2
As we drove through campus, both Bella and I became more and more nervous, even if we didn't mention to each other. I parked my car in front of the dorms we would be living in and climbed out, stretching after being in the car for the last twenty or so hours. Bella climbed out, shutting the door behind her, and looking over at me.
"It's hot here," she grimaced.
I nodded, moving over to her side as our siblings parked a few spots down from us. Placing my hands on her hips, I pulled her to me. "We'll get used to it," I murmured.
Bella placed her hand on my chest as she said, "I know. It kind of reminds me of Arizona."
"Is that good or bad?" I asked.
"A little of both," she muttered, closing her eyes. Leaning in, I pressed my lips down onto hers. She smiled against them, before kissing me back. "This is very good."
I laughed, kissing her again. "Let's go check in so we can get rid of them."
Bella didn't say anything as she slipped her hand into mine. Everyone was waiting for us in front of the dorms, each of them understanding that this was a big step for both of us. For the first time in our lives, Bella and I would be leaving those we had relied on to take care of us and were going to have to rely on each other. As much shit as we gave them, we were going to miss them.
Taking a couple of deep breaths, Bella and I followed them inside. The lobby was crowded, full of overeager college students and their overbearing parents, wistfully watching as they took their own step toward being adults. I missed my parents, and even though I understood why they couldn't be here, I wished they were. Bella tightened her grip on my hand, and I looked down at her, noticing that she was shaking. Slipping my hand out of hers, I quickly tucked her into my side, holding her as close as I could.
We got in line and waited for our turn at the front desk. Time passed by slowly, people pushed their way through, and we were all getting irritated. By the time we reached the counter, tempers were flaring and all of us had muttered a series of four letter words under our breath. The girl behind the counter, a perky blond with a giddy smile and high ponytail, beamed as she looked up at us, after taking the time to notice the blue streaks in Bella's dark hair.
"Welcome to Jones Hall," she giggled and I felt Bella growl, from deep inside her chest. "Names, please?"
Tightening my arm around her, I smiled and said, "Edward Masen and Bella Cullen."
"Of course," she nearly squealed. The girl had way too much pep. I expected her to start doing cheers or some shit. "Let's see. Edward, you have been assigned to room 512. That's on the fifth floor."
"No, really?" asked Bella, sarcastically.
"Yep," cheered the girl. "I couldn't believe it either."
Bella bit her lip as she looked up at me. All I could was shake my head. I mean, what do you say to that? "Bella, you are in room 520."
The minute the words were out of her mouth, Carlisle was standing between us, ripping my arm from around Bella and slamming his fist on the counter. The girl's smile fell as everyone, and I do mean everyone, looked over at us.
"They are on the same floor?" glowered Carlisle.
"Yes," squeaked the girl.
"Nuh uh, no way, not going to happen," he vented, slamming his hand on the counter with each word he spat out. "There is no way in hell that I will allow her to be on the same floor as him."
The girl behind the desk looked from him over to Bella, frowning. "Older brother?" she asked.
"Yes," sighed Bella, glaring at him.
Meanwhile, Jasper and Emmett were boring a hole into the back of my head, because somehow this was all my fault. The girl nodded her head in understanding before turning back to Carlisle, smugly folding her arms in front of her.
"Sir," she started, causing Carlisle to grimace at being called that. I stifled my laughter, but Bella burst out laughing. "I don't make the rooming assignments, or the floor assignments. If you have a problem with it, you will need to go over to the administration building and talk to them. However, for the time being, Edward is in room 512, and Bella is in room 520, both of which are on the fifth floor."
"This is not over, Muffy or Buffy or whatever your fucking name is," muttered Carlisle. The girl's friendly smile dropped for the second time and she placed her hands on the counter, palms flat. I kind of got worried about Carlisle.
"The name is Missy," she snapped. "This is over, Dude. I have five older brothers and I know how to take your ass out. Go ahead, try me, I fucking double dog dare you."
Carlisle's mouth gaped open and he apparently had lost his ability to speak. Bella laughed as she reached out and grabbed our room keys and thanked Missy for everything. Missy smiled and waved as we walked away, leaving Carlisle standing there. Slipping my arms back around Bella, she and I headed back outside to get the first load of our belongings to take up to our rooms.
"You know, Bell," said Alice, smiling. "It's going to be boring without you and Eddie here pissing those boys off all the time."
"It's Edward, Alice," I reminded her.
Bella snorted. "Guess you and Rose will have to do it for us."
"But it won't be the same," she giggled. "I mean, only you and Eddie-"
"Edward," I repeated. "E-d-w-a-r-d. Not really that hard to remember, Little Terminator."
"Touché, Eddie, touché," smirked Alice.
We all grabbed a suitcase or box and headed back into the dorms. Missy burst out laughing when Carlisle walked by and scowled at her. We rode the elevator up to the fifth floor and headed down to Bella's room first. She unlocked her door and pushed it open, finding a tall, curvy redhead standing in the middle of the room with a pair of tight, very short, black shorts on and a black sports bra. Her abs were ripped and her body firm. She looked up and smiled at all of us.
"Number 108," she smiled. "I heard you were coming here."
"I fought you in Vegas, didn't I?" asked Bella, setting her suitcase on her bed. "Number 226, right?"
"Kicked my ass, too," chortled the girl. She smiled and looked over at the rest of us, letting her eyes rest on me. "Dude, I barely recognized you without all the bruises. You're kind of cute when you aren't getting your ass beat."
"Thanks," I muttered, dryly. She laughed.
"I'm Maggie Mirren, but everyone who values their life calls me Mags," she said.
"Bella Cullen." Turning and looking over at me she said, "This is Edward Masen." Waving toward the others, Bella laughed. "You don't really need to know them."
"Nice to put name with the faces." Maggie looked over at our family. "Even you nameless peeps."
"Yeah, you, too," murmured Bella.
"Well, I've gotta run, like I literally need to run," said Maggie. "But I'll see you later, Bella. Edward, don't go messing up that pretty face."
I rolled my eyes. "I'll try not to."
Maggie laughed again as she pulled the small duffle bag off her bed and walked out of the room. Bella gave me a look that plainly said she wasn't sure about this arrangement. I agreed that Maggie was different but at least she was going to be rooming with a fighter, someone who would understand our crazy training schedules and bruises.
"She was weird," muttered Carlisle.
"No shit," snickered Emmett.
"Well, I like her," said Bella, folding her arms in front of her. "I think she and I will get along perfectly."
"Keep telling yourself that, Bell," laughed Jasper. "You might even start to believe it one day."
Bella muttered under her breath that Jasper could fuck off, but either he didn't hear her or he chose not to respond. Alice, being the little drill sergeant that she was, ordered us down to my room so we could get on with the move. She wasn't thrilled with helping us bring our things from the car up to our rooms and hadn't hidden that fact at all.
When we got to my room, the door was already open. Looking inside, I found Number 213 from our Vegas tournament unpacking his clothes. His snow blond hair was longer than it had been seven months ago and he seemed much less intimidating now. He turned and saw us standing in the door way and started laughing.
"Number 157," he chuckled. "How's it going?"
"Not too bad, I guess," I said, walking into the room and setting my bag on my bed. "Name is Edward, Edward Masen."
"Like Bond, James Bond?" he snickered. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. "It's nice to meet you, man. I'm Liam Shepard, Irish Mom, German Dad. Not really sure on the details, you know?"
"Um, yeah, yeah," I said, nodding my head. Liam looked over at Bella, Carlisle, and Esme, smiling as he got to my sister.
"Who's the hottie?" he asked, motioning to her.
Bella and I gagged while Carlisle wrapped his arm around her protectively. Esme giggled. "I'm Esme, Edward's not much older sister."
"You are seriously beautiful." As Liam spoke, the vein in Carlisle's head started throbbing. "I would love to take you to dinner."
I gagged again. Esme giggled. Carlisle growled. Bella shuddered. It was all quite disgusting.
"Sorry, kid, but I'm kind of taken," smirked Esme, clearly enjoying the young boy who was flirting with her.
"That's a shame," murmured Liam. He looked around at everyone before turning back to me. "Are you going introduce me to everyone?"
"This is Bella Cullen," I smiled, taking her hand in mine. "You don't need to know them."
Liam threw his head back and laughed. "Man, something tells me this is going to be a great year. Look, I've gotta run over to the admin building and take care of some shit so I'll see you later."
"Yeah, sure," I said.
Liam grabbed his keys off his desk before walking out of our room, making sure to check Esme out first. She giggled and blushed while Carlisle took a step after him, like he was going to beat the man down. He probably would have if Esme hadn't leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Something that caused his eyes to pop open and him to smile widely. Once again, I gagged.
"Well, we should really get everything else brought up so you two can get settled in," murmured Carlisle.
"You mean so you can go fuck Esme," snickered Bella. Emmett and Jasper burst out laughing as both Carlisle and Esme blushed, shifting their eyes to the ground, and walked away.
"Fuck, Bell, it's just not going to be the same without you at home to bust his ass all the time," laughed Emmett.
"I'm sure you and Jas will take over for me," smirked Bella.
"You bet your ass we will," promised Jasper.
Even though he was joking around with us, I could see that it was still hard for him to let Bella go. He, Emmett, and Carlisle had done so much to protect her but it was my turn to take care of her, and she, in turn, would take care of me. Smiling to myself, I kissed Bella and followed everyone back down to our cars.
Between the eight of us, it didn't take us long to move everything into our rooms. Neither Bella nor I had brought much from home, just what we couldn't live without. As mushy and gross as this sounded, all we really needed was each other. Once we had the last of it in our rooms, Bella and I headed back down to the cars with them. This would be the last time we saw any of them for a while, a crushing reality for the two of us. We stood awkwardly in front of Carlisle's car, waiting for someone to say anything.
"This is fucking weird," muttered Jasper, shaking his head. Looking up at Bella, he smiled. "I didn't think you were smart enough to get into college."
"So funny, asshole," she scoffed. "Just because you couldn't get into clown school is no reason to be jealous."
"Bitch," he laughed, reaching over and hugging her. Turning serious, he said, "I didn't think you would be able to do this a year ago."
"I wouldn't have been able to," she murmured, hugging him back. Pulling away, she sniffed back the tears threatening to fall and looked over at Alice. "Take care of him, Alice."
"I will," she promised. "Be careful, ok?"
Bella nodded and looked over at Emmett and Rose, who were leaning on the hood of his jeep. "Em, don't go getting into any trouble."
"You know I can't promise you that, Bell," he smiled, looking up at her. "I do have a rep to protect."
"True," admitted Bella. Stepping up to him, she wrapped her arms around him. "Be careful, Em, I still need you."
"I promise, Bell," he murmured, hugging her back. "Kick some ass for me. Don't let any of these fucktards push you around."
"I won't." Bella smiled as she pulled back. Emmett brought his hand up to her cheek, leaning forward and kissing her forehead before letting her go and holding his hand out to me. I placed my hand in his.
"Hurt her and I will be here in a fucking heartbeat ready to rip your heart out," said Emmett. Bella rolled her eyes while everyone, but me, laughed.
"If you don't know by now that I won't hurt her, then you really are pretty fucking stupid."
"I like you, kid. You've got balls," laughed Emmett, dropping my hand. Rose hugged me and then Bella.
"Good luck," was all she said before stepping aside.
That only left Carlisle and Esme, both of whom were leaning against the front of his car. We walked over, waiting for one of them to say anything. Esme shifted from one foot to the other before reaching out and hugging Bella, whispering into her ear. I couldn't hear what my sister was telling her but whatever she said made Bella cry.
"I promise," sniffled Bella, quietly. Esme nodded her head and looked back at me.
"You had better keep your grades up," she said.
"I will," I murmured. "Keep all those little shits in line."
"I'm going to miss you, Edward," said Esme, hugging me. I brought my arms up, hugging her back. "Now, that you are all grown up and everything, I know you don't need me anymore but—"
"I will always need you, Es," I whispered. "Always."
Esme pulled back, taking a deep breath and tried to blink back her tears. "Well, call if you need anything or are bored. Just . . . call."
"As much as I can," I promised. "And I'll email, too."
"Me too," she murmured.
Carlisle cleared his throat, pulling our attention over to him. He was staring at the ground, trying to figure out what to say or how to say it. "I, um," he said, lifting his eyes up to me and Bella. "Keep your elbows in and your feet moving."
"We will, Car," whispered Bella. She reached out, grabbing his shirt and pulling him to her. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. "Teach them what you taught me, Car."
"To be a pain in my ass?" he asked, quietly.
"No," laughed Bella, though it was shaky and full of emotions. "Teach them to fight for their lives, Car. You taught me that."
"I did?" he asked, laying his check on the top of her head.
"Yeah," she whispered. "Promise me that you will be okay? I need to know that you boys are going to be okay."
"We'll be okay," he murmured, closing his eyes. "Promise me that you aren't going to give up when it gets hard."
"I promise." Bella leaned back and looked up at her oldest brother. "I'll make you proud of me, Car."
Carlisle smiled. "I'm already proud of you, sis." He leaned in, kissing the top of her head. "I'll call you."
Carlisle looked over at me, slowly nodding his head and silently telling me what he couldn't actually say. We had an unspoken rule between us; he took care of my sister, and I took care of Bella. We stood on the sidewalk and watched as everyone climbed into their cars, pulling out one at a time, and driving away. Bella took a ragged breath as she looked up at me, eyes swimming with tears.
"We'll be okay, won't we?" she asked.
Turning, I brushed the tears off her face. "As long as we have each other, we can do anything, Baby."