Disclaimer: All characters are property of Stephenie Meyer. This story, however, is mine. © 2023 lilbitbookish82
This is my first ever attempt at writing fic. Please be gentle with me. I think I’m going to go every other chapter being an EPOV/BPOV. I’m not going to repeat information from a chapter in a different POV unless perhaps there is an overwhelming request for it or perhaps something I feel needs to be repeated in both. Any words that are translated are Scots Gaelic. Remember that both Edward and Bella’s families are of Scottish descent.
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EPOV
I couldn’t believe it; it was her. The beauty of my dreams is literally standing in my arms, and I feel like I am going to pass out. I open and close my mouth several times trying not to choke, I clear my throat, and say quietly as if praying, “it’s you”. Her beautiful greenish-blue eyes were covered in those adorable tortoise-shell glasses, she had the sweetest blush across her lightly freckled nose, and her dewy pink lips were open in surprise. She continued to hold my upper arms as if she were grounding herself and I was doing the same to her; almost afraid to let go lest I broke the magical spell we were under. Finally, she broke the silence…
“It really is you?”, she asks as if in shock, “the man from in front of the restaurant in February?”.
“Uh…yes, it is”, I stammer as I blush. “I never thought I would ever see you again, let alone being my neighbor in school… wait! You do go to school here, right? “You’re not visiting my neighbor, are you?”, I say in a rush.
She giggles quietly and looks down then up shyly with just her eyes, “Yes”, she whispers. “I am your new neighbor. I just got here from California. My father actually just left from dropping me off.”
I don’t know why I am able to talk to her. I never talk to anyone this easily. It’s surreal to me honestly. “Oh, that’s pretty far. I’m from only about an hour north of here; still in Tennessee actually.” I say like a moron.
“It’s beautiful here”, she says as she blushes deeply, looking down again quickly.
“Yeah, it is…”, I say quietly. Suddenly we hear a crash and look down the hallway to the left and notice someone had run their cart into the wall. We notice we’re still holding on to each other and both reluctantly let each other go quickly. At the same time, we both mumble, “Sorry” to each other then laugh lightly.
“I am so sorry. You must think I am so rude. I’m Edward and its very nice to meet you, miss.” I say with the manners my Mama taught me.
She blushes prettily and says, “Hello, Edward. I’m Isabella. You can call me Bella; everyone does. I prefer it actually. Isabella makes me feel like I’m in trouble or something.”, she laughs.
“Isabella is a beautiful name, but I understand. A lot of people try calling me ‘Ed’ and it makes me cringe every time; especially because I work with horses.”, I say as I roll my eyes.
“Oh no, please tell me it isn’t the old ‘Mr. Ed.’ jokes? That’s just cruel!”, she giggled softly.
I rolled my eyes and laughed it off, “Yeah, I get that a lot.” I feel like we need to move this conversation elsewhere so we don’t lose this connection, but I know asking to go to her room, or her into mine would be a little much right now. I make up my mind and ask if she would like to go get some food.
“Hey Bella, I um…ugh, sorry I’m really awkward around beautiful women…shit, not that you’re not beautiful because you’re literally the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met, but oh god…”
“Edward”, Bella interrupts while blushing a bright red and rubbing her hand down my arm, “it’s okay, don’t be embarrassed. I get this way too…and thank you. I’ve never had anyone say that to me before, and you’re probably the most gorgeous man I’ve ever met too.”
I let out a deep breath as I calm myself down and then I stop. Did she just say I was the most gorgeous man she’s ever met? I try to adjust myself discreetly because as soon as I see that blush on her face and she rubs on my arm, my cock decides it’s time to say ‘hello’. “I’m so sorry, Bella. I’m really weird sometimes but thank you for helping to calm me and saying you find me attractive.”
“I didn’t say you were attractive”, she interrupts quietly, “I said you’re gorgeous.”
I feel myself blushing and tell her thank you. I finally calm down and man up. “Since I’ve decided to stop spazzing out, I was wondering if you would like to go to the dining hall and get something to eat or maybe go grab a coffee or something? I don’t want to be so bold, but I don’t want to say goodbye to you just yet.”
She blushes and looks down and then up again through her lashes, “I would love to, Edward”, she says. “I am kind of hungry. We picked up my car right after we landed and came straight here. My dad was going to my sister’s apartment for the evening since she lives really close by so he can go to sleep for a bit since he has a red-eye flight tonight because he has to work in the morning and my soon to be brother-in-law is going to drop him off and…”
I start laughing because she’s rambling on nervously like I was before. “Bella, you’re about to run out of breath,” I grab her hands and put them on my chest to help her catch the rhythm of my own breath. “Looks like I’m not the only one who rambles when I get nervous,” I joke.
She catches her breath all the way and replies, “Oh gah, I’m so spastic! I am so embarrassed.” She hangs her head in shame.
I catch her chin and raise her head up, “Bella, you just witnessed me do the same thing asking if you wanted to get something to eat. Please don’t call yourself spastic. I happen to like that we’re on the same footing here.”
She giggles again and says, “Okay, as long as you don’t call yourself a spazz again then, mister!”
“Deal!” I say. I reach my hand out and ask, “Are you ready to go? We can go to the dining hall, or I can drive somewhere if you want?”
She reaches out and grabs my hand which makes me feel on top of the world. “Let’s stay on campus, be the ‘freshman’ we’re supposed to be”, she says as she rolls her eyes.
We both make sure our doors are locked and walk down the hall to the elevators. We chat about topics like what we’ll miss about our hometowns, where we’d love to travel to and where we’ve been, the weather differences of here and California, the differences of the mountains of Tennessee and California, and many other topics of the “getting to know you” types. We finally arrive at what is called the Rocky Top Dining Hall. It’s the closest one to our dorm and it appears to be the most centrally located as well. It’s massive and very crowded right now since it’s move-in day. I see a booth tucked in the corner that someone just moved from, so I pull her over there and have her sit down while I get some stuff to clean up the table. She just giggles at me and I bow before I return the rag back to the cleaning station.
I walk back over to her and sit down across from her, grab her hands again, and ask, “So milady, what would you like to eat? It looks like we pretty much have every option under the sun! Good lord, my brother did not tell me there were these many options.”
“You have a brother that comes here? I have a sister that goes here too!”, she muses, “She didn’t tell me anything either. It was all about what restaurants were good around here and where to get amazing sushi off-campus. Now I want sushi…ugh”.
“Well, it looks like we may be in luck. It appears there is a sushi place over there. Don’t know if it’s ‘off-campus’ good, but it’s something; besides, I love sushi and we get shit sushi in New Tazewell,” I say matter-of-factly. “There is also a tea place over there that has special flavors of tea; do you like iced tea?”, I ask.
“Oh. My. Goodness! I love iced tea! Especially since coming to Tennessee; sweet tea is the most amazing thing ever. I didn’t know they actually put sugar in your tea for you,” she says excitedly. She is absolutely adorable musing about tea right now. I forget that sweet tea is not a normal thing if you aren’t in the south (shudder; so gross).
“Well, this place has a ton of flavors of iced tea, sweet and un-sweet. I’m going to get the Sweet Mint; it’s really refreshing, and you get free refills too,” I say.
“I’ll try that as well. What kind of sushi are you getting? I prefer spicy tuna or spicy salmon myself…”
“With extra spicy mayo?” I ask?
“Is there any other way to eat it?”, she giggles.
“Of course not. I’ll eat both kinds; they’re my favorite. Do you want clear soup or miso? It comes with either or. You can get a salad too with ginger dressing if you prefer.”
“I knew we were perfect for each other…I mean I knew…oh lord, kill me now”, she says as she plops her head down on the table in embarrassment.
I move a piece of her hair back behind her ear and caress her head. “Bella, I feel like that too…don’t be embarrassed, please. I feel this too.”
She looks up and she is bright red. She takes off her glasses and has slow tears dripping from her eyes. I slowly move my hand up and wipe them away. “Please, don’t be ashamed”, I whisper.
“I’ve never been in this situation before,” she sighs. “Is this normal? Am I being a hopeless romantic just setting myself up for heartbreak? I just met you like an hour ago officially! I mean, I really know nothing else about you except that you have a brother that goes here, you’re from New Tazewell, Tennessee, and you work with horses,” she continues; her voice rising in pitch, “You could be a player who takes shy, naïve girls and give them the run around and makes them feel all special and then makes them fall in love with you and they give you their virginity and you fuck them and never speak to them again while leaving them all heartbroken and then I am stuck living next to you for the rest of the year and…” she continues on not realizing people are starting to stare. She is about to hyperventilate so I hop over to her side and grab her cheeks while I help her retain her breath.
“Bella, please mo chridhe (my heart)! Please, calm down. I promise you that I am NOTHING like that!” She slowly starts breathing normally and then I murmur gently to her, “I am a virgin…um, I’ve never even kissed a girl before unless you count Annie Drees in the first grade and she’s the one who kissed me; it was disgusting because she tasted like a tuna sandwich.” She stops breathing, coughs, and then starts giggling really hard.
“Oh my lord, Edward!”, she gasps for breath through her laughter, “that’s disgusting, but thank you for telling me that.”
“What made you believe me?” I ask. “Was it the tuna breath?”, I laugh.
“No”, she sighs. “You called me mo chridhe. My grandfather used to call my grandmother that. She came straight from Scotland in the late 50’s as a little girl from outside of Inverness. She met my grandfather in school and found out his ancestors came here from Kilchattan Bay and that was it. He called her that every day until she died. So, do you think this feeling is real? Do you think we were meant to meet back in February and again today?”, she asks.
“I do; I really do”, I say. “I was devastated, Bella. My mother found me almost catatonic in the vestibule of the restaurant. Some lady went and told her that she found a young man sobbing and it had appeared she was looking for someone. My brother said I was right behind him talking to someone, so he wasn’t sure where I was”. I can’t believe I told her I was sobbing in the vestibule. Talk about embarrassing. I am sure I am beet red right now.
She moves closer to me and hugs me tight, “Oh, Edward…you cried too? Aren’t we a pair?”
I hug her back and it feels amazing to be in her arms. “Do you think I’m a pussy now?”, I ask.
“Never”, she whispers, “It makes me feel that this feeling isn’t one-sided.”
“Bella, it really isn’t one-sided. Do you believe in anam bhanacharaid (soulmate) or in goal dhut gu bràth (forever love)?”, I whisper into her ear. I feel her stiffen in my arms and she gently pulls her head away from my chest. Her eyes slowly look up into mine in shock as she lets out a deep breath.
“Edward…”, she sighs. “I…I can’t believe I am going to say this because it isn’t realistic because it’s been what? Maybe an hour and a half since we’ve spoken for the first time? But Edward…I think I do believe.”
I grasp her tighter to me and bask in this feeling. It really is strange that we’re this close already, but it feels so very, very right. I slowly pull back but continue to hold her hands. She blushes at me as I let go of her left hand and push a piece of her hair back behind her ear that had fallen forward. Her stomach takes that moment to make itself known as we both giggle. “Are you hungry, mo chridhe? I think your stomach is telling us something”.
She giggles as she replies in the affirmative. She hands me her dining card, and along with mine, I collect our sushi and teas. When I bring it back to the table, she has gathered forks and napkins as well as straws. By the setup she has presented, it appears that she doesn’t want me far from her so we’re still on the same side of the booth; hidden from prying eyes behind the post in the corner. We eat and talk some more, splitting rolls since I got the spicy tuna and got her the spicy salmon and play fight with some chopsticks that came with our meals; it’s the best meal I’ve shared in a long time. We do the obligatory question asking about majors and I find that we’ve both been placed in the Life & Living Community for Hebert College; me going for my DVM with an MS in Large Farm Animals specializing in reproduction and her for a Major in Animal Industries with a minor in Animal Science concentrating on Nutrition. I ask her how the heck a girl from California gets into Animal Science and she tells me it’s because her sister and her studies in sheep with vineyards. It turned into her project to figure out how the nutritional values of the vines affect the animals’ digestive systems and how their manure affects the growth of the produce during the growing season and so on. I am completely enamored with her, and I can’t stop staring at her as she speaks; she’s so animated and excited as she talks about what she has studied so far and how she wants to proceed in her education. Before we know it, it’s going on 7:00 p.m. and the crowds are regathering to eat dinner.
“Looks like the crowds are redescending; want to get out of here?”, I ask.
“Oh, wow…yeah, let’s go. Is there anywhere in particular or are you getting sick of me already?”, she asks in embarrassment.
“Most definitely not getting sick of you. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of you, Bella”, I tell her with blatant honesty. I stand up and gather our trash telling her to stay seated while I go get our tea refilled before we leave. I go back to the booth, set the drinks back down, grab her right hand and help her up, and grab my drink while she grabs hers. I suggest walking back towards our dorms since it’s getting dark outside, and we really don’t know our way around. I know Emmett lives near here, but I’m not sure where and I’m not really interested in getting lost. We hold hands and slowly stroll back that way, taking our time. It seems neither of us wants to make our time go by any faster. When we make it back to Magnolia, we toss our drink cups, and we go back up to the 3rd floor towards our rooms. When we get outside of 3224 and 3226, we pause and just stare into each other’s eyes not knowing what else to say. Suddenly, my door bursts open and Garrett pops out. Bella jumps back quickly and moves slightly behind me.
“Hey, Edward! Where ya’ been? I knew you were movin’ in today and I see your shit is put away, but…. oh, hey pretty lady!”, he flirts. I frown and raise my eyebrow at him in disbelief. Bella slowly pushes into my back and hides herself a little more. I guess this is where her shyness really comes into play. Garrett raises his hands up slowly in a careful manner, “Woah, sorry man. Sorry, ma’am…uh, I’m Garrett; Edward’s roommate. I promise I’m harmless.”
“Um, Garrett, this is Bella…she’s our neighbor here in 3226 and she is…”, I look over to her questioningly as she nods her head knowingly, “…she’s definitely taken”, I say as I put my arm around her waist. She blushes prettily and snuggles into me.
“Woah man! You move quickly! What about that chick you were carrying a torch for the last six months? You just givin’ up on her?” he asks curiously.
“Garrett, the chick in question is Bella. We ran into each other coming out of our doors earlier. You may not believe in fate, but man…I sure do”, I say, smiling again in her direction.
“Wow…well, excuse my rudeness. Miss Bella, my name is Garrett Page. It’s very nice to meet ya’ and I apologize for makin’ you uncomfortable”, he says to her.
“It’s okay, Garrett. It’s nice to meet you, too. I apologize as well. I’m really shy sometimes, and you came out really quickly and it shook me a bit”, she quietly remarks.
“Well, I’m gone if y’all wanna’ go in. I’m going to get some grub. I’ll talk to y’all later?”, he asks.
“Yeah, man”, I reply as she says, “of course; it was nice to meet you, Garrett.”
We both stare at each other and laugh once he jumps on the elevator. “Well, that was awkward”, she giggles. “Talk about suggestion there? I don’t need your room anyways!”
I look over at her questioningly. “Um, I don’t have a roommate”, she says matter-of-factly, “Since we’re in a Life & Living Community, we’re paired with people within our interests and there are an even number of males and an uneven number of females. I guess I lucked out. Unless there is someone that joins or comes in at the last minute, I’m by myself”, she shrugs.
In my typical horny mind, all I can think of is HELL YES, and it’s all I can do to conceal my uh, response down below yet again. Since I’m a gentleman, I say, “If you ever need anything or you ever feel afraid or alone, please don’t hesitate to knock or call me…uh, it would be helpful if you had my number, wouldn’t it?”
She giggles and takes out her phone, “Okay, what’s your number?”
“It’s (423) 626-5555”, I recite. She types it in her iPhone and then I hear my phone beep with a text. I look at it and see a (707) phone number with a heart attached as the message. I save it as Mo Chridhe. She quickly turns around and asks me to pose for a selfie with her and sends it to me. She tells me she saved it as my contact photo, and I do the same. I want to ask her if I could come inside, but I don’t want to rush anything.
“I don’t want to say goodbye, but I really need to settle my things so I can run out tomorrow and get anything I may have forgotten before I go to my sister’s place for dinner”, she says disappointingly.
“I understand, mo chridhe”, I say sweetly. I am about to take a huge chance here and I hope I don’t fall flat. “Bella?”, I ask.
“Yes?”
“Um, may I…. I mean…shit…damnit Edward…”, I take a deep breath in, release it slowly, and try again, “Bella, may I please kiss you goodnight?”, I ask nervously.
She blushes beet red but then replies with a quiet, “please”.
I slowly reach out and touch her left cheek and push my hand into her hair. She closes her eyes and tilts her head up slowly while she reaches up and puts her right hand on my neck, skimming it gently. I keep thinking to myself this is it; my first kiss…don’t muck it up, Cullen. I finally move and make contact with her soft, pillowy lips; gently pressing them together in a sweet caress that I never want to stop. Both of our breaths seem to stutter a bit and we pull back and look into each other’s eyes seeing a bit of lust brewing. This time, she stands on her tippy toes, grabs my neck with both hands while pushing them into my hair and takes my top lip and suckles while I do the same with her plump bottom one. This one is more intense, and I find myself pushing her into her door while skimming the skin that is showing between her jeans and shirt on her back. She lets out a little moan and that is what pushes us back into reality. She giggles softly and releases her hands from my hair and settles herself back off her toes.
“Wow….”, she whispers, “In all first kisses, I think mine has got to be the best.”
“Oh yeah”, I say back to her, “definitely the best first kiss ever. I can feel myself blushing, but I know I have nothing to be ashamed about since she already knew this about me. “I better let you go inside, beautiful. If I don’t, I think there will be no unpacking and with us waking up with swollen lips tomorrow”.
She makes the most adorable sound and throws herself into my arms, giving me a huge hug. “Thank you, Edward. This has probably been one of the best days of my life”, she says, then kisses me gently again, fishes out her keys, opens her door, and slowly closes it behind her. The last thing I see before it closes all the way is her shy eyes looking up at me, her blowing me a kiss, and her softly saying, “deagh oidhche mo ghaol (goodnight, my love)”.
If I thought I was in love with her before, I knew it now. The few friends I had growing up with always told me I was a hopeless romantic which was weird for a guy, but you know what? When you know, you know. They obviously hadn’t felt like this before or would never know the feeling of having fate shoved at them. Bella really was and is a shock to my soul; one I will never take for granted.
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So, I know it seems fast, but if you are a believer of true love, or love at first sight, it can happen. I’ve seen it happen and I’ve seen it work. I have a friend who has been married over 22 years to a man she walked in to at a bar, and they were married within 3 weeks. Anyways… my Scots Gaelic translations are from ‘Word Hippo’ and then translated again in ‘Am Faclair Beag-a Scottish Gaelic Dictionary’ which is a legit website a friend of mine (who lives in Abernethy, Scotland) has directed me to. If it’s wrong, my bad-I speak two languages: English and sarcasm. Next time, we’ll hear from Bella!