Hello there!

I am proud to present to you, Elevator Music, staring Alexander Cullen and Arabella Romano. As with all my other one-shots, the events of this story have nothing to do with what happens in Aphrodite's Temptation. Consider it a parallel universe or something.

I got the idea for this one-shot when I was visiting my aunt who was staying at this nifty hotel and the moment I got onto the elevator, I heard the most annoying elevator music. I have no idea why, but I really dislike it, which is funny considering I have no problem listening to songs or instrumentals.

But anyways, onwards with the story!

Disclaimer: the other Cullen's will have little to nothing to do in this story, but for the sake of mentioning it, Twilight belongs to SM.

p.s Alex is a vampire and Arabella is human.

p.p.s If a situation in this story feels unrealistic to you, I apologize :P but then again what more can you expect from a story about vampires?

p.p.p.s Links to Arabella's outfit will be on my profile.

Happy reading.

"Fuck!" I cried out for what seemed like the millionth time as I kicked the door with my heeled foot, which was a bad idea considering that the peep toe design of the shoe meant that I was only hurting myself. Besides, the stupid elevator door wasn't really reacting to it.

"I figured I wouldn't stop you from breaking your foot by doing that, but I realize that if you did break it, it would simply give you one more damn thing to complain about. So why don't you cut that out and sit the fuck down."

My fists clenched at my sides as I turned to look down at the man sitting back against the wall of the elevator, long legs sprawled careless out in front of him. His eyes were closed and he looked like he was asleep, but I knew better.

Vampires couldn't sleep.

Which was a damn shame because if he was asleep, he wouldn't be speaking.

"I can hear you, you know that right Arabella dear?" he asked, eyes still closed. His tone may have sounded sweet and endearing, but again, I knew better.

"I am aware, Alexander honey," I replied with the same fabricated sweetness. He grimaced slightly at my use of his full name, but otherwise remained the same. After a moment of watching his prone form I huffed out a breath.

"What are you just laying there for? We're stuck in the goddamn elevator, and we have been for the past, like, hour, and—"

"More like 20 minutes."

I spared him a glare that he was surely aware of despite the fact that his eyes were closed.

"Whatever, same difference. But anyways, we're stuck. And what happens if we're never found? What if no one comes to rescue us and we just die in here? And I do mean we because there is no way in hell I`m letting you chomp on me to quench your unholy thirst."

"Do you really believe that if I was in the situation of drink or die, you could stop me from drinking from you?" he scoffed. His eyes were still closed but his lips twisted up into a smirk.

"Yeah," I replied confidently without a moment's hesitation. Rationality be damned. He laughed at that, yes, actually laughed. Him. I know, what has the world come to?

The deep bass sound reverberated in the confined space, and oddly enough, it wasn't really a bad sound. I mean, you know those people who start laughing and you just want them to stop? Yeah, well this person right here wasn't one of them. Quite the opposite actually, I wouldn't mind listening to him laugh.

Immediately his laughing stopped and his eyes flashed open and the deep gold of them fixed up on the green of mine. They held there for a long moment before his eyes lowered and leisurely swept down my body, all the way to my bow-clad black peep toe heels.

No matter how many times I've gotten checked out by other guys, they had nothing on the way Alex did it. When he looked at me the way he was doing right now, it ignited this warm, fluttery feeling in my tummy. It was a foreign sensation that I didn't particularly care to feel.

But it was there.

With the same intense gaze, he tracked back up my bare legs, up my bubblegum pink dress and up to my face once again. And at that moment, I didn't need his ability to read thoughts to know what was on his mind.

That knowledge, however, didn't settle well with me and I tried to create a diversion.

"And if we died in here," I started and he rolled his eyes slightly and turned his gaze away to stare blankly at the floor. "Imagine what would happen to our families. I know that my brothers would freak, and I`m pretty sure the Cullen's would be at least a little upset," I said with a teasing grin and was amused to see him smirk in response.

"And poor Alice will feel miserable for the rest of eternity for making us come to this stupid gala in the first place."

Alice had spent the past few weeks trying to badger me into attending this charity gala. I refused her requests every time, the reason for doing so was sitting on the floor before me right now. With a sigh I walked over to the opposite corner of the elevator and slid down the sit on the floor.

I didn't need to look to know that his eyes were on me.

I straightened out the ruffles on my dress and pulled up the strapless bodice. I stretched out my long legs in front of me and crossed them at the ankles and admired my shoes.

Once Alice, with the help of Rosalie the traitor, managed to finally convince me to go, the three of us went on a crazy shopping spree. The dress, the earrings and of course the shoes, were the product of said shopping spree. And I had to admit, the shoes were a great buy.

About an hour into the event I was insanely bored. Rosalie had abandoned me for Emmett and they were probably getting it on somewhere. I was sitting on a couch not even bothering to pretend to listen to the man sitting to my left who was trying earnestly to hit on me.

Let's just say that it wasn't working out too well for him.

I caught bits and pieces of what he said. He was talking about his new car... I think. Or was it his new house...

Anyways, I didn't remember much about the situation, clearly, but what I did remember was looking out into the crowd to see Alex leaning against a tall white pillar. He blended in with the people and yet still managed to stick out. He was wearing dark jeans and a black fitted silk shirt, and he looked... great.

His eyes had been on me and he was smirking. When our eyes met he nodded in the direction of the guy sitting next to me and raised an eyebrow. I simply rolled my eyes, but couldn't stop the small smile from appearing on my lips.

The guy, oblivious to this exchange, seemed to have taken my smile as encouragement and inched closer to me. I looked up in time to see the amused look on Alex's face drop away to mild interest when a short blonde sidled up to his side wearing a dress that had a front that plunged to her waist.

Needless to say that the boobs that were spilling out of her dress were purchased at some point in her life. Alex shot one long smug look at me before escorting the blonde away. Probably to one of the rooms in the 5 star hotel that hosted the gala in its large ballroom.

It didn't bother me, or at least that`s what I told myself. I justified that uneasy feeling by telling myself that I was pissed off by the way he used women. But deep down, I knew. Despite the fact that I did despise the way he manipulated these women to get what he wanted, primarily sex I'd assume, but that wasn't it.

And yet, I pushed that tiny voice in my head aside and watched his retreating back for a moment before I turned to the guy sitting beside me who stuttered when he realized that he had my complete attention. I then grabbed his hand and tugged him off to some other corner of the room not noticing that Alex was watching it all.

For about half an hour I actually tried to enjoy being with the guy, his name was Parker. Or Palmer...

He was 18 and really cute with his surfer blonde hair and sea green eyes. But no matter how hard I tried, my mind kept drifting over to what Alex was probably doing with that blonde bimbo. Half of me wanted to portal and find out, but half of me didn't want to know.

And that was when Alice came to me claiming that she needed to get something from Rose who was, as I had thought, upstairs in a room that was booked for herself and Emmett. She wanted me to go up to room 20C4 and pick up whatever it was. I didn't even question why she couldn't go get it herself. Instead, I used it as an excuse to leave the room.

Little did I know that Jasper had somehow gotten to Alex and told him that he needed something from Emmett, probably by texting him seeing as how Alex was probably... preoccupied at the time.

It was only after we ended up in the same elevator that we realized that we were most likely set up. He was pissed. Of course he would be. It cost him a lay.

I sighed and tipped my head back against the cool marble-like wall. I shot a quick look to my side to see that Alex was glaring at the wall in front of him and that his fists were clenched tight.

I turned back to down at my hands in my lap. If we were going to be here may as well try being civil.

"And then there's that." I looked over at him again to see that he appeared to have regained his cool exterior and was looking back at me blankly.

"That," I repeated and pointed upwards. "The music."

He shot me a look then turned away.

"No really, doesn't that music annoy you? I mean, why would you need music in an elevator? You're in here for what, like a few minutes max, you're in no dire need of music." This time when he looked at me like he couldn't actually believe that we were talking about this.

"I can't," he replied. "I can't believe you're sitting there complaining about elevator music."

"Well it's annoying, and it's not like we have anything else to talk about anyways."

"Has it occurred to you that I don't want to talk with you?"

Ouch.

There was a long pause, filled with elevator music, and I just stared at the over at him. He returned the gaze coolly for a moment then faced forward again and closed his eyes. I swallowed and looked down at my lap again.

So he didn't want to talk. Whatever. I was only trying to be nice, but if he wanted to be mad at me, fine. I didn't even really want to talk to him anyway.

Liar... that traitorous voice in my head whispered.

I took a deep breath and was humiliated to find that my throat was thick and my eyes were stinging. I clenched my teeth and willed the tears away. I would not give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry, though in hindsight I realize that he probably knew that I was going to cry from my thoughts anyways.

But fuck it.

What do I care? It wasn't my fault that he was pissed that he didn't get to screw his bimbo. None of this was my idea. None of it. So he couldn't blame me for anything. What was so special about that girl anyways?

What did he see in a girl with obviously fake hair and fake boobs and a fake tan? I mean, was that attractive to him? There are surely better looking women in the world.

Like you...

The girls that he goes after, no scratch that, he doesn't go after them, the girls he gets always seem to be so fake. Just two weeks ago there was the Cindy girl from school who had had not one but two nose jobs and tacky extensions in her hair. Then there was the girl before that, Yvette, the exchange student who wore so much make-up it looked like she was wearing a mask.

In fact, the list could go on and on, and I realized again with embarrassment that I actually knew all this. God, how pathetic was I?

I grimaced and squeezed my eyes shut. And now he knows how pathetic I am, keeping track of him and his all fake play girls.

My eyes snapped open when I felt the elevator shake. I looked over at Alex to see that there was now a fist sized dent on his side of the wall.

"Dammit Arabella, is that honestly what you think of me?" he growled angrily, sitting up, fixing his blazing eyes on me.

"I don't see any reason to think otherwise," I replied quieter but with the same steel once I managed to find my voice. Before I could blink he was stood up, yanked me up and pushed me back against one of the walls.

"It is not like that," he said again and stepped forward, brushing up against me.

"Uh huh," I thought to him and saw him scowl.

"It's not," he thought back.

"I`m not the fucking man-whore you make me out to be," he said out loud and brushed against me again. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. God, I couldn't think with him this close to me. With that in mind I reached up with the intention of pushing him back, but that plan backfired when he grabbed my wrists and held them captive between us.

I took a deep breath then glared up at him.

"Really? Well in my world when someone goes through about 5 different girls in a month, all of whom are totally fake, and then tosses them away after he's done with them, he is called a man-whore. And as far as I know, that is definitely what you are."

His hands tightened on my wrists.

"...can't believe she thinks that... nice job Alex..."

His thoughts, the emotion in them, fazed me for a moment, but I quickly shook it off. This guy is a master con artist, he knows how to charm a girl into doing what he wants.

"That's not true," he growled. "I`m not out to charm the panties off every girl that I see."

"Just the fake ones," I replied and he emitted a low sound and ground his teeth together. He let go of my wrists and back away and I exhaled in relief. He backed up slowly to the other wall and turned his back to me. He covered his face with his hands and took a couple of deep breaths. A few moments later he was standing in front of me again, not touching me.

"Listen," he said in a much calmer voice than before. "I don't get why you think that about me but there's nothing that I can do about it. And I don't think you're pathet—"

"What do you mean there's nothing you can do about it?" I yelled. "Of course you can do something about it. You can change."

He looked heavenward for a moment before he spoke.

"There is nothing that I need to change, Arabella."

"Oh really? So you think what you're doing with all these girls is not a bad thing?"

"Don't assume that I`m doing these things with all these girls."

"Assume? I don't fucking assume you're doing it Alexander! I've seen it with my own two goddamn eyes. Every time I see you you're always up on some girl. Every time I look at you you're with one of them. Every fucking time. And don't even pretend like you thought that I didn't notice, you always made sure that I did."

He didn't speak. He just stood there, intently looking down at me. I took a shaky breath and turned my head to the side, unable to look at him after saying what I did.

I mean, I all but told him that I was pretty much stalking him and that I was jealous of all his girls.

You are jealous... the annoying voice whispered in my head again and this time I didn't even bother to deny it. I was jealous. I always was. I just didn't want to admit it to him or to myself. I swallowed audibly and squeezed my eyes shut.

I would see him standing with some girl at school, flirting obviously, and it pissed me off. I told myself it was because I disliked players, but who was I kidding? It pissed me off because those girls weren't me. It never was me, and it probably never will be me.

And it hurt more than I thought it would.

I bit the inside of my cheek when I felt my eyes start to water slightly. God what is wrong with me? I`m so damn emotional right now. I must be PMSing or something.

I could still feel his gaze on me, but I couldn't bring myself to return it. Call it cowardly, but this revelation shook me and it was going to take a while to get used to it.

I felt something for Alex... Oh who was I kidding? I`m in love with the idiot.

And he doesn't love me back.

I bit hard into my bottom lip and focused intently on a spot on the floor. For once, I praised the smart aleck who came up with elevator music because it filled this awkward silence. The music playing right now was a soft Irish melody.

Normally I loved stuff like that, but right now the soft pipe music that usually gave me the chills was breaking my heart because of the romance it exuded. It hurt to know that I didn't have that romance with the one person I wanted it with.

I heard Alex sigh, but I didn't look up.

"You know, Rose insists that you're really smart. I`m not too sure about that," he said in his deep baritone voice.

I didn't say anything.

"I mean, sometimes I`m forced to agree with her, but at times like this, I wonder how you could be so stupid."

I winced at his words and berated myself for thinking that it could have been different between us. It was very stupid of me to let myself believe for even a moment that he could have loved me back.

"And there you go again, being a complete idiot."

"I know..." I thought to him softly.

There was a pause and then I nearly jumped out of my skin when he brought his hand up to my face. He hesitated for a split second before he placed a finger under my chin and pulled my head up to look at him.

"It's rude to not look at the person you're talking to," he said with a tiny smirk on his lips. My blue eyes locked onto his beautiful golden ones and in a moment I was looking away because the feeling of longing was getting to be overwhelming.

He rubbed his thumb lightly along my jaw and took a step closer, effectively pinning me between himself and the wall. I closed my eyes again, his proximity was not helping with my fragile emotional state.

"Do you know what else you are?" he asked, fingers brushing across my cheek. When he didn't say anything I took a chance and looked up at him and was slightly taken aback by how close his face was to mine.

"What?" I thought to him distractedly.

"Oblivious..." he murmured softly then leaned forward to brush his lips softly against mine. I was suitably shocked when he pulled back.

What the hell? Why did he just kiss me? He did kiss me right? I mean, I could have been hallucinating. But it felt so real, so good, so... right.

But why did he—

"God, do you even stop thinking?" he asked with a grin, but I was in no mood to be joking around.

"I... why did you—"

"Because I wanted to," he said then ran his hands down my arms to wrap around my waist.

"But all those girls—"

"Meant nothing to me."

"Then why—"

"To distract me from the one girl I actually wanted," he murmured and fixed me with a look that made me flush.

"But—"

"It's you," he whispered softly, pressing his forehead to mine. "It was always you."

I thought I was hearing things, but the truth was so clear on his face. I couldn't help the grin that bloomed on my own face.

"So beautiful... mine... I love you..." I heard him think.

"I love you too," I whispered back and his lips were on mine in the next instant.

And through it all the soft Irish elevator music continued to play in the background...

The End! :D

This took me forever to write because I started it then couldn't finish it because all my school work kind of caught up with me -_-

But anyways, it's done now and I hope you enjoyed it. Again, links to pictures of Arabella's outfit will be on my profile so check that out.

Remember, this has nothing to do with Aphrodite's Temptation. Talking about my other story, the next chapter is going to be a bit delayed because it's summative season at school and I have a lot of test and exams and assignments to do. I'll get it up as soon as I can though.

Leave your comments and reviews please!

Peace, love and elevator music.

Xoxo thedarkangel22.