200 Years Without The Cullens

Chapter 10-Jealousy is an Illogical Thing

That Friday, we travelled to school with Alice and Jasper. Rosalie had still refused to be within ten feet of me without throwing a hissy fit, and I had no intention of provoking her. It did prove difficult when she watched me training, sniggering at every failed attempt, and snorting at every successful one. I was this close to snapping at her, and I knew I didn't want to go permanently in Rosalie's bad book. Not that there were many people in her good book.

Unfortunately I had another worry too. Jessica Stanley the second was crushing on Edward really bad. It had become more apparent over the last few days. Not that I could blame her, I had, to an extent, when I first saw him. And it wasn't like the entire female population of Forks wasn't crushing on him, but Jessica was the only one who actually flirted around him, and spent half her life elbowing me out of the way. What was worse, was that Edward, usually the over-protective boyfriend that broke the table when a guy so much a complimented my hair in his head, didn't seem to care a jot that Jessica was talking to him more than I was.

'I'm just being polite' he'd say, or 'I'm only satisfying her'. The latter had really annoyed me, because although Edward obviously didn't mean it to, I couldn't help but see a hidden meaning behind his words. I was pretty sure Jessica would be over the moon if he meant what I couldn't help but think of. Jessica was really pissing me off, and all my original 'try to be nice and polite' plans were out the window. I was interested to see that Alice, bubbly and friendly as she usually was, seemed to hate Jessica as much as I did.

"Alice? Come walk with me?" I asked the second Jessica plonked herself next to Edward over lunch.

"Sure thing," she said grimly.

She followed me outside, and I stalked into the forest, allowing her to see exactly how angry I was. She followed me in uncharacteristic silence, and stopped just before I did, obviously seeing when I would stop. It was the second day and I'd gained an enemy, rival, whatever you want to call Jessica.

"Jessica is really pissing me off!" I hissed, "Who does she think she is? I've made it quite God-damn clear that Edward is my boyfriend, and not hers. And Edward doesn't exactly help. What happened to knock-the-head-off-anyone-who-so-much-thinks-of-me Edward?"

"I know Bella. I don't know why Edward is being like this, but I hate her for hurting you. In fact, I hate Edward for hurting you too," she added as an afterthought.

I shook my head.

"I can't be angry with Edward, even when I'm furious with him."

Alice nodded in understanding and hugged me. Although my words were contradictory, they described my feelings perfectly. I wanted to yell at Edward until he got it into his head that there was a time and a place for being a gentleman, and that this wasn't the one, but I could never hurt him like that. He'd have a break-down if he realised how much it hurt seeing him and Jessica walking down the corridors within an inch of each other, Jessica rambling animatedly, looking the very picture of a high school couple.

"You need to tell him," Alice whispered.

"I can't," I began, but she interrupted.

"He'll be like this until you tell him Bella. Edward tends to over-think everything to the tenth degree, or not think at all. This is obviously the latter."

I sighed and nodded, although I had no intention of telling Edward anything until I'd cornered Jessica and made her rue the day she was born. The two of us walked back into the lunch hall to find Jessica about a centimetre from Edward, and neither did anything about it when they saw me come back in. Edward, at least, looked a little guilty, but didn't move, only shooting me an apologetic glance.