating every detail of her, from her unpolished, short nails to her plain black headband. She was five feet away, then two, one. When Ariana’s hand came down on her shoulder, she yelped and whirled around.

  “Yes?” the girl snapped, hand to her heart. Her too-close-together eyes came even closer over her pointy nose.

  Ariana blinked. It was not Reed at all.

  “I . . . I’m sorry,” Ariana stammered, feeling suddenly and supremely stupid. “I thought . . . I thought you were someone else.”

  The girl’s face relaxed. “Oh. That’s okay.” She smiled and started to turn, but paused. “Actually . . . you do look kinda familiar. What’s your name?”

  Ariana swallowed hard. She had forgotten for a moment who she was. Who she needed to be to survive. Who she was now and must always be from now on. A girl who had never even met Reed Brennan—never even heard of her. A girl who had no idea of the destruction Reed Brennan had wrought.

  She took a breath and smiled. It was a near miss, but that’s all it had been. A miss. She couldn’t start obsessing about Reed Brennan again. That course of action only ever led to bad things, horrible things. She had to stop this here and now before she completely lost control.

  “I’m Briana Leigh Covington,” she said firmly. “Of the Texas Covingtons.”

  The girl’s brow knit. “Oh. Okay. Guess not, then.”

  As she turned around and headed into the library, Ariana did a 180 and walked back across campus, keeping her head down.

  A near miss. That was all it was. But if Reed Brennan had seen her—if she had looked into the face of her enemy—it would all be over. Ariana could not allow herself to go down that path.

  She had many, many other things to focus on. More important things, more positive things. Things like her new fortune, her perfect boyfriend, and the rest of her perfectly charmed life.

  The following morning dawned as bright and crisp as the day before, and Ariana was feeling much more herself as she walked across campus toward the dining hall. The white spire of the APH chapel seemed to smile down at her approvingly from above, and she realized for the first time how very at home she felt among the red brick buildings, the winding walkways, the stone arches of APH. She was up and out before everyone else on her floor, but that was the way she wanted it today. She wanted some time alone to breathe. Some time to focus on herself. Some time to just be here, to relish how far she’d come.

  Some time to repeat to herself over and over again the grand total of what she was now worth, a number so very long she stumbled over it every time she tried to conjure it up. Just thinking of it now, Ariana giggled to herself and shivered inside her wool coat.

  “Well, someone’s happy this morning.”

  Ariana jumped as Jasper fell into step with her, his breath making a large cloud of steam in the morning air.

  “What are you doing up so early?” Ariana asked.

  “I’m a morning person,” he said, tilting his head. “Actually, I’ll admit it. I was waiting for you.”

  Ariana’s heart skipped a beat. “So you’re stalking me now?” she joked.

  “Do you want me to stalk you?” Jasper joked back. But there was something hopeful behind the playful gleam in his eye—which Ariana chose to ignore. “Seriously, though. I just wanted to see how you were doing. About your grandmother.”

  Fantastically, thanks, Ariana thought. “I’m okay,” she said in a melancholy tone.

  “Well, if you need anything, I’m at your service,” he told her, with a slight bow of his head, his blond bangs falling across one eye. “I know that between Palmer and Lexa you probably have all your bases covered, but the offer stands.”

  “Thank you,” Ariana replied, touched.

  Arriving at the dining hall, Jasper leaned back against the outer wall and looked up at the sun, letting out a contented sigh. His gold and blue tie was knotted tightly, unlike most of the boys who went for the more casual, open-necked, loosened-knot look.

  “Don’t you just wish we could stay out here all day?” he mused.

  “On a day like this, yes,” Ariana said with a smile.

  Jasper tugged an orange pill bottle out of his pocket and popped it open.

  “What are you taking?” Ariana knit her brow as she tilted her head to see the label. The prescription was issued by a Dr. Lance Montgomery. “Do you have a doctor in the family?” she asked, intrigued.

  “Nosy much?” Jasper teased. He tossed the pill in his mouth and swallowed it dry, then nodded casually in greeting to a pair of teachers who walked by them and into the building. “Yes, my cousin is a general practitioner, and he writes my allergy prescriptions for me.”

  “That’s convenient,” Ariana said.

  “Beats having to find a local doctor who isn’t a complete buffoon,” Jasper said. As he tucked the bottle away, his cell phone beeped. He yanked it out of the side pocket on his messenger bag and rolled his eyes at the screen.

  “My mother again,” he groused. “No, Mom, I do not know whether the sheets at the Ritz frickin’ Carlton are Egyptian cotton or not!” He yelled into the phone, which was, of course, not connected to anything. He sighed and shoved it away again. Ariana laughed.

  “Your mother definitely sounds like a woman who knows what she wants,” she said as she hugged her chemistry book to her chest.

  “Yes, she is,” Jasper said. He shook his head in an exasperated but fond way. “Do you want to meet my parents this weekend, Miss Covington?” He asked, pushing himself away from the wall. “Because I’d love to introduce them to you.”

  “Depends,” she said, lifting a shoulder. She looked up at him through her thick lashes. “Will I like them?”

  Jasper grinned. “Most girls worry about whether the parents will like them.”

  Ariana turned and opened the door to the dining hall. With one hand on the handle, she leaned toward him, her coat just brushing his.

  “First of all, your parents are not the parents to me. Palmer’s parents are,” Ariana teased. His face fell slightly, but then he tossed his head, flicking his bangs away from his eyes and coming back to himself. “And secondly,” Ariana said, smiling, “I’m not most girls.”

  Slowly, Jasper smiled back. Ariana walked into the dining hall ahead of him, and just before the door closed in his face, she heard him say under his breath, “No, you’re not.”

  “See, the problem with the Stone and Grave Ball is that you have to take a member of Stone and Grave,” Maria said, lazily turning the page of last year’s Atherton-Pryce Hall Golden, the slim hardcover yearbook. She was lying on her stomach on the floor of her and Lexa’s room in a tank top and pajama pants, a bottle of sparkling water within reach. “It cuts down your potential dates by about seventy-five percent.”

  “Ah, Maria. She can only do the heavy math if the topic is boys or sales,” Lexa joked, leaning back on her pillows. She opened a Vogue magazine and started to page through it.

  Ariana laughed as she and Soomie leaned in toward the yearbook on either side of Maria. “What about Carlton Goff ?” Ariana suggested, looking over Maria’s ponytail at Soomie. In his picture from the year prior, Carlton’s now short hair was long around the ears, and he wore a serious expression. “He’s kinda cute.”

  “Ugh. Have you ever actually spoken to Carlton Goff ?” Soomie asked.

  Ariana shook her head. “Not really.”

  Soomie leaned back on her hands, h
er long black hair dangling almost to the floor. “That boy is (A) condescending, (B) nasal, and (C) needs to buy stock in Listerine.”

  “So true,” Lexa confirmed with a wrinkle of her nose. She flipped a page and held up the perfume sample she found there for a sniff.

  “Ew. Then why did he get into Stone and Grave?” Ariana asked, reaching for her own bottle of water.

  “Legacy,” the other three girls answered in unison.

  “Ah,” Ariana replied knowingly.

  “Well, there has to be somebody in here Soomie can ask,” Maria said, flipping to the next page.

  “Why are we all focused on Soomie, anyway? Don’t you need a date too, Maria?” Lexa said, sitting up. She had torn out the perfume sample and was now swiping the scent strip across her wrists. “No offense,” she added, nudging Soomie’s back with her bare toe.

  “None taken,” Soomie replied.

  Lexa and Soomie eyed Maria with interest as Ariana casually looked away, suddenly riveted by the pilling atop her cashmere sock. Maria blithely flipped another page, lifting her tiny shoulders. “I don’t mind being dateless. Soomie, however, does.”

  Ariana looked up in time to see Lexa and Soomie exchange a glance.

  “I’ve got it! What about one of the newbies,” Maria said, sitting up straight and swinging her legs around in front of her. “You can ask Adam! Or Jasper!”

  Ariana’s heart twisted in an odd way at the mention of Jasper. She tugged the now abandoned yearbook onto her thighs and flipped to last year’s juniors.

  “Or Landon,” Lexa put in.

  There was a brief pause. “I’m so over Landon,” Soomie replied. “And Adam . . . I don’t know. He and Brigit were really close. I’d just feel weird. But Jasper . . . I’ve actually had some moments with him.”

  “Real-ly?” Lexa asked, sliding off the bed and onto the floor with the rest of them. “What kind of moments?”

  Soomie blushed. “I don’t know. I think he might like me.”

  “Do you?” Ariana asked. Her voice sounded tense. But why? She shook out her arms, trying to relax. It would be great if Jasper liked Soomie. Right?

  “Why didn’t you mention this before we spent half an hour going through the yearbook?” Maria asked, taking a swig of her water.

  “I don’t know,” Soomie said, blushing even darker and flipping her hair. “But he’s always making excuses to talk to me. Like asking for my help with trig and checking to see if I need refills at lunch.”

  That’s just because he’s lazy and a gentleman, Ariana thought.

  She found herself squeezing her water bottle and placed it back down on the floor. She stared down at her wet, cold fingers as Lexa and Maria peppered Soomie with questions about her and Jasper’s potential. Her face felt hot, and she realized, suddenly, that she had thought that Jasper liked her. Not that she would ever do anything about it. It was just kind of nice to feel special. But if he’d been treating Soomie the same way all along . . . then she wasn’t special at all.

  But you’re special to Palmer. That’s all that matters, she told herself, feeling silly and more than a little bit selfish.

  “You guys seem to hang out a lot, Ana,” Soomie said suddenly. “Has he ever mentioned me?”

  Ariana bit her lip. “No, actually, he hasn’t.”

  “Oh.” Soomie looked down at her lap.

  “But that doesn’t mean anything,” Ariana said in a rush. “He’s a guy.”

  The other girls looked at one another knowingly. That argument explained away all manners of behavior.

  “Well, do you think you could talk to him?” Maria asked. “At least find out if he has a date yet. Then we’ll know if Soomie should even bother.”

  Ariana swallowed hard. “Sure. I’ll talk to him.”

  “Really? Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Soomie said, flinging her arms around Ariana’s neck. “You’re the best, Ana.”

  Ariana smiled as she hugged Soomie back. Somehow she couldn’t exactly see Soomie and Jasper as a couple, but if this was what her friend wanted, of course she would try to help her. No matter how bad an idea she thought it was.

  “So, you’re doing okay?” Palmer asked Ariana on Wednesday evening, as they kicked back in what was now becoming their spot at the Hill. It was the comfiest suede couch with the best view of the river, so of course it belonged to the most admired couple in the school. Ariana cuddled into Palmer’s shoulder and slipped her arm around his waist, relishing the feel of his six-pack under his shirt.

  “Oh, I’m doing just fine,” she murmured.

  Palmer ran his fingers over the hair on the crown of her head, lifting it and dropping it over and over in a rhythmic way. He kissed her part, then rested his chin on top of her head.

  “Are you sure? You’re not upset that you’re not going to have a chance to say good-bye?”

  Ariana cringed. Right. He was talking about Grandma Covington. Why did she keep forgetting about that? It was kind of an important detail of Briana Leigh’s life.

  “I’ve said good-bye in my own way,” she told him, infusing her voice with melancholy. “She didn’t want me to have to go to all the trouble of traveling home. That’s how she was. She always put me first.”

  Ariana made all of this up off the cuff. If anything, in the brief time she’d seen Briana Leigh and her grandmother together, Grandma Covington couldn’t have cared less about what made Briana Leigh happy or comfortable. In that relationship, it was Grandma’s way or the highway, which was exactly how Briana Leigh had ended up on a plane to Atherton-Pryce against her will. But Palmer didn’t need to know that.

  “Hey, guys! What’s going on?” Micah Granger said, lifting a hand as he passed by with some of his friends.

  “Yo, Palmer!” Rob Mellon added, striding by with his arm around Tahira. “Halo in my room later. Time for me to whoop your ass.”

  “Yeah, yeah. We’ll see,” Palmer replied.

  Tahira gave Ariana a wave as the couple headed out through the double door. Then a pack of junior girls walked in, glancing covetously at Palmer and giggling on their way to the coffee counter. Ariana smirked and cuddled closer to her man. This was where she was supposed to be. Palmer was the most popular guy on campus. Everyone adored him. All the guys wanted to be him, and now all the girls wanted to be her just because she was with him.

  Ariana followed the girls with her eyes on their way to the coffee counter, just to make sure they knew she was not intimidated. But when she caught sight of Jasper standing on line, she flinched. He leaned back against the pastry case, his legs crossed at the ankle, and simply stared at her. He didn’t blink or look away when she caught his eye.

  Even though Ariana detested being the first to break eye contact, she did. She turned her face toward Palmer’s chest and cuddled closer to him. She had no idea what Jasper was thinking, but she felt the need to let him know—right then and there—that Palmer was the guy she wanted. That this was the life she wanted. The life she had been working toward all these months as Briana Leigh Covington. And even all those years she’d lived as Ariana Osgood.

  “Okay, what’s up with Lexa?” Palmer said suddenly.

  Ariana’s heart dropped. She looked at the other side of the room, where she knew Lexa, Maria, and Soomie were sitting with a few of their sophomore hangers-on—Quinn as well as Jessica and Melanie. She watched as Lexa crumbled a disinfecting wipe, then snatched another from Quinn, who was holding it out to her. She scrubbed at her hands maniacally, as if she was trying to remove a permanent pen mark from her skin. Maria and Soomie were both eyeing her, clearly disturbed.

  “What do you mean?” Ariana asked blithely, as if she saw nothing wrong, even though the pit of her stomach was turning inside out.

  “She’s been acting kind of weird lately,” Palmer said, sitting up straight so that Ariana had to sit up, too. She picked up her coffee and took a sip, keeping an eye on Lexa. “I mean, that’s the fourth time I’ve seen her washing her hands today.”
br />   Ariana gulped. “Really?” She grabbed a napkin from the table and touched it to her lips. “I don’t know. Hasn’t she always been a little bit cleanly? I mean her room is so organized, it’s like she’s practically OCD.”

  “Maybe a little, but this is weird,” Palmer said. His expression hovered somewhere between disgusted and concerned as he watched his ex-girlfriend toss the wipe aside and snag yet another. “I don’t know, do you think that maybe this rift between her parents is affecting her more than she’s let on?”

  “Well, she is an only child,” Ariana replied. “It’s hard for only children when they start to see their family break up.”

  “I guess.”

  Across the room, Soomie leaned forward and took the wipe out of Lexa’s hand before she could remove another layer of skin. Lexa blinked and looked up, as if startled. Soomie placed her hands over Lexa’s and said a few words, and Lexa seemed to realize, for the first time, what she’d been doing. She slumped back into the couch as if exhausted, and stared down at her hands, which were raw, red, and trembling.

  Ariana’s breath started to come quick and shallow. She had to get Lexa back on an even keel. If she didn’t, the results could be disastrous. For both of them.

  “I’ve been thinking, maybe you, me, Lexa, and Connie should go out on a double date,” Ariana said, turning toward Palmer, suddenly bright-eyed.

  His brows shot up. “You think?”

  “Yeah. Why not? It could be fun,” Ariana said, turning her knees toward his.

  “Fun. To go on a date with my current girlfriend, my ex-girlfriend, and her current boyfriend,” Palmer deadpanned.

  Ariana took a breath for patience. “I know it could be weird, but she’s my best friend, and you and Conrad are friends too. Sooner or later we’re all going to have to hang out together. The sooner it happens, the sooner we can get past the uncomfortable part and start feeling okay about the whole thing.”

  Palmer frowned, considering this, and took a long sip of his coffee. “Okay,” he said finally. “If it’s something you think we should do, I’m in. But let’s do it after parents’ weekend. Things are going to be insane for the next few days.”