A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and support! I hope you all enjoy this next chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 13: A proud, unpleasant sort of man

Ana really wished she hadn't read that email… or rather, she wished she hadn't read it so late at night when she needed to be up early in the morning to catch the bus back to Portland. Instead of dozing off to sleep as she knew she ought to do, she instead lay wide awake, staring up at the dark ceiling with Kate sleeping soundly beside her. Christian's email was at the forefront of her mind, consuming her thoughts and making her restless.

So many thoughts and emotions racketed around inside her head, she had no idea how to feel or what to think. When she first started reading his email, right away she got angry and dismissive of every excuse he gave about breaking up Elliot and Kate, especially when she reached the part about him reading the Facebook message Ana sent to Elliot without telling him. Not only did he secretly go into Elliot's phone and read his private message, but he deleted it so Elliot wouldn't find out! If that didn't make Christian a dishonest piece of shit, she didn't know what did…

But then she read the part about Jack. What Jack had told her about his past and what Christian now told her in his email were so wildly different, one of them had to have been lying. Christian apparently did withhold the tuition money from Jack, but according to his interpretation of events, Jack absolutely deserved it… and Ana may have had to agree.

God, I don't know what to believe anymore.

Was Jack really the manipulative liar Christian claimed him to be? Or was that just a convenient excuse for him doing what he did to Jack? The part about his sister Mia gave Ana pause - Christian sharing such personal details about his little sister whom he obviously cared about definitely didn't seem like something he would make up just for the sake of a lie. Plus, he mentioned that his cousin William knew about this when it all happened… Ana was tempted to track him down on Facebook and ask him to corroborate Christian's story, but immediately decided against it. It would be extremely awkward talking to him about such a personal matter, especially if she had to talk about why she knew about it in the first place.

It really sounded like Christian was telling the truth about Jack. Could it be that Christian wasn't as arrogant and evil as she initially thought he was? Perhaps, although he still deliberately broke up Elliot and Kate…

Closing her eyes in frustration, Ana turned over on her side to face the wall. She needed to stop thinking about this so she could get some sleep and be able to wake up in the morning at a reasonable hour. Perhaps after some sleep, she would be able to think about this with a clearer head.

With her thoughts still a jumbled and confused mess, Ana soon fell into a restless and fitful sleep.

"Christian asked you out?!"

It was the next morning, and Ana and Kate we're currently on the bus heading toward Portland. Kate could hardly fail to notice something was still off about her sister, and Ana was too exhausted and agitated to withhold the information any longer.

"Shhh," Ana shushed her, glancing around the relatively empty bus to make sure no one was eavesdropping. "Yes he did. It happened yesterday morning when you, Charlie, and Jose were at Pike Place Market."

"Oh my God," Kate said, still staring at Ana in utter disbelief. "No wonder you've been acting so weird all weekend! Are you alright? What did you say to him?"

Ana glanced down at her lap, feeling her heart sink down to her stomach. "I said no, obviously. I'm still trying to process it all though."

"I understand. I didn't really expect you to say yes," Kate said, a hint of compassion in her voice. "You've been pretty clear about how you feel about the guy. But I'm just really surprised… I had no idea he felt that way about you."

"Believe me, neither did I," Ana said honestly. "I think Charlie may have had some idea, although she was a bit cagey about it."

"Wow," Kate said, still in a tone of shock, and she shook her head. "Well, at least it's all out in the open now, right?"

Ana didn't answer as she bit her lip, gazing down at her lap. She didn't know how to tell her sister about what happened after her conversation with Christian, or whether or not she should reveal everything that he had mentioned in his email.

"Ana?" Kate asked, noticing her sister's silence. "What's wrong?"

Ana glanced back up at her after a moment. "After Christian asked me out and I said no, he and I got into a bit of an argument. Things got a bit heated between us, and then Jack's name came up…"

Ana went on to explain what she accused Christian of doing to Jack, then of Christian's email he sent to her the following day, revealing his version of events regarding his past dealings with Jack. Kate listened with rapt attention, frowning as she took in everything Ana was saying; she brought her hand to her mouth in horror as Ana explained the part about his sister Mia.

"Oh my God, that poor girl," Kate whispered, bringing her hand down. "And she was only eighteen at the time? I don't know how anyone could do something so horrible to someone so young!"

"So you believe him?" Ana asked, almost nervously. "You think Christian's telling the truth?"

"I mean, it makes sense," Kate said. "If Jack had felt cheated out of the money Christian's dad left for him, then he would have motivation to lie and smear Christian's name. Also, you told me yourself that Jack had lived in California briefly before moving up to Portland."

"Yeah he did," Ana said quietly, suddenly remembering the first night she met Jack and him mentioning all the places he lived. "I'd forgotten about that."

"It's hard to know what to believe," Kate sighed. "I hope this is all just a big mistake or something. From what you've told me, Jack always seemed like such a nice person. I can't believe he could do something like this."

"Neither can I," Ana frowned, turning to gaze out the window. "It feels like I…" she shook her head. "I don't know."

Kate gazed at her in concern. "What is it?"

Ana turned to look at her sister, a noticeable sadness in her eyes. "For so long I had been so convinced Christian was this awful, arrogant bastard who didn't care for anyone but himself, and when I heard Jack's story about him, I immediately believed it. It didn't even occur to me that there could have been two sides to the story, or that I could have really hurt someone who may not have done anything wrong. I said some really horrible things to Christian's face… things that I don't think I could ever take back."

"Ana," Kate said compassionately, seeing her sister's distress. "You couldn't have known. It's not your fault."

"Isn't it though?" Ana asked. "I completely let my feelings overtake my rational mind. That email Christian sent me completely screwed up my worldview… it's like, up until this moment, I never even knew myself."

Frowning with concern, Kate silently wrapped her arm around Ana's shoulders and pulled her to her side. Ana rested her head on Kate's shoulder, grateful for the loving embrace of her older sister as their bus took them back home to Portland.

Ana hadn't realized how much she had missed being home, but that was likely due to all the emotionally-exhausting events that had occurred over her weekend in Seattle. Though Ana had promised herself she wouldn't read Christian's email again, she found herself constantly going back to her desktop computer to do just that. She read over each paragraph several times, even going so far as to commit several phrases to memory. Her feelings varied wildly each time she read it… a part of her still wanted to dislike Christian and be distrustful of everything he was saying, but another part of her knew that that wasn't the best way to get to the bottom of all this.

It was tough to admit to herself, but it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility that she was wrong about Christian. Maybe he wasn't the rude, arrogant asshole she thought he was, who's only motivation in life was to hurt other people.

She'd assumed he hated her, but the truth ended up being the complete opposite… he actually had developed feelings for her. Feelings that compelled him to ask her out on a date, despite trying to convince himself not to.

It doesn't matter anyway. I doubt he feels the same way anymore after everything I said to his face…

Ana's eyes trailed back over her computer screen, where Christian's email sat, and a part of her wondered if he would have bothered sending her this email if he didn't care about her anymore.

Ana suddenly heard shouting voices sound from downstairs, and she frowned before getting up from her desk and walking toward her bedroom door. She opened it, and the voices of her parents and Leila carried from downstairs:

"…Don't you walk away from us, young lady!" Carla shouted.

"I'm almost seventeen! I can make my own decisions!" Leila yelled angrily.

"If you live under our roof, you'll follow our rules!" Ray yelled back. "You're getting that thing removed first thing tomorrow, Leila!"

"God, I hate you guys!" Leila stomped her way up the stairs. She reached the top and turned left before stopping, noticing Ana standing in the doorway of her bedroom while leaning against the door jamb.

"Everything alright?" Ana asked, raising an eyebrow. "Mom and Dad don't sound too happy."

"I don't care," Leila grumbled making her way over to her own room next door to Ana's. "They can't make me get rid of it."

"Get rid of what?"

Leila glanced over at the staircase to make sure Ray and Carla were still downstairs before lifting the hem of her shirt slightly to reveal her belly button. A sparkly pink crystal piercing glimmered against her flat stomach.

"Wow," Ana said, leaning forward to examine the piercing closer. "That's pretty."

"Thanks. Mariah and I got them together," Leila said, dropping her shirt. "It was totally fine with her parents, so I figured it would be fine with Mom and Dad."

"You should have asked them first, Ladybug," Ana said with a chastising look. "It was wrong of you to go and get your belly button pierced without them knowing about it."

"Oh whatever," Leila rolled her eyes in that snobby teenage way. "It's not like it affects their lives in any way. And maybe you would understand if you weren't such a goody two shoes all the time."

"Leila," Ana frowned at her sister admonishingly, but Leila ignored her as she stomped her way into her bedroom, snatching up her headphones from her desk and putting them on. She sat down onto her bed and began thumbing through her iPod, ignoring her sister watching her through the door.

Sighing and shaking her head, Ana turned and walked back into her bedroom, closing the door quietly behind her. Poor Leila… Ana remembered her own angsty teenager phase, and felt sorry that her sister was feeling so angry all the time. She hoped their parents could at least try to set some ground rules to help her get on the right path.

Ana walked back over to her desk, and saw that her phone had an unread text message. She unlocked the screen, and froze when she saw who had messaged her.

Jack: Hey you ;) How's it going?

Ana hadn't heard from Jack all weekend, and with everything that had happened with Christian, she was too preoccupied to notice. She really had no desire to talk to Jack at the moment, and a large part of her just wanted to ignore his text and get on with her day.

However, the last part of Christian's email suddenly came back to her, and she realized she had an opportunity to find out the truth. If he really was as conniving and manipulative as she now suspected, she would be able to get to the bottom of this.

Thinking about what she was going to write, after a moment Ana typed out:

Ana: Hey! Im doing well, Kate and I just got back from Seattle yesterday

Jack: Nice. How'd u like it up there? See anything cool? Meet anyone interesting?

Ana: We actually hung out with Christian and his cousin William while we were there. Do you know William?

Jack: Yeah I do. He's a lot nicer than his cousin, tho most people are lol

Ana: I actually don't think Christian's that bad. Or at least not as snobby as I first thought he was.

Jack: Really? Well, I and my lost tuition money would have to disagree, but whatever. Anyway my buds and I are heading to that bar near the docks tonight. Wanna come? ;)

Ana: As much as I'd love to, I actually have a paper due tomorrow that I need to finish

Jack: Aw lame :(

Ana: I know. Maybe you could join me tonight? Bring your laptop and you can work on your own homework

There was a short pause where Jack didn't respond. About thirty seconds later he texted back:

Jack: I would, but I already committed to going out with Denny and the guys tonight :( Rain check?

Ana: Sure, no problem

Jack: Sweet :) Tho I bet you as a nerdy English major would prefer to work on your papers in solitude lol.

Ana: Solitude is nice when doing any sort of writing, English major or not. What are you majoring in again?

Jack: Political Science

Ana: Really? I thought you once told me it was Business

There was another thirty second pause on his end:

Jack: Yeah. It's both actually. Im double majoring in Business and Political Science :)

Ana narrowed her eyes at his last text. In truth, he had never told her what he was majoring in - she made up the part about him telling her he was a Business major. The Political Science degree sounded like his cover for when someone asked him what he was majoring in, but now he was wondering if he'd told her the wrong thing.

Losing track of all your lies, Jack?

He and Ana exchanged a couple more texts before eventually saying goodbye. Ana could tell Jack seemed a lot less eager to talk to her after she brought up school, and it was clear that he was pretty much bailing on their conversation. Ana didn't mind since it had become clear to her Christian's account of Jack was far more accurate than she initially realized.

There was something inherently untrustworthy of the way Jack conducted himself, which Ana had sort of picked up on when they first met at Dave & Busters, but she ignored her instincts because he was cute and charming. She wasn't about to make the same mistake with him again, though.

This might mark the end of her and Jack, but Ana was more than okay with that.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

A/N: Hm, looks like Christian may have been telling the truth after all…

Hope you all enjoyed that! Next chapter, we jump forward a few weeks, where Ana continues her online classes and begins her post-graduation job search.