3
Seethe
If I were inclined to violence, I would stab Tyler Crowley in the eye with a spork. He had almost killed Bella with his stupid pedo-van. It was reckless; so careless of him to leave her alive. Because if Bella was mildly annoying when she hadn't been at death's slippery little doorstep, she would be unbearable when she had. Mike would fawn over her and her popularity would only increase. I would have to go to my next three classes hearing nothing but her name whispered.
Deep down, I was glad the little booger hadn't been murdered by the hands of a rabid Tyler Crowley. Dying in a parking lot was so pedestrian; it was not the way for any it-girl to go down, not even Bella Swan. Deeper down, I was just annoyed. On top of everything else, Edward would not stop staring at her. Come on people. Almost dying? Not that big of deal.
My annoyance was only matched by Lauren's blatant, seething rage. Not only was Tyler falling all over himself apologizing to Bella, Bella wasn't dead. For her, it was a lose-lose situation. This single fact was the only reason I was able to feign concern when Bella appeared at our lunch table looking more fragile than usual. Nothing annoyed Lauren more than being overlooked. It was my duty as a good frenemy to pour alcohol on the wound.
"Bella," I said with my brightest smile. "Come sit next to me. I'll protect you from Tyler Crowley. He's an idiot, you know."
Bella responded with a nervous quirk of the lips, or the anti-smile as I liked to call it. "I'm fine," she said.
Did I ask her if she was fine? Um, no. I didn't. Not everything is about you, Bella Swan.
"Don't worry. You didn't miss that much yesterday. Angela and I will help you get caught up," I said.
Bella looked down and pushed her dull brown hair behind her ear. "Thanks," she muttered.
She was so not welcome.
I didn't ask her what exactly happened to her or how she had escaped death's incompetent fingers; partially, because I didn't care and partially because I had already heard a version of the story that satisfied my curiosity. I hoped she interpreted it as me being considerate of the fact that she probably had already told the story one hundred times.
I was supposed to be getting closer to the girl. It would benefit my social status and it would also keep me alive. In light of my recent visit from the red-eyed cult, it would be in my best interest to become her best friend. They refused to tell me why though. They simply promised to explain later. I just really wished they would stop showing up in my bedroom unannounced. I tried calling the police and explaining to them that I was receiving unwanted visitors in my bedroom, but he only laughed. Before I could explain further, Aro was there, hissing in my ear that if I ever tried anything like that again, I would find my pretty little head disembodied from my kick-ass body. Okay, I'm paraphrasing, but the sentiment was about the same.
Edward was alone at his table and he was still staring at Bella. Of course. The rumor was that he took her to the hospital after Tyler's little display of incompetency behind the wheel. I had a fifty-dollar bet going with Eric that Tyler had replaced the milk in his cereal with vodka again. Tyler was a raging alcoholic, but no one really blamed him. How else could he possibly endure dating Lauren Mallory? Honestly, we were all just impressed he hadn't turned to drugs yet.
There was also a rumor that Edward was the one who broke Tyler's arm, but that was just silly. Edward might have been mysterious, but I had a feeling that he didn't have violent bone in his body.
When he waved her over to his table, I nearly choked on the four French fries I had just stuffed in my mouth.
"Bella" I sputtered. "I think Edward is waving you over to his table."
He even threw in a smile for good measure. Since when did Edward smile? There was a time when I would have done anything to be on the receiving end of that smile. It was blinding and Bella probably didn't even realize she was making "Forks history" (to use Eric's words). This was unprecedented. Never had a mere mortal been invited to the table of the gods. Along comes Bella with her limited brain capacity and gift for being wildly unremarkable and he choose her. I didn't get it.
Bella was clearly shocked as well. "I…I…I…I…I um…I…you know…um," she stuttered incoherently.
"Good Lord, Bella. SPIT IT OUT," I said.
"Hey…don't pressure me. You don't know my life. My mom dropped me on my head like eight times when I was a baby. Okay?" Bella said.
I raised my hands in surrender. "Okay. Just stop choking on your words and go over there."
Bella flashed me the anti-smile before heading over to the table. She almost tripped on the way there and all I could do was shake my head. I turned back to my friends. I tried hard to concentrate on Eric's rant about weird animal attacks. Okay, I didn't try at all. I purposely tuned him out to focus all of my attention on eavesdropping on Cullen and Bella.
"Look at Edward Cullen talking to Bella," I said, most likely interrupting whatever idiotic theory Eric was sharing with the table. Bella and Edward sat with little space between them, practically whispering to each other. Edward actually laughed. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and apparently Mike couldn't either. He stormed away from our table, his chair scraping loudly against the linoleum floor.
"Hey man, where are you going? I wasn't done telling you my theory," Eric called after him, looking pointedly at me. I shrugged. Why was I responsible for Mike's mood swings? It wasn't my fault he was pining after Bland Bella. He may have been my date to the winter formal, but it was common knowledge that he had asked Bella first.
Mike was lucky my mother would never let me live down being dateless to any school dance. Otherwise I would have told him exactly where he could shove the drugstore flowers he gave me when he asked.
"Bathroom," Mike muttered.
Mike never came back from the bathroom. We all just assumed he had explosive diarrhea and I made sure I told Bella all about it during trigonometry.