CHAPTER TWELVE:

Apparently, now that I wasn't possible boyfriend material, McKayla had been given me the official title of Gay Best Friend.

The first time she had asked me what I thought about her shoes I'd just stared– I'd improved since then. At least it was a small price to pay to occasionally be required to offer a critique for her hair, or to put up with the stares, whispers and occasional shoulder shoving from some of the older boys. Only one student had called me a faggot– it hadn't actually bothered me, being called 'Mudblood' with such vitriol and disgust and hatred for years had made me all but immune to name-calling. I heard later, though, that Archie, who had been near enough to overhear him, had had words with that student, likely with the dangerous Judith lurking by his side, like she usually was, a silent but menacing presence. Nobody had dared call me a derogatory name to my face since.

And then McKayla started talking about me coming to the dance anyway and I could have torn out my own hair in my frustration.

"It doesn't matter if you don't have a partner," she said in Biology, leaning forwards in a way that put her cleavage very much at eye-level, something she didn't seem to be concerned about now that I was officially 'out of the closet'. "Nobody really even dances at these things, anyway," she said, with a small laugh, "they're just a chance to dress up and spend a Saturday night actually out doing something. There's pretty much nothing else to do in Forks."

I agreed with her about the Forks bit– there really was nothing to do here, and her words had also given me an idea.

"I'm sorry, McKayla, but I'm going to be in Seattle." Pretending to be very far away from Forks wouldn't be so hard with everyone from my year at the dance.

"Does it have to be that weekend?" McKayla asked, sounding disappointed. I was genuinely touched that she seemed to still want to spend time with me, even now that there was no chance of dating in our future, but I still had absolutely no intention of going to that dance.

"Yeah, I thought it would be a good day with everyone at the dance and I've already organized it all with Char– mom, sorry." I said.

"Will you come dress shopping with me?" McKayla asked, hopefully. "Becca, Erica and I are driving to Port Olympia after school on Friday, you can help give me advice."

Yep, definitely the Gay Best Friend I thought with a sigh. But I was feeling charitable towards McKayla, so before I could stop myself I nodded and her face lit up.

"It's going to be so much fun!" She exclaimed, and while Mrs. Banner entering the room had her sliding off my desk and heading back to her own, I was under no illusion that the conversation wasn't going to continue, and our trip to be planned in agonizing detail.

Edythe, until now a silent presence on the other side of the desk, spoke up. She sounded amused. "Dress shopping?"

"I know," I sighed. "I'm going to have to go to the library to read fashion magazines after school."

Edythe smiled. "As it happens, Archie owns more fashion magazines then the entire population of Forks does together. Definitely more then this town's pitiable excuse of a library."

"Is that an offer?" I asked. She grinned.

"Sit with me tomorrow and they're yours until Friday." My heart almost skipped a beat.

"We can't sit together," I reminded her. "We're not friends."

"I said it would be better if we weren't friends, not that I didn't want to be."

"Well that's as clear as mud." I couldn't help but comment. I understood her, though. More then she knew.

"It would be more... prudent for you not to be my friend," Edythe explained. "But I'm tired of trying to stay away from you, Beau." There was no humor in her face now. Her eyes were intense, narrowed, the long lines of her lashes stark black against her skin. Her voice had a strange heat to it. I couldn't remember how to breathe. Damn it, I thought helplessly. She was supposed to be the one with all the self-restraint– not me!

"Will you sit with me?" she asked, voice still burning. I couldn't speak, so I just nodded.

A quick smile reshaped her face, and then she was serious again. "You really should stay away from me," she warned.

"Yeah," I sighed. "I know. I think it's too late for that, though."

I was pretty sure I wasn't just falling for her anymore– I had fallen. Hard. I couldn't see this ending well, but I couldn't keep away from her. Without wanting to sound like some sort of trashy, teen romance, she was like the best of heroine, and I was the idiot who'd gotten himself hooked. How unbelievably Gryffindor of me.

-

I didn't sleep well. This was a recurring theme now, but the dream of Edythe? Now that was new.

In the dream it was very dark, and what dim light there was seemed to be radiating from Edythe's skin. I couldn't see her face, just her back as she walked away from me, leaving me in the blackness. No matter how fast I ran, I couldn't catch up to her; no matter how loud I called, she never turned. I got more and more frantic to get to her, until that anxiety woke me. It was the middle of the night, but I couldn't sleep again.

I already knew, before I even stepped out of my truck in the car park, that lunch was going to be a spectacle. The time leading up to lunch hour my stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots, and I practically had to drag myself to the cafeteria beside a chatting Jeremy.

Lining up, I couldn't even make myself look over at the coven's usual table. Buying food was useless; with as unsettled as my stomach was, it would only come right back up. I just grabbed a bottle of lemonade for something to carry.

"Edythe Cullen is staring at you again," Jeremy said, suddenly. "I wonder why she's sitting alone today."

I felt a small but significant amount of relief that I wouldn't have to face five vampires today. That didn't make facing one any less frightening, but it was easier.

I turned toward where Jeremy was looking, to where Edythe was sitting at an empty table across the cafeteria from where she usually sat.

Her dimples flashed as soon as she knew I'd seen her and she raised one hand and motioned with her index finger for me to join her. When I couldn't help but roll my eyes she just winked.

"Does she mean you?" Jeremy asked. There was an insult in his astonishment, but I didn't care. Much.

"Yep." I said.

"Why?!"

Okay, that was definitely insulting. "Obviously, she wants to carry my child." Jeremy gaped.

"I thought you were gay!"

How could I have ever thought he was even slightly like Hermes? Clearly he was a moron.

"That was sarcasm, Jeremy." I told him, slowly. "We're partners in Biology. We arranged to catch up before class to go over something– this was the only time we were both free."

With that, I turned and strode away from Jeremy, over to Edythe. I could feel the eyes of most of the cafeteria burning into my back, but I determinedly pretended not to notice.

Edythe nudged the chair opposite her back with her foot and I sat down, placing my bottle of lemonade on the table in front of me. "Well." I said. "This is already embarrassing."

"Embarrassed to be seen with me?" She asked, amused.

"More like embarrassed for you," I retorted, and she laughed.

"I'm sure my reputation as hot but not worth wasting time on will survive. Your friends don't look happy, though."

"They'll survive too." I said, with a shrug. She grinned.

"I may not give you back, though."

I should definitely be a lot more terrified by that prospect.

"This is different." I said, after a pause that went on too long. Long enough that it should have felt uncomfortable– it didn't. I wasn't sure whether that was a bad sign or an awful one.

"Well," Edythe said, and then paused. I could tell there was more, so I waited. The rest of it followed in a rush, the words blurring together so that it took me a minute to decipher the meaning, just a tad bit too fast to be normal, to be human. "I decided as long as I was going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly."

"Well, at least I'll have good company down there." I said. "Your face would probably make all the torture and hellfire worth it."

"Just my face?" She responded automatically, before pausing, a small frown on her face. "You think you're going to hell?"

"And the even more beautiful brain behind that face," I added, before shrugging. If hell existed, the Christian one anyway, well, the whole 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live' thing probably sentenced me to the flames. "This conversation is getting very deep and profoundly meaningful. It's making me itch."

"Do you always deflect meaningful questions with jokes?" Edythe asked.

"Do you always deflect jokes with meaningful questions?" I countered. She sighed.

"You're almost making me rethink giving up."

"Giving up?" I asked, confused. "Giving up what?"

"I told you—I'm tired of trying to stay away from you. So I'm giving up." The smile was fading, and her eyes were serious by the end. "I'm giving up trying to be good. I'm just going to do what I want now, and let the chips fall where they may." The smile disappeared completely, and a hard edge crept into her silky voice.

"You realize that doesn't make much sense." I pointed out. She pulled a face.

"I know. I always say too much when I'm talking to you– that's one of the problems."

"If it makes you feel any better, I have the same issue." I admitted. We stared at each other for a few seconds, but the quiet wasn't awkward this time. It was more... charged. My face started to get hot.

"So," I said, looking away so that I could catch my breath. "In plain English, are we friends now?"

"Friends..." she murmured. She sounded like it wasn't her favorite word.

"Or not?" I offered.

"Well, we can try, I suppose. But I'm warning you again that I'm not a good friend for you to have." Her smile was brittle now, the warning real. I thought of white masks and black cloaks, of faceless murderers and the nameless dead, of skulls painting the night sky green and the terror of knowing, always knowing, that you were being hunted.

"Well," I said, quietly, my voice just as brittle as hers, "me either." There was a jagged feeling in my chest, an aching, raw pain. Edythe let out a quiet sigh.

"We're quite the pair, aren't we?" she mused.

"Yeah." I said, and tried not to think about the way she'd said that. Pair. I liked the sound of that far too much. And then I decided I didn't have to try not to think about how much I liked the way she'd linked us.

There was no point in fighting it– it was like she'd said; if I was going to hell, I may as well enjoy the fall.

Edythe's eyes flicked past my left arm and she smiled slightly. "Your girlfriend thinks I'm being mean to you— she's debating whether or not to come break up our fight." I sighed.

"She's not my girlfriend and you know that, don't be mean." Edythe frowned.

"I don't understand you," she said. "Until you said you were gay you hated the way she was always bothering you. Now you... don't."

"Because now she's just trying to be my friend." I explained.

"Friend." Edythe murmured again. I couldn't tell what the emotion burning in her golden eyes was, but it was so intense I had to look away. I concentrated on unscrewing the lid of my lemonade. I took a swig, staring at the table without seeing it. "Aren't you hungry?" she asked. Her stare was less intense now, I saw with relief, her perfect porcelain face was curious.

"Not really." I admitted. I glanced down at my watch, a new addition now that I couldn't just use a tempus charm. I grimaced and shoved my chair away from the table. "We're going to be late," I told her. She looked surprised for just a moment, and then the now-familiar amusement was back.

"I'm not going to class today."

"Why not?"

She smiled up at me, but her eyes were not entirely disguised. I could still see the stress behind her façade.

"It's healthy to ditch class now and then," she said. I narrowed my eyes at her.

"What do you know that I don't?" I asked, suspiciously. She looked considering for a moment then smiled.

"How about I show you those magazines I promised you?" she suggested and I shrugged, not really seeing a reason not to agree. I'd much prefer staying with her, listening to her voice and watching the expressions flying across her face, so much faster then I could analyse them, then go to Biology.

The first bell rang and Edythe rose gracefully to her feet and turned away from the Biology classroom, towards the car-park instead. I could see McKayla's curious and wary look so I gave her a thumbs up and smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring way before following the vampire out into the rain.