In order for you guys to read this chapter, you absolutely have to imagine kill bill sirens going off in Rosalie's head when Bella is involved


"...When I left you you were young
I was gone but not my love
You were clearly meant for more
Than a life lost in the war" - Youth, Glass Animals

...

Rosalie comes to school chin held high, raging hangover churning against the backs of her eyes.

She did this to herself.

Alice was the one who had to wake her, nose scrunching at the broken bottle glass on the floor.

"Rose," Alice warns, voice low and steady, silver eyes not betraying an inch of emotion. "You have to stop."

"I know." And she does, she does know. Her mouth is numb and combing through her hair feels like hell. "I just-"

And Alice knows this, too. Knows why it's hard for her to stop, knows that when it gets hard, that's all Rosalie feels like she has.

"You - you said you would tell me if it got like that again."

"She ruining me, you know?" Rosalie pulls on a shirt, inspects the damage of her rib cage before pulling it down all the way. "She, it's like, it's like God put her here, next to me, to punish me, because I'm something doing wrong. Because I'm disgusting."

"Hey," Alice snaps, voice too big, voice too sharp. "You are not disgusting. You are normal and valid and I love you." When Rosalie doesn't respond Alice hisses at her, "Do you think I'm gross and wrong?"

Rosalie freezes, looks at her with horror. "Of course not! What you feel is perfectly natural!"

"Maybe my sexuality isn't even real, huh? Maybe I need to just pick one? Don't you think?"

Alice's anger is cold and sharp, turns the air a thousand degrees colder.

But Rosalie's is an inferno, fire ripping through the streets of her carefully carved life and habits. Her anger is biting teeth that are far too sharp. Her anger is like taking a baseball bat to the stomach over and over again. Her anger is hot and raw.

She combats Alice's frost now. "Alice. Quit. Now."

She does, but clenches her jaw in the process.

"That isn't what I said." Her words are still volcanic ash, but she puts her teeth back behind her lips. "You know why I think the way I do about myself. You know why."

Alice sighs, her lithe body unaccustomed, to her own anger. She wasn't built for war, after all. "I'm sorry," soft, sad smile. "I know. I'm sorry." She holds out her arms, an invitation, a "can we please not fight?"

But Rosalie isn't done talking. She turns away, pulls on a pair of pants and sighs. "Amazing how one person makes me feel so much emotion at one time. God, it's like she knows every button to push."

Alice tilts her head to the side, confusion in her narrowed eyes. They widen, suddenly. Realization hitting her fast like a freight train. "Oh, my god. Really?"

Rosalie frowns at her, shuffling around for her glasses. "Can we, like, not repeat this ever to anybody."

"But-"

"I don't know Alice, she just manages to," Rosalie waves her hands around for emphasis. "She just does that thing where she doesn't leave me alone and like flirts with me? I cannot handle it."

The smaller girl grins, tongue in her cheek. "You don't have to be embarrassed about finding her attractive. Edward does, too."

A CD flies at her head. "Alice, I'll literally eviscerate you one day."

Oddly, Rosalie doesn't see "The Pain" for a large part of the day. Not even hints of her; no sound of a soccer ball bouncing off lockers, no awed whispers. Nothing.

No sign of her in the lunchroom with her friends. And she's definitely not on the field. Not that she's looked or anything.

"God," Lauren snarls. Rosalie tunes in to their conversation. "I can't believe she came out as gay. I won't be able to listen to her songs now without thinking that she's a carpet muncher!"

Rosalie's face falls flat, a hint of her fire leaking into her voice. "Excuse me, but I just realized that I can't be bothered with idiotic, close minded bitches like you three anymore." She stands, ignores the open mouths, and grabs her lunch tray. "Have a nice life in your cul-de-sac of homophobia."

She walks away after and feels chills settle across her shoulders.

For some reason, Rosalie isn't surprised to see Bella in the biology room.

But what does surprise her, is the lack of communication from the other girl.

"Wow, am I going to be able to finally get some fucking work done today?" Rosalie pulls a chair out to sit, glaring at Bella. Who looks away from her, remains silent. Stunned, Rosalie turns to face the class.

What the fuck?

Mr. Banner gives his lesson, speeding through and never taking the time to make sure his words are legible enough for them to take notes from. Rosalie's eyes twitch staring at the uneven lines of his handwriting but her mind isn't entirely focused on that at this moment in time.

What happened to the annoying and flirty girl Rosalie had been enduring for the past two weeks?

Rosalie turns her head as Mr. Banner is finishing up, handing them worksheets to work on for the last thirty minutes of class.

Finally, she gets her chance to speak.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" The words come out hotter than Rosalie means them to, and she groans under her breath when the girl shrinks further into herself. "What?" Rosalie hisses, and Bella flinches.

This is not the way to start a conversation with this girl.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," Bella whispers, guilt coating her voice. "That was very out of line and I promise I won't do anything like that again."

Rosalie wants to sigh, wants to slam her knee against every wall she could find. She wants to ask why she said those things if Bella was just going to turn around and apologize for it. But her head hurts, the rest of Jack Daniels throbbing against her skull. "It's fine." And Bella doesn't speak again.

She keeps her distance in the hospital, a flash of brown hair off of white linoleum walls.

Intentionally, she tracks her down, heels clicking hard against the floors in a way that instills fear into everybody in a five room radius.

"Isabella."

"Yes, Rosalie." She keeps her eyes down.

"Put these files away."

This time she doesn't speak, just takes the file and leaves.

I'm - I'm so mad. I'm so fucking mad I could have a horse baby right here in this fucking hallway.

That- That girl, that infuriatingly hot girl doesn't just get to come in here and ruin every little thing Rosalie placed. And she definitely doesn't get to leave when Rosalie was getting semi used to the annoyance buzzing in her ear.

So, she does what any sane person would have done.

Gets her attention back.

"Hey, you blue footed fuck," Rosalie comes up behind her, flicking at her broad shoulders. Bella stiffens, turns around and looks at her. The very definition of confusion all over her face. "Yeah, I'm talking to you, you horse's ass. I need you to come with me to do this thing."

Bella doesn't speak but obliges, casting guilty looks towards the ground.

Rosalie sighs, "oh, so you're not talking to me today, huh?"

Like a storm, realization floods over Bella's face. "You're such an ass fuck, Rosalie Cullen!"

They harass each other in school now. It's so much that Alice asks if they're friends.

"No." Rosalie says, spitting wadded up paper into Bella's hoodie. "I fucking hate that bitch."

And later, Rosalie will open her locker and a pile of spitballs fall out, coating her feet in saliva.

Let it be known that she wants to fucking end her life right there and then.

Rosalie looks at her shoulders, stares at the skin there, watching the muscles bunch and roll under her skin. She wonders if she's warm. Oh, but of course she is, Bella is radiating heat.

Bella notices her staring, and almost self-consciously plucks at her jersey. "Yeah… I know. The designs on these suck. I mean, there's at least three colors here that are decidedly not Forks High colors. You should have seen mine from Phoenix! Those were really cool, looked a lot like Alex Morgan's actually."

Rosalie stares into her locker, trying to hide her blush from being caught staring.

Luckily Bella is just straight up stupid and wouldn't know what somebody checking her out looked like if it shoved its ass in her face.

"Well, it seems like you're a fan."

She doesn't look but she knows Bella is smirking like that again. "Well, yes, but it helps that she's hot.

Rosalie freezes, hands grip tight on the edge of her locker, the metal scratching in protest.

What? Is she, is she … gay? Gay? Homosexual? What?

Rosalie isn't sure she heard her right. Or maybe she's overreacting. All girls compliment each other.

She startles and looks up. Whatever expression she held on her face led to a look of disappointment on the brunette's

Cool brown eyes turn icy, hard. "Don't tell me that you don't like gay people." Rosalie spies a little bit of hurt in her expression, too.

"No! No!, that's not what I said!" She hurries to say, tripping over her words. For some reason, it's important to Rosalie that Bella knows she's not a homophobe. "Alice is bisexual! I don't hate gay people!"

Bella's still frowning, though her eyes lose a little bit of their ice. "Then why that look?"

"I-I just. Like, you're so open. This is a high school in a small town. Doesn't that scare you?

"It's a small town in Washington." She waits a pause, her angered frown turning into one of concern. "Does that scare you?

Rosalie might as well have crashed her car and died on the way to school. Surely that would have been easier than this. "No, because I'm not gay."

That annoying, slow, sexy, smirk is back. Rosalie flushes immediately. "Rose, I didn't ask if you were."

Rosalie wants to fucking die.

Bella continues, watching her face with glee. "I meant, does that make you scared for Alice?"

Son of a bitch.

"And don't worry," Bella rolls her eyes. "I get it, you're an aggressive heterosexual woman."

Rosalie grabs a piece of paper from her hands, leans real close, a seductive whisper falls out of her mouth. "Love, you don't know what I like."

And then, Rosalie winks one perfectly eyelash framed eye.

Without waiting for a reaction, Rosalie spins and slams her locker shut in one movement.

...

She considers driving her car off the bridge on the way home, where she takes her pictures down, and moves them five inches apart this time.