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not beta'd

storyline - Malicious

prompt - rocket

Thank God we no longer had to take the school bus or get rides from our parents. It wasn't so bad for Alice and Rose, but for me? Yeah – I wouldn't miss having a police car drop me off to school each day. My father had been nice enough to let me use his old red pick up, and the girls had been all too happy to ride with.

I walked through the double doors and went straight to the office for my new locker assignment. Jessica, who'd been in the Keys for the past week with her parents, was already there squinting at a piece of paper.

"Hey, Jess," I said, touching her back affectionately.

"Oh. Hi, Bella." Even if I hadn't caught how distant she sounded, the way she wouldn't look at me clued me in.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Nothing." She shrugged. "Gotta go."

I watched her walk away. That was weird. I'd known Jessica since seventh grade, when we'd all started going to the same middle school together. She'd never been as tight to me as Alice or Rose, but I considered her a close friend. She was definitely acting off.

"She heard about you and Edward," whispered Alice, who was suddenly right beside me.

"What?"

She nodded grimly. "Yeah."

Rolling my eyes, I stepped forward to receive my locker assignment and homeroom from the secretary, Mrs. Cope. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope."

"How'd she find out?" I asked, watching distractedly as Alice got her paperwork. "More importantly, what did she find out?"

"That you guys had sex."

I sighed. "A, that's a bunch of bull and B, I didn't know she liked him so much that she'd get pissy."

"I know. And I even told her you guys didn't do it, but she seems to have it in her head you did."

"Do you know what homeroom she's in?"

Alice shook her head, glancing down at her print out. "No, but I'm in Cooper."

"Sweet, me too. Let's go."

At lunch, I ended up at the same table as Edward. We were on opposite ends, thank God, but having to see his stupid face at all was enough to make me lose my appetite.

"Ignore him," Rose said, stomping on my foot underneath the table. "No one even cares. No one but you."

She was probably right. While I had every right to be mad at Dickward, it was likely that people had forgotten. Crowley's party had been a little over a week before. What we'd done or not done was old news by now.

In fact, everything was completely fine until laughter broke out at the other end of the table, so loud and rowdy and raucous that we had to look. Edward, Emmett, Mike and Tyler were yucking it up like the jerks they were. This was normal behavior, except that Mike kept glancing over at me while Edward kept his back turned.

At that second I looked up and my eyes met with Jessica's, who was sitting a table over. She made a face and looked away. My heart sank. The thing that sucked was that instead of the righteous anger I'd been living off for the past seven days, I felt humiliated. I kind of wanted to leave, but I hadn't finished eating and besides where would I go? I couldn't just admit defeat like that.

"They're totally talking about it," I whispered to Rose.

"Nah, they're talking about this girl Maria. Mike wants her, I guess."

"He wants everybody. He's gross." Too bad for Maria, but I was so glad they weren't talking about me. Maybe I was paranoid.

Eventually lunch was over, so we stood to dump our trays.

Mike tugged at my ponytail as I passed by. "Right, Bella?"

Ignoring him, I kept on walking.

"Come on, don't be like that. I hear you have excellent insight into Crowley's shower."

I'd never felt my heartbeat sky rocket the way it did right then. I just knew my face was red, too. Biting my lip, I left the cafeteria, barely stopping to leave my tray.

It shouldn't have even been that big a deal: I knew these kids and they knew me. There were hook ups all the time; it wasn't exactly a fresh phenomenon. But somehow, hearing douche bags like Mike Newton talk about it like that make me feel dirty and cheap. The fact that Edward sat there, saying nothing, made it worse.

By the time I made it to biology next period, I caught Jessica talking to Lauren about it. That pissed me off, because when there had been rumors last year about her blowing Eric in the music room, I'd stood up for her.

Those rumors had been true, by the way.

"Really, Jess?" I said, standing between her table and Lauren's.

She had the decency to look embarrassed, her cheeks reddening like twin apples.

"Look." I leaned close to her, keeping my voice super low so that no one else would hear. "I didn't know you liked him like that. Otherwise I never would've kissed him. Seriously. But we didn't… do it. I swear."

She glared back. "You did know I liked him, Bella."

Ugh. How to say this without sounding judgmental? "You like a lot of guys, Jess. I didn't think he was any different. I'm sorry." She began to look away, so I grabbed her arm. "I mean it."

After a moment she shrugged, and nodded.

I walked to the last available table in the room and sank in to a chair. Maybe she was still a little pissy, but I hoped Jessica would come around. We'd been friends way too long to let something so dumb get in the way. Although, I did feel a little guilty. Normally we were pretty clear about not messing with each other's crushes. I'd honestly underestimated her feelings for Edward.

Such a mess. If I could have rewound back to Saturday night, I would've done things so differently.

Someone slipped in to the chair beside me. I glanced up and froze.

Edward smirked back. "Nowhere else to sit," he said.

I looked around the room, realizing he was right.

"Well, that sucks."

"Yeah, it does," he agreed.

Scowling, I turned away from him. Now the thought of touching him made me sick. What had I been thinking? Oh, that's right: I hadn't been.

the life saving stories you guys shared with me after last chapter...blew my mind. seriously. it's amazing how we all have a story, you know? the things that happen to us, the things we know about and live through and experience - it's enough for a thousand books. anyway. thanks for opening up like that.