A/N: Sorry this is coming to you a tad bit later than normal. RL gets in the way of things sometimes. A huge thanks to my beta, Heather, for reading and fixing my chapters, and a huge thanks to all of you for reading and/or reviewing.
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Later that evening, we were all hanging out in the Cullen's living room, playing a game of Cards Against Humanity, when the doorbell rang. Carlisle and Esme had gone out to dinner and wouldn't be back until later, so Emmett got up to answer the door.
"Oh, hey, Tanya," he said, loud enough for all of us to hear, and my eyes widened. I couldn't help but wonder what she wanted.
"Hey, Emmett. Is Edward here?" she asked before telling Emmett that she knew he was since Edward's Volvo was in the driveway.
"We're busy at the moment. Why don't you come back later?" Emmett suggested, his voice taking on a slightly cool tone.
"Because I'm here now, and I want to see him," she said, and seconds later, I heard what sounded like heels clicking across the floor.
A tall strawberry-blonde came stalking into the room with an arrogant look on her face, stopping short when saw Edward and me. The two of us were snuggled up close together on the floor in front of the coffee table, and I wasn't about to move. Neither was Edward.
The hand that had been resting on my thigh continued to do so, and I saw her eyes drawn toward the slight movement of his hand.
"I need to speak to you," she demanded, ignoring not only me but Alice, Jasper, and Rose.
"So talk," Edward said with an air of indifference that had her eyes hardening.
"Alone," she said through gritted teeth.
"Tanya," Edward began with a sigh, "whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of everyone, or not at all. Your choice."
I guess she decided if she couldn't talk to him alone, then she wouldn't say anything because she stomped out of the room, but not before shooting both Edward and me dirty looks. I rolled my eyes at her behavior.
"God, what a cow!" Rose snarled after the front door had slammed shut.
"What in the world did you ever see in her?" she then asked, and Edward shook his head as he shrugged.
"I honestly have no idea. Maybe it's because we've known each other forever. I don't know. She didn't use to be such a shallow and mean person. She used to be really nice," he said, and Alice nodded her head in confirmation.
"We were best friends until junior high. After we started seventh grade, she became someone else," Alice told me.
"Well, I want to know what she wanted," I said because I was extremely curious as to what was so important that she just had to talk to Edward alone.
"She probably came to beg Edward to take her back," Emmett said as he sat back down on the floor. "I figured that's why she didn't want to say anything in front of everyone, but we all know Eddie's not going back to her."
"Damn, right I'm not," Edward said, leaning over to kiss my lips.
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"I'm sorry, she did what?" I asked Edward Monday afternoon as I lay on the couch flipping through channels on the TV.
I'd finished my homework an hour earlier, and Dad wasn't going to be home until seven, so I'd been channel surfing until Edward had called.
"She cornered me outside of the gym and tried to kiss me," he told me over the phone in a disgruntled voice, and a wave of jealousy washed over me. "I pushed her away."
"What in the world is that girl's problem?" I asked him. "I mean, she broke up with you, but now that you've moved on, she wants you back. So not gonna happen."
"That's exactly what I told her," he said. "She swears I'll get bored with you and come crawling back to her, but that will never happen."
"Good to know because I'm not letting you go anytime soon."
We talked for a few hours before my dad came home, and I hung up with Edward so I could eat dinner with Dad.
Over dinner, I told him about Tanya's attempt to go after Edward, and Dad just shook his head.
"That boy better watch out, and you as well. This Tanya girl sounds a bit unstable."
"I think she just wants what she can't have," I told him, and he nodded his head in agreement.
After dinner, I made my way up to my room and logged into my laptop where I found an email from my mom. We tried to keep in touch, but we were both so busy with our new lives that we didn't communicate as often as we should have.
She and Phil were going to get married at the beginning of March, and her wedding was going to coincide perfectly with my spring break. Mom had asked me to be her maid of honor, and I'd obviously agreed, and according to her email, she was on the prowl for the perfect dress.
I emailed her back, telling her to send me pictures of the dresses she was looking at, and I'd give her my advice. Heck, Alice and Angela would probably give her their advice as well because they were super excited about my mom's wedding even though they'd never met her in person. The girls had met her over Skype right after I'd moved in with Dad, and Mom had loved them right away.
I sent my email to Mom before scrolling through the rest of my inbox and noticed that I had an email from my friend, Bree. I was excited to open it and see what she had to say because I'd only heard from my friends in Jacksonville a couple of times.
The email from Bree was short and curt, and I frowned as I read it. She told me she was doing fine and about about school, but that was it. She didn't ask how I was or anything, and I debated on whether or not to reply.
Eventually, I did, and my email was as short as hers was, and once I was done writing, I sent it and then opened up my Facebook page.
I noticed I had a friend request, and I clicked on the icon and saw that Mike Newton wanted to be my friend. I denied the request before scrolling through my wall and looking at what people had posted.
"Hey, Bells?" Dad called.
"Yeah?" I asked, setting my laptop aside and going into the hallway to stand at the top of the stairs.
Dad was at the bottom and his face was bright red and he was fiddling with his mustache, a telltale sign that he was nervous.
"I'm going over to Sue's for a bit. I ... um ... I probably won't see you until tomorrow," he said, and I couldn't help but snicker at him.
"Have a good night. I'll see you tomorrow," I told him, trying not to think what he was going to be doing at Sue's house. Although, Seth was there, so hopefully that wouldn't be going on while that poor kid was there.
I made sure to lock the door and turn all the lights off except for the one in the hallway before going back upstairs.
As I tried to fall asleep, I found myself listening to every noise the house made, and I was beginning to freak myself out.
Giving up on sleep, I sent Edward a text and then felt immediately bad that I was probably waking him up.
A minute later, my phone rang, scaring the crap out of me, and I dropped it on the floor before I could answer it.
"I'm sorry, Edward," I blurted out as soon as I answered.
"It's fine, sweet girl. What's going on? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm just being silly," I told him as I went on to explain that the creaking of the house and the blowing of the wind was keeping me awake.
We talked for a few more minutes until I found myself relaxing enough to start falling asleep, and I whispered a goodnight to him before hanging up.
The next day, I was the object of more than a few stares and whispers, and I knew, without a doubt, that Lauren had begun to spread her lie about me that she'd told Rose. She hadn't been in school on Monday, but she sure was making up for it, and I wasn't going to deal with it.
I wanted to confront her, but I wasn't sure I'd be able to control my temper, so I chose a different route.
On my lunch break, I stopped by the main office and asked to speak to the principal. Thankfully, Mr. Greene was in and agreed to see me.
As I sat across from him, I explained that Lauren was spreading some rather disconcerting rumors about me, claiming that I was a drug addict. A frown marred his face as I spoke, and when I was done, he told me he'd be having a talk with her.
"Thank you, Mr. Greene," I said.
"You're welcome, and thank you for coming to me about this and not trying to take matters into your own hands," he said, and I didn't mention that I'd thought about doing just that.
I left the office, feeling that I'd done the right thing, and hurried down the hall to the cafeteria.
"Where have you been?" Angela asked after I'd grabbed an apple and a lemonade and sat down at our table.
"I went to talk to Mr. Greene about Lauren," I told them.
"No way," Eric said. "You went to Greene? Lauren is gonna be pissed!"
I shrugged.
"Well then she shouldn't spread lies about people."
By the end of school, there was a new rumor floating around that Lauren had been given a two day suspension, and everyone knew I was the reason for it. Personally, I felt that suspending her was just giving her a free vacation. As far as I was concerned, they should have made her do in-school suspension so she'd at least have to suffer a little.
"I cannot believe you!" Jessica hissed from behind me as I was unlocking my car in the parking lot. I'd been expecting her to come after me since Lauren had been pulled into the principal's office, so I wasn't at all surprised to hear her.
I didn't even bother to respond because I honestly didn't have anything to say to her, but she, apparently, had a lot to say to me.
She began ranting on and on about what a horrible person I was, about how I was bitch, and about how she'd get me for what I'd done to Lauren.
"Are you threatening me?" I asked her, finally turning around to look at her. "Because that would be an incredibly stupid thing for you to do. You really don't want to threaten a cop's daughter. Got me?"
Her eyes narrowed, and I half expected her to slug me where I stood, but Mike, who'd come up a few minutes earlier, put a hand on her shoulder and tugged her away from me.
"Let it go, Jess," he hissed at her, and I gave her a smirk.
"That's the first smart thing Mike's said since we've met. I'd listen to him," I told her before climbing into the jeep and pulling out of the parking lot.
The minute I parked in my driveway, I called my dad and let him know about the whole Jessica/Lauren situation and the vague threats that Jessica had given me.
"Those girls are trouble," he said with a low growl after I'd spoken. "I've been warned about them as well as Mike Newton and some guy in Port Angeles named James Victoria."
"Seriously? You were warned about Jessica and Lauren? But, they're not much more than gossip queens and mean girls," I commented.
"They've both had run-ins with the last chief as well as that Newton boy. As for James, the guy is bad news."
We talked for a few minutes before I asked him what he wanted for dinner, and Dad gave me his typical response of whatever. I told him to pick up some salad fixings on his way home before saying goodbye.
I got out of the car and entered the house when I saw a bright red car drive by with a blonde behind the steering wheel. For a second, I thought it was Tanya, but that would be ridiculous. I mean, really, why would she drive all the way to Forks to just drive by my house? I was being paranoid, so with a shake of my head, I made my way inside the house and locked the door behind me.
Of course, the second I was in the door, I rushed up to my room, turned my laptop on, and opened up Facebook. Immediately, I typed in Tanya's name and scanned through her Facebook pictures, trying to see if she owned a red car. I didn't find any pictures of her with a car, and I realized I was being ridiculous. It was just somebody driving down my road, and my paranoid brain had decided it was Tanya and that the car had slowed down when they'd driven past.
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"I swear to God, she's following me," I told Angela on Friday as we worked on a lab project in class because I'd seen that same car yet again.
"Do you think it's really her?" she asked in a whisper, and I nodded.
"I'm pretty sure it is. I know it's not Lauren, all she does is shoot me death glares all day, plus she drives an older car. I'm almost positive it's Tanya."
Angela frowned before asking me if I'd mentioned it to Edward, and I told her no.
"Why not?"
I shrugged. "Because I don't want to worry him over something that might not be anything. I don't know for sure that it's Tanya."
"But you're pretty sure it is. At least let your dad know so that he can run the plates and found out who it is."
I hadn't thought about that, and I hadn't mentioned the drive-bys to my dad either.
"I will," I promised her, and I did just that later that evening.
Over dinner with my dad and Sue, I told him about the red car that I'd seen driving by the house more than a few times. He'd been furious I hadn't said anything, and he'd blown up at me.
By the time he was done yelling at me, I was blinking back tears and apologizing profusely.
"Sit down, Charlie," Sue said in a stern voice, and Dad sat back down in his seat, his face a dull red.
"Yelling at Bella isn't going to fix this situation. She made a mistake in not telling you, and it's obvious that she feels bad about that," Sue told Dad, and he flushed a bit. "Now, we're going to figure out what to do about this situation."
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a/n: Oh yeah, the drama is a happening. Lol. I love drama. Well, not in RL and especially not at my job which has far more drama than an web company should. Anyway, leave me some love.