"That was for Tyler's sake, not mine. I had to give him his chance." He snickered hard.
"You... " I gasped at the dawning realization: he'd done it on purpose! I couldn't think of a bad enough word. It felt like the heat of my angry passion should physically burn him, but he only seemed more amused.
"And I'm not pretending you don't exist," he continued.
"So you are trying to irritate me to death? Since Tyler's van didn't do the job? And your lies about telling me the truth were so lieful that I just about died? And you hate me?"
Anger flashed in his tawny eyes. His lips pressed together into a hard line and his nose wrinkled, all signs of humor gone.
"Bella, you are utterly absurd," he said, his low voice cold as an iceberg.
My palms tingled115—I wanted so badly to hit something. I was surprised at myself. I was usually a nonviolent person. I turned my back and started to walk away, images of slapping Fredward's big, beautiful teeth out of his mouth running rampant in my brain. I had to get away before I did something rash.
"Wait," he called. I kept walking, sloshing angrily through the rain. I am not absurd, I told myself. If anyone's absurd it is that fool Fredward Cullen, but he was next to me, easily keeping pace.
"I'm sorry, that was rude," he said as we walked. I ignored him. "I'm not saying it isn't true, you really are an absurd woman," he continued, "but it was rude to say it, anyway."
"Why won't you just leave me alone?"
"I wanted to ask you something, but you sidetracked me," he chuckled, blaming me for him ruining everything. He seemed to have recovered his good humor.
"Do you have a severely severe multiple personality disorder?" I asked with severity.
"You're doing it again."
114. A bit of an overstatement; Bella is arguably more alive than she's ever been, now that Fredward Cullen has entered her life.
115. Spidey-sense.