summary: A simple mistake could prove to be more than Edward bargained for. He's never met anyone like Bella before, but she must mend his heart before she can conquer it herself.
disclaimer: must i admit that i don't own them? that's a little too much for my poor heart to take.
Chapter One
"You might want to take it easy man," the heat of the amber liquid burned a trail from the back of my throat down to my already churning stomach.
The shot glass was cool against my overheating palm and for a moment I contemplated holding it to the nape of my sweaty neck. Smoke from the bar was tickling my eyes and sticking to my slick skin. I was desperately in need of a shower. Someone sitting at the next stool over coughed deeply in their lungs. I cringed.
Smoking was my new-found vice.
The bartender eyed my newly-emptied glass and I signaled him for another, weighing the possibility of actually receiving the drink. I probably wouldn't.
Music pounded through my eardrums. I was going to have one hell of headache in the morning; one hell of a headache and one bitch of a hangover. The lyrics were jumbled together and I could only faintly make out the foreign language pumping through the huge speakers. This wasn't real music. Anything that involved booty drops and body rolls was not real music. Maybe if I asked politely the bartender would let me play real music for these heathens. Debussy, Chopin, Mozart, anything to educate this uncultured mob, but then again I doubt the existence of a piano in this place.
"Edward," a large hand clapped itself onto my tense shoulder and I looked up at my roommate. "Take it easy, will ya?"
"I've been telling him as much for the past hour or so," the bartender agreed, passing a sweet-smelling drink to a waiting patron.
I glared at him silently. I was not as drunk as they seemed to think; just buzzed. Too buzzed to dance, definitely too buzzed to drive. Good thing we came in Emmett's jeep.
"What's wrong with him anyhow?" the bartender continued, "He's been sucking down drinks like a man possessed."
What's wrong? It'd been a year; that was what was wrong. Why the fuck did I allow Emmett to drag me to… where were we again? Some bar close to the apartment, Twilight, I think.
I don't usually do this. The clubbing and the drinking and the glaring, well sometimes I do the glaring, but this public humiliation really isn't my thing. Then again I'm not a stranger to embarrassment. It's hard to be when it took a year for you to notice the girl you loved no longer loved you back.
"It's complicated," Emmett tried to explain, his hand had moved from my shoulder to the bar itself.
"A girl," It wasn't a question.
"You could say that."
I didn't want to hear anymore. I already knew my story by heart.
Who did this guy think he was? Some sort of fucking Dr. Phil? I wasn't interested in being fixed thankyou …. I wasn't able to be fixed. If I'd noticed a day sooner, everything would've been alright. I needed to be helped back then. Not now. Not when nothing would change.
Emmett was mercifully silent. I really wasn't in the mood to have to ignore him if he decided to broadcast my problems and he seemed to notice as much. He really was a better roommate than I gave him credit for. He may act like he doesn't give a damn, but there's a reason I let him drag me here tonight. I trust him more than probably anyone else in my life right now. A glass of water had been placed in front of me, small droplets beaded down the sides of the glass. I lifted it to my lips automatically and took a few hasty gulps, nodding a quick thanks to the bartender. His shrewd gaze was still fixed on me.
"Thanks," I motioned to the half empty glass.
He nodded.
The music wasn't as bad now; my fingers itched with the beat and I wondered if I'd be able to navigate the drowning dance floor. I tapped out some chords against the top of the bar and waited while Emmett ordered himself something. I'm pretty sure it was more water. For a moment I thought I recognized a mane of mahogany hair, but the vision was gone before I had a chance to wonder. I took another sip of the water.
"Do you want to dance?"
I gave the girl behind me a cursory glance; her shadowy hair fell jaggedly around her skinny shoulders and her smile did not quite reach her obscure eyes.
"Maybe later," I answered, turning back towards the bar.
"Waiting for a good song?" Yea, if I wanted to wait forever.
"I don't understand what he's saying." I waved my hand through the air, hoping she knew that I was referring to the singer.
She laughed. Emmett did too.
"You mean Daddy Yankee?" The bartender was still watching me, although now he looked slightly amused.
"I'm really more of a cubs fan."
She rolled her eyes while Emmett and our "new friend" attempted to hold in their laughter. I tapped my fingers against the wooden bar, trying to avoid their incredulous looks. I honestly hadn't known she was telling me his name.
"Cut him off Jas," she winked at the bartender. "We want him to be able to walk still,"
She sure had a lot of nerve ordering people about considering she was so tiny. I'm not sure she'd have reached my armpit if I were standing on my own two feet, or if she took of her dangerous-looking, leather boots.
"Don't worry sweetie," she leaned in conspiratorially, "My boyfriend's not the jealous type, and I can wait for that dance." She winked at me now and then strutted to the bar to lock her lips onto the mouth of my annoying bartender. I blinked confusedly.
"Sorry," Emmett apologized, probably for me, "Edward's been having a rough day,"
My warning glare shut him up. That was the last thing I wanted to get into. Right now I wanted to be pissed. The self-pity part came later.
"That's alright," the demonic pixie hoisted herself up onto the bar; "He's allowed to be drunk and moody."
"I'm not drunk," I defended, looking out over the sea of gyrating bodies.
"But you are moody." She grinned, "You should meet my friend; she'd knock some fun right into you."
I shook my head so quickly my vision swam.
"No."
She shrugged as if to say "your loss," before spinning around to chat up the bartender some more. His hand was resting high on her thigh, his fingers softly brushing the tanned skin that protruded from her microscopic shorts. Are they dating? Maybe he's the non-jealous boyfriend. What did she call him again? Jas? I think that was it.
"Gotta piss," Emmett hissed at me and disappeared into the crowd of dancers. I tried to follow him with my eyes but it was near impossible, the dim lighting combined with the moving mob served to distract me over and over.
Again I recognized a flash of brown hair.
This time I didn't let it out of my sight.
She was dancing with a group of people I did not recognize, but I couldn't mistake those dark tresses anywhere. I'd wrapped my hands through them many a time while my mouth had plundered hers. Had it been lighter? I couldn't recall.
Her hips swayed seductively and I clenched my fists to keep from pulling her back against me. It'd been a year, now was not the time to be rash. Her black dress clung to her and the short skirt swished around her slim thighs, the baggy sleeves gathered at her tiny wrists and the back was left completely open. Her skin glowed softly in the horrible lighting of the club and I itched to run my fingers down the indent of her spine. I frowned as I caught sight of the white laces, the girl I'd known wouldn't have been caught dead in Converse sneakers, especially while clubbing. Was there really that much that I hadn't known about her? Apparently there was.
She wrapped her arm around the neck of a tall, dark-skinned man and brushed his stomach against his abdomen. His obscene smile made my blood boil. Her cheeks were softly flushed and her skin glistened under sheen of sweat. On her it was sexy; I wanted to feel her heart pound against my ribs.
"Grace," I sighed softly, still a foot or two behind her slowly rolling body.
She turned, and fixed amused brown eyes on my glassy, green ones. Looking around swiftly she deduced that I'd been talking to her.
"Graceful? You clearly haven't seen me dance," she laughed, "it's tends to result in frequent trips to local hospitals."
I frowned; I must be drunker than I thought. Of course I've seen her dance; we dated for two years. And it wasn't true. Her dancing had always been sexy, seductive, sensual, smooth, and any other S words my alcohol-addled brain could not come up with. Her skin seemed milky white under the blinking lights and her lips were invitingly shiny with fruity-smelling gloss.
"Did you want to risk it?"
"What?"
"Dancing,"
"With you?"
"Yes,"
In answer my hands easily sought her hips and pulled her towards me as the music changed. The new song was in English; she was humming under her breath. She slowly – torturously – ground her hips back into mine and I stifled the moan I felt ringing in my chest. Instead, I flattened her back against my chest and swiveled my pelvis right back at her. She gasped. This was right. After a year to have her back in my arms and pressed up against me. She was shorter than I remembered, but that could've just been the lack of stilettos; I'd never been good at remembering shoes.
"I knew I'd seen you," I pressed my mouth against her neck and let my breath heat her skin.
She laughed and let her hand come up to rest against my stubbly cheek. She'd always hated when I forgot to shave.
"You were watching me?" her voice was softer than I'd remembered but it lilted against me.
"Of course," She was acting like she didn't know me at all, but there was no way to fake the familiarity we had. "Didn't you see me?"
She tensed for a moment until my hips bumped hers again and she began to undulate to the music. I took her arms in my hands and spun her around to plaster her front to mine. She wouldn't look at me, her head ducked to look at the floor.
"Maybe," I could hear her smile. "You were sitting up by Alice and Jasper."
I frowned; neither of those names were familiar. I'd been sitting with Emmett and talking to some girl who was dating the Bartender. Was that who she was talking about?
"You mean the demonic pixie?"
She laughed.
"That's one I haven't heard before, but yes."
I grinned. Jasper must've been the guy supplying my alcohol tonight. I let my eyes trail to the bar and gave him a cursory glance. White blonde hair, blue eyes, a girl who could only be his sister was leaned up against the bar as well and talking to the pixie. Emmett was staring at her. I stifled a chuckle.
I sighed her name against the top of her head and this time her face snapped up to mine.
"What's with the word grace?" she chuckled. "I'm Bella. Bella Swan and I'm pretty sure that I am the opposite of graceful."
My heart stopped beating and her smiling eyes met mine. They weren't the shocking blue I was expecting, and I stumbled back a step. I felt like I was watching myself from a distance; a scared little boy who's just been told there's no Santa Clause. As her brown eyes searched mine I saw her smile dim.
"Hey, are you alright?"
I could feel my breath coming in short pants, my chest heaving. She wasn't Grace. She was Bella.
The red and blue emergency lights obscenely highlighted the jumbled metal that was once a car. Sirens wailed and EMTs ran around frantically trying to dissect the bodies from the unrecognizable wreckage.
"Maybe we should take you back to your friends." Bella put her warm hand on my forearm. I could feel the muscles twitching under her soft touch and my knees felt like buckling.
"I'm so sorry." My voice cracked. "I'm so sorry."
She smiled sweetly and my gut twisted. Bella was beautiful, but it wasn't the same. People continued to dance around us and I just stared in shock. I couldn't believe what a creep I was. I'd just pounced on some unsuspecting girl because she looked like Grace Tobias.
"I need you to leave Grace. I need some space and I can't think with you here …. Don't cry. You're the one who broke my heart, not the other way around …"
"Are you alright?" I was still staring down at her and my hands had moved to grip her waist. I wondered if I was hurting her. It took a moment for her words to register in my mind before I nodded dumbly.
"I'm so sorry," I repeated, aware that I sounded vaguely like a parrot. "I thought you were someone else,"
I was expecting a glare or a slap, for her to extricate herself from my unyielding grasp, anything but her actual response.
"No I'm sorry." She smiled sadly, "I should've known when you called me Grace."
His hands slid down her bare back and rested possessively on her hips, her head was thrown back as a moan escaped her lips. The soft sounds of flesh against flesh muffled the startled gasp that alerted the twin pairs of shocking blue eyes to their voyeur.
"I mean seriously, I should've said been like 'Bella, anyone with eyes would know you are the antithesis of all that is graceful!' and then I shouldn't have subjected you to my horrible dancing skills."
God did the girl ever shut up? The ground was kind of shaky underneath my feet and the music was pounding and she just kept talking. And talking. And I really needed to shut her up before I thought she was someone she wasn't again, and before I did something monumentally stupid like cry, or pass out, or puke.
"And I mean I should have noticed that you weren't really 'there' if you know what I mean. So really I should be the one apologizing for being oblivious and …."
Suddenly she wasn't talking anymore.
I smiled against her now silent mouth.
"What's my name?" she whispered back, and I could feel her lips tilting up in a small grin.
"Bella, Bella Swan,"
"So I'm not just you're rebound girl?" she was shaking with silent laughter.
"Oh I'm selfishly using you and will probably never see you again after tonight." Shit. I did not just say that.
She laughed out loud this time, throwing her head back and letting her hair cascade down her bare back.
"Strangely, that doesn't faze me."
I laughed with her.
Gripping both sides of her face with my hand I pulled her towards me and pressed our mouths firmly together. Maybe with her brown eyes boring into mine I could finally forget about a long-gone pair of blue ones.
a/n: please review. i tend to lose steam if i get absolutely no feedback. if u're confused u're supposed to be. the next chapters are supposed to clear things up. i promise. oh and if it seems like Edward is using Bella, he totally is. . . . for now.