Page 76 of Last Christmas (Private 0.60)
Then she saw the final name in the column. Ariana Osgood. The entry next to it read, Senior year Christmas
break.
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All of the oxygen was sucked right out of Ariana's lungs. Her chest tightened. This was a list of girls that
Daniel had slept with, and she was next in line. He wasn't a virgin. He had been sleeping with every girl on
campus and then some since he arrived at Easton. Even worse, everyone must have known it. Everyone knew
what a naive idiot she was. The guy who said he loved her, said he wanted her to be his first, had humiliated
her in front of the entire school. Lied to her for the entire year they'd been together. She checked the dates
again. He'd slept with two other girls while they were dating.
I'm such a loser. Such a stupid, stupid, loser. He used me. I let him use
me."Ariana? Are you okay?"
They're all laughing at me. All of them. Laughing at me behind my back.
Ariana started to tremble again. The computer shook in her hands. She was nothing but a number on a
spreadsheet. A nothing. A blip. She was worthless. She grabbed her arm, her nails cutting deep grooves in her
sweater. I may as well just kill myself now. No one would miss me. No one would care.
"He's a jackass," Thomas said quietly. "He doesn't deserve you."
Ariana looked up at Thomas and everything seemed to snap into place. Someone would care. Thomas wo
uld
care. He'd just said it himself. She was too good for Daniel. Thomas thought she was worth something.
Ariana dropped the computer. It slammed on the floor and died
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with a sickening zip and a flash of the screen, but she didn't even care. She grabbed Thomas's coat and pulled
him toward her, pressing her lips, her body against his. Nothing that had stood between them before mattered
now. She felt a weight lifting from her shoulders as he kissed her back.
Daniel didn't deserve her.... He didn't deserve her.... She was done belonging to him.
Ariana grabbed Thomas by the collar and stripped his coat down his arms. He flung it to the floor as her
hands moved to his shirt. They were no longer trembling. As her fingers unbuttoned his shirt, she was moving
with a steady purpose.
Screw Daniel Ryan. Screw him and his perfect family and his perfect life. "You sure?" Thomas murmured as
she pushed his shirt off his bare shoulders. His body was perfect. Taut and lean and tan.
