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By the end of Bio, the halls are full of people eager to inform Bella and everyone else within earshot that her friend is a murderer. They have entirely the wrong attitude to have formed the impression because he just now murdered someone, and also her father hasn't come looking for her yet, so this is probably nonsense.
Bella goes to gym.
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self_composed
edgeofyourseat
"Probably, yeah. Is this felony assault one about me, too, or are there fights going on at this school that I'm not in?"
self_composed
"That's also you, yes. I didn't get around to looking up whether provocation's an extenuating circumstance - and have decided not to ask Charlie, for the time being."
self_composed
"A Jeep," says Bella.
What? That's all she knows about the other vehicle. If it had been someone she knew she would probably not have cut him off.
What? That's all she knows about the other vehicle. If it had been someone she knew she would probably not have cut him off.
edgeofyourseat
"Guess I won't ask why you did it," he says, indicating the I HAVE NO EXCUSE written next to the note.
self_composed
"No excuse doesn't mean no reason. I was in a hurry. That's just not actually a good cause for cutting somebody off. Probably saved me less than thirty seconds if anything, and I could have gotten into an accident."
edgeofyourseat
He snorts and looks back down at the book.
"If I had one'a these, would you wanna read it?" he asks, not quite as nonchalantly as he meant to.
"If I had one'a these, would you wanna read it?" he asks, not quite as nonchalantly as he meant to.
self_composed
"Heh. I've never gotten anyone to start serious notetaking before," chuckles Bella.
self_composed
"No, not really. I don't think most people care about the same things I care about anyway. Renée doesn't even write down grocery lists when she does the shopping. She wanders through the store and grabs what looks good and wonders why she doesn't have a red onion when she wants one the following Thursday. Charlie's pretty diligent about getting stuff he learns in investigations written down, for documentation if there's some kind of dispute later, but he doesn't extend it to any other sphere of life."
edgeofyourseat
"Well, I don't care about pinning my thoughts down where I can see 'em," says Alice. "But I might care about pinning them down where you can see 'em."
edgeofyourseat
He thinks about it for a moment.
And a moment more, tilting his head from side to side.
And then he laughs.
"I see what you mean about the stuff you think not wanting to stay the way you thought it," he says.
And a moment more, tilting his head from side to side.
And then he laughs.
"I see what you mean about the stuff you think not wanting to stay the way you thought it," he says.
self_composed
"I have a box of them at home. They're pennies apiece in bulk. I can bring you one tomorrow."
self_composed
"Yes please." She hands him a pen; he's still holding her notebook. "You can write it down too, if you like."
edgeofyourseat
He flips back to the most recent page, and then to a blank one after it.
A short interval of scribbling later, with much crossing-out and gazing thoughtfully at the page and one instance of nearly nibbling on her pen but stopping himself in time, he passes the notebook back.
His handwriting is pretty terrible, but more or less readable nevertheless. All in all, it only took half the page.
At the very top are the words Because I like you, with 'like' crossed out and 'love' written in next to it. From that sentence, two arrows wiggle down the page.
One points to a scribbled-out 'because', followed by So I want you to hurt me, which is also crossed out; the final version, So I want you to have the chance to hurt me, is written below that.
The other arrow points to So I want you to know what I think, with a (/how) added next to the 'what' as an obvious afterthought.
"Because I like you's what I ended up wanting to say," he explains. "The other stuff's what it actually meant."
A short interval of scribbling later, with much crossing-out and gazing thoughtfully at the page and one instance of nearly nibbling on her pen but stopping himself in time, he passes the notebook back.
His handwriting is pretty terrible, but more or less readable nevertheless. All in all, it only took half the page.
At the very top are the words Because I like you, with 'like' crossed out and 'love' written in next to it. From that sentence, two arrows wiggle down the page.
One points to a scribbled-out 'because', followed by So I want you to hurt me, which is also crossed out; the final version, So I want you to have the chance to hurt me, is written below that.
The other arrow points to So I want you to know what I think, with a (/how) added next to the 'what' as an obvious afterthought.
"Because I like you's what I ended up wanting to say," he explains. "The other stuff's what it actually meant."
self_composed
She reads it.
"What do you want me to do with the chance to hurt you?" she asks. "And don't say 'whatever you want' unless you think about it for a full sixty seconds and still mean it - that's what I'll actually do, because everyone does what they want one way or another, but that doesn't mean you have no opinion."
"What do you want me to do with the chance to hurt you?" she asks. "And don't say 'whatever you want' unless you think about it for a full sixty seconds and still mean it - that's what I'll actually do, because everyone does what they want one way or another, but that doesn't mean you have no opinion."
self_composed
Bella's not wearing a watch, but she has a phone. She pulls it out and watches seconds blink past. "Go," she says.
edgeofyourseat
"But I don't really know what you're timing me doing," he says, "because I know damn well what I want. If hurting me is what you want to do, you'll do it, and if it isn't, you won't. And there's only one way to find that out. I don't think you will, but maybe I'm wrong. It makes a difference if you do or not, but not the kind of difference that changes how much I want one or the other. So if I have to sit here knowing that for a full minute before you'll buy it, then sure, I'll do that."