Her breath comes out in a whoosh and she aborts the angry rant. But she glares at Mike.

"I gave her exactly as much space as she wanted me to? She seems to think I am good company," says Darren, icy cold.

"Really? Because I can also remember who it was who told everybody that her mom was dead and implied that people should back off."

"Hey fuckwad, that was me, you dipshits were fucking tactless, Eric nearly got his head bitten off."

"Yeah, I know it was you, and I know your twin didn't get the memo about Bella wanting space and now they're all cozy and how is that fair?"

Darren gives Mike a confused look. "I beg your pardon? Fair? What am I being unfair about?"

"Nobody else even got the chance to get to know her first!"

"... In the romantic sense, you mean."

"Yeah. It looks like you deliberately had your sister running interference so nobody else would even have a chance with the new girl."

Darren stares at Mike, for a little while. Then he growls, "You're acting like she is a prize to be won. Like if you had gotten there first she would have fallen into your arms like some plush doll you win at a carnival and you're upset with me because I got there first. She is not either, she has preferences and it seems like you don't know any of them. There is no clever subterfuge or me treating her like you seem to think I am. I was nice to her, she was nice to me, I got a crush, and then I asked her out. Simple as that."

"Wh- I didn't say it'd be definite it'd be me, maybe it'd have been Eric or somebody, I'm saying it wasn't fair. You didn't just get there first, you had like - a perimeter defense."

"No, I'd asked her what she wanted me to do, and she wanted people to leave her alone, so Savannah and I helped with that. Frankly I don't care if you think it's fair or not, it was based on what she wanted, which is important and you seem to be ignoring it entirely."

"She wanted people to leave her alone and you didn't leave her alone," Mike says stubbornly.

"Actually," says Savannah, "he did. He didn't pry in the slightest, avoided the entire subject of her mom, and did not expect her to be buddy-buddy, he did jack shit except give her some notes and show her to where her classes were, then invite her to sit with him at lunch. She became buddy-buddy 'cause my brother's not a fuckwad. Unlike some people I could mention."

"If you hadn't been running interference for him I would've invited her to sit at my table at lunch, too, since apparently that was allowed after all, if she even asked you to tell everybody about her mom after all."

"She totally did."

"You have absolutely no basis in what she wants or doesn't want," says Darren. "You continue to miss the point. It is not about 'fairness' on some kind of deranged romantic battlefield, it is about Bella's preferences. She did not want to answer lots of questions, so she spent time with people that did not ask them. That is that, none of this - manipulative high school drama that you seem to be crafting in your head."

"Yes," says Darren, rolling his eyes. "I am aware."

"Why should I take your word on Bella's preferences, anyhow?"

"Maybe I will," says Mike.

"To asking her about her preferences, rather than treating her like she is not a person, I hope."

"I know perfectly well she's a person, idiot."

"You have yet to act like it."