2011 TwiGirlsNextDoor Christmas Crackers
Pairing if Applicable: Alice & Jasper, other canon couples (in future chapters)
Title: Fraternization
Disclaimer: Fraternization is a Twilight inspired work of fan fiction. It is provided for entertainment purposes only. Twilight is the property of Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. The story that follows is the property of PiedPiperOSIB.
Brief Summary: When Alice receives a house on campus as a gift from her parents, she spends the summer dealing with rowdy fraternity neighbors, renovations, and a sexy handyman.
Alice waved goodbye to her parents before entering the house and shutting the heavy oak door behind her. Sighing briefly, she looked around the foyer before squealing in delight and doing an impromptu victory dance. The house was hers, well it was in her parent's name, but it was hers to do with as she pleased.
For her freshman year, Alice was required to live in the dormitories. She would never regret the time she spent in communal living, but she was glad that period of her life was over. During her dorm stay, Alice met Rosalie and Bella. They were now her best friends and she hoped they would soon be living with her in this house. In contrast, Alice would be happy if she never saw her ex-roommate, Lauren, ever again.
"Bitch!" Alice's inner voice couldn't help uttering.
Alice shrugged off her thoughts of Lauren and bounced down the hallway. The first order of business was to break out the camera and take some pictures and videos for her friends. Once that had been done, she called Bella and Rosalie to let them know the news. Luckily both were available so one conference call was all that she needed to make.
"So I have some pretty big news, gals," Alice started. "Our housing dilemma for next year, and beyond, has been solved. My Dad bought us a house to live in!" Despite her loud enthusiasm, Alice was able to hear both of her friends gasp.
"He bought you a house?" Bella asked incredulously.
"Yepper-do!" Alice chirped. "Its on Filbert Street just past Hamilton."
"A real fuckin' house!" Rose interrupted. "Wait, Filbert…that's fraternity row…and past Hamilton…you mean that dump next to the delta-dicks frat house!"
"It's not a dump," Alice pouted. "It just needs some work. But, yes, it does happen to be next to the Delta house, but there is a driveway, a pretty big yard, and a fence between them and us." Alice paused before sheepishly adding, "Well, the fence has been knocked down…but I'm going to get that replaced!" Alice could here both her friends groan into their phones.
"Alice, you realize that the Delta house is a notorious party frat and full of jocks, right?" Bella questioned. "If I am going to be forced to spend all my time in the library studying because they're going all 'Animal House' seven days a week, I might as well just stay down in the dorms."
"Royce was a Delta" Rose added softly.
Alice hadn't forgotten about Royce King, but she'd hoped that Rose had. Royce had pursued Rose heavily last year. Eventually Rose agreed to go to a party with him. However, the day before their date, he was arrested for slipping a freshman girl some roofies and date raping her. After Royce's arrest, several other Delta's were accused and subsequently arrested for similar offenses. This had shaken up Rose, who'd never showed any sign of weakness before. The thought of being Royce's next victim had really frightened her.
Alice knew the reputation of her next-door neighbors was going to be a potential issue. Luckily, her dad was a generous school alumnus. Before they closed on the house, Alice and her dad met with the school's Dean of Undergraduate Students, Mrs. Cope. After the forty-five minute meeting, Alice and her father felt more comfortable with the house's neighbors. Both knew it wasn't going to be perfect, but the house's price, size, and proximity to school, along with Mrs. Cope's assurances that the bad eggs in the Delta fraternity had been removed, convinced them to purchase the house.
Alice spent a good twenty minutes explaining to Bella and Rose what she learned about the neighbors. Her friends were silent, which Alice believed was a good thing. Before Bella and Rose could lodge any more complaints, she jumped into describing the house and its amenities. She slyly left out certain details, such as the condition of the roof, the 1940's kitchen, the terrible bathrooms, the cracked plaster throughout, the rotten deck, and the decrepit condition of the fence separating their property from the Delta fraternity house. Instead, she played up the house's strengths. A quick email was sent to both of her friends with strategically framed and cropped pictures that made the house look good.
The house's layout would allow Rose and Bella to share the second floor together. After some renovation, each would have their own bathroom and plenty of closet space. Alice's suite would occupy the smaller third floor. The first floor had the kitchen, dining room, a front parlor, and a living room. The dry and mostly bug free basement had a recently added laundry room and plenty of space for storage. Eventually, Alice had plans of finishing off the basement, but that would be in the future. Finally, she told Rose and Bella about the detached two-car garage that was in great shape.
"So I could bring my baby?" Rose asked eagerly. Rose's grandfather had left her a cherry-red 1966 Ford Mustang GT Fastback. Alice was not much of a car person, but it was hard not to remember the details when Rose spent most of last year lamenting not having the car with her on campus.
"Absolutely!" Alice answered happily. "There's even plenty of space for tools so you can get all 'grease monkey' if you want! "
"Fuck, yeah!" Rose hollered.
"Also," Alice continued, "there is plenty of parking next to the garage so you could even bring your truck, Bella. I'm sorry, but I claim owners privilege for the second garage spot."
Bella snorted. "I see. My baby doesn't get a garage spot, huh? You know, my truck is older than Rose's car and yours combined. Maybe my senior citizen of a vehicle should get a garage spot and one of you should get the placed outside." After a brief moment of silence, Bella continued. "Oh, well…to be honest, my beast would never make the trip. Maybe its time I put it out of it's misery."
Alice smiled at Bella's teasing. She knew if either of them were still opposed the parking arrangements would not hold their interest.
"So what do you think guys? Are you in?" Alice asked a bit tentatively.
"Alice," Bella sighed. "How much is this going to cost a month? I am on a tight budget. I really can't afford much more than what the dorms were going to be."
"Me too," Rose added. "Renting is one thing, but a mortgage and insurance with utilities added on top sounds expensive."
"That's the best part!" Alice squealed. "My Dad sees this as an investment property, so he is covering the mortgage and insurance. I do have to get quotes to get some of the renovation work done, but he has given me a budget to get the house livable. Plus, he doesn't want us to be house broke, so he has also given me a monthly stipend to cover utilities and unforeseen expenses. So our monthly costs are really just food and miscellaneous items."
Alice knew there was no way her friends could say no to this. After a brief silence she got her answer.
"Despite the neighbors, I'm in. I can't argue with free housing." Rose answered quickly.
"Me too. " Bella replied with a huff. Alice squealed and immediately started doing a happy dance.
~F~
That first night in the house alone had been a bit strange and unsettling for Alice. The first thing she noticed was how quiet the house was. There was no one running down the halls outside her dorm room. No stereo or television being blasted from a neighboring room. No sound of Lauren snoring or fucking one her many conquests.
The second thing she noticed was the spooky, dark shadows and the occasion creaking sounds. Alice's heart raced thinking about what could be lurking in the shadows, or what could be roaming the house causing the noises.
To combat her rising paranoia, she thought back to her childhood. As a little girl, Alice hated going into the basement of her house. She feared that monsters and ghosts were waiting to attack her behind every old piece of furniture and storage box. One night she forced herself to walk the length of the basement with the lights out. She shook and shivered the entire time, but she made it back upstairs alive and unharmed. She did this several times until the realization sunk in that nothing bad was hiding in basement.
Alice lifted her chin and did the same with her house. She roamed the halls and rooms without any lights on, so that only the milky moonlight illuminated her way. She spent time in each area trying to envision the changes she and her dad had discussed. She had two months to get the house livable before Rose and Bella would return for the start of the school year. Not all of the renovations and changes would be done by then, but Alice was determined to get most of the work and mess out of the way before the end of summer.
After Alice's moonlit walk around the house, she sighed looking out the back door. No monsters or ghosts were found during her tour. It was just as logic would dictate. She owned a largely empty house that creaked in protest to the nighttime breeze.
Alice quietly walked out onto the mostly rotten back deck. The nearly full moon hung low with a blanket of stars sparkling overhead. Alice cocked her head towards a strange humming sound coming from out in the yard. About thirty feet past the deck, in the middle of the yard, were the remnants of a small garden. From the looks of it, the previous owner had used the area to relax. At the center of a predominantly dead circle of plants, an old hammock had been stung between the vertical posts of a weathered redwood pergola.
To Alice's initial surprise, the humming was coming from the garden. Alice squinted into the night in search of the noise's source, which she could now tell was soft singing instead of humming. She silently gasped as she made out the outline of a leg hanging over the edge of the moonlit hammock. Given the size of the leg and its general hairiness, Alice deduced that it belonged to a man. Also noticeable on the leg was a scar running along of the outside of the calf and knee.
Without thinking, Alice reached down and grabbed one of the many railing balusters that had fallen off and littered the deck's surface. Holding the baluster like a baseball bat, Alice called out to the intruder.
"I don't know who you are, but I'm giving you ten seconds to get the hell out of my yard before I call cops!"
The figure jerked at the sound of Alice's voice and fell out of the hammock. "Fuck!" the intruder rasped, and as he hit the ground, he grunted and cursed some more. He stumbled to his feet and looked up at Alice who was still poised to attack with the baluster.
"Whoa! Easy darlin'," the man pleaded with out stretched arms. "I mean you no harm!"
Alice was taken back by the man's southern accent. A shadow dipped across his upper body just enough that his facial features were obscured. However, even in the speckled moonlight she could tell he was young and athletic. She liked that. She liked his voice too.
"Stop trying to check him out and get him the hell off our property!" Alice's inner voice chastised her.
"Your ten seconds are up," Alice barked back. "Are you leaving or am I calling the cops?"
The man stared up at Alice for a few seconds, before answering.
"I wasn't aware that anyone had moved into the old Banner house. I'm sorry I intruded." The man started walking towards the opening in the fallen fence. Before exiting the property, he called back to Alice "I'll see you around, neighbor."
~F~
The next week flew by for Alice. Several calls to contractors were followed up by several onsite visits to provide her with quotes to make the house livable. The priorities had to be the roof, new windows, updating the kitchen, and reworking the bedrooms and bathrooms. Alice forwarded the quotes to her dad for review. After a few phone calls, a roofing and window contractor, as well as a framing contractor had been agreed upon and scheduled. Alice was a bit pissed when her dad informed her the quotes were outrageous. Apparently, the contractors didn't have a problem trying to gouge a woman, but once her dad got involved, the prices dropped by nearly forty percent. On the plus side, given the poor economy, they all could start within the week.
Alice's dad recommended finding a local handyman to help her out around the house. An experienced handyman could do some of the kitchen and bathroom renovations, along with most of the plaster and outside work. The handyman could also guide her through getting any permits that she may need beyond what the contractors would help secure. This would save Alice some money and the handyman could help her with any contractor issues. Alice thought over her dad's recommendation and decided he was right. There were some jobs around the house she wanted to try to do herself, but she was unsure how to properly go about doing them. An experienced handyman could help her get started on things like patching the walls, painting, even refinishing the floors. If she ran into issues, she could just pay the handyman to undo her mistakes.
With her mind set on the handyman route, Alice placed a couple of ads in the local paper and on the school's web site. The local paper ads yielded a couple of calls, but neither gentlemen were too interested in Alice's arrangement. She was about to inquire on some home improvement blogs when she received an email from a student that saw her ad on the school's web site. His uncle was a homebuilder and the student worked for him during his high school summers. After a few emails back and forth, which included a letter from his uncle and a list of several references, Alice finally agreed to meet him. The roofing and window contactors were due to start in a few days, so Alice scheduled their meeting for the day after next.
~F~
Alice had spent the past two days inside testing out paint samples and preparing for the onslaught of work that was to start on the house. Alice also spent the past several nights dreaming about the intruder that she found in the back yard. They were not nightmares; they were of quite a quite different tenor.
Alice had never been one to be swept up in irrational romantic fantasies, but each night a faceless man with a smooth southern drawl visited her dreams. The visions varied from cheesy romance novel story lines to downright Internet-porn worthy debauchery. Last night's was Alice's favorite. In it she was an innocent rancher's daughter being swept away by a roguish southern cowboy. Before her cowboy lover could complete his seduction, Alice was awoken by the sound of a city garbage truck making it scheduled collection rounds.
Just as she did the previous couple of mornings, Alice decided to take matters into her own hands to relieve the sexual frustration the dreams had brought own. However, even after the vigorous and successful act of pleasuring herself, Alice still felt buzzing with left over hormones and adrenaline. Instead of indulging in another round of self-loving, she decided to channel her excess energy into working around the house. The one domestic thing Alice knew she was good at had been gardening. Her mother had two green thumbs and Alice inherited some of her horticultural skills. A day outside cleaning up the backyard garden seemed to be just the right project to help her blow off her excess steam.
About two hours into her gardening chore, Alice was on her hands and knees pulling weeds and digging up the dead plants. From behind, she heard a man clearing his throat in an attempt to get her attention. Alice was initially startled before she took a deep breath and slowly turned her head to see a man's work boot. She followed the bare leg of the man up until her eyes met his scarred calf and knee. Instantly, Alice recognized this as the leg of the man she found in the hammock her first night. Her heart started to race as the highlights of her lustful dreams flooded her mind. Slowly, she raised her eyes until she gazed into the face of her one-time intruder and current fantasy lover.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, I didn't mean to alarm you." The man spoke in the smooth southern drawl she remembered. "My name is Jasper Whitlock. I believe we had an appointment to meet today about a handyman position?"
Alice blinked randomly at the man while she processed what he had said. She was a bit star-struck by how good-looking he was. During their brief nighttime encounter, she never saw his face. Now, Alice couldn't have imagined him looking any other way. His dirty blond hair, slate blue eyes, and the day's worth of scruff along his jaw, filled her stomach with butterflies. "Oh my god, he's fucking hot!" Alice thought as she heard his voice again.
"You are Miss Alice Brandon?" He asked with a worried look on his face.
Alice's eyes widened at the sound of her name before she jumped to her feet and removed her dirty gloves. She briefly noticed how tall her cowboy was; so tall that her entire body would fit under his chin with room to spare. She couldn't help imagining how his tall stature would look hovering over her while they lay in bed. Embarrassed by her erotic thoughts, Alice pulled her eyes away from him and forced herself to inspect her hands for any lingering dirt before responding.
"Yes, I am Alice Brandon," she replied in a surprising calm voice, considering her butterflies had decided to double their efforts. Giving him a tentative smile, she reached out to shake his hand. Despite the warm day, Alice couldn't help the small shivers that shoot up her spine when they touched. She noticed his hand was large and rough, just as she imagined it would be.
"Alice," he spoke softly, "before we begin, I just wanted to apologize for the other night. I would have never had snuck over here if I knew someone had moved in."
For this first time since Alice looked up at him, Jasper looked away from her. "I knew it was him," she thought. Jasper glanced back to her briefly before returning his gaze to the ground. She thought it was cute he was embarrassed; after all, her fantasy cowboy was always a bit humble…right before he seduced her.
Alice knew she had a decision to make. She could either toss him out of her yard again or allow him a second chance. Turing him away would've been the logical, safe thing to do, but deep down Alice wanted something very different. With her decision made, she answered back.
"So that was you," she teased in a light voice. "Well, how ironic it would've been if I had attacked you with a piece of the deck I might be hiring you to replace." Alice couldn't help the flirty smile she gave Jasper. "What were you doing in my hammock anyway?"
"Again, I'm sorry," Jasper solemnly replied. "The Banner house has been vacant ever since I arrived on campus." He paused a moment before he sighed and continued. "This is going to be a bit embarrassing, but…well…I come from small town in Texas and I miss the quiet and seeing the stars at night up here. Just above your hammock there is nice piece of open sky. I like coming over here..." Alice cleared her throat and cocked one of her eyebrows in response to what he just had said. "I mean, I used to like coming over here," he corrected which caused Alice to smile, "just to enjoy the calm and the stars."
Alice mentally swooned thinking about the country boy before her that missed his roots while going to school in the big city. Her previous boyfriends had always been more urban and less rough around the edges. That type just seemed to fit her quirky, headstrong attitude. However, Alice was quickly realizing that maybe the laidback, country-boy persona was more to her liking. Spurred on by this epiphany, Alice decided to have a bit more fun with her cowboy.
"Well first, it is now the Brandon house and it will no longer be vacant," Alice replied in mock consternation. "And second, your explanation on the surface seems credible, but it doesn't account for the singing I heard. Is there anything else you wish to confess to, cowboy?" Alice finished with a saucy little smirk that grew wider when Jasper's eyes grew large hearing her use of the term "cowboy".
"You heard that, huh?" Jasper asked sheepishly. Alice nodded. "Well, my house mates warned me that if I ever sang in the shower again they were going to toss my country music lovin' ass out. I guess I'll need to find a new location to channel my inner Willie Nelson." Jasper paused and looked around the backyard and then up to the house. "So, do I still get a chance to talk to you about the handyman job, or has my warbling and stargazing kicked me out of the running?"
"I don't know," Alice responded coyly. "Are you carpentry skills any better than your ability to carry a tune there, Tex?"
Jasper's humbled demeanor melted away. He gave Alice a mischievous, sexy smirk that caused her butterflies to catch fire. He leaned down until his lips hovered just above her ear. In the low sexy drawl she had imagined in her dreams, Jasper whispered "Darlin', there is only one way to find out."
To Be Continued…