Author note: Okay, I know this is short, but bare with me. This is my first fanfic and I am very nervous about it. If you like it or even if you don't, please feel free to leave me a review and let me know what I could improve on. Yes, the Cullen's will be in future chapters if this gets that far, so if that's your concern, rest assured. Thanks so much and please R&R!!

Bella POV

"Jaz, I really don't know why you do this to yourself" I began. This was the third time this week we had driven by Cullen

house. Jasper had this crazy crush on Alice, but he never seemed to get enough guts to actually talk to the girl. I felt for

him really, he is after all my best friend. But what I didn't understand about him is that he is easily one of the hottest guys

in the school, well was. School is over now, and we are about to start college. This may be what is causing Jasper to mope

like a sissy. He knew he probably wouldn't see Alice again, and it was a pain. He had never so much as spoken to Alice, but

there was always this joke between us that Alice was his woman. "Ah Bella, I am such an fucking loser!" Jasper moaned as

he parked across the street. "I mean how long has this gone on? All of high school I cowered away from speaking up. You'd

think I'd have grown some balls in four years!" Jasper said through his hands, which now covered his face in shame.

Neither of us had never really had time for people, with our hectic schedules and our corrupted home lives. "Jaz its okay,

you know I'm a lame ass too, don't feel bad!" I took his hand and made him face me. I knew what would cheer him up. He

always liked it when I sang to him. Since we were little kids and his dad would hit him, I would always sing to him to

distract him. I could only think of one song that would fit right now. "There, there, baby It's just text book stuff It's in the

ABC of growing up Now, now, darlin' Oh don't lose your head 'Cause none of us were angels And you know I love you,

yeah" This was one of my favorite songs by Imogen Heap. He smiled up at me. "Bella, what would I do without you?"

Jasper whispered. "Um, probably stalk Alice Cullen all day!" I said and he launched himself at me and began tickling me.

"Ugh! Ah, stop I surrender! You wouldn't stalk Alice, you would be plotting world domination or something similarly

devious!" I squealed and he released me. "Okay, I think I've been creepy enough for one day, don't we have to get going

now?" He asked me. "Yeah, actually we should have been on the road like an hour ago, but who's counting?" I said giving

him a light punch on the arm. "Farewell Alice, I hardly knew ye!" Jasper said in a mock sad voice, but I could hear the true

sadness behind it. The drive to the university would be a long one; well the longest road trip the pair had ever been on.

They would be attending the ASU in Phoenix, which was about a two-day drive from their hometown of Forks, Washington.

We chose Phoenix because I had visited my mother there every other summer since I was five. I say every other summer

because my mother was a very inconsistent person and I guess sometimes she forgot she had a daughter. The visits

stopped abruptly two years ago when she died, an accidental overdose of prescription narcotics was the official consensus.

So I was stuck with Charlie, my alcoholic father. He never did anything physically to me, but sometimes the worst kind of

abuse is the emotional kind. No, that's not true, I would take Charlie's crap ten million times over rather than suffer the

physical abuse Jasper had suffered under his father. Jasper and I were just two of a kind right from the start; we were

determined to get the hell away from all of the crap that surrounded us, so Phoenix it was! The two of us struggled

through high school to make honors so we could earn a good enough scholarship to get us the hell out. There was no one

to wave us off as we set out to begin our new lives, no crying mothers, and no proud fathers. Just this emotionally

desolate place with its damn rain always trying to drown us. But we pulled out, we kicked towards the surface and we

were leaving and never coming back. The drive would be long, but the destination was worth the wait. Not so much the

destination, as it was the possibilities the place seemed to hold for us. I could hardly wait.