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not beta'd

storyline - Malicious

prompt - bookshelf

Rose was watching me rather shrewdly in the mirror. Her mouth was covered in toothpaste foam, making her look sort of rabid.

"What?" I grumbled, rinsing my mouth of her insanely cinnamon toothpaste. Honestly, it was just unpleasant.

"I didn't realize you liked Edward."

"I don't."

"So why'd you let him down your pants?"

"Down my bikini bottoms, actually."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

I shrugged. "I don't know. I just felt like it."

"That's not you, just saying."

She left the bathroom and I trailed after her, shutting the door. "I… I don't know. I was -"

"Drunk and horny. Yeah, you said that."

Scowling, I grabbed a rubber band off her bookshelf and swept my hair in to a ponytail. "Why are you bitching me out about this? It's not like you've never hooked up with someone…and really, we didn't actually hook up. We just fooled around."

"See how you keep trying to rationalize it? That's why I'm worried. I bet this bothers you more than you're letting on. And yeah, I've hooked up before but you're not like me." Rose ran a brush through her hair. Due to endless hours at the beach, it was always its brightest blonde by the end of summer. "Anyway, Edward? Ew. He's such an ass."

"I know that now."

"You've known that, Bella. Come on."

"Well, I didn't think he'd kiss and tell. Otherwise I never would have gone with it." I lay back on her floor, sighing. "Ugh. Thank God I didn't sleep with him."

"Seriously."

"So, are we still going to the mall or not? I need to do back to school shopping," I said.

"Do that with your mom, dude," Rose said, snorting. "That's what I always do. It's too nice out to be cooped up in the mall, anyway."

"My mom isn't coming down until next week and by that point school will have started," I pointed out.

I lived with my dad, but my mom visited pretty often. We hadn't always been so spread out. As a kid, I lived with her and my stepdad, Phil, but it was easy to see my father because he only lived about ten minutes away. When my stepdad's job relocated him, though, I chose to stay in town with my father. I think it broke my mom's heart a little, but I'd always been close to my dad and the thought of leaving him and everything I'd ever known was just too much.

Funnily enough, my mother and Phil were back in Florida, way up north by the Panhandle. Now she came down to visit every couple of weeks.

"So..."

I wasn't big in to shopping, but Rose really seemed to loathe it. "Forget it. I'll ask Alice to come with me."

"Good. Now let's go to the beach. It's a perfect day to get a tan."

"It's so nice to be here and not be guarding," I moaned, trailing my fingers through the hot, powdery sand at my side.

"No kidding," said Rose. She'd been a lifeguard almost as long as I had. In fact, that was how we'd gotten so close. "Aren't you glad we're here and not in a store somewhere?"

"Yep."

Ice cold water sprayed across my sunbaked skin. I shot up, shading my eyes. "What the hell?"

Mike Newton loomed over us, a water bottle in his hand. "Couldn't resist," he chuckled.

Rose shook her head in disgust. "Ugh. Disappear."

Mike ignored her, nodding at me. "So. You and Cullen, huh?"

Regret pierced through me. I looked away as nonchalantly as possible."Nope."

"Oh, yeah. Don't front."

Standing abruptly, I brushed past him on my way down to the water. Never one to take a hint, he followed. "How come he gets a piece and I don't?"

"Such poetry. With lines like that you must have chicks banging down your door." I regarded him coolly through my sunglasses. "And he did not – " I made air quotes "get a piece."

"Not what I heard."

And so, for the second time in one weekend, I kneed him in the balls and walked away.

The fates were totally smiling down at me, but not really, because who but Edward was in the water. He saw me the second I saw him, and he actually started to smile.

"Don't smile at me, asshole."

He splashed playfully at me. "Not what you were saying last night."

This time, when I slapped him, I made contact. No more smiles: he grabbed my hand, too late this time. "Don't ever, ever hit me again." I'd never heard him so angry. Good.

He had a red mark on his cheek now. Okay, maybe I felt a little bad. He couldn't exactly hit back and I knew it. But still.

"Then don't talk crap, Edward. You made me look like a slut. People are talking about what happened at Crowley's last night."

He shrugged, like it was no big deal. And maybe it wasn't – not to him. But to me?

"How could you do that?" I asked, yanking my hand back.

"I didn't do anything. Come to the source next time, instead of listening to rumors."

I whipped my shades off and stared at him, unable to believe such nonsense. "I heard Mike and some moron talking about it, like, five seconds after it happened! What, were they listening at the door?"

Something flickered across his face.

"What?" I asked.

"Like you don't tell your friends stuff like that," he said instead. He squinted over to Rose, who was now sitting up and watching our exchange with interest. All she needed was popcorn to go along with the show. "Tell me you didn't give her details."

"Yeah, I did. Mainly because she heard it from frigging Angela Webber on the phone this morning! Angela, who heard from Ben." I pushed down my violent tendencies, knowing that smacking him was wrong, even if he deserved it. "Didn't know you were besties with Ben. Or Mike."

"Mike saw us coming down the stairs," he admitted. "Whatever."

"And?"

"And he wanted to know what was up." He shifted, and I knew that something else had happened.

"Edward."

"It's not like I let him smell my fingers."

"You're disgusting."

"I'm just saying. He asked if I nailed you, I told him to mind his business."

"Why didn't you tell him no?"

He shrugged.

"Obviously he thinks we did it! Everyone does!"

"Why are you so pissed off? You said you were cool with things. Do you… like me?"

Edward Cullen was one dense mofro. "I was cool with what we did. Not with the whole world knowing." I sighed, turning to go. "And no, I don't like you. Get over yourself."

"Well, I'm sorry. I told him to keep his mouth shut, but…"

"So you did tell him."

"Not really… okay, I did. But I told him to keep it to himself."

I wasn't ready for the icky surprise that flooded me then. He'd… lied to me. "So you're a manwhore, gossip and a liar. Charming."

"Whatever, Bella."

Yeah. Whatever.

i had a boy kiss and tell once. by the time i heard about it, a couple kisses and a over the top boob grope had turned in to sex on my roof.

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