Twisted Dreams by Marissa Farrar Page A

manslaughter charge right now.”
    “So come on, straight up with me. How did you know the accident was about to happen?” He eyed me, no longer quite so predatorial, but more curious. He knew there was something different about me, he just had no idea what—or at least I hoped he had no idea what.
    “There’s nothing more I can tell you. Sorry.”
    “Listen. If you won’t tell me anything more, you need to watch yourself. You’ve gotten yourself noticed a couple of times now by the guys who run the carnival, and they don’t like what they don’t understand.”
    I lifted my eyebrows. “Watch myself? Are you threatening me?”
    “No, I’m warning you.” He sounded exasperated.
    “Warning me or threatening me, they both sound the same. You’re telling me that unless I tell you exactly what happened, your guys are going to come after me.”
    He shrugged, but had the decency to look uncomfortable for the first time. “I’m only telling you the truth.”
    “Yeah, well, your truth sucks. Now get the hell out of my room before I scream, and really give you something to worry about.”
    “Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Riley walked to the door, opened it, peered one way and then the other. He offered me a wink, and slipped from the room.
    I sat on the edge of my bed, shaking. How could one boy create such a mixture of emotions inside me? Part of me wanted to hit him, while the other just wanted to be near him. There was no denying there was something magnetic about Riley. He might have decided there was something different about me, but I couldn’t help feeling I was missing something about him, too.
    Did I really need to be worried about the men from the carnival coming after me? After all, I didn’t do anything wrong. Surely it was just an accident.
    Something occurred to me.
    Unless it wasn’t an accident. Unless something else was supposed to have happened, and I interfered, or else the accident was supposed to have happened, but the fact someone seemed to know about it spooked them?
    The door burst open again, and I shot upright, my nerves jangling. Was he back? But instead of a cocky dark-haired gypsy boy, a gaggle of girls walked in, all laughing and talking, their heads together. I never felt like more of an outsider than when I was in this situation. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t fit in with these perfect images of the all-American college girl. My soul was too dark.
    “Hey, Beth,” one of the girls, Kayla, said with a bright smile. “How were your first classes? I think I saw you in bio. I tried to catch your eye, but you were so focused on your laptop, I couldn’t.”
    “Oh, yeah,” I said, forcing a smile. “Catching up on my email, you know?”
    “Oh, sure. I know exactly what you mean. I always struggle to pay attention when I have mail.”
    Brooke had entered with them, but she barely looked at me. I had to assume from the fact the other girls were speaking to me like I was a normal human being that Brooke hadn’t told them about the incident in the bathroom. For that, at least, I was grateful.
    Brooke’s other friend, Erin, sat down on my bed and grinned at me, bright-eyed. “So spill the gossip!”
    Unease swept through me in a wave. “What gossip?”
    “You know, about what happened last night.”
    My eyes flicked to Brooke, but she gave a slight shake of her head. Okay, so she hadn’t told them. Maybe she wasn’t as bad as I first thought. Of course, they meant the carnival.
    Erin flicked her curls from her face. “I heard the cops were on campus today looking for you.”
    I shrugged to try to show them how unbothered I was by all of this. “They found me. They just wanted to ask me a couple of questions.”
    Kayla plonked herself down on the other side of me, leaving Brooke standing on the other side of the room. She smiled, as if joining in with the group, but I could sense the cold stare in her eyes. I realized that my escapades at the carnival