Chapter Two: Bella POV
June
"Bella, come on! If you really want the DJ to notice you tonight then you cannot wear that."
"Alice, what is wrong with my Bermuda shorts and the top that I'm wearing?" I really did want Jacob Black to notice me but the outfit Alice wanted me to wear was… well, there were no words to really describe it. The beach party we were attending tonight was, obviously, going to be at night, and therefore, I would probably freeze my bum off if I wore the booty shorts and the cropped top Alice had laid out for me. Scratch that. I know I'd freeze my bum off.
I trudged back into my closet and changed yet again. I swear to the good lord that I had modeled at least fifty different tops and thirty different bottoms for Alice tonight. As I removed the Bermuda shorts a dark purple halter top caught my eye and I snagged the first pair of short jean shorts I could spot.
"That's… wow, Bella!" Alice exclaimed after examining my new outfit, "Okay, you look totally fab! Let's go to my house 'cause everyone's already waiting for us."
We walked out the front door and to Alice's car—or should I say Alice's yellow Porsche. Calling that beautiful sleek thing just simply a car seemed almost like an insult. Alice even named it Cher, which I did not understand the point of.
...
When we arrived at the Cullen's home—actually, mansion, I saw a group of four people standing on the front porch. Rosalie and Emmett were the first people I recognized. Emmett came bounding down the porch steps.
"Wo-ow Bella! Damn girl you're looking mighty fine," Emmett whistled and Rose elbowed him hard in the gut, causing him to double over wheezing, "J-j-just k-kidding, babe."
"Yeah, yeah, save it," Rosalie rolled her eyes. Emmett was probably just joking. Rosalie was really beautiful and according to Alice, he crushed on her for a long five years before he seriously asked her to be his girlfriend. Rose had that boy positively head over heels.
Jasper ran over to Alice to peck her chastely on the cheek. Honestly, they made the sweetest couple I had ever seen. Alice and Jasper weren't ones to show a lot of public displays of affection (PDA). They shared a quiet, honest relationship, but even the blindest of people could see that they were sixteen years old and meant to be for the rest of their lives. Their affection for each other was shown in every smile, in every whisper, with every touch.
Alice's twin brother, Edward, I think, shuffled off the porch last. I didn't know him very well at all. I suppose that I would've like to get to know him better but we didn't see each other often and he always seemed like he was sulking about something.
It was at that moment that I realized that he was good looking.
My gaze was fixed on his torso— broad shoulders and chest that tapered down to a narrow waist. The grey v-neck t-shirt he donned fitted his amazing physique perfectly, and I swear to the good lord, that when I nonchalantly looked close enough I could see the set of abs his shirt was molded to.
"Hi, we've never officially met… I'm Edward Cullen." He stuck out his right hand, expecting a hand shake.
"Bella Swan," I replied, firmly grasping his hand with my own. If there's anything that my stepfather taught me at all, it was that you should always have a solid hand shake and make eye contact. The only physical contact I ever had with my stepfather was a firm handshake. He was never particularly "fatherly" towards me and he treated me like business associate more than a stepdaughter.
Alice and Jasper decided that they were going to ride in her Porsche while Rosalie, Emmett, Edward and I would commute to the party in Emmett's jeep. Rosalie and Emmett sat in the front while Edward and I were the younger kids that had to sit in the backseat.
"How do you like Forks," Edward softly asked me. He had a very masculine voice, but smooth like… melted chocolate that dripped off a ripe, red strawberry.
"To be honest, I really, really like this town. Well, for one, my dad's here and he means so much to me. Also, the people are mostly pretty nice here. Back in Phoenix if you weren't sporty, tan, and blonde then basically you weren't worth talking to. The society over there was real strange," Edward was, surprisingly, really easy to talk to. He smiled at me, genuinely.
"I think this town is boring," Edward said truthfully, and I just shrugged in response. Sure, maybe this town was a little small and unexciting but after moving around from state to state to state for a year and really feeling all alone, I'd figured out that adventure really wasn't for me.
With that, our short conversation was over as quickly as it began.
When we arrived at the beach party, the sun was beginning to set over the horizon, settling a warm pink hued sky as far as the eye could see.
Edward, Emmett and Rosalie disappeared off somewhere and I went to search for Alice.
I stopped looking for Alice when I found Jacob Black setting up his DJ equipment, the mixer, the amplifier, and a whole bunch of other DJ paraphernalia that I didn't know the proper terminology for.
"Hey Jake," I called out with a huge smile on my face. He turned and gave me a quick wave before facing the equipment again.
Jake and I were best friends growing up before my parents got divorced. We literally did every single thing together. The earliest memory I have of me and Jake was when we were four and we made mud pies in his backyard.
I giggled to myself when I remembered how Jake thought we had made actual chocolate pies and almost finished one off before I was able to stop him.
When father told me I had to move away with my mom at age six, I remember just hugging Jake, sitting on the kitchen floor, and crying on his shoulder while he cried on mine, too. It was, hands down, one of the worst days of my life and I've lived through some pretty upsetting days in my lifetime already.
I admired Jacob from a distance while he continued to work. He had grown into such a hottie. Who knew that clumsy, chubby, and adorable six year old Jacob Black would turn into a tan, muscular, and devastatingly handsome young man?
After I left to Forks, Jake and I would email so often just to keep in touch and keep our friendship alive that my face was literally pressed against a computer screen from the time I got home from elementary school to way past my bedtime. As years passed, he told me all about the many, many, many different sports teams he was involved in and all the new friends he was making. I'd tell Jake about my school and how my mom was doing.
In the eighth grade, Jake walked me through every detail of his first relationship with some girl in his school named Leah through over fifty emails. I sat at my laptop and read every one that he sent to me even if I was a little bit jealous. I did anything that I could to have him keeping in touch with me.
Eventually, the amount of emails from Jake began to decrease drastically and I knew we were growing distant because of the, well… distance. After one month of not receiving anything from him at all, I just accepted that our friendship had been diminished to nearly nothing.
"Bella, where have you been?" Alice's high pitched voice snapped me out of my deep thoughts. I glanced over at Jake to see him engaged in a conversation with a very pretty girl with tanned skin and midnight black waist length hair.
"I'm just thinking…" I replied huffily. Jake tenderly pushed a lock of the girl's hair behind her ear.
Alice followed my line of sight and spotted Jake. She turned back to me and rolled her eyes. Alice hated Jake and didn't understand why I had a crush on him. Whenever we conversed about my feelings for Jake and how to get him to fall for me Alice referred to him as "the dog".
I really don't understand why Alice even tries to name cars and people.
"Okay, Bella, if you don't go ask Jake to dance with you right now, then I'll ask for you. I'm totally sick of you going all crazy stalker-like whenever you stare at him." Alice was glaring at me expectantly.
"Fine," I muttered, "Why do I even hang out with you?"
Alice's angry façade faded quickly as she cracked a smile, "Because you love me…?"
"True that," I laughed as I slowly approached Jake.
Jake was still in the middle of a conversation with that dark haired girl when I asked to talk to him. I was so nervous my palms started to perspire. The girl blew Jake a kiss and walked off.
"Jake, um… so I came over here to ask if maybe… you would dance with me?" my voice was so small I could hardly hear myself.
"Bells, speak up. I can't hear ya over all this noise."
"Do you… want to dance with me…?"
"Bella Swan, if you don't talk louder then I will be forced to let you borrow dad's megaphone. That thing still works after ya ran over it with your bike eleven years ago, ya know." He flashed me a toothy, crooked grin.
"WOULD YOU JUST DANCE WITH ME?!" I was extremely agitated even though it was basically my fault that he didn't know what the question was.
"Um…" Jake shuffled his feet as he looked down, "Bells, I dunno… I mean, you're cool and all… and that top that you're wearing is real cool… but ya don't exactly have a ton guys lining up to go out with ya and… yeah…"
My eyes misted over but I blinked a couple times and shrugged my shoulders, "Okay, that's fine."
I walked away dejected and rejected. Jake didn't want to dance with me because other guys didn't want to dance with me. He didn't want me because I was a loner. I couldn't stop the tears that deluged my eyes and spilled over the rims and down my face.
...
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-MinnieVan
