Author's Note- Thank you all so much! I reached 100 reviews! A special shout out to KelseyCullen, who reviewed not once, not twice, but three times! Now that is dedication. Haha. Anyway, sorry for the wait. Anyone who's in college will understand that the weeks between midterms and Thanksgiving break are nuts. All my professors wanted papers. But here's the next chapter. It's not as long as I would've liked. But now that my papers are done I should have more time to write. Enjoy and have a great Thanksgiving to all you Americans!

Disclaimer- I own nothing. It all belongs to Stephenie Meyer.

Soundtrack: "My Heart" by Paramore

Chapter 13

How to Destroy Mike Newton

The music was pounded in my ears as I made my way back to the dance floor, trying to avoid hitting anyone in the crowd. The circle of guys had disappeared, so I guessed that meant Emmett and Jasper were back and had successfully managed to win Rosalie and Alice back. The two couples were dancing embarrassingly close. Rosalie and Emmett looked like they were about to start making out any second.

I blushed and looked away, scanning the nearby crowd for Edward. He had to be nearby, and I needed to find him. I wanted to leave. It had occurred to me that the whole reason we'd been invited to this party was Mike's perverted need to win me over. I wanted to part of it. But my friends looked like they were having fun, and I hated to disturb them.

"Bella?" Alice shouted, suddenly noticing me standing aimlessly a few inches from them.

She pulled back a little from Edward, but kept dancing.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

I nodded, and then asked, "Have you seen Edward?"

"He went to look for you," she said, her eyes narrowing, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I insisted.

She stopped dancing altogether now, and turned around to smack Rosalie in the shoulder.

"Rose, get your tongue out of Emmett's throat! Something's wrong with Bella!" she shouted.

A few people nearby turned to give us questioning looks.

"Dramatic much?" I hissed.

Alice chose to ignore me.

"What's wrong?" Rosalie grumbled, pulling away from Emmett, who looked just as disgruntled.

"Ask Bella," Alice replied, looking pointedly at me.

My friends were making me even angrier, and I brushed my eyes quickly with my fingers, wiping the tear before it could fall.

"Nothing's wrong," I insisted, "I'm just looking for Edward."

Rosalie caught on faster than Alice – she had more experience with disgusting guys.

"Was it that Mike character? The one who invited us?" she asked, her voice low over the crowd.

Alice let out a spectacular gasp, and grabbed Jasper.

"Did he touch you?" Emmett grumbled, "I'll kill him for Edward."

"No!" I hissed, "No. It's fine. I handled it. You guys don't need to. I just don't want to be here anymore."

Alice nodded sympathetically, and said, "Okay. We'll head out."

"You can stay, if you want," I said, "You look like you were having fun…"

Alice's face stopped me before I could say anything else.

"I'll see if I can get a hold of Edward on his cell phone," Emmett said, and took his cell out of his pocket.

I snatched it out of his hand before he could open it.

"I'll do it," I said.

I didn't want Emmett telling Edward anything about Mike. No doubt he'd overreact worse than my friends had.

Edward picked up after two rings. I could faintly hear the music in the background before he spoke.

"Emmett? Did you find her?" he demanded.

I could hear the worried edge in his voice, and it made me smile just a little.

"Edward, it's me," I said.

"Bella? Bella, where are you?" he asked, his tone changing completely. Relief, and less sharp than the tone he used when he thought I was Emmett.

Was it odd that I could pick out his emotions just from the sound of his voice?

"I'm with everyone else. I just left for a minute," I replied, "We're leaving, though. Can you meet us by the door?"

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

No.

"Yes," I lied, hoping he couldn't hear the lie in my voice.

He usually could, but I just needed to get him out of the party, where he couldn't do any damage. He had a bit of a temper. Then I'd tell him.

"I'll be right there."

The phone clicked, and I handed it back to Emmett.

"He's meeting us at the front door," I said.

We started weaving through the crowd. I headed our little group, eager to get out of the party as fast as possible. The music was giving me a headache.

"If I see that little Mike Newton…" I heard Emmett grumble behind me.

"You won't do a thing," Rosalie hissed.

But I heard her crack her knuckles behind me.

I tried to rearrange my features as we got close to the door, sure they would give me away. Edward was waiting for us, his eyes turned in our direction. His face changed just a bit when he saw me, and I knew I'd failed in trying to cover up how upset I was.

Shoot.

His hands curled around my face, his eyes boring into mine.

"Bella?" he asked.

"I'm fine," I insisted, "Let's go."

I reached up to tug one of his hands from my face. He let go, taking my hand in his and pulling me through the doorway.

Our friends filed out behind us into the cold air. I pressed against Edward's side in the cold, and let our friends trail behind us. He was walking quickly, evidently aware that something was wrong.

"Edward," I said, "It's okay, really. I'm fine."

His eyes tightened into a glare that probably would have scared most women if their boyfriends suddenly took to glaring like that. But I knew Edward. I'd faced his anger before, and I knew that however angry he was, it was rarely directed at me. It changed nothing.

But he wrapped his arm around me securely, holding me close to him as we stumbled (at least on my part) back towards the main campus.

We went to the guy's building without even a discussion. It was just where we naturally headed. Somehow that had become our hang out place.

Everyone filed into the elevator but Edward and I. I motioned Alice and Rosalie to follow their boyfriends, and they didn't protest. Alice just gave me a sympathetic smile, and then turned to Jasper with a conniving face.

The metal elevator doors slid shut in front of me, and I turned my back on them to face my boyfriend.

He was leaning against the wall, his face set in a frown. I realized that I'd seen him like this before: in our hate-hate stage, when he'd leaned against a lamppost after one of our fights after the movies. How much things had changed since then.

This time, I approached him instead, so I was standing right in front of him.

"You worried me, Bella," he murmured, pinching the bridge of his nose, "What happened?"

I'd rehearsed what to say to him on the walk over, and had decided to gloss over several of the details.

I moved into his arms, and let them wrap loosely around me.

"I ran into Mike Newton when I went to find Rosalie and Alice," I started. "He kind of pulled me off the dance floor and into the kitchen so he could get me a drink. I told him I didn't want one. Then he asked me if we were dating, and I said yes."

I paused. This is where it got messy. So far Edward had listened motionlessly, but I felt his arms tighten a bit.

"He just said he didn't like it, and said that I was too good for you."

Standing there in Edward's arms made it a bit more comical to me. I couldn't help but crack a smile. As if I would ever be too good for the perfection that was Edward.

"I told him it was none of his business, and left," I said.

I didn't think there was a need to tell him that Mike hadn't exactly let me leave. I hoped I hadn't left a mark when I'd slapped him; not that he didn't deserve it, but it would be hard to explain.

But Edward wasn't buying it. I glanced up, almost afraid of what I'd see.

His head was leaned back against the wall, his eyes shut. He looked upset, more upset than I'd bargained for.

"Was that everything?" Edward asked.

"Yes."

His eyes opened a little, and looked down at me. I could see the disbelief in his eyes.

I groaned, and cried, "It's okay, really, Edward. Please don't be angry. I took care of it. I can take care of myself."

I had been taking care of myself all my life. Jacob had taught me that.

Edward didn't say anything, and I fell silent. I couldn't think of anything to say that would make the situation better.

"Please, Edward, he was just drunk and acting stupid," I begged, "I shouldn't have gone with him, but I'm okay."

His eyes opened again, and this time when they looked at me there was something different in them. I felt one of his arms leave my back and move to the side of my face.

"I'm not angry at you," Edward said. "I'm angry at that vile Mike Newton. You're just far too trusting for your own good."

I shrugged, and said, "I guess that's one of the bad things about me, then."

He smiled, and I felt my anxiety ebbing away. If he was smiling, then it was okay.

He kissed me then, slowly at first and then building momentum. I forgot everything: that I'd been worried, all about Mike Newton, that we were in the lobby of a crowded residence hall, even that I needed to breathe.

He pulled away, and I took the opportunity to take a shaky gulp of air, scented with Edward's cologne.

"We should go upstairs and join the others," Edward murmured against my lips.

I shook my head.

"No."

I felt his lips form a smile against mine and forgot how to breathe again.

He pulled back further, and I followed him.

"If I know anything about our friends, they're plotting Mike Newton's death," Edward said, "We should go make sure they don't do anything that will get themselves caught."

I couldn't deny that logic, as much as I wanted to. There was a very good chance that my friends would do something stupid. Not to kill Mike Newton, of course. But Alice and Rosalie especially were rather vengeful, and I was sure Mike Newton would not get out of this scott-free if they had anything to do with it. As much as I disliked Mike Newton at the moment, he didn't deserve whatever revenge my friends happened to be planning. I also didn't want them getting caught.

So I followed Edward into the elevator, where we stole a few more kisses before it reached his floor.

When the elevator doors opened onto his floor, he was in a much better mood. I was grinning, glad for once that his mood always shifted so quickly.

"So," he said, "When you said you 'took care of it', what did you mean?"

I looked up at his face, at the easy grin and the tease in his eyes.

I shrugged nonchalantly and said, "I slapped him across the face. It kind of stung a little, but I think I got him pretty good."

He laughed, tightening his hold on my waist.

I opened the door to his suite and waited for him to follow me in. I could hear Rosalie's voice coming from the lounge.

"We could always spread a lie about him having the clap or something," Rosalie said.

"Whoa, hold on," I called, pushing myself into the lounge, "Are you guys talking about Mike?"

I glanced at each of my friends in turn: Rosalie and Emmett sitting side by side on one of the couches, and Alice sitting in Jasper's lap in the armchair. They all looked extremely guilty.

"Oh, come on, Bella! We have to do something!" Rosalie said.

"Not maim him," I countered.

Alice sighed loudly, and said, "We aren't maiming him, Bella. We're destroying him."

"Yeah," Emmett put in, "Personally, I'm all for the maiming while we're on the subject, though."

He flexed his muscles to show us just how willing he was.

Then he looked past me and shouted, "Come on, Ed, you've got to be with me on this one."

"Bella doesn't want you to beat him up," Edward said from behind me, "So, no, Emmett, no physically harming Mike Newton. At least on your part."

I turned to glare at Edward. I certainly didn't want him going after Mike.

"Then we can destroy him socially and emotionally. Brilliant," Alice chimed in, and immediately turned back to Rosalie and said, "The clap? You think that'll work?"

I groaned, and flopped down onto the other couch. Edward laid himself down beside me, taking me in his arms.

"Don't worry, Bella," he murmured in my ear.

"Please don't attack Mike," I whispered, "He was drunk. Look what I did when I was drunk. I called you gay."

Edward laughed and said, "Yes, well, that was a first infraction. This is just one in a series."

Meanwhile, our friends had moved on from spreading rumors about Mike having the clap to blackmailing some of his frat buddies into forking over some incriminating pictures and posting them online. Apparently Rosalie had some dirt on some of the guys in the fraternities.

"What kind of dirt?" Emmett demanded.

Rosalie flipped her hair over her shoulder and replied haughtily, "Good dirt."

"Like good dirt," Emmett asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Of course Emmett would immediately jump to something sexual.

"Maybe."

Edward was humming in my ear, oblivious to the plotting going on around us. It made it extremely hard to concentrate. After a few minutes I stopped protesting to the increasingly unrealistic plans. A while later I started forgetting what was being said, lost in my dulling thoughts and the music in my ear.

I felt myself being moved, and my eyes flew open.

Edward's face was in front of my own, and I was in his arms.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I didn't mean to wake you," he whispered.

"I can walk," I murmured, but quickly asked, "Where are we going?"

"My room. You fell asleep in the lounge, and the couches in the lounge aren't very comfortable to sleep on," Edward said, then faltered and asked, "If that's okay with you. I can walk you back to your hall if you'd like."

"Don't be silly," I whispered, "That's fine."

He carried me into his room, out of the bright light of the hallway into the darkness. His room was lit with just his laptop screen, casting a dull glow around the room.

He set me down on the bed and I immediately curled up, burying my face in his pillow, which smelt just like him. A moment later I felt the bed shift as he lay down beside me. His arms wrapped around me. I turned in his arms so that my head was resting on his chest, the same place I'd slept the night he'd finally told me how he felt about me.

"Go to sleep, Bella," he whispered in my ear.

He kissed me on my cheek beside my ear, and then started humming again.

Through the dullness in my head, I recognized the song he'd played for me earlier in the rehearsal room.

"I love this song," I murmured.

"Me too," he whispered.

"You don't have to do anything to Mike, you know," I whispered, "He's got nothing on you. As if I could be too good for you."

Edward ran a finger down my jaw line.

"No," he whispered, "You're far too good for me. I can't imagine what I've good I must have done to deserve to have you in my life."

He had it the wrong way. It was the other way around.

"Edward, be reasonable," I said.

But his face was abruptly serious, his eyes locked on mine.

"You're the best part of my life, Bella," he whispered, and kissed me again. "Now, go to sleep. You're exhausted."

I bit my lip, but set my head back down on his shoulder.

I fell asleep listening to the slow melody of Edward's humming. As I drifted off, I realized the song sounded like a lullaby.

Author's Note- So, let's see if you guys can beat the amount of reviews for last chapter. Also, I promised you a thank you surprise for reaching 100. So I posted the first part of what I've been writing to get over my writer's block. It's on my profile and called Crashed Into You. Enjoy!