06 Killer

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

It was as though by just thinking about Jenna, Emily had conjured her up.
A shadow moved behind Jenna, and Emily s ex- girlfriend, Maya St. Germain, appeared in the
doorway too. Emily had barely spoken to Maya since they d broken up when Maya caught her kiss-
ing Trista, a girl she d met when her parents sent her to live with her aunt and uncle in Iowa. By the
livid look on Maya s face, it didn t seem like she d forgiven Emily yet.
Maya whispered something in Jenna s ear before gazing across the busy hallway at Emily. Her
mouth curled into a nasty sneer. Jenna s eyes were hidden behind her dark Gucci sunglasses, but
file:///C|/Users/Shanna/Desktop/Killer.html[29/08/2009 3:09:23 p.m.]
Killer
her face was drawn and unsmiling.
Slamming her locker door hard, Emily scampered down the hall without even retrieving the books
she needed for her morning classes. When she looked over her shoulder, Maya was waggling her
fingers. Bye, Maya mouthed overdramatically, her eyes sparkling with mischief and amusement, as if
she knew precisely how much she was making Emily squirm.
Killer
11
THE MOST DECKED- OUT BABY IN ROSEWOOD
On Wednesday afternoon, Aria stood in the foyer of the new house Byron and Meredith just pur-
chased. She had to admit that the place was really charming. It was an old Craftsman- style bunga-
low on a secluded corner of the street with walnut- colored hardwood floors and quirky brass chan-
deliers and sconces. As Meredith had promised, there was a little attic bedroom with great light for
painting.
The only glitch was that she could see the weather vane on top of Ian s house from her bedroom
window. She also had a view of the barren woods where they d found Ian s apparently fake dead
body. The police vehicles and search equipment were gone, but the ground was torn up in spots,
and there were lots of boot tracks in the mud. Now that she knew Ian was probably still alive and
still hanging out in Rosewood she couldn t even look into the woods without feeling queasy. And
when she d stood on the front porch earlier, waiting for Meredith to unlock the door, Aria had sworn
she d caught a flash of someone disappearing behind a house at the end of the cul- de- sac. But
when she stepped back to get a better look, no one was there.
Byron had sent a moving crew to Ella s house this morning to pick up some things from Aria s
bedroom. Last night, Aria had finally called Ella and broken the news that she was going to move in
with Byron for a while to get to know Meredith better. Ella paused, probably remembering the time
Aria had painted a hateful, adulteress A on Meredith s blouse, and then asked if Aria was upset
about something. Of course not! Aria cried quickly. Ella replied that she d really like Aria to stay;
was there something she could do to make Aria happier? Yeah, you could get rid of Xavier, Aria
wished she could suggest.
In the end, Aria backpedaled, telling Ella she d leave some of her furniture and clothes in her old
bedroom and shuttle between Ella s and Byron s houses instead. She didn t want Ella to think that
Aria was abandoning her, specifically. Anyway, how difficult could it be to avoid Xavier? Aria would
stay at Ella s on the days she was certain he wouldn t be there like when he was out of town for an
art exhibition.
The movers had left the lighter boxes in the front foyer, and Aria was in the process of bringing
them upstairs. As she was bending down to pick up a box marked Fragile, Meredith slipped a white
envelope into the back pocket of Aria s skinny jeans. Mail for you, she sang, and then flitted down
the hall, dust mop in hand.
Aria pulled out the envelope. Her name was printed on an anonymous green address label. She
shuddered, thinking about what Emily had said to Hanna today. A has gotten in touch with us in
other ways. She wasn t ready for a new barrage of notes.
Inside, she found an invitation and two orange tickets for a party at a new hotel called the
Radley. A Post- it was attached. Aria, I miss you already! When will you be back with us? Anyway,
one of my paintings was chosen to hang in the lobby! Here are two invitations to the opening.
Please join Xavier and me there! Love, Ella.
Aria stuffed the papers back in the envelope, her heart sinking. Maybe avoiding Xavier was going
to be harder than she thought.
She climbed the stairs and ducked into her small, cozy bedroom. It was the bedroom she d al-
ways wanted, with skylights over her bed, a cushy window seat, and slightly slanted wood floors,
the kind where she could place a pencil at one end of the room and it would roll slowly to the other
end all on its own. Boxes from her old bedroom were stacked to the ceiling, and Aria s stuffed an-
imal puppets were strewn out on the platform bed her parents had bought for her at a warehouse in
Denmark. She d hung up most of her clothes in an old armoire Byron had bought off Craigslist,
putting her T- shirts, bras, undies, and socks in the bottom drawers. She still had to find a place for
the boxes of yarn, extra blankets, too- small shoes, and board games from her old closet.
file:///C|/Users/Shanna/Desktop/Killer.html[29/08/2009 3:09:23 p.m.]
Killer
But she didn t feel like doing any of that right now. All she wanted to do was flop down on her
bed and puzzle over yesterday s encounter with Jason DiLaurentis. Had he been flirting with her?
Why had his mood changed so quickly? Was it because of the Ian Dead Body news report on TV?
She wondered if Jason had friends in the area anymore. In high school, he used to spend a lot of
time by himself, listening to music, reading, or brooding. Ali had gone missing the last day of Ja- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne