I do not own any of the Twilight characters, or anything to do with the Twilight saga. That belongs to Stephenie Meyer and she rocks so why anyone want to steal her work!
Please read and review. As strange as it sounds I like reviews, I know weird right?
BPOV
"All I wanted was you-"
My voice cracked and I trailed off, I'd been trying to reach that note for so long. I turned to the others.
Sophia let fingers slide down the guitar strings as I gave up. Rosalie cut off her drumming. Alice ceased playing the bass. Angela and Lily gave looks of disappointment.
"I suck. I can't do it." I said, shaking my head.
"You were so close that time." Lily said encouragingly.
"She's right." Sophia said, I turned to her, she must have sensed my despondency. "Maybe we should take five." She set her guitar on it's stand.
"Great." I nodded. I led them out of my garage and into my kitchen. I went to my fridge, "Sustenance anyone?"
We made ourselves some sandwiches and took bottles of water.
"Thanks, Bella." Angela said. Everyone else mumbled in agreement as they ate.
There had been a weird divide between us lately, well, not in a negative sense, more like a distinction. Lily was still happy with Blake, Angela and Ben's relationship was flourishing, and Sophia had been seeing Riley for while now. But Alice, Rosalie and I hadn't heard a thing from Jasper, Emmett and Edward since the whole party fiasco. An we definitely weren't interested in any other guys, stupid love sickness.
"Hey, Lily." Alice said, Lily looked up at her. "You haven't heard anything from…Jasper have you?"
Lily looked sheepish. "Um, no…I'm sorry." Alice went back to her food.
"W-why don't we…I mean…we could…" Angela began, she looked as if she were looking to the others for help. "Maybe we could go and visit them."
The three of us looked up at them, just short of gaping.
"I don't see what's so gob smacking about it." Sophia sighed, shaking her head slightly.
"They don't want u-" I began.
"I know, I know. That's what you think…" Sophia said, "But then why would they come all the way up here?"
"Guilt." The three of us said immediately. We'd discussed this many a time.
Lily made a noise of annoyance, "I can't believe you guys can't see how amazing you are."
That was easy for them to say, who had boy friends around here?
"How's everything going with the guys?" Rosalie asked Sophia and Angela, slyly changing the subject.
Angela jumped right into the subject, "Well, Ben is the perfect boy friend as I knew he'd be, even though he makes me watch badly dubbed samurai films." She giggled.
"Soph?" Alice asked.
Sophia removed her gaze from the table top, she seemed like she had been thinking hard about something. "Hm? Oh, right yeah, it's all good."
"It's all good?" I repeated.
"Well, yeah, what was I supposed to say?"
"How about, oh, he's awesome, he lights up my life." Alice suggested.
"Okay then, that." She shrugged.
"Is everything okay?" Angela asked her.
"Of course, why wouldn't it be?"
She started to say something, but as she looked up again and saw all of our scrutinizing faces, she started over. "It's fine, he's everything a boy friend should be, he's kind, he treats me well. But I can't help but thinking that…there isn't a spark…shouldn't there be a spark?"
Although Alice, Rosalie and I couldn't exactly give our opinions, I knew that's we'd all felt that sort of spark with our boys.
Our boys. I mentally scoffed.
But to differentiate, we'd not felt anything like it otherwise, not with anyone.
Angela and Lily on the other hand knew all about it, "Sometimes it can kick in after a while." Angela offered, smiling reassuringly.
"I have an idea, why don't we triple?" Lily beamed at the thought.
"Triple?" Sophia questioned.
"Triple date, it'll be fun." Lily explained. Then at the same time, their eyes turned to look at us peripherally.
"Guys, it's fine, we're fine." Alice laughed, shaking her head. Rosalie and I agreed.
Sophia seemed to perk up a bit, " Well, I think we've done enough band practice for the day, shall we study?"
"We shall." I said getting up and taking everyone's dishes.
"And then if you want we can hit the gym, that's what I call a fulfilling day." Rosalie chimed.
Sophia, Angela and Lily were also welcome to use Rosalie's gym, of course. We all agreed with her and after I was helped with the dishes by Lily and Alice, I washed, Lily dried, Alice put away seeing as she knew where everything went as well as me, we headed off to study for our finals.
EPOV
I just felt empty, my friends and I… and that made no sense. It was all over those girls! Those…I can't even bare to criticise them because there was nothing to criticise…they were awesome. She was awesome.
But she didn't want to know.
Flashback- The night of the party
"Let's just go home, there's nothing interesting here." Emmett griped, disappointed at not getting to see Rosalie I supposed.
We were heading for the door when three boys stepped in front of us, they were about our age.
"May we help you?" I asked, perplexed.
"Yeah, I've got a way you can do that, stay away from them." The burliest one said, he had short dark hair and dark skin, I was sure I'd seen him somewhere else during the night.
"What?" Jasper asked, surprised at his manner.
"We care too much about those girls for you to hurt them anymore." The smaller and younger one said.
"Are you talking about-" Emmett began.
"Rosalie, Alice and Bella, yes." Said the other one, he was the oldest.
As he mentioned them, my insides flipped. Bella.
"You can't decide who they can and can't talk to." I retaliated.
"Yeah, but they can. They didn't want to see you tonight." The leader said.
"What?" Jasper said. "But…Alice invited us."
"She didn't think you'd actually show." The youngest said. "She just did it because she wanted to be the bigger person."
"That's not true, Alice is my friend." I defied.
"Would she really be your friend after what you did to her, and Rosalie and Bella?" The leader asked with his eyebrow crooked as if I were acting infantile.
"Think about it. And like we said, stay away." The oldest one emphasized before they walked away. Leaving the three of us stood there, dumbfounded.
Present time
If you really think about it, I don't know why they didn't do it sooner.
So, Jasper, Emmett and I were focusing on our finals and trying to numb our feelings.
BPOV
"Please, put your pens down." A voice resounded through the hall.
Finally, I'd finished this exam about twenty minutes ago.
The examiners collected our papers in, this period was supposed to be spent in the same silence as the entire exam, but it doesn't help to have very distracting friends.
While the examiner's back was turned, Alice was looking at me and grinning, I'd noticed in my peripheral vision, I smirked. Rosalie was sat in front of me, she leant back and stared at me, I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. I looked to my left to avert their gaze but when I turned I saw that Lily was looking at me while biting her lower lip in an expression that wildly reminded me of SpongeBobSquarePants.
I didn't even laugh, I snorted. Right in the middle of the hall, the examiner looked at me, I grabbed a tissue that I'd kept on my desk and pretended to dab my nose. When I looked back at the others they were facing the front innocently. I swear I could see Sophia and Angela's shoulders shuddering with repressed laughter a couple of rows away.
"You can leave." The examiner droned, obviously tired of doing this for the umpteenth time.
Everyone sprang up from their seats and lunged for their bags at the back of the hall, proceeding to scurry out of the hall. As soon as we were out of the hall I virtually attack Alice, Rosalie and Lily.
"What is your deal!" I asked as I finished.
"We were bored." Rose shrugged, "Besides, that was the last exam, we did it girls!"
We cheered and high fived each other.
"Okay, girls, I'm going to catch up with you later." Sophia said, readjusting her bag on her shoulder.
"Oh, alright, where are you off to?" I asked her.
"Nowhere…really. It's not important." She shrugged, trying to make a hasty exit.
Alice grabbed her arm before she could escape, "Spill."
"Nothing to spill." She replied, slipping from Alice's grip deftly.
"You can tell us, Soph." I encouraged her.
"You guys are such worriers, it's nothing, I'm just meeting Riley, if that's alright with you." She rolled her eyes.
"Ooh!" We sang.
"Shut up, so are you going to be anywhere later?" She asked.
"Funny you should mention that, I thought a little celebratory meal was in order. Hard Rock, anyone?" Lily asked grinning. We all agreed, I mean, it's nice to treat yourself once in a while. Sophia then left.
"I wonder what the rush was." I pondered.
"I'm sure it's nothing, just eager to see him I suppose." Angela suggested.
I still wasn't speaking to Jacob, but we'd invited him and the boys along with us anyway. He was so stubborn, he wouldn't budge so much as to even apologise. But there were bigger things than Jacob to worry about. Which is saying something, because Jacob's pretty darn big.
I'd been accepted into Dartmouth.
Yes! That is a problem. Neither my parent's savings, or mine, or both of them combined could pay for my tuition fees. So, Rosalie, Alice, Lily, Angela, Jacob and Sophia would be heading off there, and I'd be stuck in some community college. That thought made me shudder, literally.
It had caused me nights of crying and stress, but I'd kept it all inside, the other's didn't know how upset I was. Well, then again, they'd made up for it in their own way.
Rosalie had burst into tears when I'd told her, Angela knee's had shook, she had to sit down, Lily had screamed out loud and then proceeded to cry on Rosalie's shoulder. Sophia had said the word "no" over and over again countless times, I wasn't sure if she was telling me "no" or denying the situation, when I next saw her she was laying face down on the sofa. And then there was Alice. Thinking back on it, it made me laugh. She'd stared at me for several minutes, then she'd grabbed her bag and threw all the money she could find at me, eventually the others had to restrain her.
My friends aren't overdramatic at all…
Besides, I wasn't taking money from anyone…especially not like that.
We'd decided to walk home, I was left alone once Alice and I had arrived at her house and she went in, I lived further along.
As I walked I didn't take much notice of what was going on around me, but something caught my eye. Riley was walking along across the street. I abruptly felt awkward, I could act as if I didn't see him…but then what if he saw me and thought I was being rude? I could always-
"Bella!" He called, giving a small wave.
"Hey!" I called back belatedly. We dithered there for a moment, both unsure of what to do. He eventually crossed over to my side.
"Uh, hey. Where are you off to?" He asked.
"Home." I said, I didn't know how to expand on that.
"Cool." He nodded. How was it cool? He put his hands into his jean pockets and rocked back and forth slightly.
"I thought you'd be with Sophia." I said suddenly, glad that I'd finally thought of a topic of conversation that didn't involve shoe laces.
"Huh? Oh, no. I Haven't seen her today." He said, seeming to eye me more carefully.
"Oh, right, well she said she was, so…" I trailed off.
"What?" He asked. Okay, maybe I shouldn't have brought this up. "Where is she?"
"I don't know…that was the point, I thought she was with you." I said slowly, feeling edgy.
He made a sound close to a growl and span around, walking away from me, "Later." Was all he said.
I stared after him. "Rude." I mumbled before heading home once again.
I was relieved when it was finally time to go out, I didn't like being alone lately. Alice, Paul, Seth, Lily, Blake and I were standing outside the Hard Rock Café waiting for the others when Sophia showed up.
"Hey, Soph." Blake said as she came up to us.
She smiled at us and then her expression was stern as she looked at me.
I grinned innocently.
"So…I hear you saw Riley today." She said in an unnervingly conversational tone.
I tried to look as if I was scanning my day in my mind before I said, "Oh!" dumbly.
"Oh!" She said too, looking politely expectant.
"Yeah." I said.
We continued to stare at each other.
"This is getting kind of creepy-" Blake said, interrupted.
"What on earth did you tell him!" She asked desperately.
"I just asked him where you were! You said you'd be with him! I was so confused…." I said defensively.
"Calm down, Bella. I'm not mad…at you." She corrected. "He just freaked out a bit." She sighed and ran her hand through her hair.
"Is everything okay?" Alice asked, concerned.
"Of course, yeah. It's just…Riley has the tendency to be slightly…jealous." She said nonchalantly.
"The nerve of that guy, being protective over his girlfriend." Blake said sarcastically, pulling Lily closer to his side.
"No, this is…never mind. The only reason I said I was hanging out with him today was because…well, I'll wait until everyone gets here." She said. Towards the end of her sentence she could stop a grin from spreading across her lips.
"You can't do that to us!" Alice rasped suddenly. Everyone span round to look at her, except myself.
"She hates being left out of secrets." I explained.
"I'm sure the others will be here in a mo-" Sophia shrugged.
Alice had Rosalie on speed dial, "Rose, where the hell are you?" Rosalie's voice was muffled on the other end. "Well, were you in the car accident?" Alice asked. Rosalie replied quickly. Alice continued, "So get your ass over here!"
"She's such a charmer." Lily laughed.
"Hey, guys!" Angela said as she and Ben arrived.
"Yeah! Now Jacob…" Alice said as she searched her phone.
After Alice had a screaming match with Jacob on the phone, he promised to get a move on. About five minutes later, he and Rosalie showed up. I was tenaciously ignoring Jacob.
"Hey." Alice acknowledged them, then she turned to Sophia expectantly.
"Inside first." She said, heading in.
"Awwww!" Alice groaned impatiently, shoving us all in.
"If you don't calm down they'll kick us out! Remember what happened in that diner we used to eat at?" Rosalie reminded her.
"Darn right I got excited, they had a half off special on apple pie." Alice reminisced happily.
After the waiter courteously showed to our table and we ordered our drinks, soft drinks of course, Alice badgered Sophia into revealing her news.
"Alright. Well, this is both good news and bad news…well, it depends on your outlook." She said, I was confused. "You'll see what I mean. So, I've been talking for weeks on end with people about scholarships." She gave me a meaningful look, I instantly paid more attention. "And I'd been told about a great one for the musically talented. So, I got in touch with them, they were interested in our band."
Everyone was extremely excited by that point, there were giggles and nudges of encouragement.
I tried to keep my head, "What, do we just apply, or…?"
"Well, I kind of already…applied on our behalf, I mean what do we have to lose? Plus, there was a set time limit, this was an exception really." She said, looking slightly apologetic, particularly to me.
"No, this is what I wanted." I assured her, "Continue."
"Okay, so they need to see for them selves if we're good enough, they're sending some scouts over next Wednesday." She said, there were more excited noises. "But, it has to take place in a venue, with an audience, so I figured, the talent show at the community hall."
My face dropped.
"Yeah, I didn't think you'd be too thrilled about that part." She pressed her lips together, fretting.
"It's just…a scout is one thing…an audience…" I worried.
"I find that performing in front of one person is more difficult, you know, the intimacy of it, a crowd full of anonymous people is way better." Rosalie rationalized.
"I'm not good enough…I…I…" I fretted.
"Not good enough." Jacob scoffed. I turned to him, ready to attack. "You've got the best voice I've ever heard."
I began to retaliate, but then I realized he was paying me a compliment, he'd said it in such an aggressive way that it confused me. I faltered, "Um…thank you."
He nodded and then went back to looking directly at Sophia as if she were talking to him.
"He's right, Bella. I wouldn't let you sing if I didn't think you were outstanding. I'm picky like that." She smiled. "Now, we just need a little practice and then we'll be ready."
"But the note…I can't hit it." I shook my head in dismay.
"We'll work on it with you." Rosalie said, placing a reassuring hand on my arm.
"Alright?" Alice said, who was on my other side.
"Alright." I said after a while.
The table suddenly broke into lively chatter again, Sophia leant over to me.
"I'm sorry, I wanted to wait, that's why I tried to cover it up." She said.
"We could have waited." Alice said, shrugging her shoulders. Sophia, Rosalie and I gave her a look. "What?" She asked uneasily.
"Everything's going to be fine, let's just enjoy ourselves, shall we?" Sophia suggested, taking a sip from her glass.
"Hell, yeah!" Lily cried unexpectedly. We all chuckled and rose our glasses.
Okay! I know, it's been a while, I owe you guys big, so I'm going to try and get my next chapter up asap!
Bearing in mind that Eclipse opens in the UK tomorrow, so I'll be distracted and so will all of the readers in the UK…
BUT! Still, I'll do my best. Hope you liked the chapter. You probably loaaaathe Jacob, Paul and Seth…but it's not their fault! They're love struck! :L
Don't worry btw, all we have to go now is concert and prom…which I may merge into a single chapter and then….DUN DUN DUN! I'll leave you to read into the "dun dun dun". (:
Love from,
Livvy.