The blue cashmere sweater felt especially itchy in my hands today as I pulled it out of my locker. I had been meaning to return it to Alice for a few weeks, but often times she would re-lend it to me due to her aversion of my sporadically soaked clothes after a rainy day at school. Bunching it up and tucking it under my jacket, I slammed my locker shut and strode out into the rain, letting it soak my face and hair as I approached the cafeteria.

The last thing I really wanted to do was approach the Cullen table to return the sweater to Alice, so I had just originally intended on motioning her over to my spot near Angela and company to give it back to her, without sparing a glance in her family’s direction. To be honest, I was still sort of too aggravated with the whole Edward situation to get within twenty feet of him, other than the obligatory two-foot radius in Biology.

I couldn’t possibly be angry with him, I knew that. I had been sending him mixed messages since the beginning, and practically acted like he needed permission to be part of my life. But the whole “friend” thing had caught me kind of off-guard. I mean, it seemed he went through an awful lot of trouble just to get me help from his family. If it wasn’t something…more than friendship he was looking for, I couldn’t imagine he wanted a purple heart or some freaking medal of honor.

All I knew was, if he was just playing with my emotions for his own stupid amusement or something, I would be a whole lot less inclined to control my temper around him. If he wanted something from me that wasn’t, well, me, then I’d make the boy grovel for it. Because god knows I don’t take well to rejection.

By the time I had shoved past the mobs of people waiting in line for that disgusting cafeteria food, I was well aware Alice would make no attempt at coming over to my table to retrieve her sweater. She was currently nestled in the farthest corner of her table from me, chin resting on Jasper’s shoulder with his arm around her while she likely whispered sweet nothings into his ear. On any other day it would have been somewhat charming to watch, but at the moment it happened to be excruciatingly nauseating. Considering that Edward was the only other one at the table, staring aimlessly off into space while Emmett and Rosalie were probably rounding third in some janitor’s closet nearby. Also considering I would have to go over there and return the dumb sweater personally, and stand there like my lame self while I half-heartedly tried to get Alice’s attention, Edward smirking at me the whole time as though he didn’t find the whole scene excessively unsettling. Just my luck.