Chapter 11
I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT OR CHARACTERS
Angela and Jessica had been pretty supportive after they'd pried most of the truth out of their friend. Bella had tweaked it anyway, saying that yes, she had recently been having some thoughts that she was into girls, but gave a very vague answer as to why. (Hint: Alice, Rosalie, Victoria. No way was she getting into that, though.) She babbled a lot, but Angela and Jessica had just shrugged at her and reassured her they didn't mind, thank God. She told Mike and Eric the same thing with Angela and Jessica right by her side when she did. They both asked if they could watch.
Bella had never heard a lovelier douche-baggy question.
After her female friends smacked her male friends for their lack of tact, they grew serious and told her they did not care either. Mike had seemed uncomfortable with his cross hanging around his neck, but when he told Bella it did not change anything about their friendship, he didn't flinch a bit as he said it. His reasoning was somewhere along the lines of Jesus wanting them to live and let live or whatever, and love people, and that the bible said a lot of things that people didn't follow. (Eric made a jacking off motion behind him when he said that which made everyone laugh. Mike didn't get the joke.)
They also asked about what had happened to Edward, and she gave them the bitter truth about that. He'd left her like trash for his ex, and their reactions had been much like Charlie's, except more violent and less concerned with her consent to the matter.
Basically, castration if they ever saw the jerk again.
It was nice to see so much of their support.
Whenever they pursued questions of Alice as they were like to do, however, she shut them down or changed the subject.
There was no way to discuss that with them without getting an ache in her heart. Alice had called her twice in the course of the new couple of days and texted her once demanding she pick up her phone, but she didn't. After talking to Emmett once on Monday, she learned Alice had been suspended for each cuss word she had aimed at Mr. Gordon, and that added up to three days, not just Monday, and she wouldn't be returning until Thursday.
That only made the ache in her chest worse because it reminded her of Alice sticking up for her, and now she did not even want to hang out with Bella anymore.
So no, she refused to talk about Alice with them.
And god damn it, she did not know why everyone was so determined to believe she and Alice had a thing. Just because they both liked girls now didn't mean they were always secretly together or something. Their suspicions made Bella uncomfortable and embarrassed and hot between the legs if she thought too much about it, and her heart was miserable enough without all that other talk of Alice, so she never let them get too far with that conversation topic.
Yet her friends were still the only thing that made the uproar about her sexuality bearable.
They also began squashing all the wild ideas that began to float around the admittedly dry rumor mill of Forks about Bella's sexuality every chance they got. Angela and Jessica warded off any staring in the hallways with vicious protective female friend glares, but from then on there, the gay jokes had not stopped. Bella supposed she should have expected that from friends that close, where humiliation was as good as crack, but still, the support was appreciated and it was an undeniable relief that her friends didn't seem to care in the slightest.
The only thing she had to deal with completely on her own was Victoria hovering around, being her usual lascivious self. However, like before, she did little more than wink or smirk Bella's way, which was rarely considering how much Bell avoided that devil, and well. Without any of the other Cullens around, she made a much more intimidating presence, and Bella could always feel her hovering around when she walked the halls.
It helped that Victoria was pretty popular herself because of her sexual nature and good looks. She also seemed to relish the attention, and could frequently be seen shadowed by boys and girls hanging on her every word, which made it easier to stay out of her way. Still, once Bella walked by her in the hallway when the vampire was leaned against a locker lazily, flirting with a group of fawning boys. When their eyes met, Victoria smirked and rolled her hips in a sensual, obvious, and utterly shameless movement, a blatant reminder of the way she had mounted Bella in her car and rode her lap.
She blushed the rest of the day, furious and partly aroused.
All of her friends' comments about whether or not she ever actually did acknowledge whether Alice had a nice ass were not helpful either. She was in the midst of one of their little joking sprees that Wednesday.
"So, you never really answered us," Angela said, popping up on her left as Bella walked down the hallway, trying to ignore the looks she was getting.
It was pathetic really that no one had anything better to talk about, but Forks was starved for anything interesting so she wasn't surprised. She was the first possible lesbian in the school that they had ever seemed to have, at least. And not everyone could be a great person like her friends. She had picked the cream of the crop as far as good people went, apparently.
None of that stopped her from going red when half the hall turned to look at her as she passed by, though. Charlie seemed not to have gotten wind of it yet, which she was grateful for. She was not ready to deal with that.
"Answered you about what?" Bella replied, already exasperated because she knew the answer.
"About whether or not you think Alice has a nice ass," Jessica broke in, walking out of the classroom on Bella's right and joining them seamlessly the way she always did, none of them breaking stride.
"Can we not? Does this never get old to you two?" Bella scowled, partially at them and partially at the dude wiggling his eyebrows obnoxiously at her as he passed.
Fucking pig. He was not the first to give Bella one of those lascivious looks, and undoubtedly wouldn't be the last.
Stupid Mr. Gordon, she thought angrily, blushing and ducking her head uncomfortably. Pretentious asshole, reading my text out loud like that…
But Angela and Jessica switched from joking to protective mode in three seconds flat.
"Hey buddy, your girlfriend's behind you," Angela informed him as they continued down the hall.
"And we're not sure if she's about to break up with you because you're a pig or because you wiggle your eyebrows like that at other girls," Jessica called sweetly and Bella felt her irritation melt away at their response to his idiocy.
There came yelling behind them from the guy and his girlfriend that made Bella shake her head and smile at her friends who both smirked and pretended like they couldn't hear it. Now the people in the hallway had something more interesting to look at.
"So, answer the question," Angela insisted a split second later, laughing when Bella immediately growled and sped up so she was ahead of them. Some of it was dramatics for joking, but some of it was also because they were relentless.
"Come on, no one's judging. Just answer the question!" Jessica crooned, fast on her heels.
"No! There is no answer!" Bella snapped, bright red as her friends cackled at her glare.
Why did everybody laugh at her when she glared? Was she really that unintimidating?
"Sure there is!" Angela crowed, darting forward and matching her fast jog. "C'mon Bells, answer us and we'll never bring it up again!"
"Yep. You know we only badger you because you react like this. Just answer the question, Bells!"
Bella let out a muffled shriek of exasperation and sped up further, all of her previous fondness for them evaporating instantly.
"Come on, Bella!"
"Answer us!"
"Answer the question, Bella!"
"Just answer the question!"
"Dude, wasn't that the lunchroom? It's grub time, Bella, where are you going?" Angela suddenly slowed down as they passed the doors to the cafeteria, Bella speed walking as fast as she could in her determination to get away from them.
"Oops, I think she was too busy thinking about an answer to notice," Jessica snickered.
"You two are insufferable!" Bella yelled and jerked to a stop. She swore when they both doubled over in laughter at the expression on her face.
Jackasses, she thought, clutching her books in one arm and scowling as she stomped back towards the double doors, refusing to look at the two hyenas cackling behind her.
"Vultures," she barked at them and they only laughed harder. She didn't know why it was so funny but she supposed it was better than them recoiling from her in disgust at the idea that she might like girls.
"Well, if you would just answer the question," Angela recovered first, wiping at her eyes as they trotted after her, both sniggering.
Bella whipped her head around to snarl back a retort that would probably be surmised entirely of Shut up that would have inevitably sent them both over the edge again, but as she put her hand out to grasp the door handle before her, a lovely scent of pine and sunshine coiled around her and she whipped around.
"Sup, Bella?" Emmett grinned as he walked up to them, his arm draped over Rosalie's shoulders.
What the hell was she doing here?
Rosalie halted them a good five feet away and Bella was undeniably grateful, because if the blond got any closer she would probably have a hernia trying to keep it together in front of Angela and Jessica.
"Uh, hey?" she cocked her head at them, hand still stuck on the door handle.
Rosalie was garbed in a simple cream colored blouse and dark blue jeans, and Bella felt a brief moment of irrational jealousy that even as she stood there, looking as human as the rest of them and not as godly as a vampire that she was still retarded levels of gorgeous. Her hazel eyes were as piercing as ever and her silky blonde locks tumbled over her shoulders the way models had to have them carefully arranged to achieve the same perfect look. Her skin glowed with color that was as lovely as her flawless shade of porcelain.
It just wasn't fair. The inner lesbian in Bella appreciated the curves of her whether she was vampire or not, but still. She was only human, and she couldn't help but want to pout. It might have been nice to see Rosalie taken down a peg or two, but nope, she was as beautiful as ever, and by the haughty look on her face, probably as bitchy.
None of this had anything to do with why she was here, but that aroma radiating off of Rosalie could be quite distracting. Her pheromones were at an extremely high level, and even Angela and Jessica were looking at her kind of funny.
Which begged the question, why was she here? Most of the Cullens had been absent all week except Emmett. Jasper was gone presumably to keep Alice company, Edward in Denali, and Rosalie was busy at home being human and having tests run on her by Carlisle.
Jasper and Edward still weren't here…Yet there stood Rosalie and Emmett.
Is it not dangerous to have her here at school? Bella thought in bewilderment. And why wasn't everyone walking past the blonde collapsing in a fit of arousal? Sure, she was getting more looks than usual (which meant everyone was giving her a passing glance, not just most), but nothing like what Bella would feel if she got too close.
Emmett gave her a pointed look that said Be cool, Bella.
"Are you just going to stand there gawking like an idiot, or are you going to go in?" Rosalie raised an eyebrow, still hovering a good distance away.
Yep.
Still the same Rosalie as always. Just a little more human. Bella wondered how she was taking the new life, and what all those tests Carlisle was running were telling them.
"Er-yeah. Hi Emmett," Bella stuttered and absentmindedly pulled the door open. A few irritable people were grumbling as she held everyone trying to get to lunch up, so she quickly hurried in.
"So, what were you guys talking about?" Emmett asked sociably as he and Rosalie followed behind Angela and Jessica in behind her.
Said girls were both glancing back at him too frequently to be unnoticeable, to which Bella could barely contain her smirk.
Her friends were straighter than a two-by-four, and Emmett was carved from solid muscle and stood a massive six foot, three inches tall. Girls died over all the Cullen boys, but Emmett had more hospitality and charisma than broody Edward (asshole) and Jasper, who kept a polite distance from anyone to control his thirst, which inadvertently put people off.
In other words, they were trying not to swoon.
However, his question made Bella wince and she groaned at the twin smirks that appeared on their faces a second later.
"Oh, nothing," Angela sing-songed, swaying innocently as they walked towards the line to get their food. Bella glared at her.
"Don't," she warned, but it was too late.
"We've just been trying to get Bella to acknowledge whether or not Alice has a nice ass," Jessica stated, giggling when Bella practically hissed at her.
Emmett barked out a laugh that caused any girl who heard it to turn and stare with curious, appreciative eyes, and even Rosalie had to purse her lips to keep from smirking.
"You're both assholes," Bella snapped as they got in line. She crossed her arms and growled when they both cooed at her playfully. "Will you give it a rest?"
"Alright, alright, don't get your panties in a knot," Jessica laughed.
"Yeah, Alice isn't here to undo them for you," Angela muttered to Jessica under her breath. Bella shoved her away and they both cackled.
They really needed to stop bringing Alice up. If they didn't, she might start to get genuinely pissed off. The jokes could only go so far, especially concerning the friend she seemed to be losing all over again.
God, Alice, why did you have to do this now? Bella thought unhappily as she glanced over at a table filled with guys and girls, some of them snickering and gesturing at her. She blushed and looked away.
"Hey, are you guys actually going to eat?" Jessica turned and glanced over her shoulder when Emmett and Rosalie did not wander off like usual.
"Nah," Emmett replied, though they stayed in line. "We're still on that special diet." That special blood diet, he meant. "We were just wondering if we could sit with you guys today. Half the family's not here anyway. Me and Rose were looking for a little company."
Angela and Jessica couldn't say yes fast enough.
"Totally," Angela waved a hand flippantly to emphasize that it wasn't a big deal.
"Yeah, of course. No problem," Jessica babbled, staring at Emmett with wide eyes.
It was a good thing Rosalie was secure if nothing else but in her man. Emmett gave them a pleasant smile, but his arm stayed wrapped around Rosalie's shoulders, and Bella knew that for that boy, there was no competition who would ever compare to Rosalie. It was sweet to see.
Still, Bella frowned as she ladled food onto her plate, glancing at Rosalie out of the corner of her eye, still wondering at what they were doing here at all, let alone trying to sit with them. The Cullens always sat with each other at their own table with Bella alternating between sitting with them or her other friends each day.
All she got was a quirked eyebrow from the blonde which felt mildly challenging, so she kept her mouth shut. She would find a chance to ask them what was going on eventually, but she couldn't bring up anything in front of Angela or Jess. Normally, she would be getting all the details from Alice, but…
Yeah. Alice had texted her again during the first period. All it had said was Please pick up your phone the next time I call, and Bella still wasn't sure if she would or should.
Maybe it was petty to ignore the vampire, but it still stung brutally that Alice had kicked her to the curb when she needed her most. If her friends had not stood by her, there would be no way she could stand all the looks she was still getting from people, or the rude comments, mostly perpetrated by Cassie and her crew of idiots. She could not pass by Cassie, Sophie, or Lauren in the hall without hearing the word dyke under their breath.
It hurt every time.
Still, where her friends made it bearable, Alice would have made it nothing…Maybe she really should pick up her phone when Alice called again. She found it painful how much she missed talking to the girl, and that made her think that maybe she really did need some distance from the vampire. Maybe they were getting too close for comfort…
Yet comfort was all she wanted from Alice right now.
Damn it, she was tired of thinking about it.
When they all got their food and walked over to their table, Eric and Mike were already seated and eating. They looked surprised when Emmett plopped down next to them, and Bella made sure to sit as far from Rosalie as she could get at the rounded table, on the opposite side from her but directly in front of her. It was big enough for the brunette to avoid the brunt of the blonde's pheromones, but she still had to consciously make the effort not to stare at her. Angela and Jessica sat down on either side of her.
"So," Emmett spoke, placing his elbows on the table and looking around amiably. "What's up, everybody?"
Big teddy bear. He may have looked a step under a bodybuilder, but he was as social and goofy as they came.
Bella smiled a little and took a bite of her mashed potatoes as her friends looked both confused and excited that some of the Cullens were sitting with them. They were the most popular people in school, and even her friends were not immune to that star power. They were vampires too, so that surely helped the admiration.
Emmett quickly got a conversation going and soon the whole table was chattering away except for Rosalie and Bella. Bella was glad to see the group taking them so well, but even across the table her mashed potatoes were starting to taste like apples and coconut in her mouth. She made the mistake of glancing up and catching Rosalie's eyes, and her fork literally froze in front of her mouth.
Jesus, she thought, lips parted. Rosalie stared at her with apathy, seemingly oblivious to the effect she was having. Maybe I should have told them not to sit with us. Why is she here anyway? She shouldn't be here like that. It's not safe.
Whether it was not safe for her or Rosalie, she was not sure.
She was shaken out of it when she was addressed directly by Eric.
"So, Bella, what's up with you and the shortest Cullen? Speaking of, where have all you Cullens gotten off to lately?" Eric inquired, pointing his fork first at Bella and then at Emmett and Rosalie.
"Oh, we've been around. I'd like to know what's up with you and my sister too though, Bells," Emmett said vaguely, then swiftly pushed the subject onto Bella.
Fucking asshole.
Bella glared at him because surely he knew that there was currently tension between her and Alice. There was no way he didn't. He gave her an apologetic grimace.
"Uh," she mumbled, glancing around the table as all eyes turned to her.
Damn it, Emmett.
"Nothing? Seriously, why do you guys keep asking me that?" Bella complained, struggling to find a way out of it.
"Because, for the thousandth time, you two are really close. And you cannot tell me," Angela added when Bella opened her mouth to reply angrily, "that there is nothing going on between you two. Don't give me that crap about 'we're just friends' and 'she's just really affectionate.'"
"She is. Emmett, tell them," Bella demanded, blushing brightly.
"Alice is a pretty friendly gal," Emmett drawled and when he received skeptical looks, he shrugged. "But she's also really friendly with you, Bella."
Traitor! She thought furiously, gawking at him when he put his hands up defensively.
"What?" he frowned.
He knew damn well what.
When Rosalie rolled her eyes, though, she thought maybe Emmett really didn't know what he was saying that was agitating Bella so much.
"Yeah, friendly as in I-wanna-touch-your-pus-"
"You finish that sentence and I'm sticking my fork in your ribs," Bella threatened as Jessica smirked.
Her face was burning hotly, and she was ready to make good on that promise at the look on her friend's face.
"Seriously, Bella, it's no big deal. Hey, so maybe you guys think you're just friends and don't know you're not just friends," Angela suggested, popping a grape into her mouth.
"Yeah. You can't tell us you don't feel all that sexual tension between you two," Mike interjected.
What was this, gang up on Bella day? What the shit?
"No, I don't!" Bella snapped, scowling when they sniggered.
"Oh, right. Bella, hon, we're your friends too, but we don't touch you all the time like Alice does," Jessica rolled her eyes.
"You and Angela hug and touch all the time! Plenty of straight girls do too, and just because me and Alice are both into girls doesn't mean we're into each other! Alice is just an affectionate person!" Bella protested loudly, then shut her mouth when people turned to stare.
"Sweetie, me and Angie hug when we say goodbye sometimes, not every time, and definitely not every time we see each other. And when we're touching each other, we're usually slapping one another, not practically holding hands," Jessica snorted.
"Or holding each other's waist," Eric added.
"And sometimes you grab each other's faces when you talk," Angela reminded her.
"Didn't you say she wiped your tears away in the parking lot?" Mike cocked his head. "Nobody does that stuff except boyfriends and girlfriends. And your parents."
Fuck, she shouldn't have told them the full story of what she did after she ran out of the classroom. If she told them about that almost-kiss thing that happened in the kitchen they would have a field day. She ignored the fact that that almost kiss was a clear point in their argument.
"And you always give each other these really gooey looks," Jessica said.
"And you never stop talking to each other. Isn't that how you got outed in the first place?" Angela continued, and Bella exploded.
"Alright, alright, I get it. Will you all shut up? How did we get on this subject anyway?" she yelled, ignoring the looks she got for it.
They all shut their mouths, but looked no less amused.
Jesus Christ, why am I on the hot seat today? Bella agonized, face on fire.
They were making her think about Alice in ways she had determinedly been trying not to think about her, and it was making her panic. So what if she and Alice touched a lot? Alice really was just a physically affectionate person, she wasn't lying about that. And Bella didn't mind. Alice was her best friend, that was it. There was nothing between them more than platonic affection, nothing else, and-
But then why did Alice say they were getting too close for comfort? And what was that in the kitchen?
Fuck, she thought. Just fuck. No, no, no. This isn't happening.
"I don't like Alice like that, and she definitely doesn't like me like that. Even if we did, like you said, she's dating Jasper anyway, and I would never-We'd never jeopardize our friendship over some stupid shit like that. So can you guys drop it?" she pleaded, somewhere between defensive and desperate.
"She touches you more than she touches Jasper," Jessica muttered, avoiding Bella's eyes when the brunette glared at her.
"Bella, we're not trying to piss you off. But sweetheart, you have to admit, you guys are really close. Closer than I've ever seen you with anyone else, even Edward," Angela said cautiously. She did not waver when Bella turned her glare onto her.
"And I've never seen Alice that close to anyone else besides Jasper," Emmett added.
Bella turned a dumbfounded look onto him, sizing him up for the first time when he gazed back innocently. What is his angle? She wondered, but his face gave nothing away.
"Why are you all pushing this so hard?" Bella frowned, pushing her food around self consciously on her plate.
"Why are you getting so worked up about it?" Eric countered.
"Because you guys won't let it go," she snapped back angrily.
I don't like Alice like that. I don't, I won't, I don't, she thought furiously, stomach twisting anxiously.
"Look, Bella, if it bothers you so much, we'll drop it. All we're saying is, maybe there's a reason you get so defensive talking about Alice. And you can say what you want, that girl's got it bad for you. What it is we may not know, but she does have it," Jessica put in, stealing one of Angela's grapes as she spoke.
"Whether or not you feel it too is a different story," Mike said.
Bella stayed silent, mind going hard. She put up a wall in her mind to block off any of their speculations from reaching any part of her brain that might process them in a critical way. There were too, too many ways that could go wrong.
"Alice doesn't like me like that," she finally mumbled.
Does she?
"Maybe, maybe not. Either way, that girl would walk through fire for you, Bella. You should have seen her go off on Mr. Gordon. I've never seen her yell at someone like that," Angela told her.
Bella had never seen Alice go off like that either, save for when she had gone off on Rosalie. She did not like that it became an arguing point for their speculation.
"Alice is just really protective," Bella replied, though her words sounded weak even to her own ears.
"Sure. We are too, you know that. You know we'd walk through fire for you too, Bella, and I love you honey, but I'd sure as shit hesitate before I did it," Jessica chuckled, snatching another grape off Angela's plate and dodging the Asian girls fending hands.
"I don't think Alice would even see the flames," Angela stated with total conviction. "And I think you're the same way when it comes to her. You're the same way as her, ya know. You guys don't ever really get mad at people, but when that guy asked if Alice could suck his dick as good as he ate you out, you almost swung on him. You're never a violent person even when people are ruder than rude."
Well, that guy had been fucking asking for it, and he had no right to talk about Alice like that. Son of a bitch would have had a broken nose if Angela and Jessica hadn't grabbed her when she bowed up on him, spluttering and swearing like an idiot. She had never known people could be so rude or obscene in Forks until she got outed.
"So?" Bella scoffed, glancing at her friends in annoyance, mostly because they were making too much sense for her poor heart to take.
"So," Eric said pointedly, waving his fork at her. "You two are like, hopelessly devoted to each other. Like, Sandy from Grease hopelessly devoted."
"It's sickening really," Jessica sighed, and Bella growled at them.
"Martin is a dick, and you all know it. You should have let me hit him. Just because I don't let him talk about my friends like that doesn't mean I'm in love with Alice or something!" she argued futilely.
"Nobody said anything about being in love," Mike pointed out and she blushed brightly.
God damn it, Mike.
"Martin has called Jessica a cock sucking slut more times than I can count on one hand and you never even batted an eyelid at him," Angela laughed.
"Yeah!" Jessica agreed, then, "Hey! Yeah, what the fuck, bitch?"
Bella cringed apologetically, but Jessica tended to step on toes around the school, and if she went around yelling at everyone that called her friend a name she would be in a body bag from all the fighting she had to do. She chose not to point that out so as not to make Jessica feel bad.
"See, that's my point," Angela continued, sounding far too confident for Bella's tastes.
"What is your point, Angela? Because I really don't see it," she grit out through clenched teeth, starting to get really fed up with their persistence that there must be something between her and Alice.
"That you never go off until someone corners you. You're quiet, and you usually either don't care or just brush it off. But when someone backs you into a place where you have no way out, like now, you get vicious. And the only other time you snap faster is when someone goes after Alice," Angela explained.
Bella tightened her jaw and stabbed a carrot angrily with her fork, choosing not to respond to that.
So what. So fucking what. Alice is my best friend. She's been my best friend for a while. I've been through a lot with her by now, and I've never clicked with someone like I click with her. So so fucking what if I'm defensive about her. That doesn't mean anything. Alice is the nicest person I've ever met. She doesn't deserve any of that crap. And so what if we touch a lot? Girl friends touch each other all the time, we're no different just because we do so a little more…
And yet girlfriends touched the way they touched. Boyfriends and girlfriends touched the way they touched, if she really thought about it.
All that was missing was the kissing, and they had actually done that, too.
Well shit.
Maybe…Maybe they…
Maybe they were…Right?
Maybe…Maybe she liked Alice. Like-liked Alice.
No.
Nope.
Nuh uh.
Not happening.
No bueno, non, nein, no.
Because Bella knew what happened when you fell for your best friend, and that shit never ended well.
"Remember when you said you guys would drop it?" Bella said, voice beseeching now. "Can we do that please? Please?"
They must have picked up on the desperation in her voice, because the topic changed faster than Bella thought possible, mostly because Angela brought up Iron Man and the whole table jumped on Jessica for not liking him, including Emmett. She could sense how obvious they all knew it was to change subject so fast and why they were, but they didn't blink and Jessica accepted the assault as if to take the fall for Bella's peace of mind.
There was something to be said for friends like that, but there was also something to be said for friends that didn't push that shit so much until Bella had no choice but to think about it. She fell completely silent, not partaking, and the only other person who was as silent as her was Rosalie.
Rosalie.
Rosalie had been silent throughout the entirety of the time that she had been sitting here, and Bella couldn't help but glance at her to see if she was even still there or how she was taking the turn in the conversation. She was the one who had been making less than subtle innuendos concerning her and Alice's relationship.
She started when she found the blonde staring right back at her. She felt a tightening sensation in her belly when Rosalie kept their eyes locked, uncaring to whatever Bella might be feeling. Her upper lip curled while everyone around them conversed, a monotone buzz beginning to take the place of actual words in Bella's ears.
Without meaning to, Bella glanced down at those full lips. Those were lips she had felt smash against her own a few days ago, and she swallowed hard at the sight of them. They dropped lower and her belly knotted tighter when she saw Rosalie's fingers peeking out from the crook of her crossed arms. Those were fingers that had groped her ass like it belonged to her, hands that had pulled her off the floor with unreal strength ..
She did not like to look at Alice because they were supposed to be friends, and she did not like to look at Rosalie because they were supposed to be enemies, but that didn't stop her from remembering how good it felt to be pressed up against the beautiful blonde in the heat of a moment that would have made even a straight girl faint.
Her eyes abruptly flicked back up. Rosalie's eyebrows were high on her forehead, clearly noticing the look, and Bella was so startled and embarrassed that she dropped her fork halfway to her mouth. It clanked down on the table and mashed potatoes splattered across it and onto Angela's left arm.
"Ew!" Angela squealed as some of it got on her shirt and she jumped up.
Blushing and hating the way Rosalie sneered over at her with a wave of pine scented air wafting across the table to tickle her nose, Bella stood with her.
"Shit, Angela, sorry!" Bella gasped, grabbing for napkins and hurriedly beginning to wipe her friend off.
"You dweeb, I just washed this!" Angela pouted at her and shooed her hands away as everyone else laughed besides Rosalie.
"Sorry, sorry," Bella winced and Angela only shrugged and flicked some potatoes off her fingers at her.
"There, now we're even," Angela chuckled as flecks of potato splattered Bella's face.
Bella gave her the stink eye and Angela bumped their shoulders playfully, nearly knocking the brunette over. Scoffing indignantly, Bella bumped her back and they both squealed when Angela almost toppled over and grabbed at her to catch her balance. They shoved off of each other and Jessica yelped when Bella almost fell over on her. When they finally caught their balance completely, everyone was laughing outright and many were turning to stare at them.
Bella was wiping her face off and snickering at Angela when the voice rang out.
"Oh my god, look at those dykes!"
Bella stiffened and she and Angela turned around. She was able to spot Cassie, Lauren, Sophie, and a few more of their stupid flock hovering in the middle of the cafeteria and hawking at them like a bunch of vultures.
Angela's face smoothed out coldly as Bella shrank to a pinprick within herself, suddenly terrified.
The cafeteria was full of students eating lunch, and Cassie seemed to be relishing the attention that she was garnering with her loud voice. Bella was mortified to see Victoria sitting at a nearby table, surrounded by admirers and watching the scene with apparent interest. Their eyes met and Bella quickly looked away, despising that stupid smirk on the redhead's face.
"Aw, are the two girlfriends having a little cuddle?" Lauren crowed, sneering
Fucking shit.
Bella hunched her shoulders and grit her teeth, stomach twisting.
"No, that looked a lot like foreplay to me," Sophie said cruelly, and half the lunchroom broke out into laughter and whispering.
Shitting fuck.
Jessica stood protectively as all eyes landed on them.
"No, she's dating that other dyke, remember guys?" Cassie smirked, crossing her arms. "That freak Alice."
Bella bristled but didn't say a word, boiling at the mention of her best friend. Her friends had one thing right; it took only saying Alice's name to fire her up.
"Yeah, we heard about your cute little sexts in History!" Cassie called out to them as she noticed Bella's face tightening. "God, we always wondered about you two freaks, but we never really thought you were a bunch of lesbos."
Welp.
If somehow everybody did not know yet, they did now, courtesy of Cassie Streeter. Bella's face flamed and her fists clenched as muted whispering broke out.
Before either Angela or Jessica could rush to her defense, someone else did.
"Funny how things we wonder about sometimes turn out to be true," Rosalie drawled back at them, speaking up for the first time.
Surprised that Rosalie was actually getting involved, Bella glanced over her shoulder and tensed when Rosalie stood slowly, lackadaisically lifting out of her seat. "Everybody wonders about the fact that you're a slut who's slept with the whole football team, Cassie, and oh! I guess all those STD's you've been treated for are proof of that. It's amazing all the things you learn when your daddy works at the local hospital instead of hanging out at all the local strip clubs."
Shocked, Bella's lips parted as Rosalie smiled sweetly, arms crossed and hip cocked out. The cafeteria exploded into guffawing and loud oohing. Eric yelled "BURN!" at the top of his lungs and the laughter rose way up in volume.
Her heart lifted just a little and she almost smiled, but Cassie shot it right back down.
"Who the hell asked you, Cullen?" Cassie snarled, face red with anger and embarrassment. "You're all a bunch of freaks, it's no surprise those two are a couple. You're all incestuous, sleeping in the same house and shit. It's disgusting!"
Emmett didn't like that and he got to his feet, making an imposing figure as he did, rising to his full height next to Rosalie. But Rosalie only laughed in a manner that was so condescending and derisive that Bella knew only the blonde was capable of.
"We're adopted, you dumb cunt, and it's not like we grew up with each other or anything. At least we didn't let half the sports teams run a train on us in Freshman year," Rosalie taunted and Bella's surprise only deepened.
Was…Was Rosalie actually defending her?
No, surely not. It must have been in defense of her sister and her adopted siblings, nothing else.
"Well at least if Cassie did have a train run on her then it was by boys. I bet you're in on that lesbian shit too, Rosalie. What, is that what you do in your spare time, take turns on ugly old Bella with Alice? Or do you run the train on her too with your incest loving 'adopted' mother?" Sophie broke in.
She may have been an absolute bitch, but Sophie was the one in the group who always had the most vicious comebacks, and she knew everyone standing around her felt the heat on that one, most notably herself. Emmett's hands splayed vampirically, for he loved Esme as much as anyone and probably hated to hear the sweet woman's honor slighted. Bella shrank further at the continued attack, stunned that even Cassie's group would go so far in such a blatant way. She had thought Cassie and her group might have it out for her, but maybe they were just bitter about that spat they had with Alice a while ago. They were the kinds of girls who held grudges, and this was the perfect opportunity to get revenge.
Forks High School was such a small school that teachers rarely even entered the cafeteria to watch their students. Occasionally a teacher would pop in to see that everything was okay, but Mrs. Hartford had checked in only five minutes ago. Fights were too rare for them to bother, and most of those happened in gym class anyway. Bella could see the lunch ladies fidgeting over by the food bar, and desperately wished they would do something. There were students blatantly verbally fighting and swearing at each other, but they did not make any moves.
She couldn't stand the hateful snickering in the background and her throat bobbed as she tried to swallow the lump in it. She did not know what to say, was never good at shit talking or any of that. She didn't want to shit talk. She wanted them to leave her alone. It was the first outright display of animosity towards her over her sexuality, and it was awful.
She had never thought Forks was so…Terrible like this. She had expected some of the treatment, but nothing like this.
Cassie was a huge cunt.
"Burn!" Lauren mocked, sneering at Eric who scowled at her and Jessica flipped her the bird as everyone watching hissed, winced, or roared at the insult.
"I don't know why you're acting all high and mighty, Sophie, Lauren," Rosalie said, unaffected, as if they were merely chatting instead of having a bitch-off in front of what seemed to be the whole school. "You call Bella the ugly one but you wear enough makeup to run a cosmetics factory. Maybe it's Maybelline, huh? Or maybe you're just ugly as fuck."
And maybe Rosalie actually was defending Bella.
Nobody else was more stunned by that than the brunette herself, who stared in disbelief at the blonde over her shoulder. Victoria laughed out loud even when everyone else was whispering, watching it unfold with interest. Bella trembled at the sound of it and refused to look at her.
It was best to pretend like Victoria simply did not exist, or she would make everything that much worse.
"Oh, fuck off Rosalie, why do you even try to deny it? Alice even looks like a dyke with her short hair. Still, word has it she was the one sleeping with the football team, and every other guy in the school. Turns out she was just a carpet muncher though," Lauren snapped, offended by being called out personally.
Oh, no.
She did not just go after Alice.
No way. They could say what they wanted about Bella, or anyone else save maybe Charlie. But she was not going to stand around while they ganged up on her best friend when Alice wasn't even here to defend herself. Maybe she and Alice were in a rough spot, but that did not change the fact that Alice did not deserve the assault on her reputation.
She wouldn't let those bitches.
"Who the hell asked you Lauren? Shut your mouth, no one wants to hear from the girl who got held back twice in Kindergarten. You're the oldest one here and the dumbest!" Bella yelled, shouldering past Angela and planting herself out in the open, ignited by the attack on her best friend.
So fine. Angela and Jessica were right about that then. She got angry as fast as a jaguar with a stepped on tail when someone went after Alice.
Oh freaking well. Nobody was going to talk about that sweet girl like that while Bella was around.
Alice did not deserve that. She just didn't.
She could not deny that the crowd guffawing again bolstered her a little. Rosalie surely helped as well. How could you argue with the gorgeous, spiteful blonde? She understood how good it was to have the girl on her side instead of against her for once, whatever her reasons might be.
It would have been even better to have Alice's cool headed self here, too. Then Bella would not cower one bit.
She briefly met Victoria's eyes again and could see the redhead silently clapping with an amused look on her face, apparently impressed by her gall.
God, she was so freaking unnerving.
"You bitch!" Lauren screeched.
"Sycophant!" Bella scoffed back superiorly, ripping her eyes off of Victoria to re-engage.
"You're the sicko!" Lauren shouted and there was muffled snickering in the crowd from anyone who understood the word.
"She's so dumb," she faintly heard Angela say.
Yet it seemed that Cassie had had enough.
"Who asked her?" she scoffed. "Who asked you? Nobody asked to see your nasty lesbian shit around this school but you and Alice are still all over each other all the time. Why don't you Cullens just leave? Nobody wants you here anyway!"
"Yep. Go back home to your fucked up Mommy and fucked up Daddy and take your fucked up selves back to whatever fucked up place you came from, and take Swan with you," Sophia said and the group around her nodded in a sickening way in agreement.
Forks was in Washington and yet people were acting like this was the damned bible belt!
"Sophie, sweetie, don't try to out bitch the original HBIC, okay? Your parents are immigrants from Puerto Rico, you idiot, you're not from here either. You moved here a year before us," Rosalie declared.
"Which means I was here first, so clear the hell out!" Sophie snapped, starting to lose some of her confidence when Rosalie remained wittier and faster than her with her comebacks.
"Yeah, because that makes sense," Rosalie rolled her eyes. "You're a homophobe when half this school calls you a wetback behind your back. You of all people should know better."
Half the crowd seemed to miss the context of the racist term Rosalie employed, and as such protesting shouts rang out, and suddenly the whole thing dissolved into a yelling match as Sophie's Hispanic face drained of color. Cassie and Lauren resorted to yelling every insult at them in the book while Jessica and Angela matched them word for word, and the students in the cafeteria went into an uproar.
Sophie suddenly broke free from her group and came flying across the lunchroom, looking pissed and fit to kill. Cassie and Lauren were not far behind.
That, Bella thought. Is a very bad idea.
Bella was so surprised she couldn't even react. They weren't that stupid were they? She didn't even move but she saw as much as felt Jessica and Angela tense, clearly ready for the inevitable attack, ready to go in swinging if those girls even got close to Bella.
She didn't know why Sophie was eyeing her like a football player eyes the guy running with the ball, either. She was not the one who had been running her mouth; that was Rosalie.
Shit, am I about to be in a fist fight? She thought in the few seconds she had before they would reach her. I don't know how to fight!
It never happened.
In a whirl of pine trees and sunshine, Rosalie shouldered past them and met Sophie head on. The Hispanic girl looked as surprised as anyone when the blonde vampire –human?- got in her way and two handed shoved her mid-stride.
Sophie staggered and only kept from falling over because Cassie and Lauren caught her, albeit not by choice. They blinked and yelped girlish yelps when Sophie wind milled back into them, nearly sending them all sprawling.
"Walk away," Rosalie spat out, planting herself directly in front of Bella like an angelic statue.
Not good.
Not good!
Bella inhaled sharply and froze as pheromones swirled around her provocatively, slipping into her pores. She tensed up so hard her muscles screamed, and she could only stare helplessly at the back of Rosalie's head, stuck.
Oh god, oh god, what is she doing?
Sophie stood back up straight and postured. She took a step forward as Rosalie stared her down, not moving an inch. When Rosalie didn't move, Sophie opened her mouth and took another step forward, something she never would have dared to do if Rosalie were at full vampiric power.
"Walk. Away," Rosalie snarled, bristling at the aggressive move. Her hands splayed, itching with age old instincts to extend her vampire claws, though she did not currently wield any.
And so it came to be that Rosalie did not even need to be a vampire to back someone down.
Sophie hesitated at that voice, and rightly so. Rosalie's hazel eyes dug into hers, daring her to make another move, to cross that line. Wisely, Sophie drew back, huffing and scowling.
"This isn't over," she promised, and then stormed past them. Cassie and Lauren hurried after her and they all banged out of the place through the doors, the cafeteria dead silent at the tension, breathlessly anticipating a fight that Rosalie had just shut down like a godsend.
Bella?
She was about to pass out.
She was holding her breath so desperately that her lungs felt ready to burst. Every bit of Rosalie's flaring pheromones coated her, melted her insides, and tugged at her sex hungrily, only stirred further by the blonde's apparent agitation.
"God damn," Jessica murmured next to her as Rosalie slowly turned around, the cold look on her face being replaced by her usual apathy, and Angela whistled appreciatively.
"Yo, respect girl!" Eric called from behind them.
"You sure put her in her place. I thought it was about to be a girl fight," Mike said, sounding almost disappointed.
Bella was about to start wheezing.
Go away, she thought desperately, stomach cramping from how hard her abs were clenching in want. Rosalie, please! Get the hell away from me!
She was standing too close for far too long. It was too much. Bella was going to explode, or implode, or fall to pieces; she could feel it building in an undeniable pressure inside of her.
Rosalie peered at her with an unreadable expression on her face, though her eyes were still hard. They stayed that way, Bella internally dying and seconds away from crying out and going to her knees as the pulsating between her thighs reached a fever pitch.
Get away, get away, get away!
"Rose," Emmett appeared and put a hand on her shoulder. Rosalie stirred at it as if just realizing what was going on. She looked Bella up and down, tilted her chin up a little, and scowled her trademark scowl.
"Coward," Rosalie declared to her face, and then she blew past her, brushing their shoulders as she did so.
Bella's knees hit the floor, and right there in front of everybody, in front of all her friends and the entire school and in perfectly plain view, Isabella Swan arched her back, mewled, and came.