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

Chapter 6 – Mother Nature's Son
1999

"I'm in."

"Yeah?" his voice rose a bit and it sounded like he was excited at the prospect of me agreeing to his cockamamie idea.

I nodded my head in agreement as I leaned over to throw my empty coffee cup into the trash. "Let's do this. As long as you aren't asking me to give up my caffeine, I'm in. Are we going to have a secret handshake and build a clubhouse in the yard too?" Oh, he's going to have to get used to me as much as I'll have to get used to him.

"I think a pinky swear will suffice." Or maybe he's just the male version of me.

We linked pinkies and shook on it. The legal and binding agreement was in place and it was as good as if it were etched in stone. I moved to unhook my pinky but he held it hostage.

"Will you do me a favor?"

I looked down at our joined hands and wondered if I had a choice. His crystalline eyes met mine and while they appeared clear, the feelings behind them were deep and spoke volumes.

"Never walk home by yourself again. Please. It's just not a good idea. Hell, call me if you need to. No matter what. Just don't do it again."

How could I do anything but agree? He had me in a pinky swear head-lock. I spoke the word softly but he heard it. "Promise."

He released my hand and went back to drawing circles with his fingertips on his thigh. I needed to do something with my hand, to fill the void left from where his had touched mine. I played with my keychain that held my one and only key. I felt the need to say something so I turned my attention back to the whole "treating our bodies as temples" thing. "So I'm not going to have too many problems with the smoking. The drinking will be more of a challenge."

"Yeah, well, we'll be each other's sponsors. We can go out to parties together and look out for each other. Sound good? I know some of the houses have soda available for those who aren't drinking. So we'll drink our coke and go to socialize and make trouble for the drunks."

Having a partner in crime at the parties sounded really good. I told him so with a smile. Then I decided to just bite the bullet and bring up the potentially most awkward of the three.

"And um, no sexing…" I trailed off, not exactly sure how to ask my next thought. I felt myself getting a bit red. "What about self-gratification?"

"Well, we can't bite the hand that feeds, now can we?" I winced at the visual the words provided and he laughed. "I think that self-gratification is perfectly acceptable. We just don't want to do anything stupid with other people. "

"True, very true. Although if my lovely roommate decides to have a revolving door of visitors and doesn't leave the room the logistics might prove to be a bit… difficult." I stopped speaking, burying my head into my hands for a moment before looking up, pushing my hair out of my face. "God, I can't have this conversation with you now. I think I have to wait until at least our second or third conversation to discuss this." My face was now bright red. It would have been nice if I could've blamed the sun gradually moving to its full height in the sky, but that would've been a lie. Jasper sensed my discomfort and moved quickly to change the subject.

"Tell me about this roommate of yours."

I tried to think of words that would adequately describe Lucy without speaking poorly of her or making her sound too out there. "She's… nice."

Jasper clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth in disapproval. "You're a communications major, right? I hate to break it to you, Bella, but 'nice' is the least descriptive descriptor there is."

"If you met my roommate, you too, might find it difficult to sum her up in a few words. Oh, wise and brilliant communications major."

He looked disbelieving and I made a face that said: It's true without a shadow of a doubt.

"Wait, what did you say her name was?"

"Lucy. Lucy Fairchild."

"Ah… yeah. Okay. I've met Lucy. She is an interesting character." It wasn't at all surprising to me that Jasper had met Lucy. What did surprise me was that Lucy hadn't mentioned Jasper. She and the girls seemed to have taken inventory of all the gorgeous men on campus.

He stretched his legs in front of him and leaned his head back, hands pressed up to the sky. He looked never-ending. Infinite Jasper. I had to remind myself that it was probably wise to stop looking at my new friend in that light. When he brought his arm back down to rest on his leg again, I caught sight of his watch. I grabbed his arm to look at his watch and let out a small yelp. It read a quarter to… eleven. Has meeting Jasper made me a time jumper?

"It's an hour behind." He explained as I sat there, a bit dumbfounded and holding his arm, staring at the watch.

"But why?"

"My family is in Texas, so it's on Texas time. I'm one of the few out-of-state students here. Reminds me of home," he shrugged. He looked a little embarrassed but I couldn't think of anything sweeter. So I told him so. He looked even more uncomfortable and just shrugged again.

"Yeah, so it's really a quarter to twelve."

That snapped me right out of my gushing over the sweetness.

"Crap! I should get back to my room and get a few things done before Public Speaking this afternoon." I had spoken to my dad earlier that week; I promised would email him my schedule and wanted to get that done before I forgot. I was just hoping that Lucy and Bare Ass were long gone and I wouldn't be interrupting anything. Really and truly. Or if they were still loafing around the room, he'd at least be wearing clothes.

Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear. At that moment, Lucy and a few of our floor mates entered the courtyard from the same breezeway I had walked through earlier. Huh, guess the room is free and clear after all. The rest of the girls waved and went upstairs while Lucy headed toward Jasper and me.

"Hold up, let me give you my number. We'll rendezvous and walk to Public Speaking together this afternoon," he said. We both stood and I slid my bag onto my shoulder. He started rooting around in his pockets for a pen. I had one sitting in the front pocket of my bag but watching him was somewhat fun. Shirt pocket – nope. Left front pants pocket – nope. Left back pants pocket – nope. Right pants pocket – jackpot.

Lucy had reached us by this point and was giving me the strangest look. I was afraid her eyes were going to fall out of her head while she motioned behind Jasper's back at him. I tried to decipher her charades while he took my hand and marked me with his name and extension. As if I would somehow forget his name? My name, perhaps. Not his though. Lucy had her arms waving above her head and was pointing at the tree in the courtyard. What the hell is she doing?

Jasper sensed that I was entirely distracted by Lucy's presence.

"Hey, why don't you give me a call in a bit and we'll get lunch before we head to Public Speaking?" Jasper asked as he pushed the pen toward his mouth, where the cap was resting in his teeth. I thought I was safe since he had taken his vow of no smoking but I couldn't stop looking at his lips. How are we going to be friends if I can't stop staring at his lips? He eyes slid to where Lucy was standing, who immediately stopped with her arm flailing and gave him the demure innocent gaze. Oh, she is good. "Good seeing you again, Luce." He waved to us as he walked away to his side of the dorm.

Lucy and I both headed to the red metal door and as soon as it swung shut behind us she grabbed my arm and started bouncing up and down.

"Bella!!! Oh my gosh, you and Nature Boy? How did this happen? How do you know him? Did you meet him when we were—wait. Wait, was he there last night? How did you get home? You walked with someone, right? Are you together with him?" She took a short breath before plowing on. "By the way, I'm so sorry about this morning, I hope it wasn't too traumatizing." And theeeeere's the apology.

I ushered her up the stairs as she continued to babble on and on. I answered her questions and assured her that I did not realize that Nature Boy equaled Jasper. The girl should bottle her energy and sell it. Perhaps to me.

After sending emails to both parental units, I pulled out my Public Speaking books and notes and sat on my bed. The breeze from the window ruffled the pages slightly and we had the fan on the opposite side of the room creating a counter-breeze, since the college didn't provide air conditioning in the underclassmen dorms. Looking at the few notes I scribbled in the margins of the syllabus, I realized that the professor was going to hand out topics for the first assignment that day. Picking up the phone, I looked at my hand, deciphering Jasper's boy handwriting, and dialed the extension.

"Hey, Bella." He picked up on the first ring and I was a little thrown that he immediately knew it was me. The school phones didn't have caller ID.

"Hi… Jasper? How'd you know it was me?"

"I'm watching you right now."

"WHAT?"

"Look out the window."

I leaned over to peer out the window and my eyes scanned the courtyard. I'm not exactly sure why I looked down there since I called his extension and not some imaginary courtyard phone. My eyes searched the building until they landed at the room directly across from mine, on the opposite side.

There sat Jasper on his bed.

He waved and I waved back, teasing him by asking, "Who's the voyeur now, hmmm?"

He motioned for me to hang up the phone. He called over to me out his window. "I'll meet you outside at 12:37?"

12:37? He's a strange one.

I headed outside a few minutes early, eager to get out of the room since Lucy was arguing with her mom on the phone. I twirled my key on the long string necklace keychain given to us our first day, adorned by the repetition of our college's name over and over again. Just in case there was a possibility we forgot where we were. I figured that since smoking and drinking were out of the picture, it wouldn't be a problem for me.

True to his word, he exited the heavy metal door that led to the stairwell near his room at exactly 12:37. We headed off to the Student Union to grab a bite before our class.

During our walk there, we passed a guy in a t-shirt with Greek letters. He nodded at Jasper and gave me what seemed to be an appraising look. "Whitlocckkkk," he drew out his name. "Are you coming tonight? Bring your friend."

Jasper looked over at me and raised his eyebrows. "You up for some non-alcoholic, non-smoking, non-sexing party action?"

Really, who could say no to that?

KrisBCullen is my lovely and talented beta.

I roll with TheHeartofLife & LoreliD.
ElleCC & Miztrezboo pre-read.

Swaying daises sing a lazy song beneath the sun - The Beatles
You up for some non-alcoholic, non-smoking, non-sexing party action? Sooo, are ya? Leave a review and I'll send along a teaser (2006 Edward and Bella in the house!).