The only good thing about the accident was that it got Edward and Bella to separate for a bit. Unfortunately, every other boy I'd ever met swarmed in to fill the gap. This all, weirdly enough, made all the girls depressed.
All the girls.
As in, Bella, too.
It went like this:
Mike passive aggressively rejected Jess when she asked him to the spring dance. Tyler kept talking to me about Isabella. Tyler was starting to ignore Lauren, who I hadn't realized until now was a rival for his affections. Eric… well, poor Eric was more of an annoyance really.
There were a couple others, of course, but none of them actually had the courage to act on it: they just hung around staring like brain dead hyenas until I appeared to chase them away. This was becoming my only interaction with Bella: at home, she liked to be alone with her thoughts and I'd grown bored with chasing her around to ask her questions. At school, I felt obligated to shoo away the people trying to do exactly what I'd been trying to do at home and she'd smile at me and then we'd move on.
At home it felt like she'd never really left Phoenix.
At school, I wished she never had.
The worst part was knowing she had no idea what she was doing. Bella was a loner, shy type: she had no idea how I felt, walking around my own home with someone who never talked to me. And all of the guys… she seemed to think sending them our way, giving us her castoffs would make us feel better:
"You should ask Tyler to the spring dance." Bella had said casually, halfway through one of the few meals I'd made it too: some weird Mexican thing. She'd probably stalled… that or she was finally learning to be careful in the kitchen, therefore taking longer with all the ridiculous dicing the meal must have required.
"Why." I asked, taking another large chomp off my fork and chewing grumpily. I was probably giving myself wrinkles with all of the frowning I'd done lately, but the thought did not improve my expression.
"Well… I talked with Jess." Bella started.
"Of course you did." I muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Why should she talk to her twin sister before she talks to a girl I know she barely tolerates?
"Well, Jess is going with Mike. And Angela could ask Eric… Lauren could go with Austin… " she trailed off, waiting for me to finish.
"And why would Tyler agree to go with me?" I asked.
Bella shrugged. "You are his only real girl friend."
I snorted and took a sip of water. "Who are you going with then?" I would have asked about Edward but Dad was sitting right next to us, staring at his plate as he listened to his daughters chat.
"I'm going to Seattle." Bella said simply.
"Why?" My dad and I said as one.
"Well, I wanted to get a few books—the library here is pretty limited—and maybe look at some clothes." She shrugged.
"That truck probably doesn't get very good gas mileage." Dad pointed out.
"I know." Bella told him. "I'll stop in—"
"Isabella, just borrow my car." I interrupted. "Jacob just gave it a check-up and I'm sure you could use the extra gas money to buy another romance novel or something."
"Still." My dad fretted. "Seattle is a big city—you could get lost."
Bella and I gave him matching incredulous looks. Bella answered first. "Dad, Phoenix is five times the size of Seattle—and I can read a map. Don't worry about it."
Isabella can read a map? I opened my mouth to ask, but Dad was already talking.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Dad asked.
I gave a very loud snort and choked on the chicken I'd been swallowing, pretty much taking myself out of the rest of the conversation as I began to cough painfully into my napkin.
"That's… You ok, Gen?" Bella wondered. I nodded, eyes watering. "Ok… That's alright, Dad. I'll probably just be in dressing rooms all day." Nice save, sis. I tried to give her a thumbs up, but was hit by more coughing.
"You sure you don't want to go to the dance?" My dad said.
"I don't dance." Bella said with a wince.
I let out an explosive sigh as the coughing finally ended, my throat still burning slightly from ill treatment. "Water, water, water." I said rawly, grabbing at my cup and chugging the rest.
"Better?" My dad asked.
"Will be." I turned to my sister. "So you really think Tyler would say yes?"
...
The next day was depressing.
I walked into Pre-calc and slipped into my desk, taking out my notebook to stare blankly at the rows of problems. Nervously, I began tapping my pencil against the corner of my desk. Mr. Jesse was writing nonsense on the board (He called it math) and everyone else was copying it down. I fought down a surge of giggles and pulled at my shirt, a burgundy blouse that was perfect for my amber eyes.
"Hey, Swan."
Oh, no. I wasn't ready!
I turned and gave Tyler a grin. "Hey, Crowley. Ready to do all my homework for me?" I tilted my head at the board, my long hair falling silkily over my shoulder.
He smiled at me. "No, no: Gen. The trick is bribery. Cheaters never prosper."
I rolled my eyes. "How am I supposed to prosper if I'm giving all my money to random teachers?"
"Good point." He laughed, pulling out his homework and offering it to me to compare. We only had two different and each was a minor mistake, the first his and the second mine.
"So." I said, after a short argument over who should be cheating off whom. The bell rang. "Damn it."
"What?" Tyler asked.
"I wanted to ask you—" Mr. Jesse interrupted by calling my name for role: he liked to go out of order if he saw us misbehaving. "Present!" Damn it!
"I'll walk you to Gov." Tyler hissed. Mr. Jesse called his name. "Present."
Needless to say, I heard nothing for the rest of the class and was pretty close to throwing up by the end. Strangely, it is the one Pre-calc class I remember most. Yep.
Tyler walked out before me but waited at the door. We chatted a bit about basketball and my car and his new car and then we caught sight of the door to my government class and I slowed down, knowing my face was a bit pink.
"What was it you wanted to ask me?" Tyler said.
"Ooooh." I shrugged. "You know. Wanna go to the spring dance with me?"
"Oh." Tyler looked surprised. I smiled painfully. "Oh."
"Wrong Swan?" I asked. I couldn't help myself.
He grimaced. "I wouldn't… I wouldn't say that, Gen." He looked down and then at me, apologetic. "I'd just never thought about it before." He explained, shrugging.
"Yeah?" I looked away, taking in all the other students going about their daily lives, free of heartbreak. "Well, ok, then. I'll see you."
I turned and walked away, trying to walk as fast as I could without drawing attention to my clenched jaw.
"Gen… Genevieve… Oh, come on, Gen: wait up."
"Why?"
"You're mad at me." He said, appearing at my side in a half jog.
"No."
"Yes." He insisted. "Sheesh. Slow down, Gen." He grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. "Hang on… Look: I'll go to the dance with you. Will that make you happy?"
"Not anymore." I said honestly.
Tyler raised his eyes to the sky in exasperation. "Geeeen."
"That's my name." I replied. "Don't wear it out."
"Look, it's just… it'll be weird, you know?" He looked at my desperately, still holding my arm.
"What? What'll be weird?"
Tyler shrugged his backpack further onto his shoulders. "Well, I'm taking your sister to prom."
"You're what?" I asked skeptically. "Since when?"
"Well, I asked her to spring dance and she was busy." He pointed out.
"And she offered to go to prom with you?" I looked away as the warning bell rang. "You're going to be late."
"No. But of course she'd go to prom with me." Tyler said simply. I looked back into his confidant face and raised an eyebrow, feeling irritated and sick.
"Good luck with that." I said, finally pulling away. What an idiot.
"Go to spring dance with me." He called after, watching me powerwalk away.
"You're going to be late, Tyler."
"Geeeeeen."
"Go jump in a ditch, Tyler." I yelled over my shoulder.
"But I'm laaate for claaaass."
I laughed and glanced back as I reached my class. "Snooze, you lose, Crowley."
He grinned as I waved goodbye.
...
I spent most of Government pouting. When I went to lunch, I continued in the same vein, staring at my tray and moving food around as my teammates and friends chattered away.
"Gen?"
"Hey, Cass."
"I know you're in the depths of despair and everything, but you should look around." She said, her tone confidential even thought everyone else was nodding in agreement and giving me knowing faces.
"Oh, what now?" I groaned, swinging around to give the cafeteria a once over.
"Wait for iiiiiiiiit." Annalise called, her tone mimicking a sports announcer.
"Wait for…"
What.
No.
What.
No!
No, no, no, no!
"What's that, Genny?" Liz asked: I was mouthing words helplessly as everyone snickered at the look on my face.
"What the f***?" I exclaimed, my voice so loud that several people at other tables turned to stare at me in horror.
My table burst into laughter and across the cafeteria a certain young man looked over my sister's shoulder and met my eyes with an amused look. I saw him look back to Isabella and mutter something, saw her shake her head, and finally realized my mouth was hanging open and everyone in the area was now staring at either me or them.
Attempting to gain control of myself, I turned back to the table and stared bloody murder down at my hamburger. I can't even get Tyler flippin Crowley and Bella simpers in and steals a fricking Cullen. And Tyler, for that matter. And Mike. And Eric. And that one dude who stares at her in Gym. And probably Jacob Black. And… I frowned. Was that it? I was forgetting someone, wasn't I?
"You still with us, Swan?" Annalise asked, a bit kinder.
"No. I am in the middle of a vow."
"A vow?"
"I am swearing off boys." I explained, stabbing my hamburger with a knife.
"I'll join you." Anna May muttered, looking over at a couple of freshmen at the next table who were lost in giggles from seeing a girl say the f-word.
Liz, who was dating a college freshmen, just shrugged and pulled my tray away from me. "If you would have asked Tyler sooner, this wouldn't have happened." She said.
"You asked out Tyler?" Annalise demanded.
"No. Just to the dance." I explained. I looked down at my plate. "And when was I supposed to have done that earlier?" Liz opened her mouth and I found I didn't want to hear it. "Never mind. I need to take off."
"Gen…"
"I'll see you at practice."
I turned and walked out, not bothering to look back at my idiot sister.
I'd see her in gym.
...
Author's note:
Ok, another short chapter and I'm annoyed because I want to publish another Jacob chapter (I have some written) but I can't, as tempted as I am, just throw him in to other chapters. I tried but its really obvious shoehorning because he and Gen aren't really friends and because he wasn't in the first book... So if I get a good response I might try to throw up another chapter (which also has no Jacob) so that we can get to Chapter 6 next week, which is the beach which has Jacob. I'm really liking all the comments and advice I've been getting so I would like to get more into things faster, I'm just not sure about speeding up my usual Thursday post schedule for one week is a good idea.
Thanks a TON for the comments! You guys are awesome!
