I reluctantly approached their table with that dumb sweater tucked under my arm along with my copy of Wuthering Heights and a few textbooks that didn’t quite fit in my backpack, making me look something to the effect of a lumberjack. Count on me to always make an awkward situation look impossibly more awkward. When I got to their table, I sort of carelessly tossed my books on the table, trying to look nonchalant as I pushed that rotten sweater across the table. Okay, maybe I’m being a little unfair about that sweater. But it was it’s own dumb fault I had to come over to the Cullen table in the first place.

So I stood there for a few minutes, listening to Alice’s nauseating whispering as Edward just sat there with a big smirk on his face. I tried to ignore it and just kept glaring at Alice, hoping the intensity of my gaze would cause me to instantaneously develop the power of shooting laser beams out of my eyes so I could get her attention. Edward watched the whole thing, even when I tried to bug my eyes out and produce some kind of laser, and his smirk turned into full-on laughter. That was infuriating enough to really get me going.

“Yeah, it’s real funny, isn’t it, Edward? You’re having a real great time, aren’t you?” I snapped at him. He just kept right on laughing, the jerk.

Alice seemed pretty surprised when she finally looked away from Jasper and noticed me hovering above her table. She glanced at Edward, doubled over with laughter, and then at me, who probably looked like an angry bull with the way I was flaring my nostrils and huffing and all. Then she glanced at the table and saw her dumb sweater, and caught on. But not exactly, because she kind of got the entirely wrong idea.

“Oh, thanks, Bella,” she said with a suggestive grin, eyes darting from Edward to me again. “You know, you didn’t have to come all the way over here just to give me back this silly little sweater, sweetie. Or… was there someone else you wanted to see?” she asked innocently.

“Not at all,” I said swiftly, trying to keep my face indifferent as I glared daggers at her. Don’t you start, Alice.