BPOV - Bella's Point of View
EPOV - Edward's Point of View
JPOV - Jasper's Point of View
MPOV - Mike's Point of View
BPOV
Mike followed me home. I caught his gaze in the rearview mirror and smiled; he smiled back. I was surprised at myself that I had agreed to a date on my first day of school. Maybe Forks had made me go over the deep end. Or maybe I liked Mike. Or maybe I was desperate for a distraction from Edward Cullen. Either way, I was happy. Once we pulled up to Charlie's house, I ran inside while Mike waited in his car. I shoved my wallet into an old purse and ran a brush quickly through my hair. I tied my jacket around my waist and quickly scrawled a note for Charlie:
Dad,
I hope you're OK to make supper tonight. I'm going to the movies with my new friend Mike. I'll be home in a few hours.
-B
P.S. first day of school went OK!
I put the note on the kitchen table and headed outside. I tried to look elegant and graceful as I walked towards him, but naturally that didn't work at all. I tripped over the garden hose Charlie had left out to clean the police cruiser the other day. Mike looked alarmed as he sprang out of the car to rescue me from the wet grass and untangle me from the hose. He chuckled as I finally got to my feet, wet and blushing furiously.
"You temporarily went blind for the past thirty seconds, right?" I asked him weakly.
"Not a chance," he laughed.
I laughed too. He opened the passenger door for me and I climbed in. We drove to Port Angeles, both of us still grinning.
"Thanks for coming out tonight," Mike said sweetly.
"Anytime," I replied, and I was surprised to realize that I meant it.
Mike stretched out his arm and placed his hand on mine. It was warm and kind, and I didn't mind in the slightest. Mike was such a happy person. He talked about his friends and Forks. He pointed out different types of cars he'd love to get one day. He asked me about the people I had met today, and offered his own commentary on if they were 'one of the good ones' or not. To my surprise, according to Mike, Jessica fell in the latter category.
"What's wrong with Jess?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing. I shouldn't have said that," he said quickly. "She's had a crush on me for a little while and it comes off a little strong - that's all."
"Ah," I said. Would I have another person glaring at me tomorrow? Edward already hated me, but would Jessica hate me for dating Mike now too? Maybe this wasn't the best idea. She was my very first friend in Forks, after all.
It was quiet for a while after that. When we got to the theater, Mike paid for me despite my insistence not to. I really hated people spending money on me. It felt like I owed them back, or something. But I knew he was just trying to be nice.
The movie was really tacky but it was fun to be out. He put an arm around the back of my seat and I smiled, but Jessica kept coming to the front of my guilty mind. Afterwards, we headed over to a nearby ice cream shop. Mike insisted - almost aggressively - on paying again, and I was starting to feel uneasy about what his expectations were at the end of our date. Our drive home was a quiet one. I thought about how I liked Mike, but how I liked having Jessica as a friend more. I thought about what it would be like to kiss Mike, and if that would mean we would be a couple. I wondered if that was what I wanted. Did it look bad for me as the new girl if I acquired a boyfriend on my very first day? A boyfriend who was apparently the crush of the first person who had been nice to me? I didn't want to hurt Jessica. Even though I liked Mike, I didn't want to be that person. I sighed quietly and promised myself that when he dropped me off, I would tell him that I wasn't interested in anything further.
When he pulled up to Charlie's house, I took a deep breath. "Mike," I started. "Tonight was so much fun. But I don't think we can do this again."
"Why?" He looked hurt and taken aback.
"Jessica is my friend. If she has feelings for you, I don't want to ruin what she and I have."
"Jessica? Bella, you've got the wrong idea. Jessica stopped liking me ages ago! I have no interest in dating her and I'm certain that goes both ways. I'm sorry - I shouldn't have mentioned her at all earlier."
I paused, thinking. "You promise?" I asked.
"Cross my heart and hope to die. Scout's honour," Mike said with a grin.
"Okay. Then I guess there's no harm in a second date?"
"None at all." Mike's smile stretched wider as he leaned closer to me.
I wasn't ready for this. At the last moment, I turned my face so his lips grazed my cheek. He leaned back, looking hurt again.
"Not tonight. Not never, but not tonight. Is that okay?" I asked timidly.
He paused. "Of course," he said finally, arranging his face back into a smile.
I pecked him on the cheek and got out of the car, ready to be home.
MPOV
I almost lost it when Bella tripped over the hose. Was there a slow-motion camera anywhere? The look on her face was priceless. It took all of my self control not to laugh my head off.
I think that I played the nice guy role pretty well. She was pretty easy to talk to, which was a bonus. And so hot. But then my big mouth had to bring up that bitch Jessica Stanley. Jessica was such a loser. She had had an obvious crush on me for at least a year now. As recently as last week she had suggested a group bowling night, eyeing me up as she worked out a date that would work for everyone. And I knew Jessica - I knew that she was probably talking shit about Bella the second her back was turned. And I was not going to let her cock-block me.
When it got to the end of the night I was so pissed though. A peck? I spent twenty bucks on her and I got a peck? But I also got a second date, so I could really put the moves on then. Bella Swan was going to be fun.
EPOV
Bella Swan was becoming a problem.
School the following day had been a nightmare. I listened against my better judgment as Mike thought disgusting thoughts about the events that had transpired the previous night. I felt myself becoming worried for the girl. It sounded like Mike had resolved to throw himself at her, regardless of whether she wanted him to do so. I listened as they made plans for a second date. I breathed in her scent, trying to acclimate myself to it so I wouldn't commit murder in public, and I wondered if she was worth protecting from that villain if I was bothering to protect her from myself. My family was getting wary of my constant preoccupation with the pair of them.
"If you could hear Mike Newton's thoughts, you would understand," I told Emmett, who had just asked me again why I couldn't let this go.
"We can't all be psychopathic mind-readers," he said. "Why do you care so much?"
Despite obsessing over this very question internally, I didn't have an answer. I heard the direction his thoughts were going and growled at him as he asked me another, much more problematic, question.
"You aren't actually crushing on the girl you want to kill, are you?" Emmett asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No," I snarled.
"Okay, okay," he said with hands raised. "What was Newton thinking that makes you want to kill him, then?"
"He wants her," I said shortly.
"Bro, from what I'm hearing every idiot in the school does," he said.
"He's determined to have her, even if she doesn't want him," I clarified, my tone dark.
"Ha, I'm guessing you relate to that?"
"No!" I snarled. "I want the girl in a different way. The difference between Newton and I is that I am exercising self control for the girl's sake. He doesn't care about her at all."
"And you do?"
Frustrated and unwilling to answer his question, I walked away.
MPOV
"Yeah, and she kissed me too," I said arrogantly to Tyler and Eric.
"No way!" they exclaimed in unison.
I was having so much fun. Tyler was looking more jealous than I had ever seen him and Eric seemed desperate for a play by play.
"You guys going out again, then?" Tyler asked.
"Yeah," I replied nonchalantly.
At that moment, Bella walked towards me sandwiched between Jessica and Angela. Bella made them look like gargoyles. I used to think Angela was pretty a few years ago, but she was way too tall now. We loved giving her boyfriend Ben a hard time about it. Bella smiled as they came closer.
"Hey," I said, smiling.
"Hi," she replied.
"Busy tonight?" I asked her, ignoring Jessica who looked like a hurt puppy.
"I was planning on catching up on some homework. You can join, if you like. We can study for next week's bio quiz?"
She was either the world's biggest buzzkill, or homework was code for something much more entertaining.
"Sure, what time?" I asked.
"After school?"
"Great, I'll follow you home again."
I leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek again. Bella turned scarlet and Jessica followed suit, but out of anger. I smirked and walked away. Tyler and Eric looked at me like I was a God.
EPOV
I watched as that disgusting, dishonourable, monster kissed her cheek. A creature roared in my chest with fury. I wanted to rip his head off. I wanted to let him bleed out on the hallway floor while the school watched. I wouldn't even touch the blood; it was too revolting to think of consuming any part of this boy.
I knew from obsessive listening all day that this child did not care about Bella in the slightest. He wanted her body. He wanted to brag to his friends. He wanted a conquest. It appeared that Bella had turned him away at their date the previous evening, and the thought made my heart leap with something that resembled hope. She did not want him. The hope morphed into fear, as I realized that the girl was in danger of being taken advantage of. It was then that I knew that if I had to protect Bella Swan from myself, I had to protect her from Mike Newton as well. There was no point in sparing her life if her soul was about to be torn apart.
BPOV
"Mike tried to kiss me last night," I whispered to Jessica and Angela.
"Tried?" Jessica squealed. "Why didn't you let him?"
"I don't know. I guess I wasn't ready." I fiddled with my fork.
"Are you going to kiss him tonight?" Angela asked.
"I don't know."
"Do you really like him?" Jessica asked.
"I guess… maybe?"
"You should totally kiss him," Jessica said. "I totally would. He's gorgeous."
"Are you okay with this? I won't go out with him again if not," I promised.
"Absolutely. But honestly, why wouldn't you kiss him? Have you never kissed a guy before?" Jessica pestered. I immediately turned red and didn't answer the question. "Oh my God you've never kissed someone before? Okay now you have to. That's just sad."
Angela looked apologetic on behalf of her friend. I kept my eyes fixed downwards until the bell rang, and I headed over to Biology. I wondered if Edward Cullen would be there. I wondered if his hatred of me had lessened any. I wondered if Jessica would spread around the fact that at seventeen, I had never had my first kiss.
EPOV
She walked into Biology and took her seat beside me. She refused to meet my gaze, but could I really have blamed her after the previous day? Her smell hit me nearly as hard as yesterday, but the element of surprise was missing so I was better equipped to control my impulses. I gripped the edge of my seat and forced myself not to breathe. Yet despite the discomfort, I felt happy to be beside the girl. It was confusing.
How could Bella have never kissed a guy before? I bet if all of the idiots who liked her knew that, then they would back off a bit… And how could she not want to kiss Mike? Who wouldn't? He's drop dead gorgeous… If he paid attention to me like that… God the things I would do… And of course Miss Perfect gets to sit beside Edward Cullen too… Ugh kill me.
Jessica Stanley's thoughts were a siren. Another wave of pity crashed down for Bella Swan as I realized that her main confidant since arriving at Forks was not a real friend. If I allowed Mike to take advantage of her, who would Bella have to comfort her? One of Jessica's thoughts stayed with me. Bella had never had her first kiss. Despite the mountains of differences between us, it comforted me that we had something in common. I could not, would not, allow her first kiss to be a creature like Mike Newton.
I don't care what happens tonight - I am totally railing her later.
Mike's internal monologue rang in my head. I growled without conscious thought. I would not allow it. I would not. Bella glanced at me and raised an eyebrow in alarm.
Did Cullen just growl? What the hell? Or am I losing it?
Yes, Mike Newton, you are losing it for even thinking that Bella Swan will let you near her. I closed my eyes and willed myself not to decapitate him. In order to protect Bella, I would have to get close to her. I opened my eyes.
"Hello. I didn't get a chance to introduce myself yesterday. I'm Edward Cullen," I said in a tone as politely as I could manage.
She just stared at me. I couldn't blame her in the slightest.
"Hi," she said shakily.
No way is Cullen talking to MY girlfriend. First he despises her for no reason, then he growls, then he starts hitting on her. What the fuck!
His girlfriend? I agreed with him for thinking that I was insane - that much was obvious - but did he actually believe that Bella was his girlfriend? I felt more than pity or protection for Bella - I felt hurt. I didn't want Bella Swan to be in a relationship. Not with anyone except myself. The revelation hit me harder than her smell.
"How do you like Forks?" I asked, determined to stay casual.
"It's okay," Bella said slowly as if weighing each word. How I longed to hear what she was really thinking.
"Have you made any friends?" I was hoping to ask her myself about what she thought of that repulsive, ignorant, lousy excuse for a man, son of a -
"Yes."
"That's good."
"Yes."
She looked away again. I must have seemed too eager and interested. I had little practice with small talk.
"Did you finish the homework from yesterday?" I prompted.
"Yes."
"Me as well. Did you find it difficult?"
"Not really."
She was not interested in talking to me at all. I supposed that was what I deserved after my behaviour yesterday. I was ready to give up for the moment, but then I heard Mike Newton's thoughts.
If he even looks at her again, I will personally rip his head off.
I smiled widely to myself. I swallowed a gush of venom and carefully leaned towards Bella. Very slowly and extremely carefully, I gently placed my hand on hers. I could feel the warm throb of her veins that pumped the blood I so desperately craved… but I kept my control.
"If there is anything that you need at all, Bella Swan," I murmured. "Please never hesitate to ask."
I let my eyes burn into hers and felt her pulse skip a beat.
"Okay," she whispered.
That's it. Cullen is road kill. I can't believe he did that. It's like he can read my thoughts or something.
I chuckled quietly to myself.
