I'm really sorry I didn't update sooner!! But anyway, I really like this chapter, and I hope you will too!
I stared blankly at the computer screen and let my mind wander. Today was Tuesday. Tanya would be coming on Thursday. Even though Alice, Rose, Emmett and Jasper had assured me endlessly that everything would be fine, and that Tanya would like me, I still wasn't convinced. And I knew that even if Tanya was the most perfect, kindest girl on earth, I wouldn't be able to like her. Not as long as I had feelings for Edward.
Edward didn't seem very excited about Tanya coming. In fact, he seemed gloomier than usual ever since her phone call. Alice, Rosalie and Emmett were openly dreading Thursday, and even though he tried to be the good guy and not show it, I knew Jasper was too.
I quickly logged off when I realized that there was a line of people waiting to use the computers. I picked up my bag and went back to the dorm. Rosalie was there, watching TV. She turned it off when I came in and collapsed onto my bed. We sat in silence for a few minutes until there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," Rosalie called, not wanting to get up. The door opened. I raised my head a little bit to see that it was just Emmett, Jasper and Edward with Styrofoam boxes of Chinese take-out. I looked at the time and realized it was already 1:00, and I was starving.
We started to eat, Edward and I not saying anything, and Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper arguing over little things like what movie to watch tonight for our movie night. I didn't feel like having one, but everyone insisted, Alice later persuading me by saying that tonight would be perfect for our weekly movie night since Tanya wouldn't be here.
The door opened and Alice stalked in, clearly angry. She slammed the door behind her and sat down on her bed with a box of food and chopsticks. "It's so annoying!" she exclaimed. "I had found the perfect song for me and Emmett to do, and when I went and asked the teacher, she told me someone else was already doing it!"
Alice and Emmett were performing together, Emmett on the drums and Alice with the guitar, and as the singer.
"Don't worry," Rose said. "You'll find something else. I already found my piece."
"Ooh, what is it?" Alice asked, excited.
"You'll see," Rose said, smirking. Alice glared at her. All this talk about what we would be performing for the summer-end concert reminded me that I still had to get my piece approved by my teacher and practice it. Later, I thought.
Suddenly it was Thursday afternoon, and Rosalie, Alice, Jasper, Emmett and I were waiting in the guy's room for Edward to come back from the airport with Tanya. I was pacing back and forth when I heard the door open and a stained laugh from Edward. I looked at the door. With Edward was a gorgeous strawberry blonde girl. Not as pretty as Rose or Alice, but definitely prettier than me. No wonder Edward was with her. He deserved someone who looked like she belonged with him, not someone plain like me.
"Rosalie! Alice!" She cried in a high pitched voice, and then laughed. It was a fake laugh, and that was obvious. Alice grimaced briefly before allowing herself to be hugged by Tanya. The second she let go of her, Alice came to stand beside me. Rose joined us too. I saw Tanya's eyes narrow infinitesimally, but she ignored me and moved on to hug Jasper and Emmett. The she finally looked at me.
"And who's this?" She asked, in that fake, high pitched tone, turning to Edward. Edward was about to say something, but Alice answered instead.
"This is our new best friend, and roommate, Bella." She and Rose linked their arms through mine. Tanya looked even angrier when she saw and heard this, but disguised it quickly.
"Nice to meet you Bella," she said in a sickly sweet way.
Tanya went to stand beside Edward and intertwined her hand with his. I felt jealousy spread through me. Edward looked uncomfortable, which made me feel a little better. He didn't actually seem to like her that much. I wondered why they were even together. Sure, she was pretty, but that's about all she had. Her personality, so far, didn't even make up for her looks.
There was an awkward silence for a minute.
"Umm, I'm going to go back to the room. See you guys later." She gave Jasper a peck on the cheek, shot a meaningful glance at Rose and I, then went outside.
"Me too… I have some work to do." She left, too. Not wanting to be left there with Edward and Tanya without Rosalie and Alice for help, I quickly made up some excuse and left too. I went back to our room and sat down on the couch with a loud sigh. Alice looked at me sympathetically, as if to say, I told you so. I remembered Alice telling me once about how she didn't like Tanya.
Rose, however, just grinned and gave Alice a high-five. "Alice, that was awesome back there! She was so jealous!" Alice grinned back. I raised my eyebrows. Seeing my confusion, Alice explained, "Tanya has always been jealous of how close the five of us are. She has always wanted to be part of our group, and even being Edward's girlfriend, she hasn't been able to do that. She's known us for two years. Today, when I mentioned that you're our best friend, she was really jealous. That's why I said all that in the room today, and linked arms with you."
I was a little hurt. She said that just to make Tanya jealous? Seeing my expression, Alice quickly added, "Not that that was only to make her jealous. I meant every word I said back there. You are a part of our group now."
I nodded, and said thank you. Alice hopped up from her bed and came and gave me a hug. Rose joined and it became a group hug. We spent the rest of the night watching chick flicks and laughing hysterically at random things.
I was walking back from the main building when I heard someone calling my name. I was Edward. He was jogging towards me. "Wait up!" He called. He finally reached me.
"Hi, Edward," I said, tentatively. Up until today, Edward had been sitting at the back of the class during vocals. Today, he sat beside me again.
"Hey Bella," He smiled at me. Okay, this was kind of weird. I was so used to the cold, unfriendly Edward, that his friendly attitude was kind of bizarre. "Mind if I walk back to your room with you? I need to get something from Alice."
"Sure. So, what's up? Are you excited that Tanya's here?" I asked, not really thinking about what I was saying. His face instantly became guarded, and his eyes tightened.
"Yes," he said, not looking at me. He was lying. I regretted asking him that. Now he'll go back to being unfriendly. Then I heard two impatient honks behind us. We turned to see Tanya behind the wheel of a rental car. She rolled down the window.
"Want a ride, Edward?"
"Um, actually, Tanya, I was going to Alice's, not to my room."
"Oh, that's fine. I could do with some catching up with Alice and Rosalie." Edward shrugged and then turned to me.
"Want to come, Bella?" I saw Tanya's eyes narrow with anger when she saw Edward asking me.
"Sure," I said. I didn't particularly want to ride with Tanya and Edward, but I didn't really feel like walking either. Edward opened the door for me, and after I had got in he closed it. He walked over to the passenger side and got in. Tanya drove to our dorm. It was really uncomfortable in the car, so I was glad when we reached my dorm. I made my way up to our room, with Edward and Tanya trailing behind me. I opened the door and went inside leaving it open for Edward and Tanya.
"Hey Alice, I was wondering if…" I heard Edward asking Alice something. I sat down next to Rose on the sofa and watched as Tanya pulled up a chair and sat near us. Rosalie made a face when Tanya wasn't looking. I laughed quietly.
I sort of tuned out what was happening around me. All I knew was that Rose was not happy to be having to speak to Tanya. I dozed off and was awakened by Alice. Edward and Tanya were just about to leave. I said bye to them, and then opened Wuthering Heights, which I was planning on reading.
"Bella," Tanya said. "Can I speak to you for a minute? Outside?" I shot a bewildered glance at Alice and Rose, but they were just as confused as I was. I followed her into the hallway and closed the door behind her. As soon as the door was shut, she gave up her good-girl act.
"Listen, Bella. I know I'm not going to be here after Sunday, but I'm going to make it clear: Edward is mine. I can tell that you like him, which he is obviously not noticing, but just stay away, okay? He is my boyfriend, so don't try to steal him away. No one steals Tanya Denali's boyfriends."
I stared at her shocked. She thought I was trying to steal Edward? "Look, Tanya, I don't know how you got that idea, but I'm not trying to steal Edward from you." It was a different matter altogether whether I liked him or not…
"Whatever. Just stay away from Edward." She turned on her heel and walked away. I went into my room, dazed.
"What happened?" Alice asked, the second I was through the door.
"Tanya thinks I'm trying to steal Edward from her." I explained. "She warned me to stay away from him."
Rose gaped at me. "Are you serious?"
I nodded.
"Oh. My. God. I can't believe she actually did that!" Alice exclaimed. "Well, no it is believable, actually, but…" She trailed off. "Let's tell Edward."
"No!" I said. "He's not going to believe us anyway. And plus what's he going to do, even if he does believe us? I don't think he'll break up with Tanya so easily." Rose nodded, supporting me.
"Okay… I guess." Alice said, uncertain.
"Bella, I have something I want to say to you. I really, really like you." Edward smiled his breath taking crooked grin at me. Then he looked straight into my eyes. "Will you be my girlfriend?"
I shot up, covering my ears with my hands. "Crap, Alice, don't ever do that again!" Alice had put an alarm near me ear, interrupting the most wonderful dream ever. She smiled at me. I groaned. "Today's Saturday, Alice!"
"Good to see you're up." I heard someone say from the doorway. I would recognize that voice anywhere. "I needed to talk to you." Edward said.
Alice froze where she was and we exchanged a hesitant glance. Rosalie looked up from her laptop.
"What did you say to Tanya yesterday?" He asked, looking down at me with his arms crossed and a frown in his face.
"Me?" If I remembered correctly, it was Tanya who was doing most of the talking yesterday.
"Yes, you." He glared at me. "Let me refresh your memory. Tanya came crying to me yesterday, saying that you had spoken to her privately after I left yesterday. She said that you apparently accused her of coming in between our relationship, and that you wanted her to get out of my life, or something along those lines. I wasn't aware we had a relationship." He raised one eyebrow.
"What! I didn't say anything like that! It was Tanya who was doing the talking; she told me to stay away from you, and she accused me of trying to steal you from her." It looked like I was trying to explain all this to him in vain. He remained unmoved, but it looked like his eyebrow was going to disappear under his messy bronze hair at the rate at which he was inching it up.
"Tanya," he called, and in walked Tanya with a smirk on her face. Rosalie's expression instantly turned to one of anger. "Tanya, tell them what happened yesterday."
Tanya stood beside Edward and faked a look of amazement and hurt. "You don't remember what you said to me yesterday? That you told me to get out of Edward's life, and out of your way."
Before I could react, Alice launched herself past me and on Tanya. Tanya was too shocked to do anything, but Edward pulled Alice off her. "Liar!" She was screaming. She looked at Edward and said, "Edward, how can you believe her, she's lying!"
"I think that it is Bella who is lying, and not Tanya, Alice. Tanya wouldn't do that."
"You're wrong, Edward. Tanya would do that. Bella wouldn't." Rosalie said, this time. Tanya glared at her, and Rosalie crossed her arms over her chest defiantly.
"Fine, stick with the liar, then." Edward said. I couldn't resist it; I stuck my tongue out at him. It was childish, I know, but I had to. Edward just huffed and walked out the door with Tanya following him.
The second they were out the door, I lay back down again. Rosalie and Alice sat beside me, comforting me with just my silence. I could feel the tears in my eyes. My tear ducts were wired to my anger. Whenever I got angry about something, I cried to let out all the emotion. It was actually quite helpful.
There was a knock on the door. I bit down on my lip, hoping it was not Edward or Tanya again. But this time Emmett and Jasper came in. They looked down at us. I imagined what we must look like: dejected; me with tears in my eyes.
"We were out in the hallway and heard everything that happened." Emmett explained. He sat down on the bed with us and I could feel the mattress go down.
"Don't listen to them." Jasper said. "Edward's being a jerk right now."
I just sighed and turned around so that my face was buried in my pillow.
I woke up sometime around mid-day, and saw that Alice, Rose, Emmett and Jasper were still here. When Alice saw that I was up, she ran to me and gave me a hug and asked if I was okay. I assured her that I was fine.
I ate a doughnut that Rose had bought for lunch and stared at the TV, not really taking in the football game that Emmett was watching. At around 3:00, the door opened and Edward walked in, not bothering to knock or anything.
"Are you crazy, Edward? How can you just walk in like that after what you did this morning?" Rosalie cried out from the sofa. But Edward looked so sad and torn that I felt all my anger seep away. Alice noticed this too.
"What's wrong, Edward? Are you okay?" She was frantic.
"I'm fine, Alice. Physically, at least." He replied.
"Then what happened?"
"This morning, after I, er, spoke to you guys, I went to play basketball for a while. Then I went up to Mike and Tyler's room, because theirs was the closest and also because I didn't have the guts to face Jasper and Emmett after what I did this morning. When I went up to their room, I saw Tanya in their, making out with Mike. We broke up and hour ago and she's on her way back to Forks now." There was silence in the room for about 3 seconds before Alice attacked Edward with what was probably meant to be a comforting hug. She almost knocked him down though. She gave Rose thumbs up behind Edward's back. After a round of comforting hugs from everyone, not including me, Edward came to where I stood, frozen. He looked into my eyes, and I felt myself getting lost in his emerald green eyes.
"Bella, during our fight, Tanya told me the truth about what happened yesterday." He looked down and took a deep breath. "I'm really sorry. Can you accept my apology so that we can start over?"
Ooh, what is she going to say?? Finally, Tanya's out of the picture! Anyway, review! Tell me how it was!