Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Chapter 3 – Cats and Dogs

"There she is!" Demetri's voice greeted me as I entered Aro's garage.

I ignored him, walking to the fridge and looking for a soda I couldn't find. As soon as I looked around I knew something was missing.

"Where's everyone?" I asked Peter, who was looking under the hood of a gorgeous '69 Jaguar.

"Dunno," he shrugged, rubbing his neck, "Out – come look for a minute."

I did as he said, looking under the hood. Ouch. This car was seriously perfect. Long bonnet, curvaceous fenders, large, round headlights, pouting mouth… Where the fuck did he get a beauty like this?

"What's wrong with it?" I asked him curiously, admiring the 4.2L 6-cylinder engine.

He ran a hand through his blond hair and sighed, "That's it. I don't know. Everything seems alright, but the driver said something's wrong with it – said he heard something and missed the fantastic 'purr' or some shit, but I'm not seeing anything."

"No broken engine strap? Or a loose timing belt? How did he describe the noise?"

I felt Demetri's arms wrap around my waist. I sighed contently, snuggling into his warmth.

"I don't know, man," he said, his head resting on my shoulder, "Nothing with the fan belt either?"

"All checked," Peter answered both our questions, "And the fucker didn't describe a thing."

Loud noises interrupted our conversation. Looking up, I saw Felix, Irina and Charlotte boisterously entering our beloved, but crappy, garage. A smile covered Felix face as soon as he saw us.

"Damn, don't you just look hot standing next to a car like that?"

"No compliments for today, Kitty," I warned him with a glare, "I had the shittiest day thanks to you."

"You're welcome," he grinned, not even bothering anymore to tell me to stop calling him 'Kitty'. I knew he hated it when I called him that, but then again, who in the world calls their kid Felix after the invention of Felix the Cat?

"So, what's new?" Charlotte asked as she placed herself in between Peter's legs and successfully turned his attention away from the Jaguar problem.

"Eh, well, Rosalie's cousin's coming back to Forks," I announced.

"What are you still doing with people like that, Bella?" Irina asked, lighting up a cigarette. "Want one?"

"They're my friends," I mumbled, taking the cigarette. No smoking at school but with friends like these it's alright. Kind of two-faced, right? "Especially Rose and you guys know that."

Aro and his group didn't like my friends at school, especially people Rose and Edward. Stuck up snobs, if you asked them. They didn't even take the time to get to know them. Thinking about it, people like Rose and Edward wouldn't take time to get to know them either. They'd seen each other a few times, but the only thing they'd exchanged were nasty glares and overly polite words. I didn't like them together, actually – I liked my friends alive, thank you very much.

That's why I kept School Friends and Aro Friends parted, to prevent big fights. I shuddered at the idea alone. Aro was a popular fellow in Forks and had a lot of friends. Felix just being one of them.

"But you were saying?" Charlotte coughed, "New meat?"

"Yeah," I muttered, giving her a grateful smile. Thank God, "Jasper Whitlock."

Demetri snorted. I looked up curiously, seeing him looking down at me with a shit eating grin on his face. "Jasper? Then we have a cat and a dog. Isn't that nice?"

My giggle turned into full blown laughter after seeing the 'ha ha'-scowl on Felix's face.

"Yeah, ha ha, laugh at the guy with the name. You're just jealous," he said woefully, walking to the fridge, just like I'd done earlier.

"Yeah, we're very jealous," Charlotte said earnestly.

I hummed an agreement, "We'd love to be named Mickey, Donald, Bugs or maybe Woody Woodpecker."

Everyone sniggered once again. I loved times like this – nothing serious, just fooling around. It was even better than hanging out with friends from school. Probably because the garage was definitely my place to be. I'd been coming here since I was younger, before and after the fire.

I snuggled a bit deeper into Demetri. Daaaamn, almost forgot how delicious he smelled. Very Demetri-y.

"Why aren't there any goodies in here?" Felix murmured, ignoring us.

"You know all the good stuff's in the kitchen," Peter reminded him.

Felix groaned, "I don't want to go all the way to the kitchen. It's too far."

I rolled my eyes at his silliness, "Whatever. C'mon, let's look at the car."

"No, no cars now," Irina sighed, tossing herself into the worn-out couch at the back of the garage, cigarette still in hand, "Just relax, okay?"

"Awh, didn't get any today?" Felix teased, sitting down next to her and looping an arm around her shoulders. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, "I can change that for you."

"Eeew! No way, Felix," she shrilled, promptly shoving his arm off. Apparently Felix was getting old, I thought with a smile. She stood up, smoothing the imaginary wrinkles from the tight-fitting grey shirt she was wearing, "C'mon, I'm going. Girls, you're coming with me?"

"Yeah," I replied, giving Demetri a peck on the cheek and grabbing my leather jacket. It was Felix's originally, years ago. He lent it to me when I'd forgotten my own jacket and somehow, don't ask me how, it became mine. It was still far too big for me – I looked like a fucking midget in it, but I had a bond with that jacket. It was comfortingly warm and living in a cold town like Forks…

Charlotte nodded, grabbing her fake Goyard purse. She gave Peter one last kiss – not that you could call it a kiss. They were practically sucking each other's faces of. Nothing we weren't used to by now. "Let's go."

"See you, guys!"

"Ugh," Irina moaned as we walked over Forks' deserted streets, "My day was horrible. Really absolutely horrible… and Felix only makes it worse with his stupid, childish jokes. God, grow up already!"

"Felix isn't that bad, 'Rina," Charlotte stood up for our burly friend, "He just… didn't grew up yet."

"Yeah, whatever, you were talking about Hale's cousin earlier. Finally something new for your uptown friends, huh? Bet they don't get that a lot – new stuff, I mean," Irina said, abhorrence coloring her tone as she talked about my 'uptown friends'.

"They aren't that bad," I protested reasonably.

They both – yes, Charlotte too – raised an eyebrow.

"Conceited, arrogant brats. That's what they are," Irina sneered, "I hope Hale's cousin's better than her. Probably not though. That family's filthy rich. The stupid thing's that it's all old money."

There was an undertone in her voice and I knew what it was. Jealousy. Irina's family wasn't rich. At all. It surprised me she actually had a place to sleep every night – Oh, wait, never mind. Her father was a druggie and her mother died when Irina was twelve. Friends didn't even gave money anymore to Irina and her dad. They wouldn't spend it on victuals anyway.

That's what we all had in common. Me, Irina, Aro and the rest. An awful past and one messed up family.

Not everything's old money. Mr and Mrs Hale both have great jobs, I wanted to say, but wisely kept my mouth shut.

"We can't judge the Whitlock kid already," Charlotte said rationally, "And who knows? Maybe he'll surprise us. And the uptown people will scare him off anyway. With their fucking bragging, I mean."

"He's probably one of them himself," Irina said decidedly.

"Whatever, guys. Can we just wait 'till he comes?"

Otherwise everyone in Forks was going to scare him off. I knew I hated it when everybody was so overly interested in me and my mom when we moved to Forks. And I was only eight back then.

"You're right," Charlotte agreed with a nod, "So, where were Aro and the guys today? Out of town again?"

"Yeah," Irina nodded, running her hand through her chin-length silvery blonde hair.

"They're out of town a lot lately, aren't they?" I frowned.

Irina bit her lip, "I know. I asked about it already, but they always have the same answer. Business. And when I ask what business, they snap at me. Fucking annoying."

The three of us shared a grim look. Business and Aro together didn't promise anything good. He knew what he was doing most of the time, but that was business in Forks. He knew everybody in the area, but out of town meant unfamiliar people. Please don't get into trouble, Aro.

"You have a lighter? I forgot mine," I said as I took the cigarette Irina offered me earlier out of my pocket. "Well, I don't know what Aro's doing and I'm not entirely sure I want to know. I really have no idea who keeps bailing him out of jail."

Irina shrugged, but seemed troubled she didn't know then answer either nonetheless. Irina knew a lot. She knew a lot of guys to fill her in about what was going on, so she always knew everything about everyone. Not knowing something irritated her to the end.

"Whatever," she mumbled once again, tossing me her lighter.

"Let's go," Charlotte said, looking up at the sky. "It's getting dark outside."

"Oooooh, and we don't want to be approached by the dark crowd that's lurking around here, huh?" Irina grinned. I giggled with her.

Lightening my cigarette, my eyes caught her lighter, "Dirty girl!" I said, laughing loudly.

Irina giggled, smiling innocently.

"Figures," Charlotte smiled, rolling her eyes.

"I need a hot guy – never mind, a guy – around me 24/7, okay?"

At times like these, they weren't so bad.

AN: You noticed I like using as many characters as possible?