Love Bite

Chapter 7

I DO NOT OWN CHARACTERS OR TWILIGHT

Bella's crying was promptly interrupted by the shrill around of the bell ringing to signify the end of first period. It startled her enough to jump and she quickly began wiping at her eyes, knowing she had all of about thirty seconds before girls began to swarm the locked bathroom as they always did between periods.

"Bella?"

Or maybe even less than thirty seconds.

Bella recognized the voice to be Alice's, for no one else had such a high, sweet voice. There came the quiet sound of the vampire obviously trying the doorknob, and then a gentle knock followed that.

All of this served to restart the frantic pace her heart had been set at after it had only just calmed down.

Hell. Hell, hell, hell! I don't want to talk to her like this! Bella thought desperately, looking at the door as if it were caught on fire. How am I supposed to even look her in the eyes after that little exchange?

She resolved to do the most logical thing, which was to close her eyes and hopelessly pretend as if she simply did not exist.

Surprisingly, it didn't work.

"Bella, honey, please open the door. I know you're in there. I just want to talk," Alice called again and gave another light knock.

"Who freaking locked themselves in the bathroom?" a shrill voice rang out.

"My friend," Alice's muffled voice responded. "She's sick."

"I don't care, and neither do the rest of us. Seriously, some of us have stupid teachers who won't let us go in class and can't go any other time. Tell her to open the fucking door!"

"I'm trying, in case you hadn't noticed," Alice said with barely veiled patience.

There were precious few things that made Alice angry, especially quickly, mostly because she was so sweet tempered and kind. Rudeness was one of those things, and apparently, the girl was full of that particular quality.

"Well, try harder. We seriously have to go out here!" the unknown girl snapped. "This is ridiculous!"

"No, what's ridiculous is how insensitive you are. And rude. There are four other bathrooms in this school, and one of those is right down the hall. You and your friends can go use those," Alice's voice tightened as the girl's voice rose a few annoying pitches.

"That's a waste of freaking time! This is the closest one!"

"It's a bigger waste of time for you to sit here and whine at me when I'm doing all I can!" Alice's scowl was visible purely by the sound of her voice. Bella knew by what little experience she had from hearing the tiny vampire become irritated that she was losing her patience.

And apparently, so had the girl.

There came a raucous banging on the door a second later that made Bella flinch. "Hey, bitch! No one cares if you're puking! Open the fuck up! Some of us have to go out here!"

"Are you out of your mind? Stop it. She's sick!" Alice's voice rose instantly and the banging was abruptly cut off.

"Hey, don't you put your hands on me, Cullen-"

"Beat it, Cassie. You're starting to piss me off!"

Bella blinked at the hard quality Alice's tone had taken on. That was one she hadn't really heard before.

"Did you seriously just push her?" a different preppy voice came to life beyond the blocking door. "Jeez, it must be her girlfriend in there, that weird Bella chick she's always hanging out with. Who else would she get so butch over?"