Chapter 15- Part two

Truth

I sat opposite, our eyes digging into each other uncomfortably. Every time I looked away I felt a urge to check if he was still looking at me and he always would be.

Alice spoke so quickly that I didn't fear she would notice the sour attitude in the air between her boyfriend and me. Mondays were suppose to be me and her day but it seemed Alice had invited him along to lunch today as well as Tuesdays and Thursdays where he just conveniently seemed to sit next to us.

She danced off to get an apple and I cursed that I would be left alone with him.

He checked she was gone before he spoke 'you will be happy to know she is going to tell you about us'

'now?' I asked surprised.

'Yes, that's why she's speaking so fast and cant keep still, So if you can try and pretend that you are happy for her' he spat.

'I am happy for her. I don't plan on interfering in your relationship because I don't know anything about it' I bit back.

'Nice dig' he smirked.

'you should know that I have tried to convince Edward to call you' I said.

'Well done that makes up for the fact that you told him' He rolled his eyes.

'I had to tell him, he turned up at my house. It was obvious I hadn't just decided out of the blue that I didn't want to know him. I begged him to choose you Jasper but he's hurt' I argued.

'You think I'm an asshole right?' he questioned.

'I wouldn't say I'm your biggest fan but I know you didn't want to hurt Edward' I knew that deep down Jasper had good intentions but proving that to Edward was harder than it seemed.

'You two are getting along' Alice plopped herself down smiling.

I smiled back reassuringly.

'might be a good time to tell her your news Alice' coaxed Jasper.

Alice gave Jasper a pointed look before closing her eyes.

'Okay I'm just going to come out with it' she placed her palms down on the table 'me and Jasper are dating'

'wow that's great' I over exaggerated for effect not wanting to seem even a little bit resentful.

'you think?' she smiled happyily.

'Yeah Alice, you two are perfect' I grinned.

She took his hand and proceeded to tell me all about how they had got together while Jasper just stared at her happily content in her glee.

After ten minutes I decided to interrupt her 'Alice sorry I have to go meet Mr Milo about something. You can fill me in on the rest later'

'Oh yeah sure' she looked a little disappointed but I had heard all I could stand.

I smiled 'See ya Jasper' grabbing my coat I walked away speedily. Hopefully I would be able to find Edward and have lunch with him rather than hearing about my best friends love life. Was it wrong to be jealous of her for simply finding someone who could love her back?

'Bella' I stopped turning to find Jasper had caught me up holding my blue scarf.

'oh thanks' I replied taking it.

'I hope you realise you mean something to him. He is risking himself for you I hope you appreciate that' he spat making sure he had his last spiteful word.

'I'm not going to hurt him' I stated knowing that I couldn't.

He gave me a stern look of disbelief before he turned back to meet at Alice back at the table. Alice watched with a definite suspicion at watching our exchange so I quickly smiled.

Edward wasn't outside smoking like I had expected so I sent him a quick text asking him to meet me under the stairs.

'I thought it was a girls lunch' I turned to see him walking up behind me.

'Sorry, were you busy' I apologised.

'no of course not' he sat down next to me 'What's up?'

'Can we go somewhere?' I asked nervously.

'Yeah sure' he took my hand 'you wana go for a walk on the field?'

'No I mean can we get out of school and go somewhere private' I begged.

'Now? We still have half a day left' he said shocked before he seemed to realise my urgency 'We can go to my mom's' he reassured me and I simply nodded.

We walked speedily out to the car park while it was still lunch so it didn't look suspicious.

Edward

I rustled through some draws before retrieving some candles 'We don't have any electricity'

It was getting dark outside, a clear sign that a forks storm was on its way.

I came and sat beside her where I had laid a couple of cushions and a blanket. An empty house like this wasn't very homely.

I had this feeling that something was wrong, it wasn't in Bella's nature to skip a day of school.

I wrapped the blanket round her shoulders, the lack of power in my abandoned house left us sitting in a gloomy cold house.

'So why are we here?' I asked feeling like she needed a little coaxing.

'I want to tell you everything' this was kind of out of the blue after all of her refusals.

'You don't have to do that, I know I put pressure on you' I suddenly didn't want to know and especially not because I guilt tripped her.

'I want to' she swallowed and I knew exactly how she felt having been in this position. Sometimes you want to share but the fear takes over. Will that person understand? Can I trust them?

When James moved to Forks high he met Alice first. I was never good at first impressions really. Too shy and quiet. So it was through Alice that I first met him. I liked how friendly he was to everyone.

He had been in Forks for 6 months before it happened so I thought I could trust him. I didn't' think I had to worry about a teenage kid in my year. You worry about grown men but not sixteen year olds.

It was such a normal afternoon.

We were walking back from lunch me, Alice, Emmett and James.

Me and James trailed behind whilst Alice and Emmett chatted in front.

'I think you should skip PE and come hang out with me' he smirked at me.

'Oh really? Well I think you've got French and Miss Petty will kill you if you don't show up' I joked.

'Come on' he took my hand 'lets just find an empty classroom and hang out for an hour' I wanted to go with him. He didn't really need to convince me but I liked that somebody wanted to hang out with me. Just me.

'I don't know' I tugged on his arm pulling him forward and he pulled back 'PE is a very important subject. I might miss a valuable lesson in…'

'See! You can't even think of anything' he grinned and so did I laughing. I went with him happily.

We sneaked off without telling Emmett or Alice and began peeping through several windows until we found an empty hut. It had this musky sweat smell and was horribly humid. I wouldn't forget that smell.

'Even the girls changing rooms don't smell this bad' I groaned.

'Regretting coming with me already?' he smiled.

'Nah not yet' I repliedsmiling.

He sat next to me on the desk 'Beautiful'

'Huh?' I looked at him.

'Bella means beautiful' he smiled and I moaned embarrassed.

'ergh my mom should have really thought about the fact that her baby might not grow up to be beautiful. I mean I could have turned out looking like a troll' I spoke fast because I think I was nervous.

'You turned out beautiful though' he replied and I blushed.

Its weird how quickly you can feel comfortable and happy but then the simplest of things can make you feel on the edge, makes your skin crawl.

He ran his hand down my leg and I met his eyes. There was something different about him in that moment. He had never looked at me quite like that and defiantly never touched me like that.

I crossed my legs and smiled 'It sounds like I'm missing Netball' I could hear the shouts from the field of girls running around as I looked out the window and i suddenly wished i was with them.

'Don't be shy beautiful' he leered.

'Bella. Were not in Italy now' I joked.

He got off the desk and stood in front of me putting both of his hands over mine. His face was uncomfortably close to my own, so close that I could smell the spearmint from his chewing gum.

'James what are you doing?' I asked unable to pretend anymore.

'I just want to move us along a bit' he coaxed.

'What do you mean? were friends' I replied trying to force a smile. I assumed that if i kept it friendly we could just walk out, carry on and be friends.

'We can do better than friends cant we?' he tried to kiss me but I turned my head before pushing him away from me. I stood up.

'I'm going James. You're being weird' he grabbed my hand and brought me into an embrace.

'Stop being such a fucking tease' he said through gritted teeth anger seeping through the calm façade from before.

'Stop being a Jerk' I replied trying to pull away. Even though I was uncomfortable and nervous, I didn't understand how serious it was yet. It was still just James and maybe I was starting to dislike him because he was clearly an ass but nothing bad was going to happen.

Until he grabbed my wrist and twisted it. Immense stinging pain ripped through me as I cried in shock. That wasn't okay. That wasn't just James my friend being an ass.

'Just stop being a bitch and kiss me' he hissed.

'James?' I exclaimed. What had happened to my friend?

His lips met my neck and he began skimming it with horrible wet kisses. I pushed on his chest but I felt so feeble all ready. My body had shut down. I couldn't seem to move properly. Shock I guess.

By the time his hand was moving under my shirt I was lying there like a dead fish just sobbing. Frozen by terror and disbelief. How quickly two friends had turned into strangers.

'Please stop' I managed to mumble and in response his fist met my cheek. I didn't speak again.

He had just unbuttoned the first button on my jeans when the door opened. I closed my eyes and I knew it was over. I was saved.

MR Brian was the teacher. I don't know how but he knew straight away it wasn't just two students getting it on. He knew I was being attacked. Maybe James looked guilty or I looked distressed.

He grabbed him and threw him to the floor pinning his arms behind his back like a cop in training.

'Can you go get someone?' he asked but I just lay there watching through a blur. So he brought James to his feet and led him outside. I was alone then, it might have only been 5 minutes but it felt like a lifetime until Miss Cox came in, the PE teacher who's lesson I had unwisely skipped.

She gave me her jacket and sat with me. Her face would be memorable because it was the first person to give me that 'I'm so sorry' face, the face that I would see on a hundred people afterwards.

'The face that you're giving me now' she suddenly said.

'sorry' I shook my head 'It's just hard hearing that happened to my you' It was a mix of feelings anger, sadness, frustration that I didn't know her then 'How could Jasper say those things to you? Knowing everything that happened'

She shrugged sadly 'well he was sort of right when you think about it. I went with James to a room on my own. I liked him, I liked that he wanted to be with me alone. I was naïve to think we were just going to hang out.'

I shook my head 'Next you will be saying he had the right to punch you'

She sighed 'Of course not but…I put myself in that situation. Yes James was wrong but maybe I did lead him on'

'Bull shit' I shouted banging the floor with my fist. 'Every girl who has been raped could say that. It doesn't give the guy the right to do it. There is no excuse Bella'

'I wasn't raped' she argued.

'Not completely but the guy touched you when you asked him to stop and If sir hadn't come in then…'

'No' she cried.

I rubbed my forehead 'attacked, raped. It doesn't matter which word bells. You went through something really bad which wasn't your fault'

She looked at the ground tracing the lines on the floorboards.

'why didn't you want to tell me? Was it just so I wouldn't look at you differently' I asked.

She shrugged 'I thought it would scare you away. You would think I was some crazy girl leading boys on and then getting them in trouble'

I closed my eyes. How could my Bella me this messed up and I didn't realise it.

I took her hand 'Please don't think you could scare me away. You've dealt with the fact that I am a crazy idiot who could have a mental breakdown any day and all I have to deal with is that my best friend thinks she's responsible for something that she could have never changed'

She half smiled 'best friend?'

'well seeing as my old best friend turned out to be a complete asshole I guess I have to promote you' I smirked.

She chuckled sarcastically 'oh thanks'

I kissed her knuckles 'thank you for telling me'

'How much did you already know?' she asked.

'Surprisingly not a lot. Bits and pieces but I never expected…' God I wish I had been there. I could have kicked his ass and comforted her. Then maybe she wouldn't still be so broken inside. She liked to pretend she was better and was unhappy that everyone still cared so much for her but its because they could see what she couldn't. she wasn't over it completely 'did you see someone? I mean it must have been hard moving on from that'

'I saw a therapist for a year and took time off school. It was hard to go back'

'I can imagine. Jesus' I sighed.

She suddenly lay her head on my lap and closed her eyes. It was unusual for Bella to be forward. I stroked her hair wanting to know how i could comfort her.

'Did Emmett kick his ass or anything?' I asked.

She opened one eye and looked at me 'No why?'

I shrugged. Damn.

'He spent 20 weeks in a young offenders before they let him continue at school out of state' she explained.

'you know when you were being attacked by that guy in the science block? Did that have a connection or are you just really unlucky?' I asked thinking it was kind of strange.

She was quiet before she decided 'Unlucky I guess. Can we talk about something else now?'

'Yeah sorry. I'm going on. It's hard to process' I shook my head.

'Alice told me today about her and Jasper' she said flatly. A few weeks ago she would have been happy for Alice and so would I but not anymore.

I tutted 'did you warn her she was dating a dick?'

'Edward' she moaned 'one day you are going to have to forgive him'

'Why?' I questioned adamant that he was forever staying out of my fucking life.

'because you don't throw away a seventeen year old friendship' she sat up.

'Do we have to go over this again?' I rolled my eyes.

'until you realise you've made a mistake, yes' she said sternly.

'Stop telling me off' I wrapped my arms round her waist and she couldn't help but smile.

I wasn't regretting it yet, not whilst I had Bella and now that she had felt safe enough to reveal herself to me I knew we were going to make it. We were friends for a long time now.