"The kiss":an unfinished story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or its characters, they belong to Stephanie Meyer.
A/N: I don't know about the originality but this idea is dedicated to all art lovers who like to hear the story behind the creation and, of course, to all the patient readers of "Hiding" who made my Saturday "a sunny day in Seattle". Thank you for the thousands of hits, the promising number of alerts and favorite notices and the few but encouraging reviews (I think my rather poor chapter1 of Hiding and the fact that I myself rarely push the button deserve the low review sum but, please, don't you think I have been punished enough?).
Chapter One: Prologue
"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water."
(Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize for Literature 1913)
Seattle – September 2009
University of Washington, School of Fine arts.
Rain, so much rain. Bella could hardly see out of the window. And cold, like really, really cold.
The fact that it was getting almost dark outside combined with the humidity, the cool atmosphere of the room, and the fluorescent, were giving her a sense of discomfort.
"Twilight," Bella thought. "What an odd hour for an audition like this. Aren't they supposed to work with natural light?" But before she could think more about it the lights of a car distracted her. A speeding silver Volvo had just made a very impressive and, in Bella's opinion, very dangerous maneuver inside the parking lot. Due to the limited visibility and the distance, she could hardly detect the driver. Just that he was a male and a rather young one.
"Right. Live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse. Old movie," she quoted and turned her face to check the hour on her cell. Almost 18.30.
Bella was not feeling good. She was chewing her bottom lip like a piece of gum. For the last 30 minutes an internal battle was torturing her. A simple look to some of the young males and females around her was enough to destroy her self esteem forever.
"God, what am I doing here? I'm sure everyone of them has the same question: W h a t is s h e. doing here? "she thought while moving slowly towards a more secluded point of the spacious convention room.
"Get a grip Bella, you are not here to compete with them. You are here to meet a very important artist and just write about him, think positive, think about the scholarship, how happy Charlie would..."
"Isabella Swan? Is that you?" a very familiar blonde had just got out from the audition room with the air of a star.
Lauren, of all the people... Bella thought. She was one of her classmates in Forks High School, also freshman in Washington University. She had chosen some courses about public relations but she preferred introducing herself as a model. Objectively she could be. Tall, blonde, killer body.
But... the next question convinced her that God wanted Lauren Mallory dead...by Bella's hands...with St Peter's approval.
"W h a t are y o u doing h e r e ? Aren't you supposed to be in Phoenix during summer? Where is your tan dear, you look pale as death. Hm, are you lost? You are not here for the audition...are you?"
" Hello to you Lauren. I came back from Phoenix two weeks ago. And no, no tan. People there don't share the local tan easily. As for the audition, no I'm here for a different reason," she replied in a calm and rather neutral tone.
"Care to share?"Lauren asked, rising a perfectly shaped eye brow.
"Well I'm here to take an interview from Carlisle Cullen for the university newspaper."
"Well , I just saw him. You are lucky you are not here as a model. He is very specific to what he is looking for. Half of the candidates were politely dismissed before even posing. Something about naturalness and blah – blah. In which century does he live for God's sake? Anyway, I have to go, it was nice meeting you Bella."
"Yeah, nice meeting too, and..." Bella started saying but Lauren was already looking behind her with wide eyes. Without any warning, she started walking accidentally drawing her away.
"...good luck," Bella finished saying while falling on the bench next to the window. As she was trying to recover, red stains had made their appearance on her cheeks. She felt like all her blood had rushed on her face. She had turned her head towards the window completely embarrassed.
After a few seconds of composing herself she noticed the image of the crowd behind her. Almost everyone in the room, about 15 people, were checking the man who had obviously provoked Lauren's weird reaction.
Bella turned and blinked, and blinked, and blinked. She could think only one word to describe him: beautiful. The man disappeared in the audition room leaving chaos behind him.
"Did you see him?"she heard a girl whispering. "Is he hear for the audition? He got inside without waiting to be called,"a different voice mumbled."Ok, pretty but there are others," a male voice this time. "Hot, hot, hot,"another voice. And the whispers kept going.
"No, not hot, not pretty, beautiful," Bella thought and headed towards the exit. She needed fresh air and some water from her car. The truth was she had to get rid of that blush. She was majoring in journalism but her dream was to transfer her studies in an Ivy League college. There were a lot depending on that interview and most of all a full scholarship for majoring in English. She had to look cool.
As she was passing through the reception area, she noticed the simple announcement written on the news board.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS
Department of Sculpture
Our school has been honored to have Dr Carlisle Cullen, sculptor and academic teacher, and as a guest artist for this semester.
During his stay, a project about the work of August Rodin will take place for charity purposes.
There is an open invitation for assisting models.
The center of the project will be the making of a replica .
Subject: "The kiss" , by August Rodin
Auditions will take place in Dante's Hall on Saturday, September 19th 2009, starting 18.00 sharp.
From the administration office.
"The kiss? Dante?" Bella remembered the beautiful sculpture of the almost kissing couple. Almost. Because actually the kiss never happened . She remembered there was some kind of story behind it but could not recall it at the time. Something to do with Dante.
As she was entering the waiting hall she heard someone calling her name.
"Isabella Swan?"
"Here," Bella answered to a very pretty middle age woman with caramel hair and unusual amber eyes.
"Dr Cullen will see you know. He is taking a break from the auditions. Please follow me. I'm Esme Cullen."
Bella nodded and followed her towards a small office attached to the audition room.
You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. Time to dive, she thought and entered closing the door behind her.
A/N: So, there was this idea and I just had to get it out in public. It needs a lot of time in research and writing is not effortless for me. I desperately need to know if you find this interesting enough to update so :
please, please, please review and maybe WE can change the destiny of that kiss.