CHAPTER 3: Friends

BPOV

I arrived at school on my second day at the same time as Alice and Edward. Great. While the initial tension between Edward and I had eased at the end of class yesterday, we still probably had a few things we needed to talk about. I still felt a little awkward about the whole situation, mostly around who did and did not know about what had happened between us. But he had a girlfriend, so there shouldn't be any weirdness between us should there?

As I parked the old truck Charlie had bought me I recognised the silver Volvo that pulled up beside me. Alice got out of the car next to me and immediately linked her arm in mine so we could walk to our first class together.

"Morning Alice."

"Hi Bella. How are you today?" Her question sounded loaded, and I wondered how someone could sound so chirpy at this hour of the morning on such a cold miserable day. I glanced over the top of the silver car and noticed Edward rolling his green eyes.

"Hey Edward." I bit my lip as I looked in his direction unsure of what his response would be. I was pretty sure Alice knew there had been something between us, I just wasn't sure how much of the story she knew.

"Bella." The scowl was back on his face as he ran his hand through his hair. So that's how it was going to be then. The wall was back up and he was going to keep being a prick the way he'd been yesterday in Biology. I wondered what it was that was making him so different. He was nothing like this in the Summer.

A tall guy who I vaguely recognised came over and slapped Edward on the back. Edward whipped his head around and scowled at him too. Maybe it wasn't just me he had a problem with.

"Cullen. What's up your ass this morning?" I think he was one of the guys who was at the party with Edward – one of the three really good looking ones I'd seen talking at the beginning of the night when the condoms were being handed out.

Edward glanced in my direction before answering, "nothing."

"Hey Jas," Alice's voice was light and flirtatious. I think she even batted her delicate eye lids at him.

"Hey short stuff. Who's your new friend?" Alice was looking at this guy with dreamy eyes, it was the first time I'd seen her mind switch off in the brief encounters I'd had with her. It was like she was in a trance.

"Oh, um, this is Bella. Bella this is Jasper," she said gesturing to the tall guy standing next to Edward. He was strikingly good looking, but altogether different to Edward. He was blonde a little taller and a slightly bigger build.

"Really nice to meet you Bella." I looked for some sort of recognition on his face but there was none. Either he didn't remember or Edward really didn't say anything to anyone about that night. Other than maybe to Alice.

"You too Jasper," I replied.

We started walking to class, the boys ahead of us when I noticed Alice's body stiffen.

"Egh, Jessica and Lauren," she said, screwing her face up. Ah, that's right, I knew I remembered her from the party.

Edward's girlfriend, Jessica and Lauren the other girl skipped up to Edward and Jasper, Jessica entwining her fingers with Edward's, Lauren walking quite close to Jasper, but not quite touching. I didn't feel close enough to Alice to ask what the go was with Jasper, besides it had been pretty obvious. But I figured I'd have plenty of time to figure it all out. Probably best not to get into school yard politics so soon after my arrival.

Edward smiled down at Jessica a few times as he listened to her prattle on, I couldn't hear about what. But I could see her gush "Oh Edward" a few times and throw her head back in mock laughter. It all looked contrived and for some reason made me want to puke. I noticed her glance over her shoulder once or twice and sneer in Alice's and my direction. What the fuck was with that? She didn't even know me, and you'd think you'd be a little nicer to the sister of your boyfriend. I was getting the impression she was a bitch.

Alice just gripped my arm tighter and tried not to look at Jasper.

"So Bella, Angela tells me you have a boyfriend back in Phoenix?"

"Yeah, James."

"So how long have you been together?"

"Well, we got together almost a year ago when I was a junior and he was a senior. We broke up for a little while though but we've been back together for almost three months."

"So what does he do now? Is he in college?"

"Yeah, he's studying Business at the University of Phoenix."

"Wow, so did you spend a lot of time together before you moved to Forks?"

"Um, yeah, I guess. We spent time together most weekends, and then during the week we'd usually catch up. It was hard though I spent a lot of time looking after my grandmother, and what with study and stuff......"

"So, when are you going to get to see him again?"

"He's going to visit as soon as he can, hopefully for Valentine's weekend."

Alice just smiled knowingly at me. I wasn't sure what that was about.

o0o0o0o0o

Alice and I sat in English together today. Unfortunately Jessica and Lauren were sitting in the seats directly in front of us. In the brief time I'd known Alice she always seemed happy and bouncy and excited, except in the presence of these girls. I could see the light visibly disappear from her bright blue eyes and the colour drain from her cheeks.

I could hear them talking about their weekend. Lauren kept mentioning Jasper's name and every time she did I could feel Alice get stiffer and stiffer beside me, her jaw clenching so hard I could almost hear her teeth grinding together.

"He's just so unbelievably hot. He asked me what I'm doing this weekend. I think he's going to ask me out on a date."

"Lauren, Jasper doesn't 'date'. But I'm sure it will be different with you, that's so exciting. Perhaps we can go out on a double date. Me and Edward and you and Jasper. I think you'd be perfect together. And he's such a good kisser." What the fuck? I heard Alice's sharp intake of air and her face reddened as she held it in.

"So Alice. Who's your new little friend?" Jessica had turned around and was putting on a fake smile as if knowing we'd over heard her conversation with Lauren and now was the perfect time to rub it in. Jessica's overly made up face just made her look high maintenance. Her dark hair was pulled back severely into a very tight pony tail, pulling her face back and making her look sharp. I guess you could probably say she was pretty, but in a completely over done way. She was well looked after though, short skirt with toned legs. I'm surprised she wasn't freezing her ass off. Her perky breasts were pointing at me as she turned in her chair to face me. I surmised from all that she was a cheer leader. Why did Edward have to go out with a cheer leader? It just went to show that I wasn't really his type, Edward and I just weren't in the same league. I'd never be like the girl in front of me. And that was probably a good thing.

"This is Bella. Bella this is Jessica," Alice replied as politely as she could. She stretched her right hand out towards me, her red acrylic talons facing upwards.

"It's so nice to meet you Bella. I'm Edward's girlfriend." Was that a threat? Or was that the only good thing she had going for her. I couldn't see why she'd be sharing that piece of information with me. "This is Lauren." I waited for Lauren to turn and tell me what her relationship with Jasper was, but it wasn't forth coming, she simply sneered at me. Well, if they were going to be like that.

"Hi Jessica. Actually, we've met before," I said to her.

"Oh really, I don't remember you at all," she replied.

"Well, no I don't expect you would. I was with Angela the night she took you home from Alice and Edward's party last Summer. The one where you were really drunk, and puked all over yourself just as you got out of the car. You were pretty hammered, oh, and upset about something too, so I wouldn't expect you to remember me." I could feel Alice relax beside me, and the smile reappeared on her face.

"Oh really, I don't remember. I've been to so many parties since then." She tried to laugh it off but I heard one or two sniggers from people sitting around us.

"I'm sure you have." The smile I gave her just reeked of sarcasm. I'd probably just done myself a great disservice by being so rude to Jessica, but I didn't really care. Right at the moment I could feel the weight of the world lift from Alice's shoulders, her little body was bouncing up and down with excitement.

After class we slowly walked towards the cafeteria together. After my comment to Jessica I figured it was probably about time I asked Alice about her, I needed to make sure my snide remark to her was because I could see she upset Alice, not because I wanted her boyfriend. And there was something very visibly going on between the two of them that I was now involved with.

"So Alice. What the hell have I just gotten myself into with Jessica and Lauren? What's the history with you three?"

"Oh my god Bella, you were brilliant! It's a long story, but let's just say that that slut, actually both of those sluts have been the bane of my existence for the past couple of years."

"And I'm guessing it has something to do with.....Jasper?"

"Oh Bella, is it that obvious?" She looked so sad, defeated. "I like him, I mean I really like him. I've been in love with him since I was like 13. But it's like he doesn't even know I exist. I think I'm like a sister to him or something. I think he sees me as a twelve year old, he doesn't see this..." Alice stopped in her tracks motioning up and down her little body that had curves in all the right places for someone who was no longer a child, "....or these," motioning with both of her hands to her chest.

I had to laugh at her. She was positively gorgeous, I'd noticed boys looking at her as they'd walk past, checking out her ass, or her chest, or smiling expectantly at her with adoration, but she seemed completely oblivious.

"Oh Alice, have you ever even tried to tell him how you feel?"

"Oh, god no!!" She turned and grabbed my arm with a pleading look in her eyes. "You don't understand, that's part of the problem. If I did that he'd probably shag me, but that would be it. That's where it would start and end, in bed, or in the back of his car, or on the bonnet of his car, in the kitchen, on the....."

"Alice!" She was in a world of her own as she was mentioning all of the places she wanted Jasper.

"Oh sorry, I get a bit carried away sometimes," she sighed, her cheeks just a little pink thinking about him.

"I can see that."

"So what's the problem with Jessica then?"

"Well, Jessica and I used to be quite good friends when we were younger. She knew I had a thing for Jasper. Then about two years ago Lauren turned up and they became best friends, and I guess she turned Jess against me for some reason. She really started to hate me, the only reason I could ever figure out was because I was such good friends with Jasper, Edward and Emmett, the three best looking guys in school. So she went and.......she went and.." I could see she was having difficulty saying it, "she screwed Jasper. Just to piss me off. He was her first and she bragged about it in front of me, knowing that I'd be hurt by it. I pretended I couldn't give a shit in front of her but I've hated her ever since. If she did it because she really liked him I wouldn't care. But she did it just to spite me so we've pretty much been at war ever since."

"Oh, Alice, that's just awful."

In the cafeteria Alice insisted that I sit with her and her friends. Angela was at the library anyway, so it wasn't like I'd be offending her. We sat at a round table already occupied by a girl, and a guy I recognised, he was the third guy in the Edward and Jasper trio from the night of the party. Did that mean it was likely that Edward would be joining us? And with Jessica? God I hoped not, I didn't think Alice would cope. I wasn't sure why Edward was being so hideous to me. He had a girlfriend for god's sake, and she was gorgeous. Maybe he didn't know that James and I were back together and was concerned I was going to cause trouble for him and Jessica. I'd have to set him straight.

"...all I'm saying Rose is that if you had just been nice back to her, and maybe smiled, then she wouldn't have given you the detention. It's been working for me for years. The amount of shit I've gotten away with just because the teachers love me is incredible."

"Hi guys, this is Bella. Bella this is Emmett and Rosalie."

"Hi Bella, it's nice to meet you." Emmett was very chirpy, a little like Alice, really full of energy, but he looked like he was probably a complete rat bag with that mischievous grin.

"Hi Bella," Rosalie glanced at me quickly but immediately turned her attention back to Emmett not even giving me a second glance. "Well, we can't all have your natural ability to be all flirty and sweet and charming when we want to be. The bitch pissed me off, I wasn't going to sit back and be all fake and sweet to her. She had it coming anyway." Rosalie sat with her arms crossed over her chest. Emmett had his arm around the back of her chair. I couldn't quite tell if they were together or not.

"I'm just saying is all. Now look what you've got yourself into." He turned his attention to me. "So Bella, you're the police chief's daughter right?" He said with a warm cheeky smile on his face.

"Ah, yeah," I replied, a little embarrassed. I suspected this may not be a good thing.

"Well, we'd better not invite you to any of my Friday night sessions. Wouldn't want the police chief's daughter going home drunk or off her face now would we?" Alice, Emmett and Rose all laughed, but I felt a little rejected.

"What's so funny?" Asked Jasper as he and Edward arrived at the table, putting their books down, but not sitting.

"Emmett was just saying that Bella can't come over Friday night because she's the police chief's daughter and it wouldn't look too good if we sent her home drunk," said Alice looking at Jasper with sparkly eyes.

Edward grunted, dumped his books and left the table to get his lunch.

"What's up his ass today?" Asked Emmett.

"Dude, that's exactly what I said this morning," replied Jasper before turning and following Edward to get something to eat.

"Has the slut stopped putting out for him?" asked Emmett.

"I doubt it. Jessica is permanently greased up for Edward," Rosalie snarled. It seemed Alice wasn't the only one who had a problem with her.

"You should have just seen the way Bella put her in her place in English."

"Oooh do tell." Rosalie actually addressed me and was smiling. I was a bit worried when I sat down that I'd done something wrong. Apparently now I'd definitely done something right. Clearly she hated Jessica.

"Well.....she turned around in class and asked Alice to introduce her to me. I simply reminded her that in fact we'd already met......and the last time I'd seen her she was throwing up on herself."

Emmett's laugh boomed around the cafeteria, "fuck, I remember hearing about that. Wish I had have seen it." Emmett's eyes narrowed and he leaned forward looking at me intently. "Wait a minute, when did........." But he was interrupted by Alice, thank god.

"So what do you say? Friday night, is Bella in?"

Rosalie was still laughing about what I'd said.

"In for what?" I asked.

"My place," Emmett replied, also still sniggering, "nothing big, just us, no girlfriends allowed." Rose cleared her throat loudly. Emmett looked over at her adoringly, "you know you don't count Rose, you were already one of the gang before Dumb and Dumber over there started dating those fucking bimbos."

"Is Jasper actually dating Lauren?" Asked Rosalie. I felt Alice stiffen again as she looked expectantly at Emmett for his answer.

"Well, no, I don't think so. But I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time before he taps her ass."

"Emmett!" yelled Rosalie before smacking the back of his head.

"What baby, you know what he's like," he looked at her pleadingly before turning his attention back to me. "So anyway, Bella. It's very casual, just the five of us, plus you. Some pizza, beers, maybe a DVD or some pool or some drinking games. You in?"

"Hell anyone who can put Stanley in her place is well deserving of a bait to our little Friday night get togethers." And with that Alice, Emmett & Rosalie all started laughing again.

I wasn't sure what Edward's reaction would be. Would he want me there, would he feel uncomfortable? But fuck it. He was the one with the problem, not me. As far as I was concerned there was no issue. "Yeah, sure why not."

"Don't worry Bella, you can stay at my place," said Alice. That's not good. "Mom and Dad will never notice. Chief Swan will never know his little girl was drunk."

EPOV:

As we stood in line to get our food Jasper was looking back at Bella who was sitting at MY lunch table with MY friends checking her out. Alice was dead.

"Fuck man, the new chick is hot. Think I might have to get to know her a little better."

No way, not going to happen! "What about Lauren? I thought you were working your angles there, not that you have to work very hard from what I hear."

"I'm just about to seal the deal with Lauren. That will be done this weekend and then I'll be bored. Just give me a few weeks."

Fuck that!

"She's got a boyfriend man, so I wouldn't even bother." I tried to look disinterested. Alice would have been all over me like a rash, but Jasper generally wasn't that observant.

"And from what I hear he's a thousand miles away. As if that relationship is going to last more than three weeks. Look at her! And when it all falls to pieces I'm going to be there to make it feel better....much much better." Jasper was smirking to himself. He was a man whore. Mostly we found it funny. He was a bit of a legend among the guys, and the girls just fell at his feet because they knew he'd be good for a quick fuck or a booty call. The guy had no qualms about fucking more than one girl in one night. Fuck he'd even been with Jessica, which for some reason never bothered me. But the thought of him going anywhere near Bella made me want to vomit, literally.

"Jasper, man. I'm asking you..........stay the fuck away from her." Jasper stopped and looked at me. I tried to turn away but he grabbed my arm and made me face him.

"What the fuck Cullen?"

I'd never told him about Bella, I hadn't said a word to anyone about her except for Alice, and she only had limited information. Jasper, Emmett and I had always shared our exploits with each other. Not as a bragging exercise, we just shared everything, had done since we were 6 years old. But neither of them knew about Bella.

"Just drop it." I wasn't going to elaborate. He'd always known not to fuck with me when he knew it was important. He'd heeded my warnings when it came to Alice, hopefully he'd get the picture with Bella.

"Whatever man. She's off limits then." I turned and walked back to the table with my food, Jasper following me. I knew it wouldn't be the end of the subject, I don't even really know why I cared. They'd known about all of the other girls I'd ever been with, what made Bella so special? Whatever it was I needed to let it go. I just wasn't entirely sure how I was going to make that happen.

We sat at the table and I tried to avoid eye contact with Bella, which wasn't easy as she was sitting opposite me. She seemed to fit into the group easily. Emmett and Jasper gave her shit and she happily gave it back. Hell, even Rosalie seemed to like her which was no mean feat. But it was Alice that looked radiant, I could see her bouncing up and down and deferring to Bella for her opinion on things, including her in conversations, filling her in on history if the conversation turned to topics she wouldn't understand because she hadn't been there.

On occasion Bella would glance in my direction, but would immediately drop her eyes to her lunch or glance away when I caught her. The pink rising in her cheeks each time she'd glance away and then slowly fading as she became re engrossed in the conversation of the others at the table. But at no point did she engage me in conversation, and I didn't speak to her either.

The early warning bell rang to signal the end of lunch. Bella moved away from the table and made no effort to walk with me to Biology, but I followed behind her, watching her pony tail swing from side to side, watching her tiny body move, remembering how she moved without all of the bulk covering her up. Watching as other guys turned their heads in her direction as she passed them in the corridors, elbowing the pimply faced guy next to them to point her out. She was oblivious to the looks, oblivious to the thoughts running through their tiny minds. They didn't know her. They didn't know her like I did, and I didn't want any of them to know her like I did. But I couldn't have her, she belonged to someone else. As do you.

I hadn't noticed that on our way to Biology I had practically caught up to her until she tripped and I automatically put my right hand out catching her elbow to stop her delicate body from hitting the door frame. She turned to thank me but the words never escaped her mouth. As she saw who it was she immediately looked down, her cheeks turning a fierce shade of red.

I wanted to ask her if she was alright. But instead I snapped at her.

"You should watch where you're walking Bella."

Her head snapped up at me and her eyes narrowed. "Well just let me fall next time. Save yourself all of this regret Edward." She turned and stormed to our desk dropping her books noisily.

I followed and sat down next to her. I tried to see her face so I could see how mad she was with me but she had pulled her hair out of its pony tail and it was fanned out covering her features from my view. I pulled out my pad of paper and wrote her a note, pushing it in her direction she looked over and read it.

You think that I regret what happened?

She looked at me with a confused look on her face before picking up her pen and scrawling a response.

I can see that you do.

You don't know anything Bella, I thought to myself as I read her response. You don't know anything.

I didn't respond to her note. I couldn't put any of what I wanted to say in writing, so I turned my attention back to the teacher, not hearing any of what he said. I just sat there listening to my heart pound in my chest. By the end of class I felt like I'd run a marathon but I'd hardly moved an inch.

As the bell rang Bella grabbed her books and took off from the class room, not even bothering to say good bye. I couldn't let her leave like this so I got up from my seat and took off after her, catching up easily in the corridor.

"Bella, wait up." I could see she was pissed with me, and really I couldn't blame her. I'd pretty much been a complete ass to her since she'd arrived.

"Oh, so you're talking to me now are you?" She snipped at me. And I couldn't really blame her. I ran my hand through my hair as I thought about how to respond.

"Edward, James and I are still together," she blurted out.

I stopped in my tracks and stared at her, "what do you mean still together?"

"I mean back together. We got back together."

"What are you telling me that for?"

"Because I thought maybe you thought that I'd want to break you and Jessica up, that's why you're being so....so....rude to me. But I've got a boyfriend, so I wanted to assure you it's not the case."

She thought I was being rude to her because I thought she was going to break Jessica and I up. She couldn't be more wrong. Could she? Well, that's not exactly why I was angry with her.

"So what are you doing back here Bella? Why did you come back?" I just realised I had no idea why she had moved from Phoenix to Forks.

She hesitated. It looked like she didn't want to say it. I could see her swallow hard and then she looked up into my face, and I could see her gain some strength the longer she looked at me.

"My mom........my mom died......" she whispered so quietly I almost didn't hear her. She quickly looked down to the ground, not letting me see her eyes, or not wanting to see the look I held in mine, I just hope it wasn't one of pity, people hated that. I had so many questions I wanted to ask her but I could see it was too soon for her to talk about it, she was obviously still grieving her loss and couldn't talk about it. Oh god, now I felt awful about the way I'd treated her. She looked back at my face taking a deep breath in.

"I have to go class now," she turned and walked away from me quickly.

I was an asshole. I hadn't even responded to her. It looked like it took her a lot to tell me about her mom dying, probably recently, and I just stood there......with my mouth open. But I vowed to myself that I would talk to her about it one day. She needed to talk about it, I knew that much from experience.