Chapter 3: Happy Panda Dancing….And Tampons?
I walk steadily through the house carrying two of my boxes in my arms, trying to look around them and make sure I can safely find my way up the stairs. Being short sometimes has its downfalls. I count the steps in my head hoping I don't do something embarrassing like fall and break my neck before I have the chance to fully unpack. I make it safely to the top of the steps and try to adjust the boxes to make them easier to carry. Much to my dismay this didn't help, it only made things worse. Before I can catch it, the top box falls scattering random pieces of clothing and books all over the hall.
" Of course, shit," I step over the newly found clutter and walk into my new room.
" What was that all about?" Jade asks, peering out of the closet where she has been sitting for twenty minutes sorting clothes by color. I smile sheepishly.
" You know me, I dropped the damn box," I say, pushing one of the boxes to the corner. I smile as I hear her laugh.
" Of course you did," she says, rolling her eyes dramatically at me as I walk out to the hall to pick up the things that were left behind. I kneel down picking up books and shirts shoving them back into the box. I pick up a picture frame that broke through the tumble it took, and immediately dropped it when a booming voices sounded from the stairs. The sharp corner of the broken glass catching my finger as I drop it again.
"Ouch, oh damn it," I say, looking at where a small bubble of blood has started to form.
" Oh I'm sorry are you okay?" the deep voice asks, and I look up only to come face to face with someone's wide muscular chest. I suck on my finger trying to ease the pain, when I look up and see a gorgeous guy smiling back at me.
" Yeah, I am fine. You just caught me of guard that's all," I say, shaking my hand trying to get the stinging to stop. " You must be Emmett."
" Yeah that's me," he says, looking somewhat pleased that he was being talked about already. I laugh lightly.
" Winnie-the-Pooh my ass," I say, half-heartedly, yet somewhat intimidated by his sheer size. He laughs loudly in that booming voice that caught me off guard.
" Aww now come on, I'm a nice guy, I assure you," he says, smiling at me. " And to prove it I will help you pick up this mess, and be your personal slave for the rest of the night."
" That's okay, don't worry about it, I can handle this," I say, kneeling down quickly gathering my things from the floor.
" I insist," he says, grabbing my stuff in his hands and plunking them into the box. I cant help but to smile widely.
" Well if you insist then okay," I say, letting him pick up the box and carry it into the room for me.
" Did you finally get all that stuff picked up," Jade asks, popping her head back out of the closest. I watch her reaction as she looks straight up at Emmett. " Oh hi, Emmett right, or should I just call you Pooh Bear?" I laugh hysterically at that.
" Yes, yes you can. It's nice to meet you. And since your friend didn't introduce herself, let me try and guess who each of you are," he says, walking around each of us. His fingers on his chin, looking all serious like. He points at me and smiles wide. " You're Ana, and your Jade."
I look at him somewhat impressed.
" How did you know?" I ask, looking at him.
" Oh you know because I am amazingly smart," he says, smiling. Rosalie's voice floats to us from the door.
" And it helps that I told him which of you was which," she says, smiling. Emmett huffs loudly and reminds me of a child about to throw a tantrum.
" You ruined it Rose, I almost had her believing that I was in fact amazingly smart," he says, a small pout forming on his lips.
" Oh well, hey listen girls, Edward and Jazz are going to be here in five minutes if you want to take a break from moving to come down and get business all sorted out," she says, holding her hand out to Emmett. He doesn't extend his hand back to her, instead he huffs again.
" Aww Emmett, if it helps, I still think you are amazingly smart," I say, pinching his cheek lightly. In that instant I could feel the change. We became instantly connected. He was like the big brother I never had.
" Awesome, happy panda dance" he says, and he starts dancing around the room happily. I laugh so hard I fall to the bedroom floor and that in turn starts a chain reaction of uncontrollable laughter. I open my eyes at the sound of someone unfamiliar clearing their throat in the door way. He was tall, and lean. The sleeves of his gray sweater pushed up to his elbows. His dark hair was messed in such a way that it was intriguing and immediately I knew that he wasn't my type, though some serious eye candy he was. I smile sheepishly as my eyes drift to Jade who has become silent. I know that look. She is smitten. A small smile has her eyes glowing, and I smirk lightly.
" Ahh Edward, how nice of you to finally show that face of yours," Rosalie says, hugging him lightly, before turning to look back at us. " This is Ana, and Jade," she says, pointing respectively to us.
" It's a pleasure to meet you both, Jazz is running a little behind, but I'm sure we can go ahead and get started," he says, walking towards the stairs.
" Are you sure she wont mind if we start without her?" I ask skeptically walking behind Rosalie and Emmett. The three of them stop and turn to look at me, before another round of uncontrollable laughter starts.
" What, what did I say?" I ask, honestly wondering if I missed out on some huge joke. Edward is quickly the first to compose himself.
" Sorry, its just, Jazz is Rosalie's twin brother," he says, barely able to mask the laughter. I can feel the blush creeping to my cheeks.
" Oh, sorry. Its just I assumed that Jazz was short for Jasmine," I say, sounding stupider by the second. Jade slings her arms carelessly over my shoulder and joins in the chorus of laughter.
" Well Ana, you know what they say, when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me," she continues on rolling with her laughter. I elbow her lightly.
" Thank you Jade Elizabeth Larson," I say, knowing how much she hates when anyone uses her whole name.
" Your welcome Annalisa Marie Benson," she says, playfully pushing me.
" It's a common misconception, his name is Jasper," Rosalie says, gliding easily down the stairs ahead of us, while I mentally slap myself.
We are about half way through with the paper work when the door slams shut and a new voice rings through the house.
"Whose damn Explorer is parked in my spot," the voice carries to where we are seated. Instantly dread fills me from head to toe.
" Back here Jasmine, erm, Jazz," Emmett calls out, making fun of me was short lived though when Rosalie elbows him quickly. He walks in. He is tall too, not as tall as Emmett, and just a hair shorter than Edward. His blonde hair ruffled as he pulls off his hat and gives an uneasy smile to everyone in the room. I can feel the heat rise to my cheeks as I look at him from under my lashes. Gorgeous. Like on a scale from 1-10, he is a million plus one. My heart begins beating erratically in my chest as I realize that this one of my room mates, and that this very well could be love at first sight. I slap my hand to my forehead, and five sets of eyes stare at me as I lower my hand and realize that I didn't mentally slap myself but instead physically did it.
" Sorry I just realized that I left something back in California," I say quickly blurting out the first thing I could think of. Jade looks over at me, knowing I was lying.
" What did you forget?" she asks, knowing that the answer I would blurb out would be utterly ridiculous. Think Ana, think.
"My tampons," I say hurriedly, immediately regretting those words. The laughter echoes off the walls after that one, and I cant help but laugh along.
" Well I am sure that somewhere in the vast state of Washington they will have some you can buy," Rosalie says, continuing her laughter.
" Okay anyways, back to business," Edward says, turning his attention back to the papers we were looking at before the brief disruption of jaspers entrance. I try and concentrate on the things at hand, but I keep catching glimpses of Jasper out of the corner of my eye. 'He is so cute, ugh, come on Ana, get it together.'
" Okay so this is how it works. We try and make a unified effort in keeping things clean. Usually we switch off days of laundry because lets face it the last thing any of us want is to wash each others underwear. As for grocery shopping. We do one big shopping trip a month, we each usually put in a hundred dollars, and keep a list going. If before the next big shopping trip you want something that isn't in the house you of course can buy it yourself. Rent is due the first of the month. I think that about covers it," Edwards says, looking at Jade and me. " Did I miss anything Jazz." I wait for Jasper to speak up and say something so I look up to find his green eyes locked on me. Edward raises his hand and waves it in front of his face. "Jazz, did I miss anything?"
" What, oh, no that about covers it. We will just need signatures. Edward or I will go out and get copies of the key made for each of you, as well as getting you each the code to the alarm system," he says, his voce velvet smooth. I blink nervously as I watch Jade sign the paper. Jasper grabs the paper and hands it to me, our fingers slightly brushing each others. My heart immediately begins racing again, as I fumble with the pen. I sign my name quickly, and hand it back to Edward.
" Well ladies welcome home," he says easily, sliding the paper into a folder smiling happily at us both.
I walk back to my room, feeling as though I am floating on water. I don't know what has come over me, so I kick the closest box to me. I hear Jade close the door behind me and I know what is about to happen. I turn around slowly and look at her.
" I knew it, you like him," she accuses, slyly smiling. I have two options. I can try and deny it, or I can just be totally honest. The first option seems better.
" I have no idea what you are talking about, I don't even know him," I say, trying to busy myself with the closest box to my fingers.
" Don't lie to me Annalisa, I saw the look you got in your eyes the moment that boy came storming into the kitchen," she says, smiling even wider now.
" Oh well you know, just because, I uhm, well you like Edward so HA!," I finish, feeling quite proud that I called her out like she called me out. Her face grows red, and she turns away from me.
" You have no idea what your talking about," she says, running her fingers through her hair.
" Uh huh, sure I don't," I say, sitting on the floor. I lay back, staring at the ceiling. Jade soon joins me, and its quiet for a while. She looks over at me.
" You know we are missing something, well a few things," she says, bracing herself on her elbows looking around curiously.
" Yeah, beds, and dressers, ugh I so don't want to go shopping," I moan loudly as I fall backwards.
" I know me either. Maybe we can just sleep on the floor tonight, I'm sure they have an extra blanket or two and then we can go shopping tomorrow," she says, yawning loudly.
" Sounds good to me," I say, yawning back.
" Stop yawning," she commands, laughing through her next yawn.
" You started it," I say back, closing my eyes finally drifting off from all the excitement of the day.