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Bella has always been a whirlwind of emotions, a hurricane of thoughts that she struggles to communicate with others. They often jumble together creating a mess whenever she tries to vocalize them. More than not she decides to remain silent. But there was nothing messy or confusing about what she felt when she saw Rosalie Hale for the first time, nothing at all. It was crystal clear.
The whole vampire thing didn’t even phase Bella, not in the slightest.
If anything, the drinking blood aspect was kind of a turn on. Not that Bella would ever say that out loud.
Not unless Rosalie asked of course.
+
Bella only has one class with Rosalie, advanced English. She has to force herself not to act like a complete and total idiot whenever Rosalie says a word to her. It’s harder than it sounds, especially when the person asking the question causes Bella’s heart to beat so fast she can feel it in her throat.
Rosalie was at the top of the class, alongside Bella. Rosalie’s never gotten anything below an A+. Bella would be jealous if she weren’t in such awe.
Today was no different, Rosalie, who sits right next to Bella get’s her essay back with the big red A+, Bella on the other hand, did not. A flat B. The lowest grade she’s ever gotten in this class, and while it shouldn’t be a big deal, it’s just a goddamn B, it most definitely is.
It was fucking Lord of the goddamn Flies, she should’ve had it in the bag.
Out of the corner of her eye, Bella sees Rosalie look down at her paper. Before Bella even has a chance to hide the essay, faster than Bella thought possible Rosalie snatches the offending thing straight out of her hands.
After what Bella swears is only seconds Rosalie speaks, strong and sure of herself as always, “Your conclusion is strong but your evidence is more abstract than it should be. Next essay you can work with me,” she pauses, looking out the window that happens to give Rosalie a good view of Bella’s monster of a vehicle, “I’ll pick you up.”
Bella’s mouth goes dry. Rosalie doesn’t even give Bella a chance to respond before she hands back her essay and faces the teacher.
For the rest of the period, Bella tries and fails to listen to their teacher. Her head buzzes with a twisted sort of anticipation. Rosalie’s confidence both inspires and terrifies her, Bella has her doubts about being able to survive the rest of class, surviving the study date with Rosalie seems damn near impossible.
+
“The Rosalie Hale asked you to study with her?” Angela asks incredulously from Bella’s bed.
“Well, no. She basically offered to tutor me,” Bella responds.
Angela shakes her head in disbelief, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her willingly talk to someone for more than a few seconds outside her family, let alone offer to tutor someone.”
The silence in the room is calming, it always is between Angela and Bella.
Angela is the first to speak again, with a large smile breaking out across her face, “Maybe she likes you.”
To Bella’s dismay, her cheeks start heating up, the blood all rushing up to her face, “This isn’t elementary school Ang. Plus I don’t think she even...I don’t think she...isn’t she dating Emmett?”
Angela shrugs, “That’s what people say I suppose but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them act like anything more than friends.”
“You’re reading too much into this.”
“I don’t know about that,” Angela says teasingly, “I’ve always been amazing at reading people.”
Bella groans loudly into her pillow to wash out Angela’s soft laughter. There is no way in hell Bella is going to make it to the set study date come Saturday.
+
Bella isn’t one to care too much what others think of her. Usually. But today doesn’t fall under the usual circumstance, perfect, beautiful downright angelic Rosalie is going to be at her house any minute and Bella’s been staring at herself in the mirror for the last half hour trying to figure out what to wear.
She groans despairingly at her reflection, murmuring a low, “Fuck it.”
Bella rushes down the stairs just in time to run directly into the girl that she’d been so distracted about seconds ago.
Rosalie’s odd (beautiful) eyes stare down at her with an emotion that’s hard to place but if Bella was forced to guess, somewhere between annoyance and amusement.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t hear you pull up,” Bella barely gets out before Rosalie’s freezing hand is wrapping around her wrist tugging her outside.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if you have hearing damage from that truck of yours,” Rosalie finally says as Bella buckles up and the blonde speeds down the quiet streets of Forks.
“Shouldn’t you put your seatbelt on?” Bella asks tightly as Rosalie takes an extremely fast, extremely sharp turn down a private road.
That is apparently funny enough to elicit a rare smile from Rosalie, “I’ll be fine, love.”
“Famous last words,” Bella mumbles loud enough for Rosalie to hear, ignoring the term of endearment. Best not to analyze that too much, for Bella’s own soft heart's sake.
Rosalie's lips turn up wryly, “One can only wish.”
Bella decides not to read into that either.
After less than 6 minutes that honestly should have probably been 15, they pull up to a mansion. A literal mansion. It suits Rosalie well. Of course, she’d live in a mansion, of course.
The woman who opens to the door before Rosalie can even get her key out is nearly as gorgeous as the blonde herself, nearly. She has a kind smile that reminds Bella vividly of Angela and though she looks nothing like Rosalie, the fondness between the two is evident in the way Rosalie brushes softly against the woman as they walk in.
“Bella, this is my mother, Esme.”
If possible, Bella swears that Esme’s smile grows even brighter at the introduction.
Shyly, Bella responds as clearly as she can, “Hello, Mrs. Cullen.”
“Please dear, call me Esme.”
Bella nods and right as she’s about to comment on the beautiful decor of the house, Rosalie’s sister, who Bella has had little to no contact with ever, comes rushing down the stairs.
“Rosalie, you didn’t tell me you were bringing a guest over!” Alice says excitedly.
Dryly, Rosalie answers with, “I assumed you knew.”
Esme shoots Rosalie a sharp look but Alice ignores the comment. The girl is practically shaking with anticipation of something.
Rosalie lets out a rather dramatic sigh, “Bella, this is my sister Alice.”
The short, clipped words do little to temper the cheerfulness on Alice’s face. “I’m so happy to finally meet you!”
“Finally?” Bella questions.
Esme speaks up again, “Rose has spoken very kindly of you. We were wondering when she’d finally bring you around.”
Bella bites her lips to contain the smile. The fact that Rosalie even thought about her outside of class causes her stomach to twist up into knots, the kind of feeling that causes the incessant blushing of her face to present itself full force.
“Okay, if you can excuse us we have essays to work on,” Rosalie snaps, dragging Bella behind her up the large, wooden stairs.
“Oh yeah, cause that’s what you two will be doing up there, writing essays. Sure, Rosie, you keep telling yourself that,” the biggest of the Cullens says, appearing out of nowhere, with a cheeky grin on his face, Emmett is his name, Bella remembers. But she can hardly think about his name when all that’s rushing through her head is the insinuation he’s making.
Angela’s words float through Bella’s head, “Maybe she likes you.”
Rosalie’s room is almost exactly as Bella imagined it would be. All pristine, with large windows and an even larger bed. Bella looks away from it, fighting down a blush again.
There are also stacks of auto mechanic magazines and books everywhere. That was a little surprising.
“Are you into cars?” Bella immediately regrets the stupid question. Of course she is, why else would she have hundreds of books about it?
Instead of pointing out how obvious the answer to Bella’s question is, Rosalie says, “Into fixing them. I’m good at it too.”
“I don’t doubt it. You and my friend Jacob Black should talk, he’s into that kind of stuff too.”
A rather sad look crosses her face, “Yeah sure, maybe soon.”
Bella awkwardly looks down at her feet, unsure where to go from the dead-end conversation. Rosalie, ever the savior says, “We should get started on the essays. You have a lot to work on.”
Bella ignores the jab, from sitting next to Rosalie the last 3 months, she’s learned stark candor is just in her nature. Bella’s grown to love it, there’s no guessing what Rosalie thinks about something. It’s the greatest thing Bella has ever witnessed and something she hopes to emulate one day.
For the next two hours, the two girls work diligently on their schoolwork. Bella learns a lot from Rose, she seems to know a lot for a 17-year-old.
Rosalie leans over Bella’s shoulder to read what she’s written, her chin brushing the side of Bella’s face. She smells like the edge of Autumn, where Winter is just around the corner, hanging at the edge. It fits her well, it also happens to be a favorite of Bella’s.
When the darkness of the night starts to creep into Rosalie’s bedroom they close their books. Bella’s legs ache from sitting in the same position for hours and right as she is about to attempt to stand up, fully prepared to fall back on her ass, Rosalie pulls her up as if she weighs nothing.
The drive back to Bella’s house is quiet and she honestly doesn’t want to get out of the car when Rosalie pulls up to her house.
Bella pauses at the door, turning to Rosalie, “Thank you so much for your help today and the ride. I had um...I had a lot of fun,” what a weird thing to say about a day where they did nothing but write. Bella would beat herself up about it later.
“Yeah well, I couldn’t let the only person in the class who has any idea what’s going on fall behind,” Rosalie says but the slight dimpling of her cheeks softens the words.
Rosalie waits to drive away until Bella has locked the door behind her. Bella doesn’t stop smiling for the next couple of hours. The day definitely could’ve gone a lot worse.
+
After that Saturday, Rosalie and Bella spend a lot more time together. They go over their essays together, Bella watches Rosalie work on her cars while pretending to study and they eat lunch together.
Well, Bella eats lunch and Rosalie pretends to eat lunch. It gets a little concerning and finally, after a few weeks Bella says, “You doing good Rose?”
She gives Bella an appraising look, “Of course, why?”
“You don’t eat, ever.”
“I’m fine,” she hisses out. The harsh and severe mood change is obvious,
“Rose-” but before Bella can finish her sentence Rosalie stands up in a huff, throws her food away and storms out, leaving Bella more confused than ever.
It all makes sense later when Bella finds out they’re vampires. Well, as much sense as vampires existing can get.
+
Bella isn’t an idiot. They’re freezing to the touch, they all share the same stark paleness, they’re weirdly strong and fast and graceful and beautiful, they don’t eat ever, they don’t show up when it’s sunny and to top it all off, they do a shit job hiding it.
“Rosalie, this is going to sound crazy but, are you a vampire?” Bella asks while she fake reads as the blonde is working on her car.
Rosalie goes impossibly still under the vehicle.
“I’d really rather you didn’t lie to me,” Bella continues, even as her heart beat starts picking up. Bella was fully prepared for Rosalie to brush off the question but the silence is heavy and that’s all Bella really needs as an answer.
“Are you insane, Bella? Obviously, I’m not. I know we’re reading Dracula but really?”
She’s lying, Bella can tell. Rosalie’s never lied to her before.
Slowly Bella sits down on the cold concrete ground of the garage, “Rose-”
Faster than ever before, Rosalie is just inches away from Bella’s face, “It’s very important that you never mention this again, Bella, this isn’t some sort of guess who game, trust me.”
Bella stares at Rosalie in shock, “Tell me you understand,” Rose says, sounding desperate.
Softly, Bella says, “I understand.”
+
Rosalie’s been avoiding Bella since she accused her of being a vampire. Which while understandable, doesn’t make it hurt any less.
Although, the silent treatment didn’t last long that long before it all came to a head. Rosalie’s never been accused of being patient.
As Bella walks up to her truck Rosalie appears out of thin air.
“What gave it away?” she asks.
“I don’t know maybe just everything you guys do and how you act. That and you are impossibly beautiful,” Bella says, not even grasping her sudden confidence.
Rosalie’s responding smile was completely worth toeing the edge for, the kiss even more so.
She tastes sweet like honey and flowers. At the risk of sounding completely cliche, she tastes like hope.