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They wanted to devour everything Sa he built

A light splash froh the water This was her nineteenth lap Watching her go back and forth helped hi upstairs Idiots He had to do it all, and if he rong, just once, they gru They’d try to kill him before the rest of the school had a chance to Sa or the rest of the school, they were going to lose He would be the lastin here

Hilary stepped up out of the pool and wrung the water fro her hair nearly white ht She was being defiant because he hit her He adular bruise under her eye She was so beautiful She wrapped a towel around her naked body

"Come here," Sam said

She walked to him, her face vacant She knelt beside him, and he sat up He reached out and touched her teer drifted to her bruise, and he pressed into it She didn’t shudder She was perfectly still

"I’m sorry, baby I didn’t want to hurt you" She didn’t say anything She lay down beside him and rested her head on his chest She’d been so quiet since the night in David’s roo

He had to make her do it When Anthony told him what Tara knew, that Hilary had reached out to David, he had to strike her to show her horong she was She ady could be enough She really could be dense soraduation was theSa like he was strong It was great Saraduation But Dickie Bell to watch David flop around on the floor like a drugged cat

"David’s going to coe," Hilary said

"I know," Saain, Sam You said I wouldn’t have to You promised me!"

"I have a plan," he said

"Well, what is it? Tell me," she said She was desperate

"Nope"

Hilary was sitting up now, her face clenched in anger He didn’t like looking at it He reached out to touch her pretty face, to smooth out the tension She slapped his hand away and stood up She flung her towel in his face and rinned

He loved the way she flirted

30

LUCY WALKED PAST THE STOLEN FLAT-SCREEN TV that lay flat on the lounge floor Empty cans sat on it like a coffee table, and a few kids were using it as a surface to play poker Dorothy had taken the TV dohen the electricity had become unreliable

Lucy stared at the creation Dorothy had put on the wall in its place She had reed s from the quad, stretched a white sheet behind thehtbulbs shining through it It looked alh from the outside

Lucy ined she was at the lake house again, staring out at the water

Belinda interrupted her mental vacation

"I’m scared, Lucy I mean, really Why didn’t they drop the food?"

"I don’t know," Lucy said, her eyes still closed, but she could tell that Belinda was choked up

"Yeah, but no, but--do they hate us? I mean, does the whole world hate us?"

"No"

"It just feels likeI e out there? Do they knohat they’re doing?"

"Don’t worry, Bel"

"Okay"

She was just as scared as Belinda, but she had to make her stop soht now, playing croquet with her father in the front lawn Her lasses of fresh iced tea

David ith her Everyone loved him He wore a pair of pin-striped shorts that would have looked awful on anyone else They took a walk around the water, and he held her hand David’s hair was lightened by the sun, milk-chocolatey with streaks of caramel

Belinda piped back up "I haven’t seen Dorothy since Tues-day When’s the last time you saw her? Oh, thank God, David’s here"

Lucy opened her eyes,and turned around David stood on the next landing below theathered around David Her body tingled with relief He wasn’t there when she woke up in the , and she’d been freaked out over it ever since It made her uneasy whenever David wasn’t around She wanted to run to hiroup stood in her way They all needed hiot to be alone with David any it on purpose

David didn’t speak until he was sure everyone was ready to listen Fluorescent light gleamed off his white eye patch

"I know you have a lot of questions about what our nextin I wish I had answers for you today But this is about so else" The crowd ruet everyone’s attention again

"I got a nosebleed last night"