"You're into him, he's into you. Big time," Jessica said, as though it was as clear as the blue, cloudless sky that afternoon. "Why don't you just do it?" She looked at her nails, painted a light shade of pink, and nodded approvingly.

"Isn't the boy supposed to ask the girl out?" The argument was weak and Bella knew it, but she was grasping at her last straws. Her friends had come to know her a bit too well than she felt comfortable with, and they knew all about her feelings for Jacob. She studied her nails, which had just been polished and painted a peach pink colour which she actually liked, instead of meeting her friends' eyes.

"Boys ask boys out nowadays, girls ask girls out. Why wouldn't a girl ask a guy out?" Lauren answered matter-of-factly. She didn't dislike Bella anymore, but she couldn't admit that out loud. She couldn't even explain to herself why she had been so jealous.

"Yes," Angela agreed, "It's 2006, Bella, not 1900." Angela was braiding a leather bracelet, which was one of her new hobbies. Angela insisted that they would all wear one. Although most of them thought it was cheesy, the gesture was nice, so they promised Angela to wear them.

"Yeah, why so old-fashioned?" Jessica asked, finally looking up from the nail polish to look at Bella. "I mean, he's hot."

The girls agreed, laughing, and Bella laughed along, which was finally normal for her. "Is that the only thing that matters to you, Jess?"

"Uh, well, yes." Jessica screwed the little bottle shut and started waving her hands, to dry her nails. "And he's incredibly sweet, totally smitten to you and worships the ground you walk on. I mean, girls could dance around him naked and he'd only see you. Just saying."

Bella didn't dare mention the fact that he had seen her naked.

"And he's waited for months, Bella!" Katie exclaimed. Katie couldn't talk softly, she could talk loudly, exclaim or yell, or just keep her mouth shut. "Can't you just give him, like, a chance?"

"I could, and I want to." The confession came out softly, but it was audible for everyone.

Three pairs of eyes looked at Bella (all but Lauren, who was stubbornly holding onto her dislike of Bella), questioningly, waiting for her to continue. They'd never actually heard a reason.

"But I just feel like I'm not good enough for him," Bella whispered.

Katie and Jessica started talking at once. "You, not good enough?"

"Oh come on, we all know you're an amazing girl."

"And sweet."

"And pretty."

"And you have a nice ass!"

"And killer legs!"

"And he just totally loves you!"

"And you know he would agree with us."

Bella just rolled her eyes at the girls. She wanted to agree with them, but somewhere in the back of her mind, the voices of the girls from her old school whispered in her ear, telling her once again you're not good enough, how can you ever get a boyfriend, why don't you wear makeup, you'll die alone with lots of cats. She never had the courage to speak up to them, real or in her head.

"They're right, you know." Everyone looked at the blonde girl, Bella temporarily thinking Lauren was talking about the voices, her heart missing a beat, a lump forming in her throat.

Lauren dared a small smile towards the brown-haired girl as said girl relaxed again. "There's a reason Jacob waited all this time for you. He thinks you're worth it, and maybe you just need him to show you exactly why. Don't give up on life and love just because the past weighs on your shoulders."

A silence filled the room. Although she knew Lauren only meant to be nice and supporting, Bella couldn't help but feeling uncomfortable, like Lauren somehow knew something. But she couldn't, Bella never told a single soul about the girls picking on her.

"Don't weigh yourself down."

And with that, Lauren was done. She felt like she had to make up for last year, even though technically, she hadn't done anything wrong. Just a lot of ignoring and arrogant looks. After a somewhat awkward silence, the girls decided this subject is done and started talking about something safe. Nails.

Bella sent Lauren a smile, one that could've said a thousand things, but came down to one thing: thank you. Lauren smiled back tentatively and hoped that with the gratitude, forgiveness came.