16 years ago…
My arms were loaded with bags of dirty laundry as I headed down the hallway to my bedroom. I was just arriving home from college for winter break, happy to have completed my finals early so that I could beat the holiday traffic. However, my good mood was not meant to last, because when I shoved open my bedroom door it was to find people already inside. Touching my things. My computer, to be exact, which was a golden rule in that household.
Do NOT touch my computer.
"What the fuck are you doing in here?" I yelled.
Three pairs of shocked eyes turned to face me at once. My brother Emmett was the first to recover. "Hey man… what are you doing home so early? We thought you were coming home Friday."
I stared him down, breathing loudly through my nose as I seethed, counting to ten in my head like I promised my mom I would do before replying. It didn't help much. "Early testing. So sorry to break up the party," I gritted through my teeth.
I threw the bags of clothes on my bed without breaking eye contact. I hadn't been home to see my brothers in a few months, and I could tell that the time apart had changed Emmett a bit. He had joined the freshman football team that year, and I could see where the practice and weight training was filling him out. His dark curls had been cropped short, and the only things that remained of his baby face were his enormous dimples.
His twin Jasper, on the other hand, was still a gangly, freckled metal mouth with a greasy mop of blonde hair on his head. I didn't get the grunge look at all. Wash your damn hair, for God's sake. The only change I could see in him so far was that he looked even ganglier and grungier. Apparently his new goal in life was to become the east coast Kurt Cobain.
Needless to say, they were not identical.
"Hey Edward," Jasper's voice cracked as he motioned to the girl sitting in between them, currently in front of my computer. "Uh… this is my new girlfriend, Bella."
I barely registered warm brown eyes that had shifted from shocked to curious before I was staring down Jasper again. "Charmed, I'm sure," I spit out, my words dripping with sarcasm, "but that still doesn't tell me what the fuck you are doing in here or why you thought it was suddenly okay to touch my computer."
The new girl gasped loudly, smacking Jasper in the arm. "Jasper! You said he would not care!" I noticed that when she spoke, she had a foreign accent that I couldn't place, but her English was pretty good.
"Uh…" he gulped loudly. "Well, I was helping Bella set up an email account. She was interested in seeing how it worked."
"You couldn't use the family computer in the office for that?" I snapped.
"Well, yours is faster." This I knew was true. I had been tweaking and upgrading my computer since the first day I'd gotten it. However, when I looked past them to the monitor, it certainly wasn't any kind of email screen they had left open behind them.
"Looks to me like you're playing Warcraft," I said coldly. "Which is also more of my shit you are touching." I felt myself growing angry again, or technically angrier, since I was still pissed that they were in my room to begin with.
"Well…" his cheeks turned a bright pink. "I was just trying to show Bella what this thing could do. She doesn't have one and I thought this would be a good example—"
"Oh, like you even have the faintest idea what that thing can do!" I snapped, cutting him off.
"Hey, you don't need to be a dick about it," he pouted. It was easy to see that he was thoroughly embarrassed at having his attempt to show off to his little play date interrupted.
"Oh, I'm a dick? Even though you're the one invading my privacy and rifling through my things when I have told you repeatedly not to?"
I could see him swallow deeply, glancing back and forth quickly between Bella and Emmett before looking back at me. I knew that face. His pride had been wounded by his public scolding, and he was ready to lash out. "Why are you so nervous, Eddie?" He knew I hated that name. "Are you afraid we're going to find a bunch of naked pictures on here or something? Is that the only way you can get off?"
Now, I don't know why I got so pissed after that. It wasn't the words he used; he hadn't embarrassed me or anything. I mean, of course I had a bunch of naked pictures on there, but I wasn't in the least bit worried that they would ever find them. Those were buried so deep inside hidden, misnamed folders that I didn't think anyone other than me would be able to find them without a map. And it certainly wasn't the only way I could get off, either. I had my fair share of girls at the dorm parties at school, I just wasn't interested in them any more after my buzz wore off and they started yammering about bullshit I didn't care about.
Nothing Jasper said should have affected me the way it did, but that didn't stop me from seeing red the moment he started running his smart mouth. Perhaps it was the fact that the dark-skinned girl with the pretty eyes hadn't stopped looking at me once, and there had been a definite flash of embarrassment in her features when he spoke. Embarrassment for me. This awkward, quiet, scrawny girl who couldn't be more than fourteen and didn't know me from Adam… was embarrassed for me. She pitied me.
"Get… OUT!" I screamed, pointing at the door behind me.
"Okay man," Emmett said, putting his hands in front of him in surrender as he stood up slowly, as if trying to appease an angry lion. "We're going. Just calm down."
As they shuffled past me I followed them to the door, yelling "Why don't you go show your little girlfriend your fucking Lego collection, Mr. Big Man?" With that, I slammed the door in their faces and promptly went to the computer, looking to see what kind of damage they had done.
A few hours later we all sat around the table, eating an awkwardly silent dinner after my mother had lectured us all about behaving more 'brotherly' towards each other, and reminding us all that she expected more of us in front of company. This was even more awkward, since the company in question had stayed for dinner, spending the entire meal with her head ducked down and not saying a peep, afraid to meet my gaze.
Jeez… I hadn't meant to scare the poor girl. I wasn't even mad at her; I just wanted Jasper and Emmett out of my shit.
"So, Bella, how is your family getting along these days?" my mother asked, trying to lift the quiet from the room.
"Very well, thank you, Mrs. Cullen," she whispered, only looking up long enough to acknowledge who had spoken to her.
"Please, how many times have I asked you to call me Esme?" My mom smiled warmly. "I've been meaning to invite them over to dinner again; it was such a joy to have them last time."
"I'm sure they would love that," Bella said quietly, smiling quickly at Mom before glancing in my direction again and lowering her head when she caught me looking.
"Lovely. Well, as soon as Carlisle rotates off the night shift again we'll set that up." My father worked in Emergency Medicine at Washington Hospital Center, and there were many times when he had to be out working nights. Many birthday dinners had suffered through the years, but we all understood that he wasn't any happier about it than we were.
Catching my questioning look from the corner of her eye, my mother went on to explain more about the situation to me. "Bella's family is from Brazil, dear. Her father is in the Brazilian Air Force, and they sent his family to stay here for a few years while he undergoes some extensive training with our military. They have all been over here a few times already since Bella and Jasper became such good friends."
"So, did you guys meet in school?" I asked the young girl, trying to be friendlier and break the ice.
All she did was blush and nod before Emmett jumped in to complete the explanation in his usual overexcited manner. "Dude, she's got three older brothers, and they all go to school with us. There's one of them in every grade! They're freakin' huge! Coach has been trying to convince them to join some of the teams. Anyway, it's too late for them to join football this season, but he kept inviting them to come watch the games, hoping to raise some interest for next year. Mom and Dad met the family there during one of my games and invited them over for some sort of 'Welcome to America' dinner. They're pretty cool, and I think I might have Paul convinced to try out!"
I had to take a moment to process the huge amounts of information that he had just thrown at me in about ten seconds. Talking with Emmett was always an exercise in patience. I could see that he was waiting for me to acknowledge what he'd said, so I nodded and replied, "Well… that's great, Em. Uh… good luck with that." It must have worked, because he smiled and dug back into his mashed potatoes.
Looking around for anything to distract myself from the uncomfortable dinner, I spied a plate of candies that I had never seen before. Reaching across the table, I grabbed some kind of round chocolate truffle covered in sprinkles.
"What is this candy? Is this something new?" I took a bite, nearly groaning out loud from the rich, delicious taste.
"Oh, Bella brought that, dear," my mom explained. "Her mother makes those wonderful chocolates and sends them over with her sometimes. What are they called again, Bella?"
"Brigadeiro," she mumbled.
"Your mom made these?" I asked, chomping another one loudly. She nodded quickly, refusing to look up to make eye contact. "They're amazing!" I smiled at the poor girl, hoping to lighten the mood. I didn't want to forever be known as the family ogre.
"They're my favorite," Bella admitted shyly, staring at the table. "We make them over the holidays and for birthday parties. They're about the only thing in the world I can't resist." A bright blush colored her cheeks, as if she were afraid that she had said too much or had been too loud, when in reality she'd barely risen above a whisper.
"I can see why," I said, shoveling another one in my mouth. I handed her the plate, hoping that her favorite candy might cheer her up, but she shook her head and looked away again.
Shit. Guess I'm still the family ogre.
After dinner, I was back in my room, working on a coding problem that had been bothering me for a few days, when a soft knock sounded at my door.
Okay, yes… I was such a computer geek that I even worked over break. For fun.
"Enter!" I called out, not bothering to look away from my monitor as I punched in the next line of code. I heard the door creak open, but nothing followed. "What is it?" I yelled back, irritated at being interrupted for no reason.
"Um… Edward?" a little squeak managed to carry across the room to my ears.
"Yeah?" I answered, still typing away.
"May I please speak with you?"
"Go ahead," I called out, only half listening.
"Babaca! You could at least look at me when I'm talking to you!" a much louder voice snapped, breaking through my code-induced daze. I actually stopped typing and turned around, surprised to find that scrawny little Bella had been the owner of that angry snarl. She was standing in the doorway with her hands balled into fists on her hips, and the fire in her eyes was visible from across the room.
"Well, well, well," I laughed. "You can speak!"
She blushed deeply before continuing. "I'm sorry I raised my voice to you. I just don't like being ignored."
"I could say the same," I smirked, referring to her refusal to look at me during dinner. "And I don't like being sworn at in Brazilian, either."
"I didn't swear at you in Brazilian; there's no such language as Brazilian! I swore at you in Portuguese!" she huffed.
"Fair enough," I chuckled, enjoying the fact that she had morphed into such a little spitfire. "So what was with the silent treatment earlier, then?"
"Yes, I am sorry about that," she blushed again, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. "That is why I wanted to speak with you. I was just so ashamed of what happened earlier. I was embarrassed at being caught in your room like that."
"Huh?" I thought she had been embarrassed, but I assumed it had been directed at me after Jasper's taunts.
"Please forgive me for using your computer. I had no idea that we weren't allowed to touch it. I asked Jasper repeatedly if you would mind and he said it would not be a problem."
"Yeah, that's because the little shit didn't think I'd be home yet," I laughed. When she stiffened, I rushed to add, "Hey, don't worry about it. It's not like it's the end of the world."
"No, but I have a large family. There is very little privacy, and I know how annoying it can be for others to be in your space or your things. You had every right to be angry with us, and Jasper should not have been so rude to you."
"Believe me, we've both said worse. He was just trying to impress you, and I'll admit that I was being a bit of a dick about it. I hope I didn't scare you away from here for good?" I cocked my eyebrow, hoping that she knew I was only teasing her.
"No way." She shook her head, smiling brightly. "I am tougher than I look."
"I can see that. Good."
After an awkward silence fell over the room, she started backing out the door. "I should be going. My father will be here soon to pick me up. I just wanted to make sure that you knew how sorry I was for touching your things without permission."
She still looked a little apprehensive, as if she couldn't apologize enough. For some reason I had the overwhelming urge to put her at ease. "Thank you for the apology, Bella, but honestly, don't worry about it. Now, if I catch you going through my underwear next time, there's gonna be hell to pay."
Her warm brown eyes grew as big as saucers for a moment before she threw her head back and laughed loudly. Something in the sound of it made me stare at her more closely, admiring the way that she put her entire soul into it. I had never seen anyone come so alive from a single laugh.
"No, no, Edward." She shook her head, still giggling around her words. "I promise you that I have no interest in your stinky boy underwear. I do the laundry at home for three teen boys. No way!" She was still laughing as she left, waving her goodbye through the door before running down the stairs to wait for her father.
I smiled to myself, turning around again to start typing, finally understanding what Jasper saw in her.
Bella was positively radiant when she laughed.
And her eyes were the exact same color as those Brazilian chocolates.