All righty then! Thanks to the three wonderful people who sent in reviews! (I would totally put your names in here, but I'm too lazy to go over to the page to get them. You know whom you are and I love you!) I'm glad to hear that you like it! Here is chapter 2 of this little shindig!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of the AMAZING Twilight franchise, but we all wish we did. I just have a copy of all four books. Oh yeah, THIS PLOT IS MINE TOO. DON'T STEAL IT OR I'LL STEAL YOUR SOUL! *roar* consider yourselves warned.
Chapter 2: Boycott Love, Detox to Retox
Since childhood, I was an early riser. I went to bed the moment I felt tired and always woke up early. When it came to be around nine, I was wondering if he'd forgotten to call me or forgotten about my agreement altogether.
There wasn't anything I could do but wait and since it was my one day off this week, I just took out my yoga mat and started stretching.
Later around eleven, my cell phone finally rang but I thought it was someone calling about a problem at work. I didn't recognize the number and wondered if Robert was calling me.
"Hello, this is Bella." I said calmly.
"Hey, it's me."
With those three accented words, my body loosened up more than I thought was possible after stretching.
"You know, the guy that almost cut you in half with the car yesterday?" He laughed.
"Oh, yeah. Hey, how are you?" I grinned, but remained careful about letting a guard down.
"Tired. I need a good cup of coffee-oh, I didn't wake you did I?" He gasped rather quietly.
I actually laughed when he said that, "Geez, no. I've been up since seven. Early riser since I was a kid. I was starting to wonder if you were going to sleep all day."
He laughed softly, "I'm still not used to the time change. It's about eight or nine hours earlier or something like that over here. I can't seem to overcome it quick enough."
"That's understandable. So, would you like me to come up then?" I offered as I walked back to my bathroom to fix myself up a little bit.
"Yeah. Just come up whenever you're ready I suppose," He yawned quite loudly into the phone.
"All right. See ya." We both hung up and I finished brushing my hair.
Since he was horrible at making coffee, I decided to bring a blend from Starbucks because I was so used to it. As I walked up the eight flights of stairs for some exercise, I had to remember him running into the kitchen with his shirt halfway on his body. That thought was quickly followed by me shaking my head and telling myself not to be so stupid.
As I knocked on his door, I bounced up and down on the balls of my feet in anticipation. He opened the door and had a smile worthy of a toothpaste commercial, "Good afternoon Bella. You're really a life saver you know? I only drink my horrible coffee to get the caffeine from it…so hopefully you'll be saving my taste buds in the process too-oh, you brought some coffee beans! Great!" He led me over to his expensive looking coffee maker and I suddenly realized how he could get confused and make horrible coffee.
After walking him through the process, step by step, he slapped his forehead in frustration, "I'm such an idiot. And here you just walk in and make it."
"I do this for a living you know. And this thing has a lot of buttons to push, don't beat yourself up about it." I smiled politely.
I assumed after making the coffee that I was free to leave, but as I went to the door he called over, "Oh, don't leave already! I was hoping we could talk some more. I do like having conversations with people other than myself and my professors."
"Well…all right. Today's my day off." I shrugged and wished I'd put on something else.
"Oh, maybe we could go out and get some lunch or something? My treat!" He said happily.
"No offense, but if you're a student abroad, I should be paying for you…unless you have wealthy parents or something in which case I envy you." I laughed.
"Uh, yeah something like that." He scratched the back of his neck again.
"If we are going to go out…let me run downstairs and change clothes." I backed towards the door.
"Why? You look perfect already…I mean, yeah, you look fine." His cheeks flushed slightly as his eyes ran away from mine. Was he serious? I had on some beat up overalls and a green t-shirt.
"Well I guess we can go whenever you're ready then." I shrugged.
He pulled on a worn-looking, plaid button up shirt and slipped on some beaten black shoes, "Let's go." Wow, he obviously didn't care about the trends, not that I minded.
"Did you have any certain place in mind? There's a place a few minutes from here I'm absolutely in love with." He smiled as we rode down in the elevator.
"Nope. Wherever you want to go I guess." I forced a small smile onto my lips and followed him to his car.
"So what are you studying over here that you can't get in merry old London?" I laughed once we'd reached a local hangout I'd been to many times.
"It's not that I can't study it at home…I just wanted to try something new, you know, see what life is like somewhere else." He shrugged and bit off a piece of pepperoni pizza.
"If you wanted to try something new, why not just take up a sport?" I laughed and ate some of my salad.
He tilted his head down and I saw him let a huge smile slip out, "Learning basketball and experiencing another way of life are two different things."
"Maybe you could learned a new way of life through basketball? Yoga transformed my life, you know." I grinned.
He just laughed quietly, "Maybe. But I didn't really want to learn basketball; I want to learn about this culture."
His eyes came into direct contact with mine and I had to look away to avoid being drawn in. My goal was to be nice but make sure he knew I wasn't looking for a relationship…without actually having to tell him that.
"You couldn't have just read a book?" I gave him a sarcastic look and ate some more salad.
"Books only let you use your imagination…living in a culture requires the use of every part of you. I'm certain it's quite the same in yoga. You can't just use one part of your body, it requires every part." He drank about half of his water in the glass and wiped his mouth off with his sleeve.
"True. You're smarter than I gave you credit for." I teased.
He rolled his eyes, "Look, I may not know how to make coffee as well as you, but I do know a lot of other things."
After driving back, he asked if I'd want to go out for dinner, "I'm not trying to make you feel like I'm stalking your or anything, but it's so nice to be able to talk to a regular person who lives here."
I figured he was being genuine and honest, so I told him I would, "There's a place I'd like to go to however, I know you'll like it."
"All right. Shall I drive or would you rather?" He asked as he pulled into a space. He was so proper when he spoke, it was slightly maddening.
"Uh, I'll drive I guess. Come to my apartment around 5." I nodded as we got out of his car.
"What number?" He asked as we walked towards the elevator.
"Six oh four." I nodded.
"I'll see you at five then." He grinned as we got in the elevator.
Immediately after getting into my apartment, I let out a heavy sigh. Well that torture was over; not that he wasn't a nice guy and all…but having to be friendly and keep it platonic was difficult, especially with him. Something about him was so welcoming and inviting, it had tried to drag me in but I'd kept my distance somehow.
To chill out, I took a long and steaming hot shower. I washed my hair and smelled it, "Hopefully he won't notice it…guys go crazy over hair that smells good."
I peered into my closet and finally pulled out a black, three-quarter length sleeve, v-cut shirt. I pulled on some dark denim skinny jeans and decided not to wear make up to try and seem a little less attractive.
My hair was slowly forming into loose barrel curls and I ran my fingers through them to try and flatten them out…but to no avail. Five rolled around suddenly and I heard a knock on my door. I slipped on some black Blowfish shoes and opened the door, "Hey, would you like to come in for a minute? I need to find my car keys."
He grinned, "Sure, if that's okay."
"Absolutely." I nodded and let him in.
"Did you decorate this yourself?" He seemed impressed. "Yes. I wasn't going for any specific theme…everything is just something I thought was cute. Kind of a hodge-podge of things." I commented as I tried to locate my keys.
The telephone rang so I walked over and looked at the caller i.d., Elisa. I picked up and gave a cheery hello.
"Hey Bells, Margot and I are going out tonight. Do you want to join us?"
"Sorry, I can't. I'm hanging out with some other people." I replied nonchalantly.
"Wow, you know other people besides us?" She laughed.
"Ha hah, funny. You're a comic, really. Yes, I do know other people." I laughed shortly.
"All right, well talk to you later then sweetheart."
"Bye Lise."
"Bye Bell Bell." She giggled. I rolled my eyes and hung up.
"I don't know I could be referred to in a plural." Edward mused.
I looked around and let out a nervous smile, "Oh uh…well I just met you yesterday and all…if I say I'm hanging out with a guy my friends will flip out. Believe me; I'm protecting you more than myself by not telling them about you."
"Why would they…flip out?" He asked curiously.
He was either a really good faker or he was really that naïve.
"I just don't…hang out with guys that much. Hardly ever really and when my friends hear about me being around a guy of any sort…they go overboard. It's nothing to worry about." I smiled and finally saw my keys on the table by my door.
We didn't speak hardly at all while driving over to a local hangout café. It made the silence nearly as torturous as Chinese Water Torture and I wanted to shake my leg or something.
He smiled when he saw the café, "I think I've been here once before. I found it randomly and I've been looking for it since."
"Oh awesome! Glad to have helped." I smiled politely as we walked in.
"So what's in like in Britain?" I asked after we'd gotten our food.
"Rains a lot. Winters are freezing and summers feel like an oven." He shook his head like he was glad to be away from it.
"Doesn't it feel so cool to live in the same place as Big Ben and Buckingham Palace where the Royal family lives? Not to mention double deckers and the London Bridge!" I gawked a little bit.
"I could say the same to you. Living in the movie capital of the world where movie stars are everywhere. Having the infamous, 'Hollywood' sign and the Hollywood Bowl…I can't imagine how fascinating it was to grow up here." He looked away as if he was daydreaming.
"I guess I can see why you wanted to leave home. Probably for the same reason I want to leave California." I shrugged.
"Besides earthquakes, I can't imagine why you'd want to leave here. Although…you can't understand why I'd want to leave London…so I guess we're at a truce?" He laughed.
"At least you can afford to travel. I'd die for a chance to go anywhere outside of this country." I sighed.
"Mexico isn't but two hours from here, if that." He pointed out.
"Let me clarify, I want to get off this continent. I've always wanted to go to Europe, it seems so exotic." I closed my eyes and imagined different places.
"Africa is exotic. Europe is just…old school living with new age technologies." He commented quietly.
"I still want to go. I'm so tired of California." I huffed and opened my eyes.
He was staring very intently at me, "I'd offer to take you, but that would seem a bit forward and I honestly can't go back for almost a year."
My face started to burn so I had to try and think of something sad, or just something else, so I wouldn't blush. "There's no way I could afford it…unless I used a credit card, ugh. That would take forever to pay off though." I laughed softly.
"I was more along the lines of thinking that-"
Someone bumped hard into me and made me fling my drink off the table.
As I became flustered and tried to pick up the ice off the floor, I noticed Edward stand up and leave the table. I assumed he was going to find someone to help clean this up; however, I was severely wrong as came back, dragging some guy by the arm.
"Sorry, I didn't think I'd hit you that hard."
I smiled lightly back and nodded, "No problem. No harm, no foul." Edward let the guy go and helped me pick up all of the ice.
While my hands slowly froze from the ice, the rest of me was warm. If he weren't so freaking sweet like that, I wouldn't have such a hard time keeping myself at a 'friends only' state of mind.
So what do you think? Tell me honestly now. I've gotten a flame before so I think I can handle criticism...I just might post what you said in the next chapter if you're mean enough and then respond to it in the same chapter. Mwahahaha. No, I'm joking-well, I did do that once, but I'm joking about doing it now...that is, unless what you say is extremely mean and uncalled for. XDDD
All right-moving on! I know there isn't a whole lot of B&E action, but that's because they just met, and I'm building up the tension between the two. I mean...it took them half of Twilight to finally kiss! They're going to kiss before halfway through this story, I promise, but I won't tell you how long it is. MWAAHAHA. I am so evil. Not really, I'm just up too late, as usual.
REVIEW PLEEEEEASEY WEASY!!!
*ShiningStarr*
