A/N: I don't own any of the songs used in this chapter, nor do I own Twilight or anything associated with it. Also, I am so incredibly sorry it took me so long to update this. Lack of inspiration paired with the pressure of finishing my first year of university with decent marks.
BPOV
I spent all of that night preparing myself for my audition the next day after school. I was ridiculously nervous about singing in front of people, but it was a risk I was going to have to take.
The next day I sat in the auditorium for an hour before my name was called. When it was I took a deep breath before grabbing my bag and making my way to the stage.
I sat down on the provided stool, getting my acoustic out of it's case, before turning to the mic. "Hi. Um, I'm Bella Swan, and this is Candles." I said before I began playing.
The power lines went out
And I am all alone
I don't really care at all
Not answering my phone
All the games you played
The promises you made
Couldn't finish what you started
Only darkness still remains
Lost sight, couldn't see
When it was you and me
Blow the candles out
Looks like a solo tonight
I'm beginning to see the light
Blow the candles out
Looks like a solo tonight
But I think I'll be alright
Been black and blue before
There's no need to explain
I am not the jaded kind
Playback's such a waste
You're invisible
Invisible to me
My wish is coming true
Erase the memory of your face
Lost sight, couldn't see
When it was you and me
Blow the candles out
Looks like a solo tonight
I'm beginning to see the light
Blow the candles out
Looks like a solo tonight
But I think I'll be alright
One day you will wake up
With nothing but you're sorrys
And someday you will get back
Everything you gave me
Blow the candles out
Looks like a solo tonight
I'm beginning to see the light
Blow the candles out
Looks like a solo tonight
But I think I'll be alright
As I finished I heard applause from the people remaining in the auditorium and sighed happily before moving off the stage. It was an original song, and I had been incredibly scared to perform my music in front of a judging audience. I was doing the same for the talent show, though, so I figured I should get the initial performance out of the way.
As I walked back to my seat, intending to watch the rest of the auditions, Alice and Rose waved me over to them.
"Bells! That song was incredible!" Rose whispered as I sat down, since the next act was already on stage.
I blushed, but didn't have time to respond as Alice asked, "Who was it about?"
I told them I'd explain everything when we were alone, noticing Mike Newton glancing at us curiously from his seat in front of us.
As soon as the three of us arrived at my house, where the guys were supposed to meet us, Alice and Rose bombarded me with questions about who the song was about.
"It's about my ex-boyfriend from L.A., John. He was a total ass, but I didn't realize that until about the time I was getting ready to break up with him. Basically, we started going out in April of sophomore year, and I accepted his invitation purely out of shock. I was the school freak, so, obviously, I got zero invitations to hang out with anyone. And then, suddenly, this beautiful, popular boy was asking me out. We went out and I was surprised how well we got along, how much we had in common, how much obvious chemistry we had. I started to fall in love with him from he first date and, after six months of dating, I told him, thinking we were past the point where it was too soon to confess love. From there, even though he told me he loved me too, he was more and more distant. It was disconcerting, but only made me cling harder to him. Eventually, towards the end of junior year, his best friend, Jake, who is actually one of the nicest guys I've ever met, pulled me aside and confessed that Jake had actually asked me out on a dare/bet in which he would try to make me desirable, and then publicly humiliate me at the big end of school party when he would confess all of this in front of everyone. So, I broke up with him at the end of that week, cried for the entire weekend, decided he wasn't worth my tears, and wrote that song."
I had been so wrapped up in explaining my story that I hadn't heard the guys come into the house.
"So, who wants to take a road trip to Los Angeles to kick some ass," Emmett said, punching his palm while Edward and Jazz nodded their assent.
"No one is going to LA," I said. "Don't waste the gas or the effort on that douche. In the end he failed anyway, since he couldn't very well convince the entire school he had gone out with me on a dare without his spectacle."
Rose rubbed my back gently, telling Emmett that violence wouldn't solve anything and that I appeared to be over it anyway.
"Exactly," I affirmed. "Anyways, weren't we suppose to go shopping for that party Alice is throwing on Friday?"
I spent the rest of the week trying to write the song I was going to sing to Jasper at the talent show. I ha the entirety of the music done, but the only section of words I could come up with were the few I had written in my song idea journal the night I met him: please don't be in love with someone else, please don't have somebody waiting on you.I just couldn't get a chorus to form around them. Maybe I was trying too hard.
That Friday I was whisked to Alice's right after school, where Rose, the boys and I helped to set up and make sure there was enough alcohol to keep those that didn't bring any happy. Alice's parents had an extensive liquor cabinet and, since they were never around, they pretended not to notice when it went missing.
After the house was all set up, Alice, Rose and I showered while the boys went down to Alice's game room to distract themselves.
The three of us set up shop in Alice's room where I was the first to have my hair and makeup done by the two of them since I was "the most work since she can't do any of this on her own." I was slightly offended until I realized that Alice was right. However, I was still annoyed when, even after my hair and makeup was done and Alice and Rose were working on their makeup and each others hair, I wasn't allowed to put clothes on.
"We all have to step out together!" Alice maintained stubbornly.
Eventually, the two of them were done, and I was forced into Alice's walk-in closet where the mirror was hidden behind some secret door or something. I dressed quickly, noticing the lack of shoes, before stepping out of the closet and gasping. My friends were stunning. There was no way I could compare.
Alice was dressed in a peach and gold sequined spaghetti-strapped mini dress that she had paired with a simple pair of nude peep-toes. Her eyes were outlined in dark liner, making them seem even bluer than usual, while she kept her lips simple with a lipstick just a shade darker than her lips. Alice's hair had been straightened to perfection, falling in a neat bob that reached the middle of her cheeks.
Rose's outfit was much simpler than Alice's, but looked incredible in her tight spaghetti-strapped romper with a floral print on a black base paired with black peep-toes. Her hair had been left wavy and pulled back into an effortless-looking ponytail, her eyes rimmed in a light purple, making her eyes appear almost violet, and her lips coated in a clear gloss.
Finally, Alice allowed me to stand in front of a mirror and I gasped a little bit. She had dressed me in a navy bandeau top layered under a sheer white lace off-the-shoulder tee tucked into a white mini with a navy waistband and two navy stripes from the waistband to the hem. My eyes had been left to look natural, while my lips were painted in a bright red, with my hair falling in waves to the middle of my back. I smiled widely before turning around and hugging them both tightly.
"Thank you guys so much. This is amazing." I squealed.
"Don't thank us too much," Rose laughed. "You're the gorgeous girl that's so easy to work with."
I blushed before Alice handed me a pair of black ankle booties with at least a four inch heel. I slipped them on before I made my way downstairs.
"Well don't you boys look dashing," I smiled as I walked into the game room where they had returned after getting dressed.
And they did look good. Edward was wearing khaki-coloured pants with a white tee, black cardigan with 3 grey stripes on each shoulder, and grey keds. Emmett was wearing black straight-leg jeans with a black and white plaid hoodie-shirt and black faux-leather lace-ups. Jasper looked incredible in a pair of black skinny jeans, a white t-shirt that said something about honey badger's on the front and an unbuttoned grey vest with red Converse.
They turned their heads to me briefly before turning back to their game. It took about three seconds for all of their heads to snap back to me after the game had been paused.
"Whoa Bells. You actually look like a girl! It's pretty hot," Emmett commented while I flicked him in the ear for the "actually look like a girl" part. "Ow! I'm just saying. Geez."
"Yeah, well even if I do look like a girl for once," I said rolling my eyes, "I can still kick your ass at Halo."
"Bella! You can't beat me at Halo. That happened like one time and I swear it was a fluke!"
"It's definitely happened every time we've played Halo" Jasper put in, laughing.
Emmett sputtered while I said, "If you're so sure you can beat me, let's play."
And play we did. And I beat Emmett. Again.
As he pouted, Rose came downstairs to tell us that people were starting to show up so we should probably get upstairs unless we wanted to get locked in the games room for the night.
The party was everything one would expect a high school party at a popular girl's house to be like. Loud, crowded and reeking of alcohol. I generally kept to myself, walking around the main floor and stopping to talk to anyone who stopped me.
I got many compliments on my outfit from the girls present, but got thoroughly creeped out when Mike Newton began to follow me around yelling something about how "sexy" I was.
Right before I started to get really annoyed, my eyes met Jasper's and he beckoned me over to him. Sighing with relief, I quickly made my way across the room to him.
"Thanks," I said with relief as I stood next him.
"Newton's a dumbass. You looked like you were going to punch him. Figured I would prevent you from drawing even more attention to yourself," he laughed. "Care to dance?"
I took his offered hand and we made our way into the crowd of writhing bodies. We danced for a while until the music suddenly changed tempo, Adele's Turning Tables starting to play.
Slow dancing with Jasper, it was like we were the only two people in the world. Everything seemed to vanish except for us and the music.
As the song came to a close, Jasper whispered, "do you want to go somewhere quiet and just hang out for a while. I don't really like parties all that much."
I nodded and he led me down to the games room.
"So, what do you want to do?" I asked curiously.
"Another game of twenty questions?"
And so the game commenced. Nothing really stuck in my mind except for Jasper's answer to his favourite memory.
"I was sixteen, and my family went to Italy for two weeks. We visited Capri, this little island you get to by boat. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The colour of the water, the beauty of the flora and the town itself. I was wonder struck."
Wonder struck. No one said things like that anymore. The word stuck in my head.
I was also quite embarrassed to tell Jasper my guilty pleasure artist: Enrique Igleisias, and to confess that Hero is one of my favourite songs of all time.
Eventually we went back upstairs, and rejoined the party, but that time with Jasper only helped to make me love him even more.
When I got home the next day, I couldn't help but think of the previous night and my time spent with Jasper. I was, to use his words, wonder struck by him. That was the perfect way to put it. As I was thinking, I was suddenly hit by inspiration. Lyrics flooded into my brain and I ran up the stairs to write them out as quickly as possible.
I spent the time leading up to the talent show practising as much as I could and, too soon, the big night arrived.
I sat backstage watching the other acts perform, having been informed that I would be closing the show. I nervously paced through the first four acts before Alice and Rose came and dragged me away to get ready. Silly me, thinking I would be able to get myself ready for pouring my heart out to a guy I was sure was way out of my league.
Turns out, they had somehow managed to raid my closet, as I was wearing one of my favourite tank tops (black and grey striped All Time Low I Feel Like Dancing with red accents). They left my hair wavy giving me a black straw fedora to place on my head. My eyes had been accentuated with dark liner and mascara, my lips coated with a clear gloss. The thrust a pair of red peep-toe platform heels at me before sending me back to side stage in time to catch the end of the third-to-last act.
The sophomore made her way off stage and the MC announced Jasper in a way that caused a stab of jealousy in Bella's abdomen. Shaking it off, she watched as he sat down on the stool she would soon be occupying with his acoustic, speaking into the mic.
"So, there's this girl. And she's pretty incredible, so I decided to publicly declare my feelings at this thing," he started, laughing a little along with the audience as my heart sunk. There was no way that girl was me. "Anyways, a couple weeks ago, she told me that this was one of her favourite songs, so I decided to sing it for her to let her know that I want to be her hero."
I gasped as Jasper began the song, recognizing it immediately.
Would you dance,
If I asked you to dance
Would you run
And never look back
Would you cry
If you saw me crying
Would you save my soul tonight
I was nearly crying as Jasper sang, his voice wrapping around the words beautifully. For some reason, I hadn't expected him to be as incredibly talented as he was and it made my knees feel a little weak. It was a good thing I had yet to put on the shoes Alice had given me, or I would have fallen over for sure.
I smiled hugely as he finished the song, even though I knew I wouldn't even be able to interact with him until after I had performed my song.
He finished the song in a whisper, glancing at me, presumably to gauge my reaction, before thanking the audience and walking off his designated side of the stage, opposite the side I was standing on.
My name was announced quickly, and I made my way onto the stage nervously. I had never even sung in front of this many people, let alone performed an original song declaring my love.
"Hi. Um, I'm Bella Swan," I began nervously. "So, I wrote this song for someone that is incredibly special to me, even though he doesn't know just how much I love him. I had a really hard time putting my feelings into words until, a couple weeks ago, we were talking, and he used a phrase to describe something that just stuck in my brain. I hope he can figure out that this song is about him based on that word." With that, I began to play my acoustic, knowing the backing mix I had made would join in soon.
There I was again tonight
Forcing laughter, faking smiles
Same old tired, lonely place
Walls of insincerity
Shifting eyes and vacancy
Vanished when I saw your face
All I can say, is it was enchanting to meet you
You're eyes whispered 'have we met?'
'Cross the room, your silhouette
Starts to make its way to me
The playful conversation starts
Counter all your quick remarks
Like passing notes in secrecy
And it was enchanting to meet you
All I can say was I was enchanted to meet you
This night is sparkling
Don't you let it go
I'm wonder struck
Blushing all the way home
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
I was enchanted to meet you
The lingering question kept me up
2 AM, who do you love?
I wonder till I'm wide awake
And now I'm pacing back and forth
Wishing you were at my door
I'd open up and you would say 'hey'
It was enchanting to meet you
All I know is I was enchanted to meet you
This night is sparkling
Don't you let it go
I'm wonder struck
Blushing all the way home
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew, ooh
This night is flawless
Don't you let it go
I'm wonder struck
Dancing around all alone
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
I was enchanted to meet you
This is me praying that this was the very first page
Not where the storyline ends
My thoughts will echo your name
Until I see you again
These are the words I held back as I was leaving too soon
I was enchanted to meet you
Please, don't be in love withsomeoneelse
Please, don't have somebody waiting on you
Please, don't be in love with someone else
Please, don't have somebody waiting on you
This night is sparkling
Don't you let it go
I'm wonder struck
Blushing all the way home
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
This night is flawless
Don't you let it go
I'm wonder struck
Dancing around all alone
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
I was enchanted to meet you
Please, don't be in love with someone else
Please, don't have somebody waiting on you
I bowed quickly before making my way off stage in the direction I knew Jasper had gone. I got backstage, looking around wildly before I caught a glimpse of the back of his honey-curl covered head.
I walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and I noticed that, in the shoes I was wearing, we were almost eye-level.
"I liked your performance a lot," I said, blushing a little.
"Are you kidding? Your song was amazing Bella!" He responded.
I blushed again. "Thanks. It's about you," I managed to say before his lips were on mine and I was experiencing the best kiss of my life,
We broke apart slowly and I smiled widely, noticing he was doing the same.
"I love you Bella. I think I have since the moment I met you," He whispered.
"I love you, too Jazz," I smiled before kissing him again.