CHAPTER 3

"You're such a bitch!" Angela screams at Jessie as she flails against Peter's grasp.

I roll my eyes at him and Edward, who took forever to finally decide to step in and pull the two apart.

Took them long enough.

But after a few rounds of the girls screaming and not much else, it became quite obvious they were full of shit and they did not intend to actually fight.

That whole show was for nothing.

"What about you?" Jessie fires back, clutching onto Edward as he helps escort her outside behind Peter and Angela.

As I trail behind the group, I glance at her face.

There's a sense of satisfaction in her eyes that annoys me. Whether she's happy because she pissed Angela off or from having Edward's arm around her, I'm not sure. But it makes me wonder if her making out with Peter was for Angela's benefit or for Edward's.

Probably both.

Either way, that whole situation could have and should have been handled differently. Like, in a way that didn't ruin everyone's night in the process.

Once outside, the girls continue shouting back and forth even as Peter makes his way to his car, pulling Angela along with him. Even from a short distance, I see her wince at the tight hold he has on her arm.

I narrow my eyes.

But before I can say anything, Angela's climbing into the passenger seat of Peter's mustang and within a second he's driving off.

Jessie huffs and stomps toward her own car.

But Edward and I deadpan stare at each other.

What just happened?

"Ummm, did Peter really just leave his own party?" I ask.

Edward shrugs. "Well, his girl is upset. I would do the same."

Excuse me?

"Which part would you repeat, exactly? The leaving part, or the making out with Angela's best friend in front of half of the school part?"

"Both." He licks his lips. "But I would have chosen her other best friend."

Yuck. How does this work on anyone?

"So you would try to make out with me to make Angela or Jessie jealous? I'm not quite following your line of thinking."

Taking a step forward, he brushes a piece of my dark hair over my shoulder. "When you finally realize you don't hate me, and we make out. Trust me, it won't be because of Angela or Jessie."

I glance at his lips as he glances at mine.

His are plump and smooth - shaking a little from fighting a smirk.

Even with another bout of rage simmering under the surface at him repeating that me saying that I hate him, which is something else I'd never said to anyone but my girls, I push my focus to trying to wipe that smirk off his face.

"I'm sure your good friend Jared would love to hear that you were trying to kiss his girl at a party." Isn't there some guy code against this? My God!

The grin falls from Edward's face as he tilts his head to the side. "Oh, so you're still his girl? You guys have talked?"

Well, there goes that. My attempt at a good comeback immediately gets caught in my throat. Because he had me there; and in the worst possible asshole way.

"No," I say. To answer that we haven't talked and no, I'm not still his girl either. "I mean, who would want to be after —"

On cue, Jessie lays into her car horn and I jump nearly a foot in the air. Edward barely reacts, though.

Eventually, clearing his throat, he takes a step back, looks over at Jessie's car, then back at me. "I can take you home," he offers. "I ... I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

I laugh. It's partially bitter, partially nervous, and very much sarcastic.

Me, alone, in a car with Edward Cullen? "Worst idea ever…"

I walk away, then for some reason look over my shoulder to see if he's watching me or if he would throw a comment back at me before I got too far.

His mouth moves, but I'm too far away to hear his response or read his lips. But knowing him, I'm sure it was something inappropriate.

"What were you and Edward talking about?" Jessie pounces as soon as I climb into her car.

I shrug, quickly going for a version of the truth. "He was asking me about Jared."

"Ouch." She deflates at that and kicks her car into drive. "Well, what did you tell him?"

Staring at the side mirror of the car, I see Edward's reflection standing in the same spot I left him. He gives a little wave, and I'm not even sure he knows if I saw him do it.

"Nothing." I shrug. What could I say? "He just wants to know if I've talked to him." The same way everyone else has wondered the same thing.

"But you haven't talked to him though, right?"

I purse my lips.

In the weeks since all this broke—since allegations of who and what Jared really was, started coming to light, neither she nor Angela ever once came straight out and asked me that.

For that, I was thankful, because as much as I could lie to everyone — from my parents to the cops, and even my lawyer, for some reason, it was close to impossible to lie to my best friends.

Still, I didn't feel like I had a choice. So, steeling myself, I sighed, kept my face forced, and added Jess to the list of people I was lying to.

"No, I haven't heard from him."