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When she returned to her seat, Kelsey was doubled over "You totally choked!"

"I know," Ehter "I didn’t expect her to be nice!"

"Sometimes people aren’t what they seem" Kelsey sed a chuckle "Like you You look all sweet and sporty, but deep down you’re a wild child" And then, before Eave Emily a little peck on the cheek "And I love it," she whispered in Emily’s ear

"Thanks," Eht about that--people weren’t what they seemed Kelsey wasn’t a crazy, duplicitous stalker, as Spencer had iirl, much like Emily was

She was also the coolest friend Eirl E anytime soon

Chapter 16

ARIA’S FAVORITE BOOK EVER

On Mondaystudy table in the Rosewood Library The roo at the coa, Aria pulled out the thick e she’d read Instantly, a blush rose to her cheeks Ezra’s novel was utterly roiven her a different name--Anita--and they lived in a different town--soirl in the book had long, blue-black hair, a y ballerina fra blue eyes, which was exactly what Aria sahen she looked in a mirror The novel had started out with an account of Anita and Jack, Ezra’s alias, e tas a conversation about how shitty Aia about Iceland On page seven, they snuck off to the bathrooot to see the situation from Ezra’s perspective He wrote that Anita was "fresh" and "nubile" and "the stuff of dreams" Her hair was "like spun silk," and her lips "tasted like petals" Not that Aria thought petals really had a taste, but it was still awesome

The similarities didn’t stop there When Jack and Anita discovered they were teacher and student, they got all weird and embarrassed about it, just like they had in real life Only, in Ezra’s novel, they figured out a way to make it work They met in secret after school at Jack’s aparts They confessed their love to one another by night and acted coe ier than Aria had ever been in real life, and how Jack could be droning and pedantic at ti Anita to diatribes about philosophy and literature But those things were easy to adjust in the next draft

As Aria read, all worries that Ezra had forgotten about her in the year he’d been away flew out theWriting this novel had surely taken htful months--Aria must have been on his mind all the time

"Hey, can I talk to you?"

Aria looked up and saw Hanna pulling back a chair beside her She covered the lossy bottolanced around nervously--"you knoho is Kelsey?"

Aria twisted her"I don’t know Maybe"

Hanna looked worried, ood reason Aria had been surprised when she heard that Hanna had helped get Spencer out of jail She reotten caught with drugs She’d felt terrible for hanging up on Spencer, but she would have felt wrong helping her, too And anyway, she had still been s from the last time she’d seen Spencer, at one of Noel’s parties a feeeks before

Spencer had come to the party with Kelsey, and it was obvious the two of theh the bash, at about the ti, Aria had pulled Spencer around the side of the Kahns’ house, where it was quieter "I realize we all need to blow off sos, Spence? Really?"

Spencer rolled her eyes "You and Hanna are worse than parents It’s safe--I swear And actually, Aria, if you ever break up with Noel, you should go for my dealer--he’s hot and totally your type"

"Is this because of your friend?" Aria spotted Kelsey across the Kahns’ expansive lawn She was sitting in James Freed’s lap, and her blouse had fallen off her shoulder, revealing the lacy cup of her bra "Did she get you into this?"

"Why do you care?" Spencer’s features were cold and closed