I couldn't believe it. Even as I saw the steely look of resolve in his dark eyes, it wasn't until he put his hand firmly on my chin, forcing me to endure his attempt at romanticism that the reality of my situation kicked in. This boy, who I'd thought was my friend, my best friend, was about to violate me. I didn't want to kiss him, he knew I didn't want to, I'd just told him a few moments ago, and yet he insisted on it. And it's not like I had been vague or wishy-washy about my feelings either. He knew I didn't want him, not like that. But here he was, kissing me anyway.

I felt dirty, and weak. There was no passion in this forced display of affection. Him, acting like this, blatantly ignoring what I wanted, was sickening. He hadn't even let me finish saying No. I wanted to shove him off of me so badly, to get away from him, but I physically couldn't. I hated that he was stronger than me, that there was nothing I could do –

Except, wait a minute … I still had one advantage. I put all the strength I could in my right leg and kneed him, pulling out of his grasp the moment I felt it weaken. The bastard might have superhuman strength, but apparently it didn't extend to his genitals.

"Bella, what – " he groaned, buckling over. I stood there, staring at him, this boy I had thought cared about me, and realized that what I'd thought we had, a mutual appreciation of our friendship, was a lie. No friend would ever force me into doing something that I'd made explicitly clear, numerous times, I had no interest in.

"I want you to stay away from me. I don't want to see you, not ever again. The same goes for calling me, or waiting around for me after school, or showing up announced at places you think I might be. You crossed a line, Jacob. What you did is wrong."

He stared at me first in surprise, but then his expression shifted into one of anger.

"God, get over yourself, Bella. All I did was kiss you. It's not like I attacked you or something. I knew girls were hormonal, but this seems a little extreme. Come on, we both know you're just being overdramatic. You'll be back here begging for my forgiveness in a week." He smiled smugly at me, clearly thinking the issue was settled. He was wrong about that.

"Jacob, you forced yourself on me. You're bigger than me, and as much as I hate to admit it, stronger too, and you knew perfectly well that there was nothing I could do to stop you. You ignored that though, just like you ignored the fact that I've told you I'm not interested in anything beyond friendship on numerous occasions. The fact that you can't see how wrong that is, won't even try to understand it, disgusts me. I don't even know how you can rationalize blaming me. It's because of people like you that the rape culture we have now exists. If you choose to ignore my wishes again, you'll leave me no choice but to report you." I could barely stand to look at him. Seeing the monster my friend had turned into made my stomach turn. The worst part is, he'd probably always been like this. I'd just never noticed until now.

"Rape? I would never do that to you, ever. How you can stand there putting me on the same level as some drunken frat boy …" he shook his head and spat on the ground.

"That's not what I said! I'm not talking about this with you anymore. Leave me alone. Seriously." I started walking to my car, hoping that for once he would listen to me. Of course, even that was too much to expect and a second later I felt his hand wrap around my upper arm.

"Jacob, let go of me." I growled.

"No." he slammed back, his eyes dancing dangerously as he waited to see what I would try to do to him next.

"Don't make me tell you again. Let. Go. Of. My. Arm."

He smirked. "Make me."

I stared at him for one long moment before doing exactly what I'd hoped I wouldn't have to. I used my free arm to fish my phone out of my coat pocket and called Charlie.

Jacob started laughing, clearly thinking this was some sort of joke. It wasn't.

Charlie answered after two rings, clearly surprised to see my name and number show up on the call display.

"Bella? Are you okay? What's going on?"

"Jacob just forced himself on me and now he won't let me leave. It seems I need police assistance."

Charlie chuckled on the other end of the phone. "Bella, if this is some kind of joke, this isn't really the way to do it. Someone who actually needs help could try calling any moment."

I'd expected a reaction like this, but hearing it playing out like this just made me angrier.

"I'm not joking. I need your help." Jacob clung tightly to my arm, shaking his head in the most infuriatingly patronizing way.

"Bella, nice try but it's just not funny, okay? Time to move on."

Charlie, hearing his voice, perked up.

"Jacob? What's she talking about?"

Jacob laughed and pulled the phone out of my hand.

"She attacked me."

He replied, editing out the part where I actually did hurt him rather than go for a dainty slap. Didn't want to leave his manliness in doubt, I guessed. Charlie laughed on the other end of the phone.

"She what? Why?"

"I wanted her to know she had other options so I kissed her." Jacob said, unashamed.

"About time. Good job, kid." Charlie congratulated him.

I repressed the urge to vomit and ripped my phone back out of Jacob's hand. I hung up and tried to tear my arm out of Jacob's grasp.

"Seriously, Jacob, if you even respect me at all, let me go."

Jacob smiled. "No can do. Now I'm having fun watching you squirm. I feel like your dad and I should take bets as to what crazy thing you're going to do next."

I speed-dialed Edward's number and waited impatiently for him to answer. Lucky for me, he picked up on the first ring.

"Bella?"

"I need you to come and get me. Now."

"I'll be right there. What's wrong?"

"I kneed Jacob in the crotch."

"That sounds wildly out of character. What did he do to deserve it?"

"The stupid oaf forced me to kiss him. As in, literally used his strength to hold me still and plant one on me."

Edward hung up without a word, and the last thing I heard was the sound of an engine accelerating.

"Jacob, I'm giving you one more chance to fix this. Let me go."

He looked at me in mock-amusement. "Really? Just when you've just made this little showdown interesting? I'm in this for the long haul now. I can't wait to describe our moment of passion in graphic detail to your boyfriend when he gets here."

I couldn't believe he could still be so blasé about all this. There was no point in even bothering to talk some sense into him. I tried in vain to yank my arm out of his grasp one more time, and finally resigned myself to waiting for Edward in silence.

His car pulled up a moment later, and I wondered how he had even known where to find me. It's not like he could have used Alice's help; she was blind where Jacob was concerned. He must have just assumed we were at Jacob's. Speaking of which…

"You shouldn't be here. I forgot we were on Quileute land. The treaty…"

He ignored me and stormed out of his car, making a beeline for us. Jacob finally dropped my arm, all his attention on Edward. Edward's voice was deceptively peaceful, especially when compared with the look of utter rage on his face.

"As much as it pains me to say, I'm not going to kill you right now. But if you ever force Bella to do anything against her will again, I won't hesitate to let my displeasure be felt."

"Oh yeah? And what if she wants it too?"

"I have no right to stop her from doing something she desires, but she has to be the one to make that known to you. If I were you, I would rely on verbal cues, or at least something a little more concrete than your faulty interpretation of body language. You can't force someone to love you, Jacob. If you haven't learned that by now, I seriously doubt there's any hope left for you. And you should know that I'm going to sit back and let you try to make her. I'm prepared to do whatever it take to keep her."

"I appreciate that. It'll make beating you all the more satisfying."

"Bella is mine. And I intend to make sure she stays that way. Never forget that."

"Wouldn't dream of it. It would make reciting them back to you after I win her over a bit of a challenge."

I stared at them both in shocked outrage before cutting in.

"Um, excuse me, but don't I get a say in any of this?" Jacob and Edward both turned to stare at me, their hatred of each other still reflected in their expressions.

"This doesn't really concern you, Bella." Jacob growled, his eyes hard and darting back to Edward every few seconds.

"Doesn't concern me? I'm sorry, did your parents only drop you on your head once as a child, or should I be looking for a number more in the double-digits? The only topic your whole pissing contest concerns is me! And, to be honest, I'm fed up with it." I turned my outrage on Edward.

"And you! Look, I appreciate the whole knight-in-shining armour thing, but I'm not a piece of property, okay? You were so quick to launch yourself at Jacob you haven't even bothered to ask me what I want to do about everything."

For maybe the first time in a long time, I'd caught him completely off-guard.

"But he was humiliating you."

"Yeah, and I called you here because my father treated him assaulting me like a joke. I knew you wouldn't." I paused to gauge his reaction to my words. "That being said, I don't want you to fight him. Not only is that a stupid way to resolve something like this, it's also counter-productive. If I want to get to Olympia before dark, we kind of have to leave now."

Edward and Jacob's mouths dropped open simultaneously. It was quite the sight to behold.

"Olympia…?" Edward intoned in confusion. I nodded forcefully.

"Yeah. I want to report Jacob. He needs to learn to respect women, not to treat their wishes and feelings like something he can just ignore. Charlie obviously refuses to take me seriously, but I'm tired of being treated like some stupid prize. I'm a person, okay, not the Superbowl trophy. I have feelings, and so far nobody has given any thought to them beyond a perfunctory 'I wonder who she likes more?'."

"Look, Bella, I'm sorry if it's seemed that way to you but – "

"You know what, Edward? You probably don't want to get me started on inappropriate behaviour right now, okay?"

His eyes darkened. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"If I'm going to go to the trouble of reporting Jacob for assaulting me, then I really should step out of my feelings and look at you objectively too. You may not have forced me into doing any unwanted physical things with you, but there is the small matter of having your sister kidnap me against my will and, oh yeah, how about that time you BROKE MY CAR so I couldn't leave my own house. Even leaving the stalking and breaking and entering out of it, that's not exactly World's Best Boyfriend material."

Edward stared at me in shocked silence while Jacob had the audacity to laugh.

"Wow, and I thought she was mad at me."

I was just barely able to keep myself from getting in my truck and running him over.

"You know what? I've had just about enough of this. I'm just going to Olympia by myself."

At Edward's start of protestation, I put a finger across my lips in a gesture of silence.

"No. You've done enough, here. I need some time to think. About my life, about the people in it. About my choices."

Jacob stared pleadingly at me, and I knew right then and there that if the next words out of his mouth were anything other than 'I'm sorry', I would knee him in the balls again. He must have seen the fury in my eyes, because he wisely shut up.

"Now, if you two will excuse me, I have a crime to report." I turned and walked away, feeling two sets of eyes on my back. I smiled to myself. I would never let myself be treated like a victim again.