Envy and Evelyn || The Twilight Saga

Chapter Three: First Day

    Mike, really, wasn't even my type now. Blonde, quarterback-type... he was some girl's dream, just not mine.

    Angela looked over to Bella before snapping a quick candid picture with the camera around her neck. "Sorry; needed a candid for the feature."

    "The feature's dead, Angela," Eric hissed. "Don't bring it up again."

    With that, he walked off somewhere, Mike trailing him.

    I was a year younger than all of them, but I'd always hung out around the older kids– partially because they'd always sort of liked me, telling me I was mature for my age. The other part of me hung around them because my summers here did make me miss Bella.

    After I broke up with Mike, they'd all dumped me. Apparently, Mike had told them after that I cheated on him with a guy from Phoenix– a college guy. I was fourteen, so that was obviously a lie, but everyone believed him. They still did, apparently, from the way Eric gave me the cold shoulder and Mike couldn't even look at me.

    "Who are they?" Bella asked.

    I looked up. I'd been completely consumed in my own thoughts, missing their conversation.

    Walking in the cafeteria, I saw the five most beautiful people I'd ever seen– all of them with pale, perfect skin and golden eyes, and all of them dressed like movie stars.

    "The Cullens," Jess said admiringly. "They're Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's foster kids. Weird thing is– they're all dating."

    Angela scoffed. "Jess, it's not like they're related."

    "But they live together!" Jess hissed. "It's weird."

    "No, I agree," I said. "Totally weird. Like, Flowers in the Attic-type weird."

    "Thank you," Jess said. "The big guy is Emmett, and he's with the blonde girl, Rosalie. Oh! And the little dark-haired girl is Alice, and she's with Jasper, the one who looks like he's in pain all the time."

    I chuckled.

    "Who's he?" Bella asked, nodding at the last one of them– the one with bronze, coiffed hair and the kind of face you'd see in a museum.

    "That's Edward Cullen," Jess said. "Totally gorgeous, but thinks he's too good for any of the girls here. Don't even try it."

    "Wasn't gonna," Bella chuckled, blushing.

    As if hearing us, he smirked.

    Oh, you're an arrogant one, aren't you? I thought.

    He stopped smiling, almost like he heard me again. He shot a glance in my direction. I quickly looked away.

    His eyes were the strangest– jet, glossy black.

    "They're super rich, too," Jess said. "Moved from Alaska, like, two years ago."

    "I wish they'd adopt me," Angela said dreamily.

    I had the complete opposite idea as Angela. There was something fundamentally wrong over there with the Cullens, and I wanted no part of it. Every single cell of my body wanted to run away. Far, far away.

As Bella and I got in the truck after school, she slammed the door on the way in. Her hands white-knuckled the steering wheel, her jaw set tensely. I'd only seen Bella mad a couple of times in my life, but this was seriously one of those times. She growled under her breath.

    "Hey, Bells," I said nervously. "Maybe you wanna... calm down before you drive us home?"

    She sighed. "I'm sorry, Eve. It's just... that Cullen guy. Edward. He was completely rude to me in biology."

    "Really?" I asked. "What'd he do?"

    "Well, I had to sit with him," she recounted, annoyed, "and then he just wouldn't talk. At all. He stared at me like he wanted me dead. Then, I caught him in the office trying to change his schedule after class."

    "No!"

    "Yes," she hissed.

    "What a freak," I muttered. "Oh, hey, can you take me to Jacob's? I need to talk to him."

    "Sure," she said. "He can manage getting you home in one piece, right? I have to cook dinner."

    I chuckled. "Yeah." A nervous pit formed in my stomach. "That is, if he doesn't hate me."

    Bella raised an eyebrow. "I'll drive, you talk."

    As she drove me to La Push, I recounted all the events of last summer– from the kiss, to the way I ran away. I told her how I hadn't talked to him since, and then hid when he came to the house. I even told her about the flannel I was keeping hostage under my bed.

    She sighed as she threw the truck in park outside of Jacob's house. "Good luck."

    "Thanks, Bella," I said. "Um, any sisterly advice I can nab?"

    "Stop stalling," Bella said with a smile. "Go."

    I nodded and hopped out of the truck. She drove off, and I watched until the truck was out of sight.

    Okay, I thought to myself. No going back now.

    I turned, climbing the steps of Jacob's porch before knocking on the door. I fought the urge to run and hide again.

    Then, the door opened.

    There he was. Jacob was as Jacob as ever, standing with that sunny smile on his face, his long hair pushed behind his ears. He wore a simple black t-shirt and jeans. He was more muscular than he'd been last summer, probably hitting some sort of growth spurt.

    When he saw me, his smile dropped. "Eve."

    I couldn't help the guilt that pooled in my stomach from showing itself on my face. "Hey, Jake."

    He stepped out on the porch, shutting the door behind him. "W-what are you doing here?"

    "I came to say I'm sorry," I said quickly. "For what happened on the beach."

    "Evie–"

    "No, let me say it." I shook my head, trying to gather my thoughts. "I shouldn't have left you like that. I should've talked to you. I just... I feel so bad, and–"

    "Evie."

    I looked up into his dark brown eyes. "What?"

    Jacob smiled at me. "It's okay."

    "It's okay?" I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

    "It was one stupid kiss," he said, rolling his eyes. "I shouldn't have ever done it. I just... got confused, is all."

    "Confused," I repeated, feeling it myself.

    Jacob nodded. "Yeah. You know, it's hard. The... boy-girl thing. But you were right. We're friends, and that's all."

    Some part of me was still confused, and crushed at his words. But I was also relieved. "So, nothing changes?"

    "Nothing changes," he said, wrapping me in a soul-crushing hug.

    I wrapped my arms around him. I sighed. "I was so worried about today. About seeing you again."

    "C'mon, Eve, it's us," he said, pulling away from me and ruffling my hair. "You don't really think I'd stop talking to you over a dumb kiss, do you? Didn't mean anything."

    I laughed. "You're right. It's... dumb."

    He nodded. "Completely stupid."

    But some part of me felt even stupider– because it wasn't just some stupid kiss to me. It did change things. Even if I wanted Jacob as my best friend, he wasn't just that anymore. There was some part of him that was the guy I wanted. And that was terrifying.