A/N: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed the first chapter, Love-it-away, Emma-MasenCullen, twilight4evr84, almazuna18, RedRose102 and RyanPCullen you guys are awesome! :)
First to answer some of your questions:
1. Who's Bella's roommate? You'll meet her in this chapter and she's a friend of mine :D An awesome writer, Love-it-away, I thought she deserved a part in my story :)
2. What's Bella's major? You'll also find that out in this chapter, so be patient and your question will be answered :P
3. Please update soon? Well here it is ;) Enjoy and lemme know what you guys thought!! :)
It can get a bit confusing in this chapter because you'll meet some new people, since I couldn't let Bella go off to NY without meeting new people, but there are only two really important new names in this story, one of them you've already met, namely Max, so don't worry, it'll all turn out fine :)
Savior
The next day I woke up at eight and I was getting ready for my first classes. After I had finished my breakfast, I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and fix my hair, for as far as that was possible with the hopelessness that was my hair.
When I walked out of the bathroom there was a girl standing in my room. I let out a squeal in surprise. I hadn't expected to see anyone here this early.
"Hi, I'm sorry I scared you," the girl said timidly, "my name is Shirley, I'm going to be your roommate." She smiled at me. She looked nice enough and I was relieved. At least she didn't look like one of those typical students who only drank and did drugs the entire time while listening to loud music until four in the morning. But then again, I had only met her a few seconds ago so I couldn't really tell. I hoped it would all turn out fine though. Surely I had just watched too many movies over the last couple of years, I wasn't sure the majority of students was even like that at all. The question of who was going to be my new roommate had me worried for a while, what if I wasn't going to like that person. I was going to be stuck with them for a couple of years, that would be very difficult.
"That's fine, didn't expect to see anyone here, that's all," I muttered defensively, "Nice to meet you, I'm Bella," I introduced myself quietly.
Then I looked at the clock and noticed it was already ten to nine and I had no clue where my first class was going to be. Great start! Nice going Bella! I smiled at my new roommate apologetically before saying "I'm sorry, I have to go, I'm already late for class."
She smiled back at me, "That's fine, go, we'll get to know each other later, we have a while to do that," she winked at me and I couldn't help but smile. I already liked her. This might actually turn out to be fun.
I was running along the halls of my new school, desperately searching for any sign that I was going in the right direction. I was hardly paying attention to anything other than classroom numbers. It was only a matter of time before I was going to run into someone and indeed it happened.
I slammed into someone and we both fell down on the floor. I quickly tried to get up again but of course my clumsiness had to make matters worse because as soon as I had all my weight on one foot, it slipped and I fell down, this time on top of the person I had just ran into. He must definitely want to be my friend now. I looked at the boy's face and I noticed it was the same guy who had been kind enough to help me out.
"Well, Bella, this is a nice surprise," Max said teasingly, raising one eyebrow in shock.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention. I'm late for my class and I'm lost," I rushed out in a high voice while blushing deeply. Why on Earth did I have to run into him, the only person who had been nice to me so far and who had helped me out so kindly yesterday, this was surely going to make him want to stay away from me and I didn't blame him.
"That's alright, but would you mind getting off of me?" he asked jokingly and I blushed even further.
"Oh, right, yeah, sure," I stumbled. Before I threw myself off of him and he pulled himself off the floor. After which he held out his hand for me to take it and he helped me up. Something I surely didn't deserve.
"Well, it seems like you're in luck again, running into me, let's see if I can help you alright?" he asked in a mocking tone.
"That would be nice because I have no clue where I am or where I'm supposed to go."
"Everyone is that way on their first day, don't worry about it, teachers don't mind either, they expect it to happen, usually half of the class is late on the first day. Why don't you tell me which classroom you're looking for."
"Right," I muttered before telling him the room number. He pointed me in the right direction again and I was very grateful.
"Seems like I can't really trust you to be okay by yourself now can I?" he said smilingly.
"Guess not," I stuttered embarrassed.
"Why don't you come find me in the cafeteria after your classes for this morning so you can have lunch with me and my friends?"
I was surprised by the offer and I gratefully accepted.
"Good, now that that's settled, are you going to be okay on your own for a while? I suppose some other students can show you to your next class after this one right?" He winked at me. It shocked me how attractive he actually was. My heart fluttered a bit. Nothing like it had done before with Edward, but I really liked this boy, he was my savior at college it seems.
"Thank you, I'll be fine yes, I'll see you at lunch then," I told him tentatively.
"Yes, just follow the stream of students and I'm sure you'll end up where the food is at," he joked, "enjoy your classes Bella, it was nice running into you again," he winked mockingly again when he said that and I couldn't help but stick my tongue out at the boy I hardly knew. He chuckled before turning around and disappearing in the crowd of students all going in different directions. I walked into my class and noticed that it wasn't even halfway filled, I was happy and I quickly took a seat in the back of the class.
My morning classes went by without a hitch and I was happily following the flow of students towards the cafeteria. Max spotted me before I noticed him and quickly walked up to me. Leading me to a table with three other students sitting there.
"Everyone, I'd like you to meet my new friend Bella," he said in his deep voice. "Bella these are my friends," he said to me while smiling.
I saw a girl with short brown hair sitting at the far right of the table, she was also pretty attractive with her big blue eyes and I was sure she would be quite popular with the boys. She looked at me and smiled.
"It's nice to meet you Bella, my name is Kelly," she introduced herself with a smile.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you too."
I looked over to the next person at the table and it was a guy, he looked like he was a year older than I was, I estimated him to be twenty, he was well-built and had spiky blond hair and very light blue eyes.
"Hi, I'm Kevin," he introduced himself.
"Hi Kevin," I smiled at him.
The last boy at the table was a bit younger than the rest, or at least he looked younger. He looked around eighteen years old. He was wearing glasses and he looked very smart.
"Hello Bella," he said politely in a high voice, "my name is Colin, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Hello Colin." For some reason my voice sounded more formal when I replied to him, must have been the polite way with which he had introduced himself. "It's really nice to meet all of you," I told the group sincerely.
I sat down next to Max and I felt comfortable in this group immediately. I fitted in and I was happy. This was going to make things a lot easier. Luckily enough they seemed to like me to. They always included me in their conversations and they were giving me pointers on what to do with things related to college. I was grateful for all of them.
I learned that Colin was in fact seventeen, he had skipped a year in high school and he was indeed very smart, he was studying physics here, he wanted to become a researcher and I was certain that he would make a good investigator one day. I had been right about Kevin, he was indeed twenty years, just like Max apparently, and they were both studying Math. Kelly was nineteen, like me, and she was studying psychology. It was weird to see how diverse this group really was. Especially with the addition of me with my creative writing and English literature.
The rest of the day went by quickly and I was happy. I had made some nice friends already and that was more than most first years could say.
Many days passed by in the same routine, I started my classes early, went to lunch with the same group every day and I finished my classes late. I had the worst schedule in the world and it sucked but it would change soon enough, I wouldn't have the same sucky schedule every single semester so I would just have to endure it for now.
I spent many evenings in my own room, chatting with Shirley. She had really become my best friend here in college and I loved hanging out with her. She was bright, funny and sweet and we got along really well.
Two weeks had passed since I got here for the first time and I was having the time of my life. I hadn't thought about the past much, about the pain Edward had caused me or about the crazy things I had done with Jacob to try and hear Edward's voice again. I was glad it had all turned out so well and I was finally moving on with my life. I missed Jacob terribly so I called him almost every single day. He often went running with the pack so he was tired a lot. I didn't understand why they would feel the need to still have double security on the reservation, Victoria was dealt with and they hadn't had any other vampire trouble anymore since then. But Jacob said he didn't mind and that he liked running surveillance so much.
"I do hope you can get the weekend off some time so you can come visit me." I had told him during one of our daily conversations.
"I'm sure I can arrange something soon, Sam isn't that strict and as long as things keep quiet around here I'm sure they can handle a weekend without me there. I'll come over real soon alright? I promise!"
We had talked for a long time after that, planning his visit here and what we would do even though we hadn't really set a date yet but he had been just as excited as I was and he said he couldn't wait to see the campus and the city.
I didn't know much about New York, most of the time I had been here I had spent on campus. They had everything nearby and I hadn't felt the need to go explore the city by myself. I had told my friends about Jake's visit and asked if they had any suggestions about what we could do. They had all given me pointers about nice sights in the city and they suggested I should take him to a baseball game. They knew I wasn't much of a sports fan though, due to my own lack of talent or sense of balance so they had understood when I told them that wasn't going to happen.
"Why don't you and I go explore the city this weekend then?" Max had offered, "I've seen how well you can handle a map and I don't want to have to worry about you out in the big city with a friend that has never been there either," he added mockingly while winking at me.
"Really? I would like that, it would make my life a lot easier. You seem to have a talent for saving me you know that?" I smiled at him.
"You always seem to be in need of a savior so I might as well offer my services right?" I smiled thankfully at him.
That Saturday Max and I were walking through the streets of New York and he was pointing out many things I should definitely check out. I tried to take mental notes of everything he mentioned and I tried really hard to remember the route we were taking so that I could replicate it exactly when Jake got here. That wasn't going to be easy because my sense of direction, like Max had so kindly pointed out earlier, was about as good as my sense of balance.
All the while Max and I were chatting happily about college and our lives so far. It was very easy to talk to him but I couldn't tell him about Edward, it didn't feel right for some reason. It was strange because it had been so easy before to confess everything about my past, at least everything human, to Shirley and she had been so helpful and understanding about the whole thing. But somehow I couldn't do the same with Max. So I told him everything about my parents' divorce and moving to Forks and the friends I had made there, minus one family, and I told him about Jake and my dad.
He also shared details from his past with me. He told me he had never had a girlfriend before, he told me he had been living in Los Angeles his entire life and that he loved it there. I was surprised to hear that and asked him why he had moved to New York then, since UCLA was a top college and I was sure he would have been accepted there easily, seeing how bright he was. He confessed he had troubles at home and that LA reminded him too much of his family so he wanted to get as far away from there as possible. I didn't ask for any details and he didn't continue on the subject either. He did tell me that it was all in the past and even though he felt no need to go back to LA ever again he had dealt with all his problems and was truly happy here.
We chatted about our group of friends for a while after that, he seemed especially interested in Shirley. He had blushed deeply when I had started talking about her. I liked the idea of the two of them together, they seemed a very cute couple so, very uncharacteristically of me, I pried.
"So what do you think about Shirley?" I asked him casually.
"What do you mean?" He played dumb.
"Well, I was just wondering, since you seem to react a bit differently to the mentioning of her name than you do to anyone else's," I pried.
He blushed again and dropped his eyes to the floor. "Well, I think she's wonderful but she doesn't seem interested in me."
I smiled at him. I didn't know how Shirley would feel about him but I was sure I would be able to find out. "Well, what do you know? Seems like my savior needs a savior of his own." I beamed at him. "Do you want me to try and find out if she's interested in you?"
"That would be great!" he exclaimed while beaming thankfully at me.
"It's settled then." I would ask her about it tonight.
"Just don't let her know I'm interested!" he begged quickly.
"Don't worry," I told him sincerely. Men! I thought while internally rolling my eyes. Why couldn't they just deal with emotions better already? They should act on their feelings sooner. I thought to myself bitterly.
That evening Shirley and I were watching a movie together like we did many other times as well and when we got to the romantic ending where the hero and the girl make out we both sighed. It surprised me how easy it was now for me to watch romantic comedies again. It had taken me a long time to be able to watch anything other than a horror movie and this was a nice change from all the blood and monsters. I had always liked the classic love stories so I was happy that I could finally watch them again.
"Don't you just wish real life would be more like a movie," Shirley sighed.
"That would make things a whole lot easier indeed, at least then you know a happy ending is guaranteed," I agreed.
"Yeah, at least in movies it's obvious that the guy you like likes you back." Something in her voice got my attention and I was reminded of my promise to Max earlier. This was the time to find out if she had feelings for anyone in particular and especially for Max.
"Speaking of which, are you interested in anyone special?" I asked conspiringly.
"Huh? What do you mean?" she asked confused by my sudden change of focus.
"Well, I was just wondering if you had your eye on anyone in particular or not? I just thought maybe, by the way you said that last thing, you had a crush on someone."
"Not a crush really, I like someone but it doesn't mean anything, he doesn't like me back anyways."
"Do I know him? Who is he?" I was never one for gossip so I had a hard time pulling this out of her but I wasn't doing this for me, that thought helped.
"You know him, but if I'll tell you you'll laugh!"
"I promise I won't laugh, will you please tell me?" I practically begged.
"It's Max, but it's nothing, he doesn't like me anyways so I'll get over it." She blushed more deeply than I had ever seen her blush and it reminded me much of the scene I had seen with Max earlier today.
"Why don't you tell him? I'm sure he likes you too!" I exclaimed, too happy to be able to control myself.
"Really?" she asked unsurely.
"Yes! You should definitely tell him!" I tried to convince her.
"Alright, the next time I'm alone with him I'll try to bring it up." She smiled at me, "Thank you Bella, I've been wanting to share this with someone for quite some time now."
"No problem, as long as you promise to tell him soon!" I urged.
"I promise."
We spent the rest of the evening watching movies and chatting excitedly about what a cute couple Max and her would make. When it was time to go to sleep I was proud of the work I had done and I was sure Max and Shirley would be able to work it out. I was glad I was able to be Max' savior as well, it restored the balance a bit and I needed balance in my life more than anything.
A/N: That's it for chapter 2. Chapter 3 will be up tomorrow evening (or at least, evening in Holland :P) Xxx Thari
