I hop up, quickly pulling my skirt down a bit so I don’t flash them entirely and grab one of the hot sandwiches the boys brought along with them on a tray.
“I have to get going, Dana’s family is picking us up any minute now.”
Both Blair and Astor get hurriedly to their feet. Astor shifts his weight uncomfortably, and it takes all my resolve not to draw any attention to the unmistakable bulge in his pants.
“That’s early,” Wills says with a frown. “I didn’t think you were leaving until tomorrow.”
“Me either,” I say, “But they decided to come down today instead … something about reservations that got moved up.” I glance over at Astor. “I’m sure there won’t be any trouble with me missing a couple classes, will there?”
A sly smile creases the corner of his mouth. “I don’t believe there will,” he says.
“Are you sure I can’t convince you to stay with me instead?” Blair asks for the millionth time.
I just shake my head.
“I need this time with Dana. I haven’t had any time for her in weeks. You boys take a lot of work, you know,” I say. I plant a quick kiss on each of them—though Blair turns it into a dramatic, sweeping snog—and run up and back up to the dorms before one of them actually does manage to convince me to change my plans.
Thank god Dana invited me to stay with her over Thanksgiving. I still have to work something out for Christmas break, but I’m just taking things one at a time right now. Though the way the boys have been acting lately, I’m feeling pretty con
fident that I’ll be able to stay with one of them if I play my cards right.
I stop by the office on my way back to the room to make a quick … withdrawal. I almost fainted the first time I walked in and asked for five hundred dollars in cash. I was sure they’d refuse me, or worse, try to contact my parents, but it was given to me without so much as a batted eyelash. It surprised me how easy it was. Too easy.
So easy that the guilt of it ebbed faster than it should. It’s become just one more thing to add to my ever-growing list of lies keeping me here at the academy.
I walk by Victoria on the way back to grab my things. It’s a little odd. I don’t usually see her this far down the hall since her room is the very first one by the stairs. She doesn’t look at me, but something about the way she quickens her step as soon as she spots me makes me even more suspicious.
As soon as I open the door, Dana shoots up from the edge of her bed.
I stop, one handle on the door, and take a quick glance down the hall as Victoria disappears into her own room.
“Were you … hanging out with Victoria, just now?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dana says, quickly busying herself by organizing a stack of already organized papers.
“Right.” I shut the door behind me and take a cautious look around. Nothing seems to be missing or defaced … which is the only reason I can imagine she’d be in here in the first place.
I decide not to push the issue. Of course, I don’t trust Victoria … but the last thing I’m going to do is interrogate Dana about it right now. I’ll let her have a little moment, but we’ll have to talk about it when we come back from break.
Because if Victoria is suddenly noticing Dana, it’s not because she’s realized what a genuine, caring person she is. It’s because she’s planning something.
I don’t have time to think on it long. Dana’s parents arrive early and we’re whisked off away from the school, and away from all the problems of the last semester. At least for a little while.
Chapter 21
Thanksgiving with Dana’s family is like living in a Hallmark movie; late autumn trees, a little light snow one morning, and warm sun and feather down pillows the rest of the time.
It’s easy to see where she gets her good nature. Her father is some high-ranking judge and her mother an heiress, but you’d never guess it from the way they behave around me and Dana. Well, aside from the sprawling Connecticut mansion where they live.
The weekend passes like a dream, but I find myself anxious to get back to the academy. Astor, Blair, and Wills have become a staple in my life … and try as I might to keep them at bay, I’m starting to develop genuine feelings for them. I’ve only been gone a few days, but I miss them already.
No one’s ever questioned why I don’t have a cell phone back at the school, but the silence from the boys without the ability to call or text them grows heavy on my mind … especially when I catch Dana sneakily smiling at texts of her own a couple of times, though she fervently denies it.
There’s only one person who can make her act like this, and it unsettles me. I promised myself I wouldn’t bring it up until we’re back at school, but when she claims a headache on Sunday night and leaves me to eat dinner with her parents alone just so she can take a mysterious phone call upstairs, it’s the final straw.
The guilty look on her face when I step into her room is all the proof I need.
“Hey Dana,” I start, not entirely sure the right way to bring this up. I don’t think there is a right way to bring it up. “I wanted to ask you something a little … personal.”