Ficawesome Gift Echange

Title: Right In Front of Your Eyes

Written for: MyEdiction

Written By: Readingmama/Vampiremama

Rating: M

Summary/Prompt used: Geek starts a band to get the girl.

If you would like to see all the stories that are a part of this exchange visit the facebook group: Fanficaholics Anon: Where Obsession Never Sleeps

Or check out the C2 on Fanfiction –

http:/www . fanfiction . net/community/FicAwesome_Gift_Exchange/81343/

Disclaimer- I don't own Twilight or anything related to it. Stephenie Meyer owns that right.

Thank you to CullenLovingMom who was beta extraordinaire for this piece.

Thanks to all the wonderful people who participated in FAGE.

Chapter 2

When Edward and Jasper sat in the large practice room that they had rented at the local University, Edward wondered how he had got himself into such a predicament. Sure, he was confident in his skills, but he hadn't played publicly in six years, not even a recital.

Alice was the next to arrive. While Alice wasn't officially in the band, she was the band's moral support or, as she called herself, the stylist. Edward laughed at the thought of Jasper in leather pants, but then stopped when he pictured Alice putting him in them too. Surely his sister wouldn't do that to him, he hoped.

The next time the door opened, a blonde man came walking through. He had his waist-length hair pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck and a bandana on his forehead. Edward raised an eyebrow at Alice, wondering if she told him they were a metal band or something. The guy looked like a throwback from the eighties, and Edward seriously hoped that his sister hadn't dated this man.

He walked up to Alice and wrapped his arms around her, picking her up in a hug. "Hey, Sprite!"

"Carlisle," she giggled as he put her down. "Guys, this is Carlisle. Carlisle, this is Edward and Jasper."

"Hi," Edward replied.

"Hey," Jasper said.

It turned out that Carlisle had graduated from Julliard three years before. He was a couple years older than the guys, but had already played with two bands and a travelling musical. To say he was diverse was a severe understatement. Edward was reluctantly impressed.

The three played around with some song selections that Jasper and Edward had chosen. It didn't take long for them to get lost in the music. It was clear that they gelled well right from the start.

"Sorry, I'm late," a small voice carried gently over the music. Edward looked up and saw his friend coming in the door.

Bella was carrying a file full of music and stumbled as soon as Edward made eye contact with her. The papers went flying all over the floor. Edward rushed over, bending down to help her pick them up. Close proximity to Edward always made Bella nervous, but something about him on his hands and knees in front of her was nearly too much.

The first practice went well, and it quickly became an almost nightly routine. Bella and Edward started carpooling to rehearsals which helped their friendship grow. They would talk about all sorts of things, and Bella wondered sometimes if Edward could tell how much she cared for him. Getting to know Edward better just made the longing worse for Bella. He was all she could think about, but she wouldn't have traded it for anything.

September

As Edward pulled the car into the parking stall, he said something that nearly tore Bella's heart out.

"So, if you were Rosalie, you'd dig this, right? I mean- do you think this will work?" Edward hadn't spoken to Bella about Rosalie for a while, and if he was being honest with himself, he hadn't thought about her much lately either. He attributed this omission to all the time he had spent preparing his seduction.

Bella put on a brave face and made a joke, "Did you just say dig?"

The problem was her delivery was off, and, for the first time, Edward saw right through her.

Edward turned and faced the steering wheel. Did Bella really like him? The feeling that hit him at the thought was different than he expected. He wanted to say something to her, to ask if she fancied him, but was unsure of how to word it. After all, his heart was already spoken for, wasn't it? He didn't want to hurt his friend, so he stayed silent.

Bella took his silence as a bad sign and spoke again, "Edward, it will be fine. Rosalie would be a fool not to fall for you after you've gone through so much trouble to get her attention."

The words should have made Edward happy, but instead, they made him ache. He could see Bella's pain and did not want to be the cause of it.. Unfortunately, Edward couldn't find words to make it better, so he continued to sit in silence.

"Can I ask you something?" Bella inquired quietly.

"Sure," Edward replied.

"What do you see in her?"

Edward thought about her question. He had been in love with Rosalie Hale for two years, so it should have been easy for him to answer. The only thing that popped into his head at the moment was that she was beautiful. But, when he looked at Bella, he couldn't really remember why he'd ever thought so.

"I don't know- she's just…Rosalie," he finished lamely.

The answer left both Edward and Bella unsatisfied. How could she compete with 'just Rosalie' and how could he not know what he saw in her?

Edward stepped out of the car while Bella took a moment to collect herself. Maybe, all this time together was really a waste. If all that was happening was that Bella was falling harder, it would be unbearable for her in the end.

Edward walked over and opened Bella's door.. She looked stunned at the gesture, but when a smile came over her face, Edward was glad he had done it.

Jasper and Carlisle weren't there yet. So, when they walked into the big room, their footsteps echoed. Bella liked the practice space. Gathering there several times a week was exciting to her- and not just because she got to see Edward.

Edward shifted nervously before speaking. "Do you want to warm up?" he asked.

"Sure," Bella replied.

Edward sat down at the piano and plunked out some scales while Bella followed along effortlessly with her voice. She liked a traditional vocal warm up to get her ready for rehearsal.

The songs that they decided to cover had a gritty feel to them and were laced with sexual undertones. Bella flushed thinking about the words she would sing. Once she was in her zone though, it wouldn't matter if she was singing about mating giraffes.

The stage was the one place she wasn't afraid. It was one place that allowed her to be all the people she wasn't in real life. Performing Bella could be sassy or sexy or even rebellious. In the spotlight, Bella could shine in a way that she had trouble accomplishing in real life.

"Is everything okay?" Edward asked, his hand brushing against Bella's bare arm. She had stopped singing and was staring off into space.

"Oh, yeah," she replied, breaking out of her trance.

Edward was still touching her arm, and she glanced down at it. Edward knew that he should probably pull away, but he couldn't find the will to have his skin leave hers.

"Hello, hello," Carlisle's voice came booming into the room. Edward snatched his hand back like he'd been burned, and Bella recoiled from his action. He opened his mouth, then closed it, not knowing what to say.

October

"I think if you guys come in with an 'ooooh' here, it will give it a nice harmony," Bella said.

Edward and she were working alone again. Jasper seemed to be spending a lot of time with his girlfriend in the evenings and Carlisle didn't see a point for the drummer to be there when the guitarist wasn't, but he didn't need much practice. Carlisle was a prodigy on the drums.

"Like this?" Edward asked, before singing the notes Bella had requested. He stopped when he noticed her giving him a funny look.

"What?" Edward was feeling self conscious for the first time around Bella. He usually only felt that way around Rosalie.

"Perfect," Bella said dreamily. "I mean . . . that was just what I think we need. Rosalie will just die when she hears you on backup."

"Yeah, I guess. But even if she doesn't, I'm having a lot of fun with the band. I hope that we keep going." The smile that spread a mile wide across Bella's face was contagious, and Edward found himself smiling too.

"I'd like that too," she replied.

"So, how long has Jasper been dating Maria? It seems pretty serious- with them spending all this time together." Bella said, changing the subject.

"Oh, they've been together for a year and a bit. It's always serious with Jasper," Edward replied.

"What do you mean?"

"With Jasper, every girl is 'the one'. Jasper is never single for long, and as soon as he starts dating a girl, she's 'the one'!" Edward said with a mocking tone.

"Well, that's a little hypocritical of you, don't you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well . . . you haven't even started dating Rosalie or talking to her really, and you think she's 'the one'. At least Jasper knows the girls he falls in love with. I mean I bet you know more about me know than you do about Rosalie."

"It's different," Edward said petulantly. He was upset, because Bella's comment was more right than he wanted it to be.

"How is it different?"

"I don't know . . . 'cause you're my friend. It's easy to talk to you. We can hang out and eat pizza. You don't do that with girls you're dating."

"Why not?"

"I don't know . . . 'cause girls you date don't like beer and pizza."

But even as he said the words, Edward had to admit that idea of dating a girl who liked beer and pizza sounded wonderful.

"So . . . I'm un-datable . . . because I like beer and Pizza?" Bella asked, bemused and insulted.

"No, that's not what I meant. I just . . . . Girls like Rosalie don't do beer and pizza."

"And what makes girls like Rosalie so much better than girls like me?" Bella willed the words back into her mouth the moment they came out. She didn't do well with rejection, and this question was way too loaded for her liking.

"They aren't better . . ." Edward started, but then stopped. That was it. They weren't better.

November

"I look ridiculous!" Edward stated.

Alice swatted him on the arm for the umpteenth time. "Shut it. You guys have a real gig now, and we have to work on your image," the small spitfire answered.

Edward looked again at the full length mirror in front of him. Alice had dressed him in distressed jeans and a black button up shirt. He looked far more casual than he ever did, but it was the hair that he was far more concerned about.

Alice had taken his hair and spiked it in all directions. It looked like he had just gotten out of bed. Coaxing Edward's hair into this array required minimal styling product, due in large part to Edward's three cowlicks.

The most shocking difference, however, was the color. His vibrant, bronze hair shone through, and he felt like he had lost his mysterious dark persona.

"Alice, I can't wear…" Bella yelped, as she came into the room, but stopped short when she saw Edward. "Wow."

Edward looked at her skeptically, but when he saw the look on her face, he knew that she wasn't faking it. Bella really liked his new look.

"Your hair…" she started.

"I know, I think maybe we should gel it down as usual."

"No!" both Bella and Alice yelled at the same time. Alice turned to Bella and quirked an eyebrow. Bella looked down and blushed.

"I think it looks nice like that," Bella said to her shoes.

Edward looked back into the mirror, but didn't see what the two girls had. He shrugged and looked back towards the women.

"If you say so."

Bella had an urge to run her fingers through Edward's hair. Of course, she had always found him attractive, but with his natural hair color shining through, he was beyond stunning.

There was no way in the world Rosalie Hale wouldn't fall for the man that stood in front of her. Maybe she should have let him slick his hair back down, and then she might have had a chance.

Edward stopped worrying about his own attire for a minute to take in Bella's. He thought maybe he had escaped the leather pants, but he hadn't-they were just on Bella. The pants, paired with a red t-shirt that said 'Rock' and had a picture of a stone underneath it, made Bella look like a geek's fantasy.

"You look….ah…really, really good. Like really good, Bella," Edward said, unable to stop the verbal diarrhea.

"Thanks," Bella replied, feeling quite a bit better about the outfit she hated just a few moments earlier.

Alice quickly excused herself, muttering something about fitting the other boys for their outfits, before making her exit.

"Oh, you got a tag," Edward said, reaching for a price tag on the sleeve.

Bella lifted her arm to give Edward some room to remove it, but lost her balance. She grabbed onto his neck for balance. Her hand was deliciously close to his hair, but she couldn't figure out a way to touch it inconspicuously, so she left it alone.

Bella was so caught up reveling in the closeness that she didn't realize when Edward finished and she was still holding onto him for support.

Edward had noticed that Bella always smelled good, but at this distance, he was almost dizzy with the fragrance. She smelled like something he wanted to lick.

Edward found himself breathing heavily. He leaned in, and Bella's breath caught. Their eyes met, and Bella hoped that this would be the moment she had been waiting for.

Edward cleared his throat and took a step back. Bella tried desperately not to look hurt, but she failed . . . miserably.