A HUGE thank you to my beta, cdunbar. She rocks and so do her stories, check them out when you're done here!

A shout out to all the Twilighted ladies who have encouraged me to go through with this...you know who you are!

And a special mention to EclipseoftheTwilightMoon...you know why. If you haven't read Written in the Stars by her then, where have you been?

Disclaimer: I do own an old red Chevy pick up truck and a bunch of painting equipment but unfortunately I do not own Twilight or any of it's characters...they belong to Stephenie Meyer but I'm sure glad she shared them with us!

Chapter 1

BELLA

BPOV

"Come on, Bella. We're going to be late!" Alice whined as she bounced impatiently in the living room of my apartment.

"Tell me again why I'm coming with you?" I asked, walking out of the bathroom while twisting my hair into a ponytail.

"Because I really like this guy and I want you to meet him. Anyway, he's bringing his roommate, so it's not like you'll only have me to talk to," she said, pulling me toward the door as I grabbed my keys and jacket.

At the mention of the roommate I stopped, causing her to almost fall backwards.

"Alice," I warned. "You'd better not be trying to set me up. You know I'm leaving in a couple of weeks and I'm not interested in starting something right now."

"Of course not, silly. When I told Jazz that I wanted him to meet you, he thought it would be a good idea to drag his roommate along too, you know, to even things up."

"Drag him along? What is he, some kind of recluse?" This idea is getting worse by the second.

"No, he's just busy with school and…I guess he doesn't get out much?" she hedged as she gave me her patented 'puppy dog pout'.

She knew I couldn't resist that pout.

My shoulders sagged in defeat and I sighed. "Fine. But you know I'm only doing this because I love you, right?"

"Right." She nodded her head once and a huge smile spread across her tiny face as she resumed dragging me out of the door.

--

Alice and I had been friends since the first day of high school.

Up until then, there had only been a handful of people in my life I would consider friends. One of them was my mother, Renee. The rest were halfway across the country.

Growing up in Redmond, a city just outside of Seattle, since the age of five, I was always considered a bit of 'loner'. With the city being the "Home of Microsoft," it was full of wealthy computer 'moguls' and their offspring.

As the child of an elementary school teacher whose trusty old iMac belonged in a museum, I had neither the means nor the inclination to upgrade. I just never really fit in.

Not that it mattered much to me. I was too engrossed in my books most of the time to even notice that I was a misfit, of sorts, reading everything and anything I could get hands on. The characters in my favorite stories coming to life in my imagination. They were my friends throughout my childhood and teens.

Then came the first day of my freshman year. I was standing in the small courtyard at the front of the school, studying my schedule when I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, a girl heading straight towards me.

The first thing that struck me was her size. I suppose 'petite' would be an accurate description, but despite her stature, she appeared to be the most confident girl there.

As she approached me, I got a clearer look and there was no denying that she was tiny. She had an almost pixie-like quality to her. Her short, dark hair was styled in messy spikes and her big, blue eyes were set perfectly above her button nose and rosebud lips.

She was dressed in a short plaid, pleated skirt, a tight black sweater with red knee-high socks and matching plaid Doc Martin shoes. On anyone else the look may have been described as 'punky catholic schoolgirl,' but on her it looked cute and chic.

"Hi, I'm Alice Brandon," she stated, holding her hand out between us.

"Bella Swan," I said, taking her hand and giving it a small shake, a little nervous about her motives.

"Nice to meet you Bella," she grinned and was almost bouncing on the spot. "We're going to be great friends. I just know it!"

I had to smile at her enthusiasm. Her excitement was infectious. "Oh, do you now?" I chuckled.

"Yes, I do." She became a little indignant. But then winked at me, letting me know that she wasn't offended by my amusement. "I'm rarely wrong about these things, you know."

From that moment on she became like the sister I never had, but had always wanted. She was the 'joie de vivre' to my 'calm and collected'. We complimented each other perfectly. She had the ability to bring me out of myself and see the fun in life, while I could calm her down when she got overexcited almost to the point of hysteria.

Her house became my second home and her parents treated me like I was their daughter, taking me in whenever Renee and one of the long line of 'new daddies' needed some privacy, without passing judgment or making comments about my home life. Knowing that despite some of her choices in life, I still loved my mother, even though she could make things more than uncomfortable for me at times.

Mr. Brandon, or Alistair as he insisted I call him, was a high-powered corporate lawyer who worked long hours, but always found time to spend with is family. He was truly devoted to Alice and her mother, Mary, while still managing to keep his 'girls' in a lifestyle that could only be described as lavish. And Mary spent her days volunteering for various charities, giving back to the community that had been so generous to her and her family.

They truly were living the All-American dream and I was lucky enough to have been taken along on the ride.

I was particularly grateful for their love and support when I made the decision to move out of Renee's house four months before graduation.

During the November of our senior year Renee had gone to Vegas for the weekend with her latest boy toy, Phil. They came back married, which was a shock to me for no other reason than my mom had been the anti marriage poster woman since divorcing my dad twelve years earlier.

Phil moved in with us and although he made my mom happy, the relationship between him and I was strained. He took it upon himself to fill the role of 'dad' despite the fact that he was closer in age to me than he was to Renee. Setting rules and restrictions that were unnecessary and I often challenged him, causing many arguments.

Renee was constantly caught in the middle and because she often took my side in those altercations, it was beginning to affect their relationship. I had no desire to be the cause of another divorce especially considering I was going to be out of the house for good before long. So I moved out.

The Brandon's allowed me to stay with them but I didn't want to take advantage of their hospitality for too long. I already had more than enough credits to graduate so I got a full time job at the local bookstore and rented an apartment nearby.

I still managed to pick up my diploma with the rest of my class on graduation day, but my hopes of going to college ended with that decision.

--

"Where are we meeting them?" I asked, still being dragged down the street. Alice was surprisingly strong for someone so small.

"O'Flannigans." Wicked grins spread across both of our faces at the mention of our favorite Thursday night hang out.

O'Flanningans was a popular Irish style pub a few blocks away from my apartment. The owner, Pat, was a sweet, older man from Dublin who tried to make the place as authentic as possible in downtown Seattle.

It had a huge wooden bar running the length of one wall, with a mind boggling selection of beer and ale on tap. Wrapping around two of the walls were U-shaped booths with comfortable benches flanking three sides of a central table. The rest of the floor space was filled with tables of various sizes. All of the seating was covered in plush, green velvet and the shamrock could be seen in just about every available space.

At the far end of the room was a small stage. The regularly scheduled local, live entertainment was usually bands that had a Celtic sound, and on those nights the place often ended up erupting into Irish drinking songs until the wee hours of the morning.

Alice and I had discovered it by accident a couple of months ago as we were walking back home one evening. There was a lot of laughter and singing coming through the doors and we decided to check it out.

We'd been regulars ever since.

As we approached the entrance to the bar, Alice's energy level spiked to an almost all time high. I could feel the waves of energy pouring off her and hitting me like violent gusts of wind. They almost knocked the breath right out of me.

"Alice." I pulled on the hand that was holding mine, causing her to spin around to face me. I placed my hands firmly on her shoulders, stilling her movements. "Calm down. You don't want to pass out before you even see Jasper, do you?" I smiled, adding, "Remember Disneyland?"

Alice and I had gone to Disneyland during the summer before our Senior year. Tinkerbell had been a favorite of Alice's since she had been four years old. When the poor employee who was dressed as the famous fairy started walking towards us, Alice got so excited at the prospect of meeting her that she passed out cold, right there on the sidewalk.

"Oh…yeah. I suppose you're right," she answered before closing her eyes and taking three deep breaths.

"Better?"

"Yep," she said. Her lips making a popping sound on the 'p'.

"Ok, let's do this."

A wave of warm air hit us as we opened the door. It was already fairly busy and I knew it was only going to get busier as the night progressed. If the guys weren't here yet, we were going to have to find a table. As my eyes scanned the room looking for available seating, Alice began searching the faces of the customers. She was standing on her toes, as if that would give her the ability to see over the heads of the people in the bar.

"Alice!" We both turned our heads in the direction of the voice.

"Jazz!" Alice called out, waving to him.

As Jasper weaved gracefully through the crowd to meet us, his eyes locked on Alice and never wavered. This gave me the opportunity to get a good look at him.

Alice had mentioned in her frequent 'Jasper ramblings' that he was good looking.

Which was a huge understatement.

He was tall, easily over six feet, which was unexpected given Alice's diminutive stature. His build was slim, but firm, with just enough definition to his arm muscles to not be considered lanky. A thick mop of blonde, tousled hair framed his strong, masculine features, bouncing slightly as he walked.

His eyes were a steely grey. But despite the cold color they were warm and friendly, a sparkle in them as he continued to hold Alice in his gaze. They were the eyes of a person you could tell all your secrets to and know that they would be safe.

Alice was positively vibrating when he caught up to us and I was again worried that she might faint.

"Hi," Jasper whispered to Alice like there was nobody else in the room. He swooped down to pull her into a brief hug and kissed her gently on the cheek. The moment he made contact with Alice she relaxed completely, melting into his embrace.

Impressive.

I'd never seen anyone have such a calming influence over her. Heck, even I had to talk her down. All he had to do was give her a quick hug and she was perfectly composed.

This guy might actually be good for her.

"Jasper, this is my friend Bella. Bella, this is Jasper." Alice proudly introduced us.

"Bella, Alice has told me so much about you." Jasper held out his hand to me. "It's good to meet you."

"Thanks," I said, giving his hand a firm shake. "I've heard a lot about you, too."

"All good, I hope," he joked, winking at Alice. "Come on, Edward's holding a table for us." He wrapped his arm around Alice and pulled her back into the crowd.

I followed after them, suddenly nervous.

At the mention of Edward, a flock of butterflies started flying around in my stomach. It was not so much excitement, as it was nausea.

What if he thinks it's a blind date?

I rolled my eyes at the thought. The last thing I wanted to do tonight was make small talk with some guy who was trying to impress his way into my pants. Ugh.

As we moved toward the only table that still had three empty seats, my eyes fell upon the man that was seated in the fourth chair.

If Jasper was handsome, then this man was striking.

He hadn't noticed us yet and was spinning a beer mat around between his long fingers. His hair was an unusual color, not quite auburn, more like bronze. It was sticking up in wild disarray as if he had been running his fingers through it.

Or as if he'd just had wild sex before leaving the house. I shivered at the thought.

His jaw was square and his skin was flawless. His lips were pulled into a straight, tight line, giving the impression that he wasn't happy about being made to come out tonight.

Well, at least we agree on something.

Suddenly, he noticed us drawing near and stood up, turning to face Jasper and Alice.

His mouth turned up into a crooked smile and I was taken aback by his most remarkable feature of all. His eyes were the clearest shade of emerald green I had ever seen. The intensity behind them was almost disconcerting, like he could look into you. As if, in one glance, he could know exactly what you were thinking.

Ok, so this really isn't a blind date. Because there's no way anyone would try to set the two of us up, not even Alice! This was a guy you introduced to your Victoria Secret model friends, if you had any. Not to your Plain Jane best friend.

At that revelation, I instantly relaxed and the butterflies stopped. The pressure was off. Knowing that he wouldn't be trying to impress me or making a play for me was freeing.

There was no need to pretend to be something or someone that I wasn't in order to make a lasting impression. He was so far out of my league I doubted he'd even notice my presence. But that didn't mean I couldn't enjoy looking at his masculine perfection all evening.

Maybe it would be a good night after all.

Hanging back, slightly behind Jasper, I took in every feature of the gorgeous man being introduced to my friend. I was brought back to reality when I heard Alice say "And this is my friend, Bella."

As Jasper moved to the side Edward turned his face towards me, unleashing the full force of those beautiful eyes on my dull, brown ones.

Oh yes, it's going to be a very good night.