Title: I hate everything about you
Summary: From the moment they first met, Edward has irritated the hell out of Bella. But is there more to their playful banter than meets the eye?
Disclamer: I do not own Twilight; all respective characters belong to Smeyer, and the title belongs to Three Days Grace.
Authors note: New Year and a new story! I hope you like it :)
'In every girls life there will always be those three guys; the one she loves, the one she hates, and the one she cant get enough of...and in the end...they're all the same guy,' author unknown.
Chapter 1.
I knew it was going to be one of those days even before I entered the town hall where today's meeting was taking place. You see, Edward Cullen had been my nemesis ever since he arrived in Forks a few months ago. Unfortunately for us, Mr big shot developer had decided that our small community was ideal for his vision and he was intent on bringing Forks into the 21st century.
While the rest of the town saw him as our saviour, I was sceptical about his claims that modernisation brought more jobs to our run-down town. More money in his pocket more like.
Having closed down the local community centre in place of a new state of the art centre, and introducing some fancy sports scholarship at Forks high, his latest ambition was to build a shopping complex on the outskirts of town. I strongly opposed and hoped to make my objections known in today's meeting.
My father, Charlie, claimed I'd inherited my need to protest from my free spirited mother, who even now, I suspected was creating chaos in Florida, where she had settled down with her new husband, Phil. In all honesty, I didn't know why I was bothering in the first place, considering how my last two attempts had gone unheard.
For a man, who like me, had only just graduated from university, Edward was overwhelmingly confident. He knew what he wanted and he was certainly used to getting his way. Everyone in town loved him and went along with whatever he wanted.
I was certain that the little book store where I worked at would have been his next target, if it weren't for the fact that his own aunt owned the store. It was a mystery to me how someone as wonderful as Esme could be related to such an awful man. Clearly they didn't share any of the same traits; Esme was kind and sweet and modest, whereas Edward was cocky, condescending, and a complete pain in the arse.
Don't get me wrong, he was charming and pleasant to everyone, everyone except for me that is. Okay, so it may not have helped that the first time we met, I told him to go fuck himself. But in my defence he did almost run me over in his stupid, shiny, silver Volvo. When I confronted him, the cheeky git tried to turn it round on me- like it was my fault that he wasn't paying enough attention to the road. Most likely, he probably got distracted looking at himself in the mirror. He was just the type.
You should never trust a man with a face that handsome and to give credit where credid was due, Edward was gorgeous. With his chiselled features, pretty pout and ruffled hair he would be the perfect fit for a career in modelling or acting. However, that didn't change the fact that he was a cocky bastard, who enjoyed winding me up.
Right from the start he irritated the hell out of me. In fact, I think his sore purpose in life was to torment me with his sly looks and snide comments. And no matter how many times I tried to tell myself to ignore him and be the bigger person, Edward knew exactly the right buttons to press to make me bite.
Talk of the devil, I thought in annoyance when Satan himself made his way towards me with that familiar gleam in his eyes. Edward looked his usual attractive self in a smart suit that fitted perfectly to his gloriously toned body. And don't even get me started on his unruly hair, which gave the impression that he'd just gotten out of bed. He probably had, and I was willing to bet that it wasn't his own bed either!
"Good morning, Miss Swan," his velvety smooth voice spoke. Did I mention that his voice was hypnotic, bordering on seductive and another reason to hate him.
"Edward," I replied coolly, forcing myself to be civil, when really I just wanted to wipe that ridiculous look off his face.
"We have to stop meeting like this," he said, the corners of his mouth curled into a smile or a smirk, I couldn't tell which.
"Well, maybe if you stopped trying to reinvent the town with your schemes, then we could avoid making these encounters a regular thing?" I responded, trying to act natural around him, when inside I was a jumble of nerves. Edward was always cool, calm and confident, and that was rather intimidating.
His smile faltered for a fraction of a second before he looked at me through his lashes and a teasing grin overtook his face. I scowled back.
"And miss out on moments like these," his smile widened and I flushed a little under his intense gaze.
"Besides, you enjoy fighting with me too much. You would miss our little spats," he goaded me.
I levelled him with a hard stared before I strode past him into the town hall. There were already a few people gathered, so I grabbed the first available seat, which unfortunately for me happened to be directly opposite where Edward took his seat besides the make shift stage.
While I waited for the meeting to commence, I may have sneaked a few sly glances in his general direction. His lips were pursed in thought and he was completely engrossed in whatever he was furiously scribbling down on the paper in front of him. I forced myself to look away and I was determined not to look again, but I could sense his intense, dark eyes lingering, watching me intently. He only did it to intimidate me, I was sure.
I waited a while before I shot another quick glance at him, again he was staring directly at me and I blushed furiously after being caught, before I quickly looked away, trying to busy myself by pretending to read through the notes that outlined the days agenda.
Several moments passed and out of the corner of my eye I could still feel Edward watching me, so I glared across at him accusingly. Except, the anger I felt, vanished and was replaced by a tingling and warmth. Every nerve came alive as I became aware of every little detail of the Greek God that was seated across from me, looking at me as if he had every intention of devouring me. His hands were clasped so tightly around his cup that it had caused his knuckles to go white from the pressure.
"Shall we begin?" Edward's annoyingly glamorous PA, Lauren announced.
He looked away sharply, before taking his place in the centre of the small hall and glancing around the now silent crowd. He paused for a few seconds, but it wasn't long before confident Edward returned when he began arguing his case, like he'd been through his speech a million times before. Another annoying thing about Edward was that he took no prisoners and much to my annoyance, I had to admit that he presented a good case. Even if I would never admit it aloud, I had to question myself as to why I was opposed to his plans so much.
Before I knew it, his speech was over and after receiving a round of applause, he asked the crowd if we had any questions.
A few people had their say, most in support of his idea, some opposing his proposal, but I started drifting off when Sue Clearwater began twittering on about something to do with the reservation. I was so lost in my own daydreams that when someone coughed, I jumped a mile.
"What do you think Bella?" Satan asked, and the crowd turned to focus in on me.
I flushed immediate, and in that moment I hated that bastard Edward more than any human being had ever hated any other human being in the history of the world. I was fairly certain he felt the same way. Stupid, skinny, anaemic, gorgeous …..did I just say gorgeous? Well he was gorgeous and anyone with eyes would tell you the same thing. Not that that changed anything.
It had been a while and I still hadn't said anything.
"I'm not sure I could comment on that, Edward," I replied, trying to sound calm, but the bastards smug smile grew ridiculously wider, and I shot daggers across at him.
"Maybe if you paid attention, then you'd be better equip to comment," Victoria, one of Edward's little followers piped up. She was just as bad as Jessica, a girl I worked with at the book store who obsessed over him. Whenever he came into the store to visit his aunt, Jessica ran around him like a lap dog, stroking his ego by chasing after him, offering him coffee or anything else he wanted, whereas I did my best to ignore him. That's probably why he hated me so much.
I heard a few sniggers around the room, but it was his low, amused chuckle that caused me to look up, my cheeks burned, and I sent him a warning glare, but he wasn't intimidated in the slightest.
This time I decided to not bother arguing back, I'd had enough for one day and I was fairly certain I was only wasting my breathe anyway.
Unsurprisingly, Edward's project was given the councils seal of approval and I quickly made my escape out the door as fast as I could, in the hope of avoiding another humiliating defeat, except asshole was waiting for me by the door with his vampire-like teeth exposed, and his thin, cruel lips were pulled back in a full snarl.
"Nice shade of red you are sporting there Swan," he said, winking at me playfully.
"Shut up!" I stropped as I strode past him. The sound of Edward's laughter taunted me as I went.
}*{
"How did it go?" Alice asked later that day when we met up for coffee.
Alice was one of my best friends in Forks. We'd met in our senior year of high school and even through our years apart at different colleges our friendship had never suffered. She'd moved back to town after college to set up her own design studio at the family home, or should I say mansion.
It was wonderful having her back in Forks, it was just a shame that Edward had to join her. However, despite being related to him, Alice quite happily sat back and listened to me ranting away about her infuriating cousin.
"I know he's your cousin Alice, but Edward's gone too far this time! How you two are even related is beyond me. I don't know how you put up with him," I vented, while she laughed.
"You know Edward, he means no harm. He just enjoys winding you up. Think yourself lucky that I didn't set the two of you up," she added.
I scoffed at the very suggestion and looked across the table to find her eyeing me seriously.
"Okay, what's going on?" I asked, furrowing my brow slightly. She had that sneaky look again; the one that signalled that I wouldn't like where she was going with this.
Alice sighed exasperated, "For someone as smart as you, you're awfully clueless sometimes."
"Come again?" I asked, still confused.
"I can't believe I didn't pick up on it sooner," she said, sounding annoyed with herself. "It's obvious that you like him."
I stared at her in total shock before finally finding my voice. "No, I don't," I adamantly denied, but her smile widened.
"Have you even been listening to a word that I've been saying? Yeah, he's gorgeous, I will give him that, but he's an absolute nightmare!" I told an unconvinced Alice.
"Whatever you say Bella," she said disbelieving as she gave me a light pat on the shoulder. I sighed, knowing there was no convincing her once she had an idea in her head.
"But enough about that," she declared, before I had chance to retaliate. "Lets discuss the wedding." And while she happily chatted always about the details of her upcoming nuptials to her childhood sweetheart, Jasper, I sat dwelling over her claims.
Although I would never admit it aloud, perhaps Alice was right and deep down a part of me felt something for Edward beyond hatred. Because despite my pretence that he was a complete nightmare, he was a gorgeous bastard and it was totally natural to have a mini crush on him...
This chapter was a little boring, but I was setting the scene. I promise it will pick up.
Review! Review! Review! I'd love to hear your thoughts:)
And if anyone wants to be my beta for this story then I'd be grateful for you help...