EPOV

"You headin' back?" Jasper asks as we reach the part of the sidewalk that forks into Frat Row and the academic buildings.

I shake my head at him and pat my laptop inside of the backpack I have on my shoulder.

"No, I've got some stuff I have to finish," I say, and inch my way towards the building. "I'll see ya."

Bella and I usually walk over to class together on Tuesday nights, but with everything going on with her tonight, I walked instead with Emmett and Jasper over to the group of academic buildings. They're headed back to our frat house for the night, and with Bella not here with me, I have some time to kill before class starts. Instead of heading back to the house with them, I decided heading into class early to avoid the shenanigans at the house would be the better choice.

With only a handful of weeks until we graduate, the pressure is mounting to get a lot of little things done before we walk across the stage, and I figure I can take the thirty minutes before class starts to begin crossing some of those items off of my to do list.

I say goodbye to Emmett and Jasper and open the door to the academic building, disappearing into the halls to find a seat in the small café on the bottom floor. I spy a couple of empty tables on the small terrace out back of the café, and I grab my phone to send a quick text to Bella to tell her where to find me.

It's risky for me to sit out here, I realize, as I sit down in my chair with the sun fading and the breeze picking up speed against my skin. I'm a sucker for a relaxing Florida breeze, and tonight definitely does not disappoint. It's so relaxing that I am tempted to ditch class altogether and spend the rest of the night right here outside in this seat. Sighing, I reach down into my book bag to take out my laptop, opening it up and placing it on the table in front of me. I decide that checking my email should be the first thing I should do in case more of those small things have been added to the pile.

I think one of the worst things I did before leaving for college freshman year was to tell my parents that emailing would be an easy way for us to communicate. I've discovered that emails from my parents and my younger brother Riley have now infiltrated my inbox. Now that I have some time to devote to it, I see that Mom has emailed me a few times this week, as well as my academic advisor and my supervisor at the internship I had spent this last semester busting my ass at for hopefully a job offer.

So far, no offer.

After spending the last four years bouncing between the waves, sun, and classes, I had landed the internship of my dreams at one of our biggest and local radio stations this side of Florida. I knew from the start that landing a job there would be difficult, so I made sure to do whatever I could to get noticed. January had started as anticipated, and by the end of the month I had memorized the whole morning show's coffee order to perfection. I knew which Starbucks location to avoid and which one to go to and what time to get there to make it to work thirty minutes before the show started at six a.m. I was down for all of the fun insanity they put me through as an intern – and I even made it on the air once.

It had been the best weeks of my life, and it would be hard to leave in five weeks when I graduate and officially have the degree I've worked so hard to achieve. Between the radio station, the sun and surf, and everyone here, going back to Chicago after graduation is the last place I want to go.

Unfortunately, there is a station near home that has offered me a position, thanks to my father. It's ideal for a soon to be college graduate fresh out of school, and I know I should be beyond grateful that I even have a job offer in today's economy. It doesn't pay much, but I can stay at home for a while or find a friend from back home that would want to find a place together.

A group of guys are playing a game of volleyball in the sand across the way, shirts off and beers open, and it contrasts so sharply from an April day in Chicago that I would do almost anything to be able to stay here in Florida forever.

I can add looking into other radio stations here in Florida to my never ending list of things to do before graduation.

Running my fingers through my hair before diving into my email, I click on my advisor's name and read the email she sent me regarding my academic checklist. I've gone over this a thousand times, making sure that I've taken all of my required courses, electives, and internships. Besides my internship, I only have this one night class standing between me and my degree. Luckily enough, it's an elective for both Bella and I, and all we have to do is pretty much show up and turn in the work on time. I tried to avoid taking another class during my internship, but sometimes a class' schedule doesn't perfectly align to my own, more important schedule.

Sucking it up once a week for three hours isn't the worst thing in the world. Night classes are difficult when I have to be at the station by 5:30 in the morning, but it's easier when the class is easy and when I have Bella to pass the time with.

I respond to my advisor with a copy of the classes I took and when I took them, breathing a sigh of relief when I can cross another obstacle off of my list. I skip over Mom's email, knowing she'll probably call me tomorrow anyway, and move on to the email from my supervisor, James, down at the station.

My eyes almost pop out of my head.

Edward,

A position was posted at the station today. Check it out. Online marketing/social media. Figured you would be interested so I told Miller you'd send him your cover letter and resume. Do it, bro. NOW.

I can barely form a coherent sentence, let alone attach the necessary documents James requested, so I scramble to compile it all together as professionally as I can under the circumstances. Despite my eagerness, I've drafted a reply, proofreading the three sentences more times that I can admit, when I see Bella emerge into the back terrace. She must have gotten the text I'd sent her.

She heads over to my table, and before she can say anything, I slide my laptop so it faces her. I watch as she reads the email from James, her eyes widening at the words, before she motions for me to make room for her at the table. She takes my laptop into her own hands, the novice teacher in her evident when she transforms my arbitrary words into something exceptionally better. I read it one more time before we hit send, and when it's floating out there somewhere in cyberspace, I plop back against my seat with an exhale as deep as the breath I had been holding in.

"This is huge," she states, a smile on her face and a slow nodding of her head.

I catch my reflection in her sunglasses, my wild hair the color of the setting sun, and I pull at the ends in worry. "I'm gonna fuck it up."

Bella smiles, and shrugs in a way that shows she's gotten to know me better than myself over the past three years. "Yeah, probably," she agrees, and points back to my screen. "Do you know this Miller guy?"

I nod enthusiastically and move to pull up a folder of pictures I've cataloged for the station over the months I've been there as an intern. He pops up a couple of times in the pictures we browse through. "Yeah, I've worked with him since January. I don't know if he remembers my name but we work together every day."

"How does he take his coffee?"

"Tall, Half-Caff, Soy Latte at 120 degrees," I say easily.

"Simple enough," she responds with her reliable sarcasm. "Is he as pretentious as he sounds?"

I shake my head. "He's cool as hell, actually."

She gives me a pshh and blows me off. "Then you should have nothing to worry about." She looks at the time on her phone and shoves it in her bag. "You ready?"

Reluctantly, we leave the terrace and the breeze and the sunset behind and walk up two flights of stairs to our class. Bella and I are both Florida transplants, and it shows. We're never ones to turn down an opportunity for being outside. Time and location doesn't matter to us; as long as we're outside, we're good. After we've sunk into our usual seats next to each other in class, I look over at her to find her still lost in her thoughts.

"How'd it go with your Dad?" I ask, but seeing as she's not her usual happy self, I can pretty much guarantee how the conversation went.

"He's fine with me staying," she answers, but shakes her head slightly in frustration.

"But the money's on you," I finish, and she nods with a grimace on her face.

"Yep. I mean, I didn't expect him to pay my rent three months earlier than we had agreed on," Bella pauses but tries to convince me to move on with a small smile.

"You need all three month's rent now?"

"Not necessarily, but I can't make a commitment to Alice and Rose without knowing I'll be able to keep up with the rent until August." I know she likes to have a plan before she dives into anything and it is kind of amusing to see her this disheveled. She turns around to face the front of the room. "I'll figure it out."

"Let me know if I can help," I whisper as class begins.

It's hard to concentrate as the three hours of class drag on. Even when we're dismissed halfway through for a ten minute break, I'm checking my phone and refreshing my email every three minutes, waiting to see if Miller has gotten my resume. To be honest, I'm not really sure what to expect; I should have paid more attention in that seminar they held for nailing the job interview process they had a few weeks ago. Jasper had gone to it so I send him a quick text asking him what I should do next.

His response of wait does nothing for me.

Class ends fifteen minutes early, so at 9:30 Bella and I are headed home for the night. The girls are in a dorm not too far from both the academic buildings and Frat Row so we have to separate eventually. My frat house is hopefully quiet for the night as I have a million thoughts running through my head and I have to be up early in the morning.

"Think you'll get any sleep tonight?"

"Probably not," I answer glumly, even though I'm suppressing a yawn at how many hours I've actually seen today. Working a morning show comes with earlier than usual rises.

Bella and I stop at the fork in the sidewalk and she reaches over to give me a reassuring hug. Compared to me, she's small enough that I can almost pick her up and put her in my pocket. It's always fun to tease her about our height difference, even when we're both not at our best.

Smiling, Bella pulls away and bumps me. "Don't worry about it too much. He's got your resume. That's a good thing!" She starts to walk backwards towards her dorm. "I'll be up if you need to talk."

"Let me guess – you'll be up all night researching ways to make a million dollars by morning?"

She gives me the finger and turns around. "Give me to the end of the week," she calls over her shoulder. "I'll have it all figured out."

"Keep me updated!" I return before heading back to my own room.

-ptp-

"You think I actually saved that shit?" Jasper and Emmett are in Emmett's room playing Madden when I make it back to the house after parting with Bella. Jasper's eyes barely leave the screen as he answers me. "I trashed it as soon as I walked out of there."

He's talking about the paperwork from the seminar he went to about job interviews that I blew off thinking that I had already landed the job at the station back in Chicago.

"Are you cool with the guy?" Emmett asks, repeating Bella's question from earlier. His fingers fly over the controller as his defense obliterates Jasper's offense on screen. "Miller?"

I shrug and pop open a beer from Emmett's dorm-sized fridge. "Yeah, I guess."

"So stop stressin, bro," Emmett retorts as if it's the easiest thing in the world.

"Okay, so here's what you do," Jasper says, eyes still not leaving the screen, but jumping in like the best friend he is. "Brush up on everything that this position is about; memorize it like the job is already yours. Go in there, smile like it's Thirsty Thursday and you're about to get some ass from ZTA, and you got it."

"That'll be awesome if you can stay here," Emmett chimes in. Another chug of the ice cold beer helps talk me off the ledge.

"I don't even want to think that far ahead yet," I say, not wanting to get my hopes up. "It'd be too perfect."

"There's still room at my place," Jasper adds, talking about the house he grew up in with an apartment over the garage that he took over on his last visit home. "Little bit of a commute though."

"An hour?" I try to remember how far away he grew up from campus. The station is a couple miles away from here, so it gives me a good idea of the distance I would have to travel.

"Yeah, without traffic."

I shake my head and down the rest of my beer. "If it means I can stay here and not go back to Chicago, then I'll deal with it."

I play a round of Madden with them before I leave to go to the room I share with Jasper, three doors down the hall from Emmett. I change into a pair of sweats, plugging my laptop into the charger so I can begin the process of becoming an expert in all things related to this position.

I'm almost twenty two years old – social media is my life. I have handles on almost all of the socials, but I have to look and study it from a marketing standpoint. I stop myself a little after one in the morning, knowing that my alarm will blare five a.m. way too soon if I keep this up, and I want to go in with a clear head.

Right before I fall asleep, my phone glows alive in the darkness of our room. It's Bella.

How's it goin?

Crashing. Done studying for the night.

You've got this.

I sigh and thank her for the support. Any luck on your end?

I may have to take up Emmett's idea and become a stripper at one of those places downtown.

I'd go. For support.

She sends me a GIF of a girl rolling her eyes. Nothing to do with naked girls dancing on your lap?

We're very open in what we joke about. She knows I can never turn down a dancing and naked girl.

What guy would say no to that?

Good luck tomorrow. Let me know how it goes.

Thanks. Night.

It is two before I finally fall asleep, and three hours later my alarm jars me from a restless sleep. Bleary eyed and itching for caffeine to keep me awake, I meet Eric Yorkie, a fellow brother in the house, downstairs so we can head off. He's one of the only ones in the house with a similar schedule to mine, and since I don't have a car on campus, I ride with him since the station is on the way to his internship. The ride is usually silent, as we are both usually still half asleep or hungover for the ride in, and the only difference in today versus any other day is the fact that my leg keeps bouncing against the seat and I bite my fingernails like they hold all of the answers I'm looking for.

"Three good?" Eric asks before I step out of the car and shut the door behind me. Even if my schedule doesn't completely match up with his, I can always find something to do around the station to kill the time before he can pick me back up and back to campus.

"Yeah, man. Thanks," I say, and he drives off to start his day.

He drops me off in front of a building so tall it disappears from view as I crane my neck upwards to get a better look. It's barely five thirty in the morning and I can already smell the ocean from the handful of blocks away it is from the station. The sun is struggling to start the day, still nestled within the clouds, but it's a sight I've gotten used to over the past couple of months. A gradual orange taints the area, the large white building growing brighter as the seconds pass.

This could be my life.

I push the thought away, not wanting to jinx myself.

I start the walk to the Starbucks that knows my order without me having to say a word. I've perfected how I need to carry all the goods back to the station, and just like any other day, I arrive on time and without a thing amiss. I reach the large glass doors in the lobby, expertly swipe the badge they gave me on my first day, and I'm beeped entry inside. I wave at the security officer in the lobby and press the button taking me to the 22nd floor. The elevator doors ding open at the 17th floor and I have to hold on to all the lattes and cappuccinos as Miller himself walks in and stands next to me, pressing the button to a floor way above mine.

"Cullen, right?"

I nod, swallowing thickly. "Yes, sir. All day, every day." Please stop talking.

"Got your resume this morning." He knows with one wrong move I'll drop the coffee order for the whole floor. He presses a gentle yet professional hand on my shoulder instead. "Stop by my office at noon. We'll chat."

-ptp-

"Edward? My first born?"

I call home the second I get the chance, walking out into the heat and over to a bench that is hidden beneath the cover of palm trees.

"Yeah, yeah." I dismiss Mom's teasing even though I really should communicate with them more often. I sit down on the bench. "You have a minute?"

"Sure, hold on. Let me get your father," Mom says, and after a minute of shouting my Dad's name loud enough for me to hear her without the phone connection to Florida and Chicago, he finally joins us.

"Okay, we're both here. You're on Speaker," Mom is ready to settle in for the duration of our talk.

"Hey, Dad."

"Long time no talk," I hear the laughter in his voice. "Did you get your mother's emails?"

I cringe. "Yeah, yeah, I got 'em. Things have been pretty busy," I continue, but I'm ready to move forward. "Look –"

Mom interrupts me instead. "Two minutes is all I need, Edward. 'I'm okay, Mom. I need more laundry detergent, Mom.' Anything would be nice."

"Okay, okay. I get it."

I'm literally chomping at the bit here.

"A couple more weeks, Edward, and then she won't have to bother you with all these emails," Dad laughs, "It'll just be in person, instead."

Yeeaahh. Here goes nothing.

"Well, about that –"

"I was in twelve hours of labor with him – and half of it was back labor," Mom interrupts again, talking to Dad. "I'm allowed to bother him."

I can't take it anymore.

"I'm not coming home," I spit out, and silence ensues. Now I have their attention. "I got a job offer today, actually. Here at the station."

"Oh, Edward," Mom gushes, and my Dad offers me his congratulations as well. He asks what I intend to do about the job in Chicago.

I exhale, but tell them the truth. "Look, Dad, I appreciate it, but this is where I want to be. Need to be," I stress.

"Tell me all about it," Mom is so happy I can almost hear her texting her friends about it already.

So I do. I tell her that it felt more like a conversation than an interview, and that Miller had been keeping an eye on all of the interns over the past months. I don't know if he chose me because of my Starbucks expertise or because he saw me fit for the job, but I ended up with an offer to start right after graduation. The offered salary is to be expected for someone right out of school, but considering that I eat cereal at the dining hall three nights a week for dinner, I felt like an impending millionaire as they told me what they would be offering me in compensation. I've got the job I wanted, Jasper has given me a place to stay in Florida, and I feel like I am literally walking on air as I start walking down towards the beach.

The only thing I'll need is my car as Eric and I will have no way to make our carpool work once we graduate and go our separate ways, and I tell my parents that when I see the beach come into view. I put them on speaker for second so I can text our group and Eric to come join me down at the beach to celebrate at the beach bar we go to once a week.

"About that," Dad trails off, "I'm sorry, bud."

"Sorry for what?" I ask, confused as to why he's offering me an apology.

"Your car is out of commission," Mom regrets to say. She sighs. "Riley totaled the car last week."

"He's fine," Dad is quick to add, "but the car is out of the question."

My seventeen year old brother Riley, who has been lucky enough to be able to use my car while I'm away at school, has singlehandedly put a damper on all my excitement.

"Wha –" I fail to find the words to express my surprise. "When did this happen?! And why did no one tell me this?"

"We didn't want you to worry, Edward," Dad says, "You have a lot on your plate as it is; we didn't want to upset you about Riley and the car."

"This is why you should check your emails!" Mom scolds and I feel it thousands of miles away.

"Is he okay? Riley?"

"Not a scratch. He's fine. Sulking because I won't buy him a new car, but he'll live."

"Wow. I just can't believe I don't have a car anymore," I groan, and then a thought dawns on me. Fuuuuck. "How am I going to get to work?"

There's a slight pause on the other end of the line but Mom breaks the silence. "You've got a job now. Put a down payment on a car and keep up with the monthly payments."

"I can help out once I figure out what to do about your car here," Dad says, going on about the accident and the costs.

"I start work in five weeks," I groan. "How am I going to come up with that kind of money by then?"

Bella's text comes through about meeting me here at the beach.

Seeing her name makes me realize that now two of us have five weeks to make a miracle happen.

I like a slow build, however, for those that do not, it's looking like (no promises, I always go back and edit everything a million times) Chapter 6 is when the magic happens. I hope you'll stick with me until then ;) Love your reviews, follows, favs, and recs! And you!