Page 33 of Private (Private 1)
“Nice play, Brennan!” Coach shouted from the sidelines.
I smiled and offered Noelle my hand. But when I looked into her eyes, my heart slammed to a halt. She spat on the ground and glared right through me, seething.
I should have been running downfield after the play, but I
couldn’t move. Cheers erupted near the far goal and Coach blew the whistle. Noelle shoved herself up from the ground and all I could think about was the fact that she was going to kill me. Kill me dead.
For that split second, all the viciousness she was capable of was dis-cernable in her eyes and for some reason I thought of that scar under her clothes, so violent and red. No longer did it seem so very out of place.
P R I V A T E
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attention to it because I would be playing, sports requirement
or no.
“Oh, I don’t,” she said. Then, off my confused look, “Health
reasons.”
TRUST ME
“Oh.” She didn’t elaborate and I didn’t feel like she wanted me to ask. Of course, now I had one more thing to obsess about. What could Ariana possibly have that would preclude her from fulfilling her physical fitness requirement?
“So . . . making friends?” she asked.
The other sophomores on the team took off right after practice,
“I guess,” I said.
so I walked back to Bradwell alone. I wasn’t sure why my peers
“How’s y
our floor?” she asked.
had decided to alienate me. Because I was new? Because Coach had
“It’s . . . good,” I said. Constance seemed okay and Diana was
singled me out? Because they felt like it?—but I wasn’t surprised.
nice enough.
Alone was my natural state of being. For now.
“What about guys?”
I hoisted my gym bag on my shoulder as I came around the
My mind instantly flashed on Thomas and I felt the cool metal of building toward the front door. The moment I got there, Ariana
the subway token against my sweat-caked skin. The Billings Girls stepped out from the alcove, scaring me nearly to death.
had to respect a girl who caught the attention of a hot senior on her
“Hey,” she said. She clutched a couple of notebooks to her chest.
