Disclaimer: No, I do not own Twilight. And some parts of this chapter come directly from Stephenie Meyer's masterpiece.
Chapter 4: Rejection
In my dream it was very dark, and what dim light there was seemed to be radiating from Edward's skin. I couldn't see his face, just his back as he walked away from me, leaving me in blackness. No matter how fast I ran, I couldn't catch up to him; no mater how loud I called, he never turned. He was always faster. He knew that I intended to hurt him so he ran.
Troubled, I woke in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep again for what seemed like a very long time. After that, he was in my dreams nearly every night, but always on the periphery, never within reach. Sometimes Bella was with him, but I could see her face most of the time. Other times he looked like he was taking her against her will.
After Bella's accident, Eric and I almost teamed up. We saw Tyler Crowley follow Bella around obsessively, like a puppy dog. Whenever we passed him in the halls, we gave him the cold was almost like those superhero movies you see. The superhero teams up with the bad guy to fight against the big baddy. I was the superhero of course.
Tyler was almost stalking her; following her between classes, squeezing himself into our lunch table, which was now overly crowded with unwelcome people. What bugged me the most though, was that every time someone asked her about what happened, she made Edward look like a hero. I wasn't the only one who was suspicious. Jessica, Eric, and everyone else always reminded her that they hadn't seen Edward anywhere near her.
She saw Edward as her hero. What if he wasn't the hero? What if he was…the bad guy? I had to make her see that I was on her side. Eric and I were good guy plus bad guy to fight super bad guy Tyler. But what if we all had to team up completely to defeat super duper bad guy Edward?
I wasn't sure whether I was ready to trust Tyler yet but I thought that I was getting a dangerous vibe from that Edward character.
It wasn't difficult to keep an eye on Edward, fortunately. Even though he was just as much involved in the accident as Bella or Tyler, most people were afraid to approach him. Maybe they noticed the dangerous vibe coming from him too. No one let himself or herself be curious about his point of view of what happened. He was always sitting at the Cullens' and the Hales' usual table.
In Biology things were starting to look up; for me at least. She seemed perfectly civil to him, while he blew her off which clenched fists. He looked like he was going to vomit in the very presence of her. I listened carefully as she tried to talk to him respectfully.
"Hello, Edward," she had said pleasantly, which made me frown a little. I turned around slyly to see his reaction, and all he did was nodded! He didn't even look at her when he did so! I had to admit, I definitely liked the obvious coolness between the two of them. After his whole little head nod shindig she stopped speaking to him. Sometimes I would look up at her from across the cafeteria and I would notice her watching him, but in class, she pretended he didn't exist. That totally made me start trying again.
I definitely grew more confident, sitting on the edge of the table to talk to her before Biology class started, ignoring Edward completely, and he did the same back. I'm just glad that I hadn't been the one to save her. Imagine if she started treating me the way she was treating Cullen now?
Even though my days were looking pretty positive after that dangerous day, there was one bad thing that came out of all of it. The snow went away. Which meant I couldn't have my snowball fight I've been trying to have for so long. So to make up for it, I focused on the upcoming beach trip that was now coming up because the snow went away.
And, of course, the girls' choice spring dance. It was coming up and it was going to be the ultimate test. Did Bella really prefer me to Cullen? If she asked me, everything would be confirmed, and I would find the strength to eventually ask her out. I had everything planned out. She asks me to the dance, I play hard to get and use Jessica as an excuse, but say yes anyways, and then I ask her out at the dance. I imagined walking up to Cullen and saying to him, "Hello Edward. You've met my girlfriend haven't you? Bella? Oh right. You were the one who saved her…" A big grin came on his face.
The next day, I thought for sure this was the day Bella would ask me. I had what I would say perfectly rehearsed. But then I saw Jessica shyly approach me. My first reaction was to shrug her off but she seemed like she had something serious to talk to me about. Was Bella hurt? Was Bella not going to be at school that day?
"Mike, I-I was k-kind of wondering…if you want to g-go to the d-dance with me? It's girls' choice.." She bit her lip and smiled timidly at me.
"Oh," was all I could say. I could barely hide the wave of disappointment that flooded me at that moment. This screws up the plan! Jess wasn't supposed to ask me! I was supposed to use her as an excuse! Maybe I could still use this as an advantage though. "I'll have to think about it Jess. I'm not sure what my plans are yet."
Her lip pouted slightly and then she quietly said, "Okay." She turned around and nearly ran across the hall. I felt really bad about it but I was a desperate man. During lunch Jess sat as far away from me as possible, which made me feel even guiltier. I eyed Bella to see if she knew yet. She kept glancing over at me so I wasn't sure. I decided I better talk to her about it in Biology. For the time being I stayed as quiet as possible.
I walked Bella to class, still quiet, thinking about how I was going to approach her once we got inside the classroom. I finally worked up the courage when she sat at her desk and I sat close to her.
"So," I started, staring at my shoes," Jessica asked me to the spring dance."
"That's great," she said enthusiastically. I didn't like that. Did she want me to go with Jessica?
"Well…" I mumbled, looking up at her face and examining her smile to see if it was genuine. "I told her I had to think about it."
"Why would you do that?" she asked me. Ouch. That hurt. I felt blood rush up to my cheeks in embarrassment. Here we go, Mike. You can do this.
"I was wondering if…well, if you might be planning to ask me." She paused for a moment, and I was so desperate to know what was going on in that head of hers.
"Mike, I think you should tell her yes," she said.
"Did you already ask someone?" My eyes involuntarily flickered to Edward for a fraction of a second. I couldn't help it. He was my number one enemy after all.
"No," she assured me. "I'm not going to the dance at all."
"Why not?" I demanded. I was hurt that she wasn't going, but I was also relieved that she wasn't going with anyone else.
"I'm going to Seattle that Saturday."
"Can't you go some other weekend?" Why was she coming up with excuses to get away from me? Did she really hate me that badly?
"Sorry, no," she said. "So you shouldn't make Jess wait any longer – it's rude." That stung a little.
"Yeah, you're right," I mumbled, a little angrily. I turned away so she wouldn't see the expression on my face. That was not expected. I was so sure she had actually liked me this time. Why was it so hard to steal her affection?
It was hard for me to listen to what the teacher was saying. I did, however, notice the awkward silence that came a lot when he asks the class a question and no one could answer because they weren't paying attention. Mr. Banner looked around the room, looking at me, and I tried to make myself look as small as possible. Then he rested his eyes on someone else. I turned around, and sure enough, it was Cullen. Edward was staring at Bella in a curious way and she was sitting there awkwardly.
Mr. Banner probably saw this as a chance to finally get at his best student. "Mr. Cullen?" he called.
It wasn't very long before Edward answered "The Krebs Cycle." He reluctantly looked away from Bella and gazed at the front of the room.
My jaw almost dropped open. How had he done that? There was no way he was paying attention! The teacher looked just as surprised, but tried to hide it by going back to his discussion that no one was listening to. The rest of the hour seemed like it would never pass. When the bell finally did ring, I packed up my binder and textbook slowly, not wanting to leave the room before Bella. I was too humiliated.
But then I heard Cullen's voice and I pretended to be focusing on my backpack zipper to listen in.
"Bella?" He called innocently.
"What? Are you speaking to me again?" She sounded very annoyed, which pleased me. Even if she thought I wasn't good enough to go to the dance with me.
"No, not really," he admitted. Wow. How could she possibly like a jerk like him?
"Then what do you want, Edward?" More annoyance.
"I'm sorry," he apologized sincerely. "I'm being very rude, I know. But it's better this way, really."
"I don't know what you mean."
"It's better if we're not friends. Trust me."
I thought I couldn't stall any longer. It was weird for me to listen into their conversation in the first place. Besides, most of the people were almost out of the room. It would look suspicious if I hung around. Just before the door shut behind me I heard Edward raise his voice saying something that sounded like the word 'regret.' They sounded like they were in a major fight.
I went to Gym thinking about how I was now going to approach Jessica, and what I would say my excuse was for not saying yes right away. I couldn't say to her, "Oh I'm sorry Jess. You weren't my top choice, but since who I wanted to ask me doesn't really even care that I exist, I guess I'll settle for you." I didn't want to kill the poor girl!
We started basketball, which was cool. I was really good at it, and I made sure to steer clear from Bella. Not just because she had so rudely rejected me earlier that day, but also because she was taking people down with her whenever she tripped.
After school ended, Tyler came up to me and asked me if Bella asked anyone.
"Well, she was going to ask me," I started, and then regretted lying, "but she's going to be in Seattle that weekend. I'm going with Jess instead." He looked bummed out.
"Well, I'm going to ask her anyways. We'll see if she was only trying to have an excuse to not go with you." At that he walked away with a huge smirk on his face. A long string of curse words came into my mind at the moment but I was anxious at the same time. I swore that if Bella went to that dance with Tyler I was just going to have to move. That would be so embarrassing.
I watched as Tyler walked towards his parents' used Sentra. Then I turned my gaze over to where Bella's car was parked. I couldn't believe it. Eric was there, most likely asking her too! At least I had been the first to ask her.
He turned away dejectedly with slouched shoulders. Poor guy. Bella was breaking all the hearts today. Then Edward walked in front of her truck, laughing at her with a smirk on his face. She angrily put her car into reverse and backed out, but Edward was faster. He had cut her off, and stopped in the middle of the road.
Oh crap, I thought. This was Tyler's shot. Tyler noticed this opportunity as well, so he pulled out and went right behind Bella's truck. He waved like an idiot but she didn't even acknowledge him. That made me happy. But then, he jumped out of his car, waddled up to her window and tapped it with his finger. He talked to her, using hand gestures.
When he was done, he walked away, with a huge smile on his face still. Had she said yes?
Conveniently, Edward started driving away right after Tyler reached his car. If I found out that she had said yes to him after giving me the Seattle excuse, I was going to be pissed. I decided I would have to give him a call later tonight.
I was about to go to my car, but I spotted Jessica across the parking lot about to get into hers, so I ran to her quickly.
"Hey Jess, wait up!" I yelled. She pretended not to hear me but I saw her glance over. "Jessica!"
She couldn't pretend not to hear that. I was ten feet away from her. She turned around and looked at me with an irritated expression. "What?" she snapped at me.
"Well..er..I thought that my parents were taking me camping the weekend of the dance, but I got that mixed up with a different weekend. So I'm free after all. Do you still want to go?"
Her face lit up but then she collected herself and answered, "I guess. I mean you're lucky. I was about to ask someone else."
"Who?" I tested her.
She thought for a moment. "Tyler, Jeffory, Sean. Lots of guys were on my list." She shrugged.
"Well if you'd rather go with one of them, then I know some other people who would love to go with me." I was playing her game and I was winning.
Her face dropped and then she said almost too anxiously, "No, no. That's okay. I already asked you. It would be rude to ask you and then decide otherwise. I have to go now." She ducked into her car and backed up slowly, looking at me from the rearview mirror as she pulled away.
When I got home I went straight to my room and sulked.
A/N: well, here was another chapter for you! Aren't you proud that I got it in a day after my last one! It's progress for me! Anyways. I can't wait to see what I do for the next chapter. Blood Typing scene!! What a fun chapter! And little jealous Mike will have to cope with Edward taking all the glory. AGAIN. Anyways thanks for reading. Please Review. Seriously, it takes two seconds. Plus, it makes me want to write faster. Thanks!