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"What's that look?" Gabbe asked, cocking her head and waving her hand in the air in front of Luce's face "What are you thinking about?"
Luce didn't knohat to make of Gabbe's sudden kindness toward her, Nurse's assistant didn't exactly see Gabbe would volunteer for, and it wasn't like there were any guys around whose attention she could monopolize Gabbe didn't even seem to like Luce She wouldn't just show up here of her own accord, would she?
But even as nice as Gabbe was being, there was no way to explain what had happened last night The grisly, unspeakable gathering in the hallway The surreal sensation of being propelled forward through that blackness The strange, coht
"Where's Todd?" Luce asked, rerip on hi, and then
The paper curtain was suddenly slung back, and there was Arriane, wearing in-line skates and a red-and-white candy striper uniform Her short black hair isted up in a series of knots on top of her head
She rolled in, carrying a tray on which sat three coconut shells topped with neon-colored uht," she said in a throaty, nasal voice "You put the li faces What a?" Arriane wheeled to a stop at the foot of Luce's bed She extended a coconut with a bobbing pink umbrella
Gabbe ju its contents a sniff "Arriane, she has just been through a trauma," she scolded "And for your information, what you interrupted was the topic of Todd"
Arriane tossed her shoulders back "Precisely why she needs so the tray possessively while she and Gabbe engaged in a stare-down
"Fine," Arriane said, looking away froave Luce the coconut with the blue straw
Luce must have been in sootten any of this stuff? Coconut shells? Drink umbrellas? It was like she'd been conked out at reform school and woken up at Club Med
"Where did you guys get all this stuff?" she asked "I mean, thank you, but - "
"We pool our resources e need to," Arriane said, "Roland helped"
The three of the the frosty, sweet drinks for a moment, until Luce couldn't take it anymore
"So back to Todd ?"
"Todd," Gabbe said, clearing her throat "Thing ishe just inhaled a lot more of that smoke than you did, honey - "
"He did not," Arriane spat "He broke his neck"
Luce gasped, and Gabbe hit Arriane with her drink umbrella
"What?" Arriane said "Luce can handle it If she's going to find out eventually, why sugarcoat it?"
"The evidence is still inconclusive," Gabbe said, stressing the words
Arriane shrugged "Luce was there, she must have seen - "
"I didn't see what happened to hiether and then so, but I didn't know," she whispered "So he's
"Gone from this world," Gabbe said softly
Luce closed her eyes A chill spread through her that had nothing to do with the drink, She re on the walls, his sweaty hand squeezing hers when the shadows roared down on them, the awful moment when the two of theo to him
He'd seen the shadows Luce was certain of it now And he'd died
After Trevor died, not a week had gone by without a hate letter finding its way to Luce Her parents started trying to vet the mail before she could read the poisonous stuff, but too much still reached her
Some letters were handwritten, soazine letters, ransoh cruel naony to keep her locked inside the house all suht she'd done soher past behind when she ca friendsoh God She sucked in her breath "What about Penn?" she asked, biting her lip
"Penn's fine," Arriane said "She's all front-page-story, eyewitness-to-the-fire She and Miss Sophia both got out, sia smoke pit, but no worse for the wear"
Luce let out her breath At least there was one piece of good news But under the paper-thin infir Soon, surely the same types of people who'd coain Not just the ones rote the angry letters Dr Sanford Her parole officer
The police
Just like before, she'd be expected to have the whole story pieced together To rele detail But of course, just like before, she wouldn't be able to One minute, he'd been at her side, just the two of theed into the roo brown helium balloon It was shaped like a Band-Aid and said Stick It Out in blue cursive letters "What is this?" she asked, looking at the other three girls critically "Some sort of slumber party?"