A/N: I own no part of Twilight. The previous chapter isn't necessarily a prerequisite to this one, but this one is such a favorite of mine. Honestly.

Enjoy.

XXII.

that girl is a goddamn problem

The June night was warm and buzzing as Leah and Kim drove out to Port Angeles, even though it was raining. The weather here was particularly peculiar, but they just played along like it wasn't.

Leah tried not to think about the last time she'd been to the coffee shop as she and Kim now pulled up to it in Kim's little black Ford. As far as Leah was concerned, the coffee shop was just the coffee shop, even though it was a diner. She tried to remain neutral upon arrival, but Kim knew something was up.

As they walked up to the front doors, Kim asked, "Are you okay?"

Leah shook her head. "After Prom," she explained, "Paul took me here."

"Do you wanna go somewhere else, then? I can just call Em and—"

"No, it's fine," Leah insisted. "It's whatever."

Kim opened the door for Leah. "Okay."

They went to a booth, where they hoped for but didn't expect Emily to be. She was late to everything, but it was their fault that they were always doing things closer to Forks and La Push as opposed to Neah Bay.

Chatting about work over cups of coffee, Kim and Leah waited for Emily to show up, and when she finally did, she slid into the booth next to Kim, facing Leah.

"Hey," Leah greeted her. "How are you?"

"Pretty good." Leah couldn't tell if she was lying or not. Over the past couple months, Leah decided that she could determine Emily's state of being based on two things: what she was reading and if she was writing or not. That was all she was when it really came down to it. Tonight, she couldn't tell since Emily didn't have a book or a notebook or a tablet on her.

"Sorry I'm late," Emily added. "Have you guys ordered anything yet?"

"No," Kim said. "We were just waiting for you."

"Oh, thanks."

Leah added more creamer to her coffee even though she didn't have to. Coffee was such a luxury to her; finding out she had free refills tonight had made her mood a lot better.

The waitress, a pretty brunette whose name tag said Marina (which Leah thought was a fake name since nobody was really named Marina), approached the booth and asked if they were ready to order. They were, and once they placed their orders and Marina went away, Emily gave Leah a look.

"Okay," she said. "Fess up, Lee."

"I'm sorry?"

"You're too quiet. What's going on?"

"I was just thinking the same thing," Kim said.

Leah actually hadn't been thinking of Paul. She just hadn't been thinking at all; her mind was someplace else, somewhere lost in the rain. She was fond of it since it wasn't working against her now. She wanted to become a part of the rain and wash away somewhere new.

"Nothing," Leah said. "I'm actually a little tired."

"Damn, really?" Emily asked. "It's so early—plus, it's Friday. I wanted to catch a movie tonight since we're in the area."

Kim took a sip of her coffee. "Is there anything out?" she asked.

"Can't remember the name of it, but apparently it's funny. Embry and everyone else are gonna go see it."

"Speaking of Embry, doesn't he work at this diner now?"

"Yeah. He got off early. That's why he wants us all to go tonight. He's finally free."

"I swear, Em," Leah began, "you are one of the only people around here who doesn't get sick of everyone."

Emily smiled wryly. "I just didn't grow up with everyone as closely as you did."

"It's not a bad thing," Leah said. "It just means you care. You're a good person."

Emily's smile grew. "Aww, thank you. I can't see who you get sick of everyone, though. I mean, isn't Bella just the most interesting, beautiful, mysterious, and did I mention beautiful girl to show up on the rez?"

Leah made gagging sounds; Kim sighed. "Fuck outta here," Leah said to Emily. "I was having such a good time not having her in my thoughts."

"Have you guys actually talked to her?" Kim asked. "I can't decide if I like her or not."

"Yeah, she's weird," Emily agreed.

"She seems more like a concept than a person," Kim said. "Whenever I hear her talk, I just end up more and more confused. She's really playing up the mysterious new girl thing. I don't know how to feel about her because she seems so fake."

Emily nodded, taking a sip of her water. "I know. Her disposition is very… contrived."

"I don't know how Jacob deals with it."

"Bella and Jacob are still together?" Leah asked.

"Mm-hm."

"God, I hate her," Leah sighed.

"That was a little unwarranted," Emily commented with a raise of her eyebrows.

"I don't know," Leah said. "Her entire presence just bothers me. You ever know someone like that?"

"Not anybody I can name," Emily replied.

"Well, Bella just irks me. I don't get what anyone is seeing in her."

"She's a cute white girl," Kim pointed out.

"She's very cute," Emily added, "in an indie sort of way. Guys are into that, I guess."

"I mean, whatever, I guess she's cute," Leah said, "but I'm still trying to wrap my head around why she thinks she can just come up here out of nowhere, thinking she can fuck with us, and ride Indian dick but not ride for Indians."

"We don't know if she's fucking Jacob or not," Emily said.

"It's Jacob. He tries to hump everything that shows even a little interest in him."

"Point taken."

"Bella's just so fake," Leah went on, "and what she's doing is actually kind of racist. Like, she thinks she's better than the rest of us because her lily-white ass lives in Forks. She thinks her cryptic ass is saving us with her presence. She's no better than the rest of us, though."

"That's what people used to say about me," Kim reflected.

"Yeah, but you grew out of it like most people do," Leah said, "and Bella won't. She thinks she lives in a book or something. She thinks she's gonna save Jacob's life because she's white and new and some holy type of shit, and Jacob, being the idiot that he is, is totally gonna fall for it. He's kind of dumb, but he doesn't deserve that."

"True," Emily said, "but have you not read any young adult novel published within the last five years? It's typical. Your mom said she was having issues, right?"

"Right."

"Bella is the young adult novel prototype. Strange white girl who's kind of cute and has issues seeks boy—extra points if the boy's not white—and changes his life for the better and the worse. She helps him see the meaning of life by giving fake-deep speeches while simultaneously looking down upon other members of their generation for being too 'normal' or whatever."

Leah blinked twice, completely enthralled. "Go on."

"And I know we don't really know Bella," Emily admitted, "but that's just what I'm getting from her."

"Damn," Kim murmured. "You've got her all figured out, Em."

"What kind of books are you reading?" Leah wondered.

Emily smiled. "Nothing special. Another thing they've all got in common is that they're a waste of time."

Marina the waitress brought the girls their orders. After she left, Emily took a bite of one of her French fries. "So," she began, "are we doing the movies after this or what?"

"I wanna go," Kim said. "You should come, Lee. If it sucks we can just go home. You can spend the night."

"Oh, I'm getting my eight bucks worth of cinematic excellence," Leah assured her. "But I swear to God, if Bella's there..."

"Why don't you fight her?" Emily suggested. "Just beat her ass, right there in the movie theater parking lot. She won't know why you're fighting her, especially since you guys don't really talk, but you should get that negative energy out. She'll stop being annoying and low-key racist if you beat her ass."

"You're a horrible influence," Leah said. "Don't be giving me ideas now."

Emily laughed. "I'm just saying, Lee..."

"We'll see," Leah said with a playful smile. "We'll see."

It had stopped raining once everybody met up in the movie theater parking lot. All ten of them showed up. If Jared would ever come home from college for the summer, there would be eleven. But other than that, everyone was there. Even Paul. Even Sam. Hell, even Quil. In fact, Bella talked with Quil for a long time. Leah thought she saw them go out to his truck for a minute, but she couldn't be sure. She wouldn't be surprised if Bella was buying weed from him, though. (She really was buying weed.)

It was a big group linking up tonight. Something was bound to happen—Leah just knew it. She was surprised everyone turned out to see some movie, but not to celebrate her birthday last November, at the first party. She quickly brushed the feeling off.

The group traveled in a sort of cloud. Seeing the movie had been Embry's idea, so he lead the way with Seth following him. Emily and Sam, who were still together whenever Sam was around, trailed next to Embry. Leah and Kim walked with Paul and Quil, things still awkward even though Kim desperately tried to rebuild a demolished bridge between Leah and Paul. Jacob and Bella trailed behind everyone else, saying they'd catch up. Holding hands, they were completely caught up in each other. Despite Emily's accurate explanation, Leah still didn't know why.

The movie had just premiered and the theater was relatively busy, so busy that the group had to occupy two separate rows that both extended from the middle to the aisle. With Leah's garbage luck, she ended up in the very middle, sitting between a person she didn't know and Bella, of all people. She sat right behind Kim, who sat next to Quil. She wanted to ask if she and Quil could trade places, but it'd be a big, annoying deal to get up and move around so much.

Leah didn't pay Bella any mind, and vice-versa, but for a good portion of the previews, Bella played on her phone in the pocket of her hoodie. Leah couldn't ignore the light coming emitting from her peripheral vision, so she glanced over.

Bella was talking dirty to a guy in her contacts named Edward.

Real dirty.

Leah had never seen so many profanities used in a single text message. It was actually kind of mind-numbing. Some words didn't even look like words anymore since she'd seen them so much in that moment.

The entire situation was actually kind of crazy, too. Bella was typing something out of a porn script into her phone without any regards for Jacob or Leah or anybody. Leah didn't want to get into a fight with Bella. Not now, not ever. Girls like Bella, girls who who had nothing to hide, clearly didn't care about anything, so they were wild-ass fighters. It was a natural law. Bella could probably throw down in a grocery store with a total stranger and not feel bad about it. Leah had a little too much pride to deal with that, so she wasn't going to fuck with her.

The light was still bothering her, though, so she turned to Bella and tapped her arm. Bella stuffed her phone deep into her pocket. "Your phone screen's really bright," Leah whispered.

"Oh, sorry." Bella turned the brightness down and continued typing until the rest of the theater lights dimmed down when the movie started. Then she leaned over and rested her head on Jacob's shoulder like she wasn't just talking to her ex. He wrapped his arm around her, completely oblivious. Leah wanted to throw up.

The girl's fucking ruthless, she decided.

When the movie was over, Leah walked with Emily back to the parking lot. They made sure to stay far behind everyone else, especially Jacob and Bella, as they talked quietly. When Leah told Emily what she had read on Bella's phone, Emily exploded with laughter, ruining her cover.

"Shh!" Leah hissed.

"I'm sorry," Emily said, still laughing, "but that is incredible."

"I know," Leah said. "Should I say something to Jake?"

"You should say something to her," Emily suggested. "Ask her what kind of pineapple she's eating, because her pussy must be fucking divine for her to just do all that on her phone in plain sight."

"Em, I'm being serious," Leah said. "What should I do?"

Emily regained her composure, finally. "Okay," she said. "You shouldn't fight her. Girls who don't give a fuck who's watching don't care about anything in a fight, so she'd probably fight as dirty as she talks, and I'm assuming you wouldn't like to be scalped in public."

They were practically one and the same. "Right," Leah said.

"And do you really care about Jacob that much? Enough to tell him he's basically being cheated on?"

"I don't think it's really about him," Leah admitted. "I mean, what do I owe Jake? He's just kind of dumb. But I think this is about the greater good. You know. Letting everyone know about Bella."

"Gotta warn all of us," Emily said.

"Yeah. So what should I do?"

"I say you should just talk to her. Like we've already established, there's a good chance she's a savage-ass fighter, so I wouldn't, like, confront her, but I'd do the bitch-shit thing and just be like, 'I know you're cheating on Jacob, so you better stop or else' and then run the hell outta there."

"That is some bitch-shit," Leah said.

"Do you wanna be scalped? Because you can go confront her right now and get scalped in front of everybody if you insist. I won't get in the way."

"Ugh," Leah groaned.

"You've got fifteen seconds," Emily said, nodding her head towards Jacob and Bella, who were heading to his car.

"God," Leah muttered. She sped up and walked towards Jacob and Bella. She gave a fake smile and asked if she could speak to Bella for a second. She complied.

Leah pulled her aside, far from anyone's earshot, and dropped the smile. "I saw you that you were texting another guy during the movie," she said.

"What?" Bella was genuinely confused.

"You know what I said. It was some pretty dirty shit and I don't think Jacob would appreciate his girlfriend doing that with some other guy."

"How do you even—"

"Break things off with Jacob," Leah said sharply, "or you're gonna be sorry." Then she turned and walked away.

Jacob better thank me for the rest of his damn life, she thought bitterly.

A/N: Thoughts? I'll update Monday. Coming up: Bella and Jacob af.

Take care,

HS