Yet Another Confrontation

Bella hadn't noticed Oliver and Tiffany approaching the table. I tried to keep the calm face as I remembered that I never told Bella of Oliver's and my...interaction, but I was screaming on the inside.

Which supernatural deity had a vested interest in keeping my life in a constant state of fucked 10 ways sideways? If I ever found out, I was going to... have a few choice words with them.

Back to the situation at hand, Oliver and Tiffany had made it halfway to our table. They had stopped and seemed to be in a terse discussion with Oliver's back turned toward me and Tiffany glancing between us and Oliver. Apparently my attention having settled on something over her shoulder had caused Bella to turn and investigate.

Crap, I really needed to figure out something to deflect from Oliver and my encounter the other day or there would be no telling how Bella would react.

By the time Bella had turned around enough to see what I was looking at, Oliver and Tiffany had finished their discussion and had resumed their course toward our table. Oliver's pissed face had changed to a neutral one, most likely at the behest of Tiffany. Her facial expression had also lost the scared look, but I could still sense the tension in her body.

I'm pretty sure she knew about what happened the other day, and I thought the fact Bella hadn't retaliated yet communicated that Tiffany and I were on the same team, or at least could work together to deescalate this situation before it happened. Well I hoped that was the case, and the glance we shared reinforced the idea.

Surprisingly, Bella hadn't seemed to react to the presence of her friends as we both watched them approach. Unfortunately this didn't give me any indication as to how she felt about the interruption of our date, but I was pretty sure she was not pleased.

"Hey you guys! What a happy coincidence meeting you here!" I was surprised by the friendly tone in Oliver's voice and the ease in which he changed form anger to nice, which all put me on edge. He was going to be more dangerous than your run of the mill muscle head jock, and I couldn't decide if I was more happy or upset that Bella was present for my second encounter with him. In the end, I could only hope he was skilled enough to throw Bella off from what his intention was.

Speaking of which, what was his intention? I didn't think he was going to confront me on either "blackmailing" Bella or for whatever I allegedly did to Tiffany. Maybe he was just trying to recon the enemy? In any case, he had no idea how close he was to igniting the powder keg.

"Hey guys," came Tiffany's meek greeting.

"Hi Tiffany, Oliver. Tiffany, I know you have already met John, but I'm not sure about you Oliver." Tiffany seemed to deflate a little at that while Oliver and I looked each other in the eye, having a silent conversation.

"A few classes. Nothing personal yet," I said as I reached out to offer my hand. Oliver smiled in satisfaction before taking my hand in a crushing handshake. God this guy was a prick. I was half temped to sick the hounds of Hell, I mean Bella, on him. But that would go against what I was trying to accomplish.

"Listen, this place is really full. Mind if we sit with you while we wait for our table? Oh wait, you two aren't in the middle of something, are you? We can just leave if you want." Even though he offered to leave, Oliver had already sat down next to me, most likely in an effort to manipulate us into letting them stay.

I knew Bella really didn't want them there, but I had made living her past life a condition for the date. How would past Bella have handled this situation? I know her friends where very important to her back then, but were they important enough to interrupt a date like this? Following her earlier confession, I would guess that she most likely would have allowed them to stay. But was Bella even thinking of her past life decisions right now? From the look she just gave me, I guessed that she was in fact thinking those same thoughts. And from the pain in her eyes, I knew she was struggling for an answer.

I guess the decision was going to be mine. I looked back at Oliver and I just knew that if we didn't get this over with now, he would just find me later, most likely without the watchful eye of Bella.

"No, its all good. We were just finishing with no other plans for the night." Another smile of success from Oliver.

"Great, thanks so much. Tiffany and I had been talking about coming here all week. Did you guys get the idea form us?" Besides our brief encounter, I had not spent anytime near Oliver, so I knew this was meant as a jab at me and my "controlling" Bella and monopolizing her time. Not very subtle on his part.

"Oliver!" Tiffany warned with a sharp tone as she sat down next to Bella.

"No, it's fine. I have been spending a lot of time with John. But I guess once you find that special someone, you just can't help but spend all your time with them. And only them." Ah, what the fuck Bella? Why are you attacking Tiffany? She is trying to stop this.

Tiffany did a great job of not reacting, but I saw the slightest twitch at Bella's comment.

"Well I for one, am glad you found someone. Although I am very curious how you two ended up together. I mean, what did people used to call you John? Bella's chew toy?"

"Oliver! That is none of our business! Leave it alone!" Tiffany squeaked with wide eyes. He really wasn't be subtle at all.

I don't know if it was his intention or not, but Oliver's comment toward me immediately ignited my anger. While what he said was true, this was hardly the time or place to be dredging up those things. I had actually been having a nice time and this lumbering underdwelling ogre had to mess it up. Without even looking, I knew Bella's anger matched, or even exceeded, mine. I could just feel the heat coming off her.

Remarkably, none of that heat could be felt in Bella's reply, "Well you know, spend enough time with a person, you tend to notice the good traits in a person. I'm just sorry for my behavior toward John during that time, which we have already discussed privately." For the first time Oliver lost his smile. I think he was hoping for a more emotional response from Bella or I. Some how I felt Bella knew this and did her best to not take the bait.

After several long seconds of tense silence, Oliver threw his hands up like a petulant toddler throwing a tantrum. "Ah fuck it! What the fuck did you two do to Tiffany?"

This time Bella's anger was clearly felt in her simple response. "We didn't do anything."

"Bullshit, I know she went to confront John the other day about blackmailing you. But now she won't even whisper either of your names. And not to mention how jumpy and clingy she has gotten."

"****?" The anger in Bella's voice disintegrated. "You think John is blackmailing me?"

Tiffany spoke up for the first time, "Come on Bella. Why else would you, the cheerleading captain and hottest girl in school, be going out with him?" The disdain in her voice was enough to jumpstart Bella's anger again. "Everyone knows how much he disgusted you and now we can barely pry you away from him for cheer practice. This is a huge difference. You have to admit most people would find that very suspicious."

"Fine, I will give you that. But ****? Do you really think anyone could **** me? My priorities might have shifted away from cheer, but don't for a second think that anyone would get away with something as underhanded and petty as ****." Bella pretty much growled the last sentence out at our two guests.

"Fine, you are a bad bitch. Got it. But I really don't care what is going on with you and John. I only care about what you did to Tiffany," Oliver snarled back. "I knew I should have just beat the answers out of chew toy over here."

Bella's glare snapped to me. "He's the reason you were hurt the other day! And you didn't tell me! John, I promised to stop this shit from happening, but I can only do that if you tell me about it." Her glare swung back to Oliver. "Honestly, I did do something to Tiffany. But it doesn't really matter what. I know she just had my best intentions in mind. But you. You are now just a piece of trash. Trash that I have to deal with."

"Ha, trash! What the fuck you going to do little girl?" Oliver laughed while both Tiffany and I could only watch on in awe and horror.

"Well I would usually just give you a veiled threat, but I am too disgusted to think of anything clever and I am way past threatening. I know about you and Traci..." I didn't know what she was talking about, but Tiffany and I both made the connection at roughly the same time. I was more than shocked with that revelation. Traci was Zeke's girlfriend, which was a big deal because Zeke was the male equivalent of Bella. He was the hottest piece of male ass that all the girls were after as well as the soccer team captain. He was a pacifist so him and I never really crossed paths as he never partook in the popular kid hobby of picking on Bella's Chew Toy. It was also well known that he was a one woman kind of guy, and that woman was Traci. If anything could make him turn violent, it was his girl cheating, and he was definitely someone you wanted on your side in a dark alley.

The color drained from his face as realization sunk in. "Did you fucking cheat on me Oliver! With Traci? She was my friend, how the hell could you do this, you fucking bastard." Tears were streaming down Tiffany's face as she screeched at her boyfriend, hopefully soon to be ex. But her wrath shifted to Bella. "And you knew?! How long have you known and didn't tell me? You know what, don't answer that. This is all bullshit, you are a sucky friend Bella."

Bella did manage to put on a sorrowful face. "I really am Tiffany, but it happened after you having your titties sucked at the party and I had already decided to not get involved. I really am sorry, I promise I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You had your tits sucked at a party?!" This time Oliver was the one to get pissed. I watched helplessly as the group devolved into chaos. I guess its not always sunshine and rainbows at the top of the high school food chain. Too much back stabbing going on for my taste.

Oliver's anger seemed to keep rising as he kept repeating how Tiffany had her tits sucked at a party. While I thought his transgressions were definitely worse, I wouldn't really describe Oliver as having a high emotional intelligence and most likely took that as a hit to his fragile male ego.

Bella was the first to realize that Oliver was quick approaching critical mass and moved to defuse the mess she caused. "Look, you both really messed up. Hell, I really messed up with John. But we were able to work through that and look at us now. You guys have history, you should really talk it..."

SLAP

The sound of an open hand contacting a check silenced the entire restaurant. It took my brain half a second to realize that the red faced Oliver and reached over and slapped Tiffany with his big, meaty mit.

It took my brain another half second to process what happened next.

The sound a nose crunching and a yell of pain filled the silence inside the restaurant. Bella's fist had connected with Oliver's nose in a flash of movement, sending the stocky athlete toppling out of his chair. Bella had hurtled over the table like a track star before I fully realized what was happening and had landed with a foot in Oliver's gut. The impact caused his diaphragm to contract, pushing all the air out of his lungs. He rolled out from under Bella, desperately trying to catch his breath while one arm wrapped about his mid section and the other was up to his nose trying to stop the bleeding.

"Don't you even lay a hand on a woman you piece of shit." Bella took the opportunity to give him a furious, solid kick to his lower back. "And that's for fucking with John." She leaned over to get close to his ear and he continued to roll and groan from the pain. "This shit will heal, but if you ever come close to John or Tiffany again, I will find something more...permanent. That I promise you." With that she stood and looked to Tiffany. She was holding her face where Oliver had slapped her with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. "You ok baby girl? I'm so sorry I didn't tell you sooner. And I'm sorry for not being able to stop him from hurting you. Come on, lets get out of here."

Tiffany answered with an almost inaudible "OK."

I still hadn't moved since the yelling began, but Bella motioning towards me spurred me into action. I got up and stepped over Oliver's groaning body, stopped and took out $40 and tossed it on the table before following the two cheerleaders through the group of people who had gathered to witness the meathead get absolutely wrecked by a cheerleader. A badass cheerleader who was in love with me.