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not beta'd

storyline - Malicious

prompts - entwine, refine, divine

I started drinking coffee in ninth grade. Before that I found it disgusting, but then one day I had a cup of my father's before practice. The buzz it gave me was fantastic, and that was that. I've loved it ever since.

It took a while, but I got Alice and Rose in to it and soon we were chilling at Starbucks whenever we hit up the mall. They preferred the sugary, icy drinks, but I liked my coffee strong and hot.

"Like your men," Alice liked to tease.

"Mm. Damn," moaned Rose, eyeing some guy at the other end of the food court. "He's got a divine ass."

"His pants are so baggy you can hardly see his ass," I said, squinting.

If Jessica was perpetually lusting after half the male student body, then Rose wasn't too far behind. The only difference being she actually had good taste, and tended to fish in foreign waters. As in, not at our school.

I'd do well to refine my own taste and follow in her footsteps. The boys at our school had completely turned me off now, from the ones who thought I was a slut and looked down on me to the ones who thought I was a slut and liked me for it.

"Yeah, but look how he walks," argued Rose. "You can just tell."

Sighing, I left her alone and looked around, wishing Alice would hurry up and get there. We'd been at the mall for a while, and while I usually liked wandering around, I had an extra swim practice in a couple of hours that I couldn't be late for.

"You want me to call her?" asked Rose, reaching for her phone.

"Yeah. Ask if she just wants to meet us outside."

She nodded and started dialing while I collected our empty cups. Halfway to the trashcan I faltered, catching sight of Jessica and Angela with Edward and Ben. They were goofing off over by the smoothie stand. I rolled my eyes. It hadn't exactly taken Jess long to get over Edward's participation in our so called shower sex scandal, judging by how she was hanging on his sleeve.

But that's how it always went down: girls got blamed while boys got praised.

I returned to our table and grabbed my purse. "What did she say?"

"She ran in to Jasper…"

"And he's going to give her a ride home," I said. "As well as a ride at home."

Rose snickered. "Yeah."

Few things cleared my head like doing laps.

I got to practice early and started with freestyle, finding solace in the cool water. My muscles were burning by the time I pulled myself out of the water, but as always – it was worth it. There was a reason I was one of the best on the team, and it wasn't just talent or even dedication. I was made to do this, and I loved it.

A splash at the other end of the pool let me know I was no longer alone. I snapped my cap off and walked over to my bag, pulling a bottle of water out. I watched the blurry shape of another swimmer break the surface and start cutting through the water rapidly.

Edward. No one swam as fast as he did. No one but me, anyway. He was better at butterfly, though.

I seriously considered hiding out in the locker room until Coach and the rest of the team arrived, but decided against it. This was my territory too, and I wouldn't be chased away.

"Hey, you," Edward said, popping up in the shallow end.

"Hi."

"Still mad?"

I sat and wrapped my arms around myself.

He hoisted himself out of the pool and grabbed a towel. "Look… I'm sorry it's gotten so out of hand."

Granted, I was surprised that he was apologizing, but it was too little too late. "Whatever."

"Mike won't shut up about it."

"Because you haven't really told him to, Edward. You know he practically worships you. Don't put this on him."

Edward shook his head. "Dude. I can't control other people's actions."

"No, but you can control your own and the second someone asked you about what we did you should've kept your damn mouth shut," I said, feeling the anger and embarrassment of the past week welling up. The rumors had died down a lot, but there were still snide comments and funny looks here and there. Enough to remind me. "All this crap makes you look like king of the school, but it makes me look easy."

Edward started to say something, but right then the doors opened and the rest of the team poured in.

"Well look what we have here," chortled Mike, eyeing us. He wasn't even being mean, really, but the fact that he was even teasing us sucked. I wondered what it was that made him continue talking about it.

I glanced up at Edward, to see if he'd finally step up, but he just shrugged and walked over to talk to Coach.

Mike must not have valued his family jewels, because he slithered on over to me on the bench. "So Bella- "

Suddenly Emmett McCarty was standing in front of us. "Shut up, Mike."

We looked up in surprise. God, it was good to see something intimidate Mike.

"Seriously. Get going." Emmett stood there, towering over us, until Mike frowned and got up.

I looked down. Emmett and I weren't that close, but I had a feeling he liked Rose. Maybe that's why he'd said something.

"You cool?" he asked, poking me.

I stood up, meeting his eye. "Yup."

"Good. Come on."

We started hanging out after that. In fact, our friendship was one of the silver linings that came out of the whole debacle. Life's like that… few things are all good or all bad; the two are usually entwined somehow and you just have to ride out the bad to get to the good.

I realized all that later, of course. At the time, simply getting through school without drama was good enough.

ever become good friends with someone out of an unlikely situation?

so, this story jumps back and forth between junior year (written in the past tense, first person) and senior year (present tense, kind of a first/second person mix). i've had a couple of confused readers so i wanted to clear that up.

the Malicious story line started at chapter 19, with "vacuum", and will continue straight through till completion.

thanks, guys, for reviewing. i love it, and i love you! Tiny Tyrant sends his regards.