I'd never Lose my head enough to believe you and I would walk off into the sunset together, especially now that I'm going to Caltech. I think you and Sam would make a great couple, and I genuinely hope things work out for you two.”

I arched an eyebrow.

“What happened to Team Belle?"

Mari exchanged a Loaded look with her best friend.

Alice leaned forward. "Yeah, what happened to Team Belle?"

Belle herself screwed up her face and finally answered, "I'd be a horrible girlfriend for you."

Alice sat up straight and frowned. "What makes you say that?"

Belle pointed at herself with both index fingers and deadpanned, “Crazy stalker. Murdering Sam in her sleep."

I waved her off. "I never worried about you murdering Sam in her sleep."

Belle cocked her head to the side. "But if I told you I'd intercepted

Sam's Berkeley paperwork, shredded it, and then forged a letter declining the offer, you'd believe me capable of doing so, wouldn't you?"

My mouth went dry.

“Please tell me you didn't do anything Like that."

“Of course not, and you're proving my point." Belle sighed, Looked up, and took a deep breath. "The fact that you want me to reassure you I didn't shred Sam's paperwork proves just how little you trust me right now."

“And that means you decided you'd be a horrible girlfriend for me?"

“I would be a horrible girlfriend for you. If you were mine - as in

‘officially mine’ - I'd turn into a possessive jealous bitch. We saw how I acted around Holly, and that was me TRYING to be nice and let her in." Belle sighed and gave me an apologetic look.

“Even as it stands,

I'm gonna have to control my impulses to judge and hate every other girl you so much as look at for the rest of my life."

I made a face at that pronouncement.

Mari chimed in again, “Hence, Matty getting together with Sam solving all your problems."

Belle looked glum. "Much as I would agree, so again I wouldn't have to worry about some random greedy bitch taking you away from me, it's not gonna happen. Sam's never gonna date you."

Alice's eyebrows went up. "So sure? She clearly loves him."

"So do we all," Belle remarked. "But she's still not gonna date him until after she's graduated college at the earliest. She's been VERY clear on that point.”

“She has," I agreed.