The Twilight Twenty-Five
Prompt: Prelude
Pen name: LightStarDusting
Character POV: Bella
Rating: M

Chapter 5 – A Hard Day's Night
1999

Sitting down on the bench next to him, I tilted my head slightly so that the building shielded my eyes from the sun.

"Yeahhh, Friday's toying with my emotions. It's been a rough morning, Jasper," I answered in return, sliding my messenger bag onto the ground next to the bench. He raised his eyebrows slightly, looking somewhat impressed that I remembered his name.

"Really, Bella? How so?" he asked, as he tapped out a second slim brown papered cigar which, on closer look, I saw were Black and Milds. He started fiddling with it to remove its filter. I noticed the emphasis on my name as well and I had to admit it thrilled me that he remembered. While he was memorable, at that point in my life I wouldn't have exactly placed myself in the same category.

"My roommate, Lucy, and I did the party thing last night with our floor mates. At some fraternity house with a triangle, an X, maybe a square thrown in there somewhere? She met someone and in a stroke of genius, I wandered home, drunk and alone." His eyes widened while his features twisted into a look that fluctuated between sympathetic and slightly distraught. I paused in my storytelling. "What?"

"You walked home alone at close to two in the morning?"

"Well, no. It wasn't two, it was actually closer to one-" I started rationalizing but stopped myself. "I knowwww," I dragged the word out, suddenly interested in playing with my shoelace and no longer interested in his eyes. It sounded even more stupid when I said it aloud. "I'm still feeling pretty dumb that I didn't at least ask one of my floor mates to leave the party with me. But they all looked like they were having such a good time and I didn't want to pull anyone away, even though I was completely done. So I just left."

"Bella," he breathed out my name as he leaned in closer to me, as if he was going to tell me some great secret. I breathed in the sweetness of his breath from the tobacco and the clean sandalwood smell of him. I thought, for sure, I was going to get a lecture from this guy I had just met about the importance of the buddy system in college and how I should never walk alone. I internally cringed and braced myself for whatever he was getting ready to throw at me.

"Yes?"

"I'm pretty sure there's no square in the Greek alphabet." He leaned back and half-smirked at me.

Huh. Good to know. What the hell is my name again? I think I called it right then and there; this guy would be either a boatload of trouble or a whole lot of fun.

He continued, "So, you were saying…"

"I was saying something?" My brain was still a bit mushy. You could blame it on the copious amounts of alcohol from the previous night or the guy who sat next to me; take your pick.

"I think you were getting to the part that would explain why you were standing on the bench, trying to pull a Peeping Tom on one of those windows." He pointed behind him in the general direction of my room on the second floor.

"Oh, yeah. Well, I woke up to a most lovely hangover and a bare ass hanging off my roommate's bed." I took short breath and continued on, "A bare ass which didn't belong to her; it appeared to be the guy that she was sucking face and god knows what else with last night. I can only assume their activities had continued right there in the bed next to mine while I was passed out."

"Right. Well now, that's downright scandalous."

"Mocking is not very becoming, Jasper."

"Point taken, Bella."

"I most certainly am aware that these things happen in college. It just caught me off-guard, you know? It just seems early for things like that to happen. I don't know, call me old-fashioned but we just got here. I don't think that we need to be jumping in bed with the first people we meet or kiss."

He gave me a soft smile and my heart melted a little inside of my chest. The smile turned wicked and he grinned. "But you're comfortable with the idea of voyeurism? I know college gets you outside of the norm but I wouldn't have expected that from you." Ah yes, there's the Jasper I've known and loved for all of ten minutes. The fingers of his left hand traced circles on his worn jeans, the right still held his smoke. The conversation was nice, though, different from the other first conversations I'd had with other classmates. Conversations that revolved around what the other's major was and feigning interest in what they were saying. This conversation was not anything I expected, but it was real.

"You expect things from me? We don't even know each other!"

"Hey, we've been talking for at least twelve minutes. That's a damn long relationship in the realm of college. Honestly, you don't seem like the type of girl that would be into watching other's sexual exploits."

I giggled at the thought. "Yeah, I'm not. At all. I just didn't want to walk in on anything that might have been going on. Hence the failed spy moves. I'm definitely not a voyeur in the making."

"Well that's good to hear. We haven't been here long but in the short time we have, I've noticed that college can change people. But I think it's important to, you know, 'stay gold' so to speak."

I questioned his logic. "Isn't that part of college though? Changing and evolving?"

"Definitely. However, I fear that some of our peers are changing and not necessarily for the better. Think about it. In high school you'd party once in awhile, right? Go to a friend's house while their parents were out of town, the occasional high school kegger with limited amounts of alcohol, weed, that type of thing…" he trailed off and looked at me pointedly.

"Yeah?" I was still not quite sure where he was going with this train of thought.

"But here, things happen more frequently. If we wanted to, we could pretty much party every night. We can get whatever we want, whenever we want. Sure, there are rules here at the dorm but even those can be broken as long as you're quiet and keep out of visible trouble. You said it yourself; you walked home alone last night. Probably not something you'd do were you sober at two in the morning, but you lost those inhibitions with the alcohol nudging you along. Not ragging on you, Bella, but that was not a smart move."

I groaned again and tossed my arm over my forehead while leaning back on the bench, knowing full well that he was right. I'm such a fuck-up. First week of college, made some poor choices, and I was already ruining the rest of my life. Fantastic.

"All is not lost, fair Bella. I'm formulating-" he waved his hand around his head as though he was actually formulating something in his brain. "I'm formulating a plan here."

Curiosity killed the cat but I hoped it wouldn't get the best of me. I had to ask. "Are you now? What, pray tell, would that plan entail?"

"My body is a temple."

"Excuse me?" The statement came out of nowhere and took me by surprise, the way he so easily said this in conversation. Yes, his body certainly was nice to look at, but I thought it a bit presumptuous for him to be making such declarations.

"I'm going to treat my body as a temple, with the respect and care that it deserves. From this moment on I'm going to abstain from drinking, smoking and having sex." All of this was said as his lips wrapped around his cigar. He noticed me watching the cigar. Perhaps he noticed me watching his mouth too. Oh Lord, I hope not.

"Okay then. So let me see if I have this straight. You're at college and you decide now is a good time to go 'Straight-Edge?' Should I get the black marker out and draw X's on your hands too?"

"Why label it, Bella? I'm not planning on doing this forever. Maybe just until the craziness of the first few months of college is over and done with. Why not experience it rather than look for a label? You in?"

His question confused me, even thought I'd been following along up until that point. "Am I in for what?"

"Are you in for the cleanse experience? Will you join me?"

He finished his cigar and crushed it on the ground. Most would have flicked the butt on the ground. He got up and walked over to the garbage can, tossing it in before returning to sit on the bench once more. He sat a bit closer than before. Rather than answering his question right away, I sighed and held out my hand, waving my fingers in the 'come hither' motion. Not at him. At the Black and Milds. "Let me see the pack."

He tossed it over to me. I took a moment to open it and look at the almost full pack sans the two cigars that he'd been puffing away on while we sat together. Before my mind caught up with my body, my hand swiftly moved and in an arcing motion the pack flew through the air and landed in the trashcan. Damn, I'm impressed with my sudden coordination. I almost shouted out "two-points" since I thought that's what you're supposed to do in situations like that one. Hell if I knew, I'd never actually had the object hit the basket before.

I waited to see his reaction. He watched the pack fall neatly into the bin and looked at me like he accepted their fate as trash. He was serious about this idea he placed before me.

And suddenly, so was I. I liked this kid. He was the first person at college that I'd felt an instant connection to and I didn't want to let that slip away. Not saying that we wouldn't have be friends if I left him on his own with this but I knew if I did this crazy cleanse with Jasper, it would bind us together.

"I'm in."

KrisBCullen betas and acts as my big sis.

I would totally do a cleanse if TheHeartofLife and LoreliD asked me. By the way, LoreliD and I write a Roseward story together - our joint name is LightHeartLoreli. Our novella is up for an Indie award! :)
As always, thank you to my test audience, Miztrezboo and ElleCC. You should check out their stories! Gahs all around.

I find the things that you do, will make me feel alright - The Beatles
The first conversation with Jasper. I'd love to hear what you think of him, her, life, LOST, anything. ;)