Characters property of SM. This story was beta'd by princess-serenity-324
Kissing Instructions
- 1 -
It's my first year at med school, second semester, and jeeze, the work is hard. Well, not hard exactly, more like relentless. There's an avalanche of reading to do, and there are constant 're given assignment after assignment, all due in yesterday, and there's no time whatsoever for a life. I love reading, but I didn't think I'd be casting my eyes over nothing but medical texts for the next forever. If I so much as looked at the cover of a novel I would flunk right out of school within the next second.
The people around me seem to fit in social lives, and I just don't understand. I can only assume they're all repeating, that they already did this year last year, and that gives them the leeway to spend precious time on a social life, or a cultural life, or a life of the mind. I'd settle for five minutes on the sofa not having to think about biochemistry.
My room-mate Alice, is a case in point. I am not slow, if I was I wouldn't be here, but how can she have finished her homework before me tonight? I've been staring at it until my eyeballs want to turn inside out.
"Bella, there's an open-mic night at the Exchange - are you coming?" she calls, breaking my concentration.
She is such a socialite, and a fashionista, that she attends every function held by every group on campus, and looks dynamite at all of them. Her family must be millionaires, because she has more possessions than anyone I've ever met. Mostly clothes. She's lovely, and we get along very well, but I don't know where her inexhaustible energy comes from. One of these days, once I can decipher what I see on a microscope slide, I'm going to ask for a blood sample and analyze it, and then I'm going to ask for a transfusion, and just for one night, I will have the joie de vivre of Alice Cullen.
"Alice, I haven't finished this assignment yet, and it's due in first thing Monday morning," I answer.
"Yes, Bella, Monday morning. That gives you all weekend to work on it," she responds.
"I'm going home to see Dad this weekend," I remind her.
"Bella, darling," she begins, coming up to where I'm sitting at my desk. She puts her arms around me from behind. "How many words is it? You've done your outline, right? It's not going to take you long to finish it. Take a night off, honey - you work really hard. Give yourself a break. Everyone takes Friday night off."
She looks adorable, she always does. She is ridiculously pretty, and has a trick with her hair of making it stick straight out which may sound unappealing, but it suits her quirky personality, and quick way of thinking and speaking. I only met her this year, but I feel as though I've always known her, and I treasure her friendship.
I sigh and lean back against her, and acquiesce.
"I suppose I could do with a distraction," I murmur. "I'll throw on a clean t-shirt and be with you in five."
"A clean t-shirt Bella? Is that all you're going to do?" Alice squeaks. I am breaking her dress code. You don't go out in jeans and t-shirts. Alice probably wouldn't even dress in such a way if no-one could see her. Tonight she is in a silver strappy number and she looks like she's going to the Oscars.
"Bella, you need to put something nice on. There will be boys there," she says sternly.
"Oh, I just changed my mind, I'm staying in," I say hastily, but she's rummaging in my closet sighing and tut-tutting loudly, and I'm not going to get away with it. I don't have time for boys. I don't even have time to cut my fingernails - what would I do with a boy?
"Ah, this will have to do. Honestly Bella, I don't know how you survived before I turned up," she says, pulling my one and only dress out on its hanger. It's midnight blue, and just below knee-length, and I bought it for my senior prom, which is the one and only time I have every worn it. It's lovely, but, "Don't you think I'll be a little overdressed?" I say anxiously.
Alice never looks overdressed, in fact she has the ability to make everybody else look under-dressed. She shakes her head at me. "You'll be noticeable. It's high time."
I get the dress on, and she applies makeup for me, and I check myself out in the mirror.
"Absolutely lovely, Bella Swan - why don't you go around looking like that every day?" Alice purrs approvingly.
"Because it's not practical student wear?" I offer, lamely.
I have to admit, Alice has somehow made me look pretty, which is quite a feat as I have a very ordinary face. She has achieved something special with my hair as well, making it seem thicker and tousled and tumbling.
The Exchange is only a block from our dorm, so it's a five minute walk, and the evening is warm. We stroll along chatting, and something suddenly occurs to me.
"Alice, when you mentioned there'll be boys there tonight, are you thinking of anyone in particular? Are you meeting someone?"
"Maybe," Alice's lips curve up in a grin.
"Alice Cullen, you tell me right now! Or I'll, I'll, I don't know what I'll do but I'll think of something and you'll wish I hadn't!" I threaten.
"Oh, Bella, I couldn't keep a secret from you anyway. Yes, there is someone, actually. He's a friend of my brother's. His name is Jasper, and he's so gorgeous I just want to eat him, and he said he's going to be there tonight. He plays guitar and sings, and he's going to do an item. I said I'd come along and throw a rose up on stage during his act."
"But Alice, you don't have a rose."
"No, I figured I'd throw myself," she chirps happily.
She's never mentioned an interest in anyone before, so I'm intrigued. This Jasper must be pretty special.
We get in there, and it's dark, and straightaway, I have a mishap. There is a step which of course I couldn't see, and I'm wearing silly high-heeled sandals which normally I wouldn't be caught dead in, and I miss my footing. The only thing that stops me crashing in a heap to the floor is that I knock someone else to a heap on the floor and land on them.
A pair of arms go around me, and a male voice grunts.
Now, I've been spatially challenged since childhood, and sometimes I like to amuse myself by counting how many humiliating mishaps I can have during the course of an evening. This is obviously going to be one of those nights.
I go to stand up, but I seem to have become entangled in this other person, and as I try to gather my wits he says, "That's a very novel approach. Most women trying to pick me up start with hello."
"I am not trying to pick you up, whoever you are!" I retort, as he helps me to stand. "In fact, I believe you've just picked me up!"
Now that we're not both at carpet-level I see his face, and he's grinning at me. I'm struck dumb, because I think he may be the best-looking man in North America. If I'd seen him first I would never have opened my big mouth to say something so cheeky, I would have scuttled off and hidden under a piece of furniture.
"May I introduce myself?" he asks. "I'm Edward. And you would be - ?"
"Pleased to meet you, and sorry I knocked you down, amongst other things," I say in a panic, looking for Alice. She has disappeared into the depths of the bar, presumably unaware that I'm making a fool of myself just inside the door. Even in these high heels Alice persuaded me to wear he is a lot taller than me, and I can't really see his coloring in here, but he's pale, and his hair is dark, and looks like he was dragged through a hedge. Maybe he had an immaculate hairdo and I made a mess of it when I crashed into him and sent him flying!
"I'm sorry about your hair," I tell him, and I set off to look for Alice. I don't get far, because he puts a hand on my arm.
"What about my hair?" he says, looking puzzled.
"Well, it's a mess," I point out.
He frowns. "I spend a lot of time getting it to look like this," he says, and I feel like a fool.
"Oh, ignore me. I'm still sorry about your hair, but now it's for a different reason, it's because I maligned your painstaking and elaborate construction," I say.
"Are you okay?" he asks, hand still on my arm. "Do you need to sit down? My friends and I have a table."
"I'm always like this," I assure him. "I fall down, and I say weird things. Don't worry about it. I study neuroscience. When I qualify I'm going to extract my own brain and sort out the speech centre, you know, and fix the balance problem with my middle ear. Everything will be fine then, I'll be normal."
"That might be a shame," he says, and I really need to get out of there before I fall over again, and say even weirder things.
Once I find Alice, I see she is deep in conversation with a tall fair-haired boy, and I would definitely be a third wheel if I tried to join in. He is bending down to her to listen, and their bodies are turned in to each other so this is a positive sign, showing that he must be keen.
I'm really happy for her, but I'm also standing there wondering what to do with myself, and I decide to go to the bar. Vodka would go down nicely right now. Drink in hand I'm still standing awkwardly when Alice looks up and comes straight over.
"Bella, come on, meet Jasper, say hello before he has to go onstage, he's first up tonight," she urges, and she introduces us. There is something calming about him immediately, even though I had been feeling slightly crazed after my encounter with Edward Hairman, and then nervous about standing by myself at the bar.
Jasper has a beautiful, almost feminine face, and he and Alice make a stunning couple. I hope he likes her - when she spoke about him on the way here there was nothing casual in her voice, it was all excitement and anticipation, and she certainly deserves to be loved.
There are one or two empty tables left and Alice and I find one and sit down, just as Jasper starts. I've never been to one of these nights before, but apparently it's a competition, and the contestants sing three songs, and at the end of the night there's a vote, and the winner is invited back next week as the reigning champion.
Jasper's voice is strong and tuneful, and he's a very good guitar player. His songs are a little bluesy, and he's got great stage presence, being laid back and smiley, and he engages with the audience. Either he has a lot of friends here, or the audience really like him, as the applause is verging on tumultuous.
He comes back to sit with us and we watch some more performances, but for my money, he's the clear winner so far. Then the mc announces the defending champion, and to my extreme surprise, it's Edward, the boy I ended up on top of on the way in.
"Here we go, my arch rival," Jasper says with a smile, and he sits back in his chair crossing his legs and looking as though he doesn't have a care on the world.
He should, though, because Edward is very good. He's every bit as good as Jasper, although stylistically they're very different. His voice has this kind of lazy vibe, like he slides off notes wearily, and he sounds older than he looks.
Jasper looked outwards as he played, Edward looks inwards. He closes his eyes and shakes his head, and his hair falls forward, and the equilibrium I had attained disappears.
I go to the bathroom halfway through the first song and stay there, because he's gorgeous and a great singer and I'm allergic to having crushes on boys. I burst into rashes, and develop speech impediments and hyperhidrosis and my general klutziness intensifies to the point I appear to have an ankle-twisting disorder and butter-finger syndrome.
Luckily, this doesn't happen often since I don't seem to meet many boys I get crazy about. After what I judge must have been long enough I emerge from the ladies only to find that I bump straight into someone, and it's the same someone I already knocked to the ground once tonight.
"Oh, hello mystery girl - you didn't just miss my set, did you?" he asks.
"No, no, I caught it, absolutely. You're great. Better than great. You should come first, at the very least," I nod.
"Are you going to vote for me?" he asks, standing closer.
"Are you allowed to solicit votes? Is that in the rules?" I say. "It goes against the democratic grain."
"I'm not corrupt, if that's what you're implying. Vote for whoever you like. I wouldn't dream of soliciting votes, or buying them, for that matter. But may I buy you a drink?" he says.
A combination of dim lighting and Alice's magic with makeup is working for me tonight, because I think he is flirting with me.
"No," I say, as I only ever buy my own drinks.
We go back into the main room, and he walks me back to the table I've been sitting at with Alice and Jasper, and Jasper says to him, "May the best man win," and Alice must have gone to the bar or somewhere because she's not there, and Edward goes off wherever he goes, and I sit back down with Jasper.
"I enjoyed your songs, and I love your voice," I say to him, and he's charming and thanks me, and I really think he has some kind of feel good mojo that cheers people up, because once again, I was starting to feel a little vertigo, caused undoubtedly by the absolutely unfair attractiveness of that Edward. Being around Jasper means I can breathe without having palpitations.
Someone comes around handing out little pieces of paper and asks us to indicate our preference out of all the acts that appeared tonight, and I have to admit I voted for Jasper and after a while the MC takes to the stage to announce the winner.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we hope you've had as good a night as we have, the performers have all been stellar, and tonight the kudos goes once again to our resident King of the Strings, the Voice of Choice - Edward!" he yells.
The audience erupts, Jasper shrugs, Alice leans over and hugs him and I applaud half-heartedly because I think I'm meant to, and then I drink the rest of my vodka, by now my second, and take bets with myself on whether Alice is coming back with me tonight or not. My practical brain says of course she is, she's a student, she's going to come home and read a textbook, my intuitive brain says of course she isn't, look at the two of them, she's going off with that boy and they'll boink their lights out.
I guess my intuitive brain has won, when Alice comes over to me and says, "We'll walk you home, Bella, and then I'm going with Jasper. I'm just going to the bathroom now and we'll meet you at the front door."
"Oh, Alice, it's only a block, I'll be fine, but okay, yes, your Jasper's looking really into you, call me tomorrow," I say, and she smiles a smile of true happiness, linking her arm with his, and they both head off to the bathrooms, while I ponder the journey home and wonder if I'll make it without breaking a leg in front of Jasper and needing to be accompanied to hospital. I only have a block to negotiate in my sandals, and I didn't step in a crack and break a leg on the way here, so I'll be fine, right?
As I'm just about to walk through the door there's a voice at my shoulder, a deep voice, slightly husky, saying, "You haven't told me your name."
I look over my shoulder at Edward. I can't think why he would want to know.
"My name is Bella," I tell him.
"Where do you live, Bella? And how are you getting home?" he asks.
"I live in Phnom Penh, and I'm teleporting," I answer.
"I'll see you home," he says. This may be a gentlemanly act, but my danger detector goes off, and it's ringing loudly. Why would he want to see me home?
"That's really not necessary, I have a titanium carbon-fiber protective epidermal covering and I'm trained in every known discipline of unarmed combat," I tell him.
"I'm sure you are, somehow I don't doubt it. You seem to have a boy-deflector shield as well, but I'll still see you to your car," he says.
At that moment, Alice and Jasper reappear, and Jasper says, "Next week, Eddie-boy, you and me to the death," and Edward grins at him, and then to my amazement, he says to Alice, "Go easy on my friend, you demented hobbit," and she smirks, "Oh, dear brother, I'm not going to go easy at all, I'm going to go hard."
I verbally flagellate Alice all the way home.
"You didn't tell me you had a brother!"
"Yes, I did," she says.
"You didn't tell me Edward was your brother!" I say.
"Why would I? You didn't know him!" she answers.
"Well, well - " I splutter.
We're at the door of our building now, and Alice pulls me to one side.
"Bella, you know how that place is called The Exchange?" she says. "Have you heard the story in circulation explaining the name? People say it's called that because of the reputation of a certain person who frequents it. A certain third year med student who makes conquests in there. A certain person who usually leaves with a different girl to the one he arrived with. He uses it as his personal girl swap-shop. And Bella, I'm very sorry to say, that certain person is my brother, the snake, Edward Cullen."
.
.
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