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Sorry if this feels a bit slow. This is my first fan fic and I'm pretty self conscious about letting people read what I write. To answer your question, yes we will find out what happened when Bella was away from her friends before moving to the city.
The use of the song in this chapter was actually inspired by a show I went to. I was the drum and bass tech for a band at a tour called "Taste of Chaos" and saw a band called Pierce The Veil. They covered Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and blew me away live. I loved it and I have since made it the ring tone on my phone. So there you have it folks. I hope you enjoy! Reviews are always welcome!
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chapter 2. Beat it!
The next morning I awoke with a start. I was being crushed by a bony little body who had rolled out of her bed and on top of me.
"Aliiiiiice! Wha... what the heck?" I groaned as I attempted to roll over and bury my face back in my pillow. But these sorts of gestures get Alice going even more, so she just grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back over onto my back. This is when the singing started.
She hopped to her feet bouncing up and down on the trundle around my head singing in a very 'little kid at day camp' manner, "Wake up you sleepy head! Get up get out of bed! See how the sun in shiiiiiiiniiiing!"
"Alice. Shut. Up." I groaned throwing my arm across my eyes and squeezing them shut. But she just continued her annoying little song.
"Stand up and move your toes! Get up, ITS TIME TO GO! We've got a lot to do today!"
"Alice. Please!" I begged groggily.
"Ohhhhh IIIIII said, 'Mommy I love you! I love you yes I do. She took a watermelon and stuck in my shoe..." then came the confused, obnoxious, and very loud speaking part of the tune, "She took a WATERMELON? and stuck it in your SHOE?! WHAT? OH! OH NO! YOU'VE FALLEN ASLEEP AGAIN! GET UP GET UP GET UP!"
By this time, I just admitted defeat and let her continue her song while I tried not to stagger to my feet and choke the little weasel.
"So, wake up you sleepy head! Get up get out of bed 'cause we've got a lot to doooooo tooooooo-daaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" then she leaped into the air one last time and landed crossed legged at my head ruffling my hair with her fingers when she finally came to rest on my bed.
Before I could even open my eyes to glare at her, I heard Alice squeal and her hand abruptly left my hair. My eyes shot open just in time to see a pillow flying through the air and come into contact with the side of Al's face. We both snapped our heads in the direction the pillow assault had occurred from to see Rose glaring at us from under her blanket.
"Shut up!" she seethed and with a scoff she pulled her blanket over her head and slammed her face into her pillow.
Alice crossed her arms with a harumph and cocked her head to the side at me.
"Seriously, this is our first full day together guys and you're going to sleep it away? No freaking way am I letting that happen!"
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and picked up my phone to check the time. I pressed the unlock button on the keys and groaned dropping my phone to my chest.
"It's eight thirty in the morning. I'm pretty sure letting us sleep another hour and a half will still give us plenty of time to enjoy each others company." I moaned."Actually, I think you all will enjoy my company a lot more if I'm not tired and pissy all day." She did not look amused. I tried again. "Besides, remember our agreement? No shopping today. This is a Bella day. A day for Bella to do what Bella wants with Bella's best friends. And really what Bella wants is more sleep. So..." I was cut short.
"I never said a thing about shopping! Just because we aren't going to shop doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other things we can do today. We should have breakfast together and then do some yoga! Then we can give you the grand tour of the apartment building," as she said this she dropped her voice as low as its natural wind chime tone would allow and motioned her hand over the room like a King showing off his expanse of land and riches to a peasant boy. Even being this tired I had to laugh at how animated she was.
"We'll drive around the city and show you some of the places we like to hang out! Come on, it'll be so much fun!" the more she talked the more excited she sounded.
Rosalie's muffled voice jumped in again and she slowly shuffled out from under her blankets just enough to be heard clearly.
"The girl is living with us now you know. She'll have plenty of time to see the city and the apartment, but right now what I would like to see is the hunk of man that I was having such a pleasant dream about before you so generously interrupted my sleep!" Rose yelled from her cocoon in the loft. "Do you have any idea how disturbing it is to have some sexy man meat go from whispering sweet nothings in your ear to singing some chipper-ass good morning sunshine song to you in a voice similar to that of one, Tinkerbell? It's scarring, Alice. Thank you for that." Then she turned her face away from us and pulled her blankets back over her head grumbling under her breath.
I rolled over onto my stomach laughing at Rose's outburst. Alice giggled too.
After all of that I knew I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep. I think Alice realized my decision as I turned my head to look at her and the smile about split her face open. She jumped up excitedly and whispered, "I'll go put on some coffee. Let's get breakfast going, I'm sure once sleeping beauty over there catches a whiff she'll be crawling out of bed in no time."
I sighed in defeat and crawled out of bed.
"Alright Al, I give."
She bounded into the kitchen and crawled to her knees on the counter. Reaching sideways into the cupboard directly above the stove she pulled a coffee canister down, set it on the counter, and hopped back to the floor. I watched her scoop four generous scoops of coffee into a filter that was already in the coffee maker, then she shut the top and hit start.
"I think I'm going to shower quick before we eat, I'm a mess this morning!" Alice squealed as she scrutinized herself in the front of the microwave.
"You're joking, right? You drag me out of bed to help you make breakfast and you're going to abandon me for a shower?"
"If you let me, we don't have to do yoga this morning." she smiled knowing I would give in immediately and turned back towards the bedroom. I sighed and shook my head.
"We really do need to go shopping for food." she said over her shoulder with an apologetic look.
"There's not much but I know we have eggs and pancake mix." she shrugged as she disappeared into the room.
I wasn't really up for pancakes today so I decided to concoct something a little more appetizing. I found a loaf of bread and the eggs she mentioned, we had just a little bit of milk and some cinnamon and vanilla extract too. French Toast it is!
I decided since I didn't have Alice or Rosalie around to help me cook that I would instead need some music of some sort to keep me company. I noticed the little clock radio hanging beneath the cupboards above the sink and flipped the switch to "radio." Just as I did, the sounds of "Beat it" by Michael Jackson filled the room. I cracked the eggs into a dish and added the milk, cinnamon, and vanilla, then grabbing a fork I began whipping up my mixture of goodness along with the song. I let my swirled my hips around in circles to the rhythm of the fork and the french toast batter nodding my head up and down in time. Before long, I could not contain how much fun I was having and I started to belt out the words, "Beat it! Beat it! No one wants to be defeated! Show 'em how funky strong is your fight. It doesn't matter if it's wrong or right just beat it. Just beat it!"
Keep in mind, I really can't sing to save my life. Literally, it sounds like a herd of cows in labor drowning in quicksand. But does that keep me from singing? Of course it doesn't.
My breakfast batter was finally finished so I set the bowl on the counter and picked up the loaf of bread continuing to dance and sing like a fool. I looked up from my creation to see Rosalie standing in the door way of the bedroom with her arms crossed over her chest and her face twisted into a questioning smirk. I immediately halted my mock American Idol tryout and started to laugh.
"Good morning, Rosalie." I smiled looking down at my shirt and realizing that there were splatters of egg all over the front of my pajamas.
Rose shook her head and laughed.
"Yeah. Good morning to you too, Sloppy McThriller Pants." She sauntered over to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator shaking her hips along to the music filling the apartment.
"First of all, I wasn't even singing Thriller." I mocked throwing my hands to my hips.
"Secondly, I figured there's no better way to start the day than with a little Mikey and Frenchy?" I joked trying to hide my embarrassment at being caught dancing and singing all by myself. We both laughed as Rose poured herself a glass of orange juice.
"Mikey and Frenchy? Really?" Rose looked at me like I was half crazy.
I shrugged and we both laughed.
"Yeah, it looked like you were having yourself a pretty damn good time if I do say so myself." She shook her head as she tipped her cup back and peered at me over the rim.
I felt the familiar heat begin to rise to my face so I quickly turned my back to her and returned to my task.
"Shut up Rose and hand me some butter."
Alice made her way out of the bathroom as I finished cooking the last pieces of French toast.
"Feel better?" I asked as I sat down at the kitchen table and gazed out of the slider doors at our amazing view.
"Much!" she chimed as she sat down next to me and served herself some of the breakfast I prepared.
"Yeah. Thanks so much for helping me cook us all this amazing meal!" I teased nudging her in the side.
The three of us ate and chattered the morning away. After I finished the dishes and took my shower I walked into the living room and sat down on the couch.
"Shower or no, I am way too stuffed for pilates." Alice exclaimed. I mentally thanked God for my amazing cooking skills and vowed to continue the tradition of good morning meals if it meant I wouldn't have to suffer through pilates with Alice every day.
"So, what's the plan for today?" I wondered aloud.
"Well, I was thinking that we could walk down to the pier and take a look around. Show you around the area a bit. Then maybe grab some dinner a little later?" Alice said as she slid her flats on and grabbed her jacket off of the back of the couch.
"That sounds good to me." I said as picked up my tattered Chuck Taylor's and slipped them onto my feet. I looked up to see Alice staring at my feet in disgust.
"God, I can not wait until we get to shop for you tomorrow. You need serious help my dear." she said sadly.
Rosalie was already in her boots and pea coat sitting at my other side on the couch. She stood up, reached into her pocket and pulled out her keys then turned to us and smiled.
"Let's go girls!" she said as she floated past us to the front door.
When she opened the door she took one step out and I heard her foot thud against something lying on the floor. As her foot made contact, she launched it further into the hall way before I could see what it was. I stepped into the door way to peek over her shoulder as she screeched.
"No way!"
I walked around her and into the hall and Alice stepped into the door way peering around Rose. We both gasped and then burst out laughing.
There was a rather large red and white striped box of peanuts with a giant bow settled on top of it. A note written on a piece of red construction paper was attached and Rose bent down to snatch it up. She turned to us with a cocky grin on her face and unfolded the note.
"What's it say?" Alice asked bouncing up and down behind me in the door way.
"It says 'Dear elephants of 347, I really appreciate your cooperation in keeping the stampeding to a minimum. Keeping my end of the deal, here is your box of peanuts. If you continue to be nice, I may even give you a really cool bouncy ball or a nice mud bath at a later date. Always, Emmet."
"So, this wise guy's name is Emmett , eh?" She smiled slyly.
We all shook our heads in disbelief.
"Well, Emmett, you smart ass." Rose laughed, "these, 'elephants', might not be as sweet as you hoped." Rose tossed the note through the door and onto the couch along with the box of peanuts.
"Come on girls, we've got things to do today." She said as she walked towards the elevator. "We'll deal with our dear friend Emmett later."
The rest of the day was spent walking around the city, laughing, talking, and taking in the sights. I got to see the giant metal bean in Millennium park. I drug Alice onto the ferris wheel with Rose and I at Navy Pier even though she's not a fan of heights. She grabbed onto my arm and screamed when we got to the top refusing to look anywhere but into my shoulder. After wards, we did some window shopping. I reasoned with Alice that I would go that far with her since she was allowing me the freedom from her obsessive shopping ways for today. It was all we could do to keep her from bouncing through the doors for "just a second" to check the price of some of the items we saw regardless.
That night, we decided to hit up Ed Debevek's, a restaurant closer to downtown that had pretty great food and hilariously rude servers. I ended up spewing Coke from my nose when our server referred to Rosalie as "Barbie" and asked if she wanted him to read the menu to her so she would understand what they had to offer. That, of course, only caused him to refer to me as "Lady Camel face" for the remainder of our meal. Alice thought she was in the clear, but once it was time for our bill, Greg, our server, threw the ticket on Alice's lap and said "This one's on you, Willow. The tip better not be as short as your shrimpy legs." Alice's mouth dropped open and Rose and I doubled over laughing so hard I thought my burger was going to come back up. It was probably the most entertaining meal I had ever had.
We decided to walk back to our apartment from dinner to walk off the food we'd just inhaled and enjoy the night air. It was a really great night tonight.
"So, what do you think so far?" Rose asked as we waited for the walk signal to cross the street to our apartment building.
"It's very... entertaining that's for sure." I giggled remembering our dinner that night.
"Do I seriously look like Willow?" Alice asked with a worried expression on her face.
"Of course not! You're just tiny is all. You don't wear a tunic or carry a walking stick around do you?" Rose joked.
"Oh, I wouldn't be caught dead in a tunic!" she squealed.
"My point exactly." Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head.
I had to laugh at the visual of Alice sprinting up a hill in a tunic with her walking stick. I wonder if I could convince her for Halloween. Probably not.
Looking up across the street, I saw Emmett and two other guys walking into the apartment building. One of the men was tall and looked to be pretty fit. His blond locks poked out from underneath a beanie. He walked with extremely good posture almost resembling a solider's march, only slightly more relaxed. The other guy was shorter than Emmet and the blond haired man, his t-shirt clung to his back revealing his slightly muscular build. He was leaner than the other two and had the most incredible messy bronze hair. I wished I could reach out and run my fingers through it just to see if it was as soft and wonderful as it looked. I couldn't see his face but I felt an odd stir in my stomach at the sight of him.
I was brought out of my stare when I heard Rose noisily clear her throat and looked up to see that our light had turned for us to walk and my two friends were already on the other side of the street. I shook my head and hurried to the other side to join them, tripping on the curb and nearly falling on my face.
"What was that about?" Alice asked staring at the blush rising in my cheeks.
"Nothing, I was just...I just saw Emmett and a couple of his buddies walk into the apartment and I was thinking about what we were going to do in response to his gift for us this morning." I covered. It wasn't that I felt like I was doing anything wrong by gazing at the intriguing backside of the man across the street, but it was oddly embarrassing to admit since I didn't normally ogle at guys like that. Especially not after... well. It had been a while.
"Other boys hm? Then I'm sure our 'thank you' for the peanuts will be greatly appreciated." Rose grinned as we took off upstairs to our room.
"What's the plan, Fran?" Alice asked as she jumped Indian style into the recliner. Rose didn't say anything but instead walked into the kitchen and opened the freezer pulling out a peanut butter pie.
"When life throws you peanuts, make a pie." She grinned seeming very satisfied with her idea. It was sweet and sassy enough to be a good response I thought. It would be fun to make some new friends here. I was up for a special delivery if it meant I could get a peek at this beautiful mystery man's face.
We took the steps down to the second floor and found the room directly below ours. We let Rose do the honors considering this was her bright idea and she'd been the one to actually talk to Emmett. Besides, if the joke didn't seem funny to anyone else in his room I didn't want to be seen as the idiot who did all the talking. I'd like to make a semi decent impression on beautiful mystery boy, as silly as it was.
What if he was a butter face? Wow that wasn't shallow at all, Bella. Was I really interested in a boyfriend or boy 'obsession' anyways? I mean, if he was as beautiful from the front as he was from the back why the heck would he even want to talk to me of all people? Plain old me. Like I'm even ready to pursue a boy in my current condition. Wait, you're not pursuing anything! Stop freaking out, Bella. How about you just focus on making a few friends. Good idea. I realized in the midst of my worrying, that it was actually kind of loud in their apartment. I could hear... well, it sounded to me like guitars and singing? Whoever it was that was singing had an incredibly beautiful voice, or from what I could tell from behind the door. I was suddenly more eager to get the chance to peak inside.
I held my breath as Rose knocked on the door. The music stopped abruptly, but it took a few seconds before we heard anyone moving for the door. The door swung open and there stood the blond haired boy in the beanie. I heard Alice gasp and snapped my head in her direction as she stepped back a little in embarrassment.
"Hello. Can I.. help you?" the guy asked.
"Yeah, is Emmett in?" Rose asked holding the pie up in her right hand like a pizza wearing a sly grin. The guy jumped back looking as though he half expected her to slam it into his face. Alice giggled wildly. Just then I heard a familiar voice and looked back see Emmett bounding for the door way, a big goofy grin on his face.
"Well well well, look who it is!" He boomed. His arms were thrown open wide ready to attack us in a big bear hug. Rose screamed and pulled the pie protectively towards her chest trying to turn as he made his advance, but he was faster and as he threw his arms around us the pie ended up becoming squashed between she and Emmett's chests.
Everyone got deafeningly quiet. Alice and I stepped back away from the quad hug going on as Rose slowly pushed her hands against Emmet's chest and moved the two of them apart. The pie plate flopped to the floor with just a bit of the peanut butter filling and half of the graham cracker crust still in the bottom of it. Rose slowly looked up at Emmet with a look of disgust on her face as Emmet's hand moved up and he wiped his hand across his shirt and shoved all four of his fingers into his mouth. My attention was on Rose's face almost expecting her to haul off and slap him.
"MMM! Peanut Butter!" He exclaimed through his mouthful of pie. It was silent for a few seconds more but when I finally looked back up at Emmett's big goofy grin and the peanut butter dripping down his chin, I slapped my hand over my mouth and burst out laughing. Next thing I knew every one was snorting and laughing too. Did that really just happen?
"Well, I hope you've all eaten dinner because tonight, looks like dessert's on me!" Rose exclaimed and we laughed even harder.
I was doubled over in the door way laughing so hard I thought my ribs were going to break, tears streaming down my cheeks and blurring my vision. But then I caught sight of something that immediately sobered me up. I blinked furiously a few times and once the tears left my eyes I was able to get a good look at the most incredible creature I had ever set eyes on. His green eyes burned into my chocolate ones and the breath caught in my chest. His beautifully chiseled jaw line complimented his soft pink lips as they turned up in a breathtakingly crooked smile. His bronze hair was in disarray and he had an acoustic guitar settled in his lap. His gaze left mine and he set his guitar down and walked to the kitchen. I was slightly disappointed he didn't just sit there and let me stare a little longer, but then again I should really stop being such a creeper!
A few seconds later, the bronze haired boy emerged from the kitchen with two towels and he sauntered over to join everyone at the door. He handed Rose and Emmet the towels and then extended his hand towards Alice who was standing on Rose's other side now, closer to the blond haired boy.
"Alice? I'm Edward, it's a pleasure." he said, his voice full of velvet.
I realized how rude I was being, so I turned to the blond haired boy and offered my hand.
"Hi, I'm Bella."
"Jasper." He smiled warmly taking my hand in his. His grip was stronger than I anticipated, but yet very careful. He turned his smile to Alice quickly before extending his greeting to Rose who had wiped her hands and the front of her shirt as clean was possible.
"Hello." my head snapped in the direction of the velvety voice I'd heard just seconds before. The gorgeous creature was directly in front of me now with that crooked smile melting my insides. I collected myself quickly and extended my hand.
"H-Hi. I'm Bella. You're Edward?" I said shakily. I can never seem to keep my emotions at bay and I hate it. If I'm happy, sad, nervous, scared, mad, whatever the case you can always tell. My mother always used to call me her little open book.
"Bella, it's nice to meet you." He said and took my hand in his. It was the most incredible feeling ever. I did not want to let my hand fall from his grip. It was almost as though there was some jolt of electricity passing between the two of us. Or maybe, I'm just going crazy.
All too son his hand released my own and I turned my attention back to the group of us standing in the door way, stealing glances at the inhumanly gorgeous man beside me.
"Well, the elephants from upstairs were about to comment on how we'd made you dessert from your lovely gift, but I should probably go get properly cleaned up instead." Rose said looking at her mess of a shirt in disgust. We all chuckled lightly.
"Wait a minute, sister! Are you trying to cash in on that mud bath I offered in my note?" Emmett wagged his eyebrows at Rose and I noticed the confused looks on Edward and Jasper's faces.
Rose gasped and slapped Emmett's arm, then she turned shaking her head and Alice and I followed suit back down the hall. I could hear Emmet's booming laughter as we climbed the stairs. I smiled to myself as I remembered the feeling of shaking Edward's hand and thought to myself that maybe I could convince the girls to try to invite our neighbor and his friends up for a few episodes of The Office tonight.