Free The Other Girl: A Midvale Academy Novel by Sarah Miller

were the cause of it, but suddenly the music got louder, the chatter sped up, and the flashing lights of snowplows in the parking lot gave the grim room a disco feel.
    Gid stared at Pilar and watched everyone else in the room staring at her. Something about that face. Why can’t you look away from beauty like that? Why can’t anyone in this room? She’s coming over to me. The girl everyone is looking at is walking over to me. Some people look awestruck, some people look mad. God, she is so beautiful it makes people mad. That’s insane.
    She leaned in to hug him. The girl everyone was looking at just hugged me.
    Pilar wore jeans and a sparkly T-shirt. Against the window, snow falling in the darkness, she was part of the glittering winter world. Gideon had drunk a glass of Cutty Sark, and a layer of chemical giddiness lay over his despair like a silk sheet as the two of them sat apart from everyone, on the floor between the second bed and the window.
    “I love esnow,” Pilar said, and Gid saw her beauty as hehad never seen it before. It really was so cute how she said “esnow.” It was gorgeousness mixed with the naïveté of not quite getting things right. That’s what made her so special.
    I was so grossed out. I mean, she was a hot girl and English was her second language. It wasn’t fucking science. And she hadn’t invented the accent.
    He reached under the nightstand. “Have you seen my hat?” He slapped it on his head. “I call it the Hat That Changes Everything!”
    He’d said that because he knew I thought it was cute. He was even thinking to himself, Gid, this is a lame trick. But Pilar laughed and clapped her hands. She liked it too! As she threw her head back the light caught the glint of her lip gloss—and Gid thought of the way that the light in Target had shone on those pink pan ties, and then he thought of me, and then he took a bigger gulp of Cutty Sark.
    Gid let his brain sink into icy alcohol bliss and thought, Molly . Pilar shifted on the floor, and her knee pressed into his thigh. Alamo.
    It was bad, but it wasn’t worse than last time. I had no idea if Dr. Whitmeyer was a lunatic or not, but I did kind of like what he’d said. It was worth a try. I concentrated on the main reason I wanted to get out of Gid’s head—it was just painful noise, not serving any purpose.
    Nicholas was walking around wearing a snorkel with the tube part of it stuck inside a bong. Five girls danced on the desk to some Brazilian lounge music. Madison was there, sitting on the bed with the pretentious guy who’d come, promising to stay only if everyone would listen to his iPod, and no one was sober enough to argue. Madison’s heavily lined eyes drooped with intoxication and boredom. One of the dancinggirls tripped over the docking station and fell into Madison’s lap. “Watch it,” Madison snapped. “Hey, Pilar, let’s get out of here soon. I think we can get that 5 A.M. ”
    “Let’s just take the later one,” Pilar said. “I’m having a good time.” She looked up through her lashes at Gideon.
    Cullen was suddenly at Gid’s side. He had folded the desk blotter into a tiny three-cornered hat. “Ahoy,” he said. “Are you getting ready to board this vessel?” He cocked his head in the direction of Pilar.
    Gid shook his head and squared off his body so that their conversation was more private. “I’m not ready for—”
    “Hold up, hold up,” Cullen said, kneeling down next to him. “You do realize that fate has stranded you in a hotel room with Pilar Benitez-Jones?”
    “There are, like, eighty other people here,” Gid said.
    “She has her own room,” Cullen said.
    “How do you know that?”
    “She made a point of telling me.”
    “Well, maybe she likes you .”
    “You are hopeless,” Cullen said. “I mean, the Alamo has shown up right at your door. All you have to do is walk over to the sidewalk and puke. And you’re fucking up.” He shook his head. “Wait,” he said, “I have