Disclaimer: The wonderful Twilight Series belong to Stephenie Meyer!


A/N: Hope you enjoy Lauren Mallory's POV. If you wouldn't mind, please leave a comment! Thanks! Cheers~


The nighttime sky was dark and severe. The tips and shadows of threatening raindrops were invisible, but the air was moist and humid. Unfavorable to my tastes, I slid the window shut and relaxed against the windowsill, staring at anything that stirred this quiet town.

City lights blinked miles away in my mind, but here in my room I only saw the dark forests and lanterns on the street, which were also dimly-lit.

It was quiet here in my room. In my house no sounds were audible – everyone had rushed to end the evening early.

Havoc disrupted my mind and it kept me up this night. I never dared to have company when in my current state. I could feel the bursting emotions profoundly break free from my built up barriers, crawling through the gel-like substance used to fortify them, easing their way to the forefront of my mind. When the emotions arrived I hastened to pause all intelligent thoughts, and I didn't have enough strength to withhold them, so I let them freely overcome me.

The murderous thoughts wrapped around as vines on my skin, twirling and swirling around my conscience. It only took half a second for me to fall under the influence of the images that swell an impression I was too weak to fight off.

I drowned in pools of haunting images of envy and jealousy – the only images that are known to me.

The Cullens and Hales aren't exactly what I presumed for them to be. But then again, they are exactly what I should have expected – only those who wish not for social lives, but for privacy and secrecy would move to such an isolated city, such as Forks.

But to be rejected from such a stunning group of people, I never thought I would come to see the day in which the emotions of loneliness and rejection would spit through my veins as if rejection were my blood.

It was disgusting, really. The Cullens and Hales were disgusting. Whatever made them so mesmerizing, I wished to find an end to. I deserved the attention, not them.

The ring of my phone chimed in the air, but it pounded an annoying force in my ears. I hated to predict who would be calling me now – Jessica, probably.

I paused for two seconds, debating on whether or not I should put up a nice, fake front, or if I should let her know I was in no mood to speak to anybody – I went with the latter.

"What, Jessica?" I spat through the phone.

Sure enough, she seemed taken aback in that split second in which I could hear her short gasp.

I knew she wanted to talk about that charming Edward Cullen, but I hated to think about any of them at this instant.

"Hey Lauren, what's up?" she replied.

I originally thought she could feel my icy voice clearly, but it seemed as if she thought she could cure my current disposition.

"I'm doing homework," I lied.

I wished she would hurry up and send whatever gossip she had over so I could have as much time as possible to purge my mind afterwards. Listening to Jessica's gossip, you'd think she deserved to be a celebrity paparazzo. But aside from that, there was nothing particularly fascinating about her, just a very shallow girl with a very shallow mind. Like the Cullens and Hales.

"Oh," she replied shortly. "Well, I actually have some news on the Cullens!"

I moaned involuntarily, and got up off of the sill and sunk onto my bed. This phone call was going to be more dangerous and irritating than I had originally thought.

"What do you have," I said almost painstakingly rudely, but apathetic nonetheless.

"Well, I asked Edward Cullen if he wanted to go to Port Angeles this weekend, but he told me he was going hunting with his brothers. Can you believe that, Lauren? Apparently, he loves hunting!"

"How do you know he loves hunting? It's only for one weekend – it's not like he devotes his life to it," I retorted.

In a way, as much as the new students detested me, I could never do as much damage to them as Jessica could. And even Jessica managed to speak to Edward – according to her, that is. Who knew if they really did have a successful conversation – though, I would still hate his family's presence in Forks.

"So have you spoken to that hot, blond boy yet? I hear his name is Jasper," she fawned.

For her, almost nothing wasn't 'I hear'.

I hear this, I hear that; I hear Jessica has no eyes to see that Edward Cullen is grossed out by her; I hear Jessica dwells in her fantasies too much, wishing hopelessly that she will go to Homecoming with him.

It grossed me out, too.

But to be reminded of my own injury, that wasn't fair.

I had never seen a boy as beautiful as Jasper Hale. His blond, golden hair streaked back as if windblown; the perfect curvature of his cheeks on his glorious face; and to top that off with a cherry, his thin lips I wanted so much to be sealed with mine. All of that desire and want! Just to see him wrap his arms around that small, spunky dark-haired Alice! I knew her name. I had also known his name. I knew all of their names! I knew everything about them!

And even then, I hoped with whatever sympathetic demons I had in my soul that he wouldn't seriously be dating his own sister! And the demons were friendly – for about five seconds.

Right before they entered the school, he leaned down and pressed his beautiful lips to hers – I had been too horrified to watch the rest; I rushed to clear my mind and get to class.

Afterward, throughout the day, I received looks of fury from the blonde, Rosalie. And that giant of a dark-haired boy looked at me as if I needed remorse – but I didn't want that! Especially not from him! I didn't want remorse from anybody!

"Well have you spoken to him?" Jessica pestered.

I had forgotten she was there. The phone slipped through my hand as the outburst of her voice shook me from my reverie, and I hesitated, yet once again, with what to tell her.

I thought about lying to her – you know get creative as she always does to everyone else. But then I decided that the Cullens were not people that would ever associate with somebody like me. I knew that dead on. And however difficult it was for me to accept it, I somehow mysteriously with some divine intervention, managed to.

And I would play this game my way – the offensive side.

"You know, the Cullens are actually very disgusting, if you look at this dynamically. I mean, they're suffering from inbreeding," I crowed to boost my confidence.

It would be easy to take the Cullens down – I was playing on my home turf. I owned Forks High School.

"What are you talking about, Lauren?" Jessica said unsurely.

"I saw Jasper and Alice making out on the school campus. They're living in the same house. It's almost as if you were making out with your brother. How disgusting is that?"

Good enough.

For now.