TORN:

A Razor.

Not the shaving device.

The phone.

Reed's phone.

In Ariana's purse.

Talk about confusion.

What was going on?

What shit was Reed getting into now?

WHERE the hell were those two?

I walked through the silent halls of Billings.

To Glass Licker's room.

I saw Natasha dead asleep.

Her phone gone.

Her crap ass phone.

The one that only worked on the roof.

The roof.

My blood ran ice cold.

Two plus two came together for me.

It equaled the perfect square of four.

God-Fucking-Dammit!

I turned, sharp as a Cutco knife.

Up the stairs to the roof.

Up the pristine white marble steps.

I opened the door to my worst nightmare.

I should have seen this coming.

Maybe they should teach arithmetic earlier in school.

Just saying.

My eyes met Reed's.

Then Ariana's for a split second.

Ariana.

The first friend I had at Easton.

The blue-eyed-book-loving-blonde.

So shy she scared most people off.

So smart I knew she'd be my perfect compliment.

And now so deadly I feared my own life.

More than Reed's whose was more at stake.

I wasn't about to let her do what she wanted to do.

Easton was not going to deal with something like this right now.

I was going to make sure of it.

I walked over to them.

I tried to reason with her.

All she cared about was how brennan had ruined her life.

She just wouldn't stop spewing out venomous hatred towards her.

I closed my eyes. The next thing I knew I was on the ground.

Looking up into reed's horrified face.

As a small pearl handled knife blade was being pressed into her neck.

I saw the indentation.

Bright red.

Fresh sliced flesh.

I cringed.

I gulped back salty tears.

Why did those two always do this to me?

I hated taking sides.

Loathed it.

Maybe being friends with both at the same time was a mistake.

No.

The words Lange and Mistaken didn't go together.

At all.

Not in the same sentence.

Not in the same paragraph.

Not in the same novel even.

As I stood shakily.

My legs quivered beneath me.

I looked from Ariana to Reed.

Then back to Ariana.

Sirens wailed down below.

Within seconds this all would be over.

I saw the desperation in Ariana's eyes.

I wanted so badly to stick by her.

But I couldn't bring myself to.

I was stuck.

Torn.

They say to make new friends, but keep the old.

But that is too DAMN hard.

Especially when both are NOT silver.

But GOLD.