Usual disclaimer applies.

March, 2012

~33~

I arrive at school on Tuesday a half an hour before anyone else. They sky is clear for the first time in ages, and the temperature has finally warmed up enough that I don't need a light jacket anymore this early in the morning.

I walk out onto the front lawn, with Forks High proudly standing in the near distance. It's an old brick building designed in the thirties when bigger was better. So even though several classrooms now remain empty, it's a landmark in Forks. The American flag is raised proudly at the top of the flagpole that is impaled in the lawn, and Mike Newton is duct taped to it at the bottom, naked. Of course, the tape covers the uh, critical parts.

I guess Sam was feeling friendly this morning.

Walking over, sipping at my coffee, I ask, "How's it hanging Mike? Let me guess, uncomfortable?"

He splutters. "I guess you and Leah got the bikers to put me up here."

I smile. "I had nothing to do with it, Mike. But I could be convinced to cut you down." I flip open the blade to my pocket knife.

Mike sneers, showing every bit of ugliness that he possesses. "What the fuck do you want?"

"I just want a simple answer to a simple question. Who gave you the GHB the night of Jessica Stanley's party?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I can't help it if you and Leah show your true colours when you get a little tipsy." He laughs.

"Mike, in about five minutes, people are going to start showing up for school. And unless you want your little business," I circle his crotch area in the air with my knife, "to be the first thing people see, you're going to tell me who gave you the roofies." I smile at the look of panic that crosses his face.

"Fuck. It was Jasper Hale. He gave it to me, okay?"

I can feel the shock deadening my system. It's like my brain has shut down, closed off to what his statement might mean, could possible mean…

I suddenly feel nauseated.

"Oh, and Bella, don't flatter yourself into thinking that I would waste a roofie on you. If you were in fact drugged, which I find hard to believe, it wasn't by me."

I put forth my triumphant smile, masking the sickness I feel.

"Well Mike, thanks for talking. Great to catch up with you." With that, I walk away, leaving Mike yelling behind me.