You Were Only Passing Through

The second I hit the button, a stiletto heel came down on my hand.

"Alessia, your lie falls apart and this is what you do? More theater?"

Brooke stood over me and tore the beacon out of my hand.

It had already fired and burned itself out, so she could turn it over as long as she liked and learn nothing from it.

I'd just started breathing again when the controller against my chest chimed out another low-battery warning.

The last of the charge went, and the airlessness came over me in one long wave.

I was going under. I pulled in the last air I had and looked at Ryan.

"I'm not lying. My heart really was hurt.

"You're my boyfriend. Do you honestly think I'd gamble with my own life to win an argument?"

My face must have gone white, because something wavered in his eyes.

His lips parted. Brooke cut him off before a word got out.

"Ryan, your girlfriend is unbelievably petty.

"We grew up together. If either of us had ever felt anything, we'd have been together years ago. She'd never have gotten a look in."

She sighed, wearing exactly the right amount of hurt.

"Forget it. Go take care of her.

"All I wanted was one dance, and she cooks up some ridiculous story about taking a bullet to the heart.

"If you'd actually said yes, God knows what she'd have done."

Again.

The stabbing in my chest got worse. I gulped air while the room kept going dark at the edges.

Ryan and I met in a campus club, and he was the one who came after me.

In the beginning he gave me anything I asked for and pulled me into his circle himself.

And to keep what we had, I said nothing about being a mafia Principessa.

Then Brooke turned up and wedged herself between us, over and over.

Any time I let a little hurt show, she'd run this same speech and call me jealous in that sweet, poisonous way of hers.

"Ryan and I are just friends. Can you not be so sensitive?

"If we'd wanted each other we'd already be together. You'd never have gotten a look in."

And right on cue.

The moment Brooke stopped talking, Ryan's face went dark.

"Alessia, that's enough.

"You say it's a cardiac device. Then why has Brooke, who's pre-med, never seen the model in her life?"

His voice rang through my skull and nearly took me under.

Cold sweat had soaked the back of my dress. My teeth were chattering and I couldn't get out a whole sentence.

Which only confirmed it for him. I'd been caught, and I knew it.

He looked down at me, brows knotted, mouth pressed into an impatient line.

"Enough. How long are you going to keep this up?

"I know you've never liked how close Brooke and I are. We're childhood friends. It isn't the sordid thing you've got in your head.

"You want to throw a fit, throw it at home. This is graduation. Don't do this here."

Then he walked off toward Brooke without a backward glance, without sparing me so much as half a look.

"Leave her. She wants to perform, let her perform.

"It's the graduation ball. Don't let her wreck it for everybody."

The words landed, and the tightness in my chest turned to lead.

Brooke stepped up and hooked her arm through his, smiling wide.

"Come on, don't be hard on Alessia. She just cares about you too much.

"Only, next time you want Ryan's attention, don't make a joke out of your own life.

"Tell enough lies and nobody believes you anymore."

The students around us broke into laughter.

And I stayed on my knees while the pain spread out from my heart until most of me had gone numb.

Ryan looked exhausted. He sighed, and when he finally spoke he was making a show of being patient.

"Alessia, stop it. Get up.

"Didn't you want that necklace? I'll buy it for you after the ball."

He came toward me and reached down to haul me up.

And in the half second before his hand closed on my arm, I gave out and went down hard against him.