Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters. Well, some I do but not the important ones. Sigh

Beauty and the Geek

Chapter 7- The Point of No Return

The gym was clamored with students; everywhere you looked girls were hugging each other and crying and guys were yelling as they tore through the doorways throwing papers everywhere. Notebook and binders filled the trashcans, locks were being taken off empty lockers and old sandwiches were being found in some. Last minute detentions were being filled, and windows had computer print-outs of student ID numbers beside their final grades. Some students screamed as they had B's or A's on their final exams, while other swam in the depression that was the promise of summer school or the lack of a diploma.

I myself had been laughing joyously with my two girlfriends as we chatted about our summer plans.

"Thank god our parents finally gave up on us being little kids again and let us vacation by ourselves for once." Alice said with exaggeration.

"Seriously! I was so afraid that I was going to rot here with my parents all summer!" Rosalie joined in.

The three of us had pooled our money, as well as the rich Mr. and Mrs. Hale/ Brandon's checking account and had a two-month jet set to the South of France to 'study abroad'. While we had signed up for this opportunity, the Hales and the Brandons were unaware that their daughter and myself were registered as being eighteen, allowing us to roam wherever we wanted and skip boring museum trips without being hassled about it. It was set, the tickets had been purchased and hotel room reserved and paid for.

"I would not have survived an entire summer stuck with Charlie." I said as I glossed my lips.

"Well, you know, Baby Bella, there are some pretty hott guys over there in France." Rosalie cooed.

"Yeah, Bells. For once, you might actually have your heart stolen." The two of them chimed together as they teased about my lack of man-candy.

"C'mon you guys, we're going for tans and shameless flirting, not for marriage proposals." I whined.

"God, no. Who wants to get married? Ugh." Rose replied with disgust in her voice. We fixed our hair and make-up in front of our locker-mirrors for the last time as sophomores.

"So what time is Emmett's party, Rose?" The pixie asked for no reply. Rosalie had begun her signature make out session with Emmett once more. We cringed and waved as we headed toward the yellow Porsche in the parking lot. The two spaces next to the canary-colored sports car were empty as they usually were. It was abnormal that the new drivers were brave enough to risk scratching the Italian car. We slid into the black-leather interior and I took command of the radio dial.

"So what are you wearing tonight?" I asked. Alice never attended any social function, or any function for that matter, without looking as if she belonged on the cover of Vogue. She began to babble about the new halter top and jeans she had bought on our last trip to Seattle and how she felt so much taller in stiletto heels when a rabbit jumped in front of the speeding vehicle we were in. "Alice!!"

She slammed her tiny foot onto the brake, making my seat belt cling onto my chest and sending my head forward. We sat up and took deep breaths as the rabbit hopped away.

"Thanks a lot, Bugs." she said. The pixie-like girl had a habit of associating woodland creatures with cartoon characters, adding another trait that made her seem utterly chipper and cute. Recovering, we sat in the middle of the road. A loud honk made me squeal in shock. "Sorry, there was a rabbit..." the honk was echoed again as Alice apologized out the window. She flipped the car behind us the bird, and as I looked in the mirror in the sun visor to brush my hair I was made aware of the identity of the driver behind us.

The green van that was normally parked on the opposite end of the school lot had taken over the left lane and sped ahead of us with its exhaust wheezing.

"Alice! You know you gust flipped off Mike Newton, right?"

"Oh crap!" We erupted into giggles when another car honked behind us. "Chill! I'm going, i'm going." she yelled out the window, this time sticking her entire head out. My stomach cramped up in laughter as she gunned the Italian engine. Our hysterics ended and our conversation focused back to the party later that night.

"So tell me, what am I wearing tonight?" In the three years that I had been best friends with Rose and Alice, I was still deemed fashionista in training and could never seem to keep track of the styles my two friends provided me with. The two had forever rescued me from a t-shirt, jeans, converse and hoodies, however, and for that I was grateful. With the help of their advice, the three of us were always coordinated, made-up, and primped to please. In the course of these years, I had gone from nobody in Phoenix to a somebody in Forks, Washington.

Pulling up to Alice's house, it suddenly hit me that we were now officially juniors. Sure, it had made more of an impact after Freshman year as we ascended up the food chain, but it would only be two more years from today that I would graduate from Forks High School, and a small pang hit me in the chest. What if none of my friends and I got accepted to the same school? I would be forced to be the new girl once more.

Alice sensed my sudden anxiety, as she always did.

"What's wrong, Bella?" she asked with concern in her dark eyes.

"Nothing." I lied. She knew as well as I that I was a terrible liar, and there was no way of getting around that. She tilted her head and put her hands on her hips, commanding me with her eyes to spill the reason for my nervousness. "It just hit me that in two years, we're going to be in college, that's all."

Still inside her car, she reached over the stick shift and hugged me tightly.

"Nothing is going to change, Bella. We will go to the same school, I assure you. Even if it is a community college, we will be together. Nothing is going to change. Just the three of us, well except for when Rosalie is making out with Emmett or someone else." We giggled at that thought; before Emmett Rosalie had always been sucking on some guys lips. "Come on inside, we'll make some tea and i'll do your hair and makeup."

Upstairs in the bright-pink plush bedroom, I was practically duct-taped into a black, swivel chair in front of three mirrors and a cup of tea in my hand. Staring back at my ever-changing reflection as Alice pulled, curled, straightened and re-curled and tucked my hair in various patterns, we gabbed about the various people (mostly guys) that we would meet in Cannes.

"So, Alice. We've known each other for three years now, what would be your ideal guy? Like, long-term, not an Abercrombie model." I said, knowing what her quick answer would be- the guy on the giant picture inside one of her favorite clothing stores. She was lost in thought for a few moments, and her voice lowered to a serious tone.

"Well, I guess he would be...tall. Yes, he would be tall, and strong, but so gentle you would never know how strong he really was." She paused, going over the mental man in her mind.

"What color is his hair? What about his eyes?" My interrogation sparked a glimmer in her eyes.

"He would have blonde hair, I've always had a thing for blondes." My friend smiled and began to wind her fingers in my hair as she said this. "And light eyes, like blue or green or something. He would be caring, and whenever I felt a little down he would wrap his arms around me and tell me everything would be ok." She sighed dreamily, and continued."I'm not really sure what else, but when he looks into my eyes, he gets this look that tells me that he loves me, and always will."

Alice was frozen in her fantasy, when suddenly a thin line of spoke rose up from the curling iron that had my hair wrapped around it.

"ALICE!!" Waking from her daze, she jumped and quickly pulled the gold-colored rod from my hair that was now so tightly curled that it bobbed at the base of my scalp instead of falling to my shoulders as did the other locks. She groaned, and reached for the straightener to fix the rebellious curl. The evening passed without event, and before I knew it, I was dressed and ready to go. We promised Rose we would meet her at the party, and so we took off in the canary Porsche we had came in.

The Tucker house was bursting at the seams; all that could be seen in the windows were students dancing and partying the stresses of finals away. Walls buzzed with music, and numerous cars were parked on the shoulder of the road. Some of the vehicles were familiar to me from the school parking lot, while others were of higher class and were belonging to people unknown to me or Alice. Parking behind a silver BMW, we flashed our mirrors in front of our faces one last time, adjusting various straps and buckles, and were stepping out of the sports car.

Whii, woooo. Boys whistled as we emerged with our low-cut tops that left little room for the imagination. My skinny jeans brushed against the other as we walked past them without sparing a glance, as we always did. Slowing myself to my friend's pace, we let ourselves through the door and into a fog of blaring rap music and swaying bodies grinding against each other. Stretching my neck above the crowds, I searched for Rosalie and Emmett.

I lead Alice through the crowd where her limited height also limited her vision. In a far corner next to a lamp, Rose and the football star were in an embrace, squeezing each other with their arms wrapped tightly around the other. We waited around the corner, giving them the privacy they deserved. Before that moment, I had never seen the couple touching without their lips sucking on the others. The strange action surprised the two of us, and we looked at each other in shock .

Contemplating the change in their relationship, we glided through the crowd and snapped open a couple of sodas from the ice bucket, listening to some kids complain about there being no alcohol. While Emmett could be a bully, he still had some morals left. A flash of blonde hair appeared out of the crowd to reveal a beaming Rosalie.

"Hey girls!" She greeted us cheerfully.

"Hey Rose." We chimed.

"So, what was that all about over there? You two seemed pretty...intense." Alice said with a grin on her small face. The blonde looked flustered, but could not break her smile.

"Emmett said he loved me." Shock was present on our faces. "And I told him I loved him too." How could they be in love? How would they even know what that felt like? My friends hugged each other and squealed as they gushed about the details. I remained to the side, folding my free arm across my ribcage as I sipped from my soda. I knew I should be happy for her, as I had been with all her other boyfriends, but none of them every loved her, or at least, they never said anything about it.

I had never felt lonely, even without a man. I did not realize though, how lonely I truly was at that moment. This was the first time I ever felt disconnected from my friends, and myself. I had been stripped away, sanded down to the bare core that had been painted over by my supposed independence. It was then that I knew that a boyfriend was not what I wanted. I wanted to be loved, and to have someone to love, but that prospect seemed far away from where I stood, screaming in a sea of people. It was then I had decoded the meaning of Charlie's cruel words- I had changed. The only problem I foresaw was that because I had lost who I had originally been, there was no feasible way of returning. I feared that I was past the point of no return.