Bella's POV

A couple of days later, I was at school and sitting at my usual table with Angela, Ben, Jess, Lauren, Eric, and unfortunately, Mike. I'd been avoiding this table for the last couple of weeks because of my confrontation with Mike, but I decided that I wasn't going to let what he said to me weeks ago get to me any longer. He didn't get to change my routine anymore because he felt rejected.

"Well, Bella, it's been a while since you showed your face with us. I guess you decided that you leading Mike on and him standing up to you had blown over by now," Lauren sneered.

Lauren was another one that liked to antagonize me, but I decided that I was done with it. After finally beginning to mend my relationship with Jared, I finally decided that I was done being the pathetic person I'd been since coming to Forks. I needed to get back to who I really was, and the quiet moldable girl that Edward Cullen controlled was not who I was. "Well, Lauren, if you're interested in Mike, have at it. I'm sure he'd welcome it, although, don't expect it to last. He seems to only want what he can't have," I said with a smirk.

Mike turned red with embarrassment and Jess glared at Lauren as if to say 'don't you dare'. Jess and Mike had broken up, but I knew Jess still had a thing for him.

I looked over at Angela to see that she was trying hard to keep from laughing.

Lauren glared at me murderously, but when she realized it had no effect on me, she turned away and looked straight ahead. "Oh, extreme hottie coming this way."

I looked up to see Jared walking towards us. He looked at me and smiled. "Hello. Mind if I join you?"

"Yeah, we do," Mike said with a glare.

"Don't listen to him. Of course you can sit with us. Here, sit next to me," Lauren said in seductive voice.

A huge stab of jealously hit me. Lauren was flirting with Jared and it was pissing me off. I knew I didn't have the right to be Jealous, as we weren't together anymore and I'd told him we could only be friends, but it still made me mad.

"Thanks, Lauren, but I think I'd going to sit between these two lovely ladies over here," Jared said as me made his way over to Angela and I and sat in between us. He looked at Angela and held out his hand. "Hi. I think we're in a couple of classes together. I'm Jared."

"Yes, I know. Angela," she said before taking his hand.

After greeting Angela, Jared turned to me. "Hey, Bella. How was the rest of your weekend?"

"It was good. I read and caught up on my studying most of it. You?" I asked.

"Hung out with the guys mostly. As you know, we had a bonfire on Saturday after you left. It was fun," Jared said as he took a huge bite of his pizza

"You guys were together this weekend?" Angela asked surprised. The last she knew, I was going out of my way to avoid Jared.

"Yeah, I decided to go up there and try to mend fences," I said.

"So you guys have bonfires?" Jess asked.

"Yeah, it's a tribe tradition for a select group of us. It's really private," Jared said.

"Oh, so I guess you weren't invited, Bella," Lauren said in a falsely sweet voice.

"Actually, Bella has a standing invitation through me. But she had things she had to this last time," Jared said.

I looked at him and smiled. "Next time, I promise." I was nowhere near ready to move past friendship, but I would go to the next bonfire as his friend and imprint. It was important to him and I really did wanna learn all the legends first hand.

"So you're back with him then," Mike asked with a nasty glare.

"I am whatever Bella wants me to be. What that is now is really none of your business," Jared said coldly. It wasn't often that I heard that kind of tone from Jared, but with Mike I could understand it and appreciate it. He had a front row seat to the way Mike treated me when I finally made it clear that nothing would ever happen with us.

Mike looked at me disgusted. "I hope you're prepared to get left again."

I saw Jared stiffen and immediately placed a hand on his arm and felt him relax. It was amazing the way that just my touch could calm him. I wondered if it was the imprint. "You know, Mike, from the moment I got here, I've put up with your crap. You've tried relentlessly to get me to go out with you despite the fact that I showed no interest in you. You even tried to undermine my relationship with Edward, telling me that you didn't like our relationship.

I heard Jared say something under his breath about how it should've been undermined, but I ignored, mostly because I couldn't argue it, but I was trying to make a point here. "Then when I finally told you in no uncertain terms that I would never be with you, you tried to make me look like the villain. You called me pathetic and told me no could love me. You even went behind my back and told people that I led you on, something you knew wasn't true. You knew very well that I wasn't interested in you, but you came after me nonetheless. You were so relentless that it bordered on stalking! And now you're being rude to Jared just because I dated him. I'm done, Mike. I'm not even interested in being your friend. That ship sailed the moment you tried to strip me of every bit of self-esteem I had!"

Everyone at the table, except for Jared looked completely shocked at the way I'd just torn Mike apart. Jared, on the other hand, was smiling from ear to ear. He was happy that I'd stood up for myself once more.

I got up after a minute and started to walk away. I felt Jared follow me. "That was great, Bella. First Jacob and now that punk. It was great."

"I'm done with letting people walk all over me," I said.

"Good. So I was wondering if you wanted to do something this weekend, not just us. We could invite others," Jared said quickly. He seemed to wanna make sure I knew he wasn't pressuring me into a date.

"What'd you have in mind?" I asked as we turned the corner down the hall. I was open to doing something. Jared and I were trying to renew our friendship. That would only happen if we spent time together.

"Well, there's this place in Seattle that Sam and I used to go to a lot. It has really good music and it's open to minors. I thought we could go with Sam, Emily, Embry, and maybe Angela could come too. She seems like a real friend to you," Jared said.

"Yeah, she is. Okay, let me clear it with Charlie. As long as he's alright with it, I'll come. I'll ask Angela if she wants to come too." I said.

"Great. Well, I'm gonna head to Calculus. It's a bit early, but I've got nothing better to do," Jared.

"Alright, see you in history," I said before walking away towards my Biology class.