Rating/Warning(s)/Note(s): T, Shadows
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Prompt: Crooked

It really doesn't take much effort over dinner to convince Marta to come home with me for the summer. Since she's on a student visa she can't have a job off campus or when not attending classes, and she can't go home to Spain for fear they may refuse to allow her re-entry into the country. Alice explained all this to her in just a few minutes, and she had nodded, telling us that she'd heard the same from other foreign students. Somehow I didn't think Alice was telling us everything.

It amazed me that people like her were the ones the immigration department was worried about. Criminals put on boats because their country's prisons were too full? Sure, welcome to the United States. Students wanting to go to medical school or get a doctorate? Oh, better watch out for those people, they might be dangerous. Edward found my rant rather amusing. Marta nodded her head knowingly.

In no time Alice had Marta packed as well. "Um, Alice?" she asked as she watched her clothes disappear into a suitcase. "Don't I need a plane ticket?"

"We'll buy it at the airport," Alice said, moving with efficiency around Marta's dorm room.

"Won't that be expensive?"

"Bella can afford it," Alice said loudly, making sure I heard her.

"Wait, what?" was my intelligent response.

Alice looked at me as if I was daft. "Marta can't afford it, obviously. We can't purchase it, either. So it has to be you. You can take it from your scholarship account, just like you did your own ticket."

"Isn't that crooked? That money is supposed to be for me, and I don't think I'm allowed to spend it on other people," I said. Spending money was difficult for me; spending other people's money was next to impossible.

"Bella, who is the money really from?" Alice asked. Her look of 'your being rather obtuse tonight' was firmly in place.

"Well, your family. Why can't you just buy it?"

"Just do as your told, please," Alice said, shaking her head and becoming a whirlwind of activity again as she set about restoring order to the drawers she had torn apart looking for clothes.

Edward leaned over and whispered, "I'll explain later," so I nodded to him and allowed Alice to turn the conversation to her love of Marta's wardrobe. It was true that Marta dressed incredibly well. She always claimed it was because she was European and Americans would rather be comfortable slobs than look nice. The first time I fell off a pair of her heels convinced her that maybe it was for safety reasons as well.

It was rather late, and even if we didn't have any more classes, there were many study sessions that were occurring all over campus. I had giggled last semester when someone told me the week before finals was called dead week, but then I saw that the entire campus got as quiet as a morgue and the students walked around like the undead muttering equations and quotations in a desperate attempt to shove an entire semester's worth of knowledge in their head, and knew what they meant. It still amazed me how fast the week could fly by as I joined the other students in the quest for last-minute knowledge and dreaded the next week of tests.

Edward gave me some privacy to change before joining me in my room and tucking me into bed. "Is it later yet?" I asked. He gave a sigh and nodded.

"We can't buy it because then someone might question our passports," he said as if that explained everything.

"Okay?" I asked, knowing there had to be more.

"Bella, how old do you think I am?" I shrugged, I'd never really thought about it after he told Charlie he was twenty-two. He smirked at me. "I'm actually only seventeen in human years, but it was 1918 when I was changed, so I was more adult than seventeen-year-olds are now. Plus, the venom changes us physically, making males stronger, more lean and muscular, so I look older. Although, I have been known to pass for a fourteen-year-old, it's all in the mannerisms and dress."

"What does this have to do with passports?"

"How many passports do you think I've had to get in order to stay in the age range that I look like? How many social security numbers? How often has my name popped up? We try to avoid doing things that might make the authorities look too closely," he explained, "because then they might figure out that all our documents are forged."

"Oh. OH!" I exclaimed as realization set in. Then something else he said struck me. "I'm two years older than you?"

"I tell you that I'm a hundred and ten years old and you worry that you're older than me in human years?" he said with a laugh. "It doesn't really matter. Esme is three years older than Carlisle and no one notices because people see what they want to see."

He looked at me for a couple minutes and then did something he'd never done before, he crawled under the covers with me and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me close to his body. Leaning down he sniffed at my hair. "Hold very still," he said and in a painfully slow movement reached over and placed a kiss on my cheek.

My blood exploded in my veins when his lips touched my skin, making me gasp and turn to him, reaching for him to place my lips on his. Before I could move a fraction of an inch, though, his arms locked mine down and held my body motionless. "Don't squirm," he said through gritted teeth, and I could see that he wasn't breathing.

I instantly went from motion to stillness. "Sorry," I said, feeling embarrassed by my reaction.

"Give me a minute," he replied, remaining motionless as my heart pounded. Finally the beating of my heart returned to a normal pace and Edward took a breath. "Next time please hold still."

"There will be a next time?" I asked, hopeful.

He chuckled and ran his fingers through my hair. "Yes. There will be a next time. Eventually."

I graduated from a university that had 27,000 full-time undergraduate students. That year only twelve graduated from the department of chemistry. Needless to say, many of my coworkers are from other countries and I've heard all kinds of immigration horror stories.