Bella stood at the bottom of the steps and looked up.  The building she was in front of was a dull grey brick.  It was a non-descript building that had been brightened up by each window decorated with an alternating maroon or yellow window shade.

Bella was a senior this year.  She had lived at home with her mom Renee and her step-father Phil for the first three years of her college life. Phil had been a minor-league baseball player and travelled a lot.  Renee often travelled with him, so the house was empty and quiet, she’d needed that quiet to concentrate on her studies.  However, this year Phil had decided to retire and coach High School baseball and that meant more home time for both him and Renee. Being a senior this year, afforded Bella with more opportunities for extra curricular activities. She had signed up for literature club and was going to be hosting fiction fun nights at the university library. After much consideration, she had decided that living on campus would be easier than commuting at all hours of the day and night, especially considering her rusty red Ford truck, which was on it’s last leg.  It would also give her the environment of being with like minded students who she could co-ordinate study time with.

As people rushed past her, bustling up and down the steps, Bella collected her thoughts and took a deep breathe. This was going to be her home for the next year.  Bella looked down at the piece of paper in her hand, on it was her room assignment for the co-ed apartment block of Arizona State University. The wooden sign above the doorways stated Cholla Apartments in bold black letters. She had chosen these particular apartments for their convenience of location and utilities. Bella enjoyed cooking and being in an apartment meant it had a full-size kitchen, which would be so much better than trying to cook with just a microwave.

Although Bella lived locally, she had decided to have her items shipped directly to the dorm room before her arrival.  This made today, move in day, a lot smoother, or so she was led to believe.  Gripping her well worn, trusty orange and green backpack, the piece of paper and a box of memories she didn’t trust with the delivery company, Bella ascended the steps.  The paper stated that her room was to be number 1113, indicating room number 113 on the first floor.  She already knew from the paper, that she would be sharing with three other people, in a 2 bedroom apartment.  She only hoped the girls would be a good match with her personality. Usually, Bella did not do well in crowds, when she had to fill out all those applications with the redundant ‘personality’ tests on them; she hoped that her answers allowed for the ‘best match’ possible. She didn’t know any first names.  The paper only indicated the first initials and last names: E.Masen, E.McCarty and J.Whitlock. She had high expectations that this was going to be a good Senior Year, and those names were going to be a part of it.

Bella decided that as the apartment was on the first floor she would try to navigate the stairs.  As she was walking up she was being jostled by people running down and around her.  Carrying the box on an ordinary day was challenging, but with people creating an obstacle course, Bella was worried about dropping it.  The contents were precious to her and she wanted to make sure they arrived to her room safely.  She reached the first floor and sighed with relief.  Adjusting herself, by rebalancing the box, she set out for her door.  Just as she thought she was doing ok she looked down and realised her shoe lace was undone.  Before she could fix it, she tripped and started falling forward.  Her immediate thoughts were for the safety of the box, when suddenly, a pair of hands gripped onto her arms.  They were warm against her skin, and she immediately felt like her blood was warming and travelling straight to her heart. It felt like the time the dentist had accidentally pushed novocaine through her vein instead of her gum. 

Her body instantly heated and her heart started beating erratically.  She looked at the hands and noticed the long fingers; musicians fingers was her first thought. Then she noticed a tattoo of what looked like words and music notes around the wrist.  Bella had a thing for tattoos and although nobody else knew, she herself had one that held a lot of sacred meaning.  As her eyes travelled up taking in the white undershirt and short sleeve grey unbuttoned shirt Bella finally set upon the face of the hands that held her. She was dumbstruck.  Not only at the feeling running through her body and to her heart, but also at the gorgeous green eyes that were currently staring at her. 

He had messy hair; at first glance it looked brown, but then as the fluorescent lights bounced off, Bella caught glimpses of bronze and red.  His jaw was chiselled and he looked like he’d stepped out of the pages of GQ - only, he wasn’t smiling.  Bella was rendered speechless, although she really did want to say ‘thank you’. She remembered him, but didn’t know his name.  He was in her psychology lecture and sat in the front rows, while she usually sat in the back.  She remembered his hair, because she would often find herself daydreaming about its color and how it would feel to have her hands running through it. It was so shiny and stuck our every which way, like he’d rolled out of bed and ran his hand through it. He had looked at her a few times when she’d answered the Professor’s questions, but when she’d catch his eye, he’d furrow his brows and scowl before turning back to face the front.

The guy appeared to have had been in a hurry and looked most unhappy with the interruption.  When she noticed he was not exactly happy, Bella straightened up, took hold of the box and said, “Thank you, and uh… hi, I’m Bella by the way.”  

When Edward had noticed the girl with the brown hair and the box in her hands he had remembered her from one of his classes.  There was something about this girl, who was obviously new to the building, and he wasn’t sure what it was.  It made him agitated. Edward always knew what he was doing, what he wanted and how he would get it.  When Edward had seen the girl trip over her obviously undone shoelace, he didn’t hesitate to move forward and grab her and the box that was on the way to the floor.  Again, this irritated him. He was always very methodical with his actions, having a reason to do them.  This, he had no reason for.  Being in a hurry, and confused by his feelings, he looked at her with piercing eyes and a scowl and snapped at her “Yeah, well it’s not like I had a choice really, you ran into me,” he said. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going next time?” he added, with a small humph. Edward straightened back up, surprised at himself for the rude way with which he spoke to her, and stomped off down the hallway. 

Bella looked back at the retreating figure with disdain.  Not exactly a moment she would have liked to have had with someone who looked like him, she thought and hoped next time would be different.  At least she hoped there may be a next time.  There was something about that bronze haired, green eyed man that had completely bewildered and bewitched her in less than two minutes.

Reaching the fake-wooden-panelled door with the silver numbers 1113, Bella prepared to enter the unknown.  Balancing the box on her hip, she reached into her pocket of her jeans and pulled out the little white swipe card assigned to her.  She inserted it and got the red light.  Frustrated, she inserted it another two times, before the light went green and she heard the click of the door.  Grabbing the box, she pushed the door open with her hip and entered.

The first thing that Bella noticed was the smell.  It smelt like….baking?  She smiled as she placed the box on the small table off to the left of the door, keeping a hold of the paper with her new room-mates names on it.   Bella loved to cook, and especially bake.  Some of her best creations were of cookies and cupcakes and her fondest memories of home were of spending time alone in the kitchen.  The apartment was set up with the front door opening into a small but comfortable living room. She decided to have a quick look around before going in to say hello to her room-mates, whom she could hear in the kitchen clanging and banging bowls together.

 There was a small couch and two  lazy boy chairs, both chocolate brown and both looking very well worn. A small coffee table was situated in front and a very large widescreen television hung on the wall.  Bella mused that she had never seen a TV quite that big, but concluded her roommates enjoyed their romantic comedies a lot! On either side of the television was two doors she figured were the bedrooms openings.  To the right was a window, however surrounding the window was a very large bookshelf.  Bella wandered over to take a peek at the books it housed.  She noticed that they held a lot of Medical textbooks and guessed that one of her new room-mates had to be studying medicine.

Off to the left corner she could see a round dining table with 4 chairs.  Just behind the table she could see an archway, where she could hear the sounds of bowls clanging and scraping.  She concluded this was the kitchen.  She decided she should probably introduce herself to her new room mates.  As she walked into the kitchen her eyes were drawn to the flour that was everywhere, a fine mist lingering in the air. There were bowls, cooking utensils and ingredients for the baked goods over the counter area that housed the sink.  It was an island set up, with some barstools under the small ledge.  She could hear the mumblings of two people that were behind the kitchen counter.  Moving over towards the voices she could hear, “Dude, I’m telling you, that’s what they’re meant to look like.”

“Are you sure? They look a bit funny.”

 “Nah, they’re cool, the box said give them 30 minutes, and we’ll be good. Trust Me!”

 “Trust You? The last time I trusted you I ended up with orange hair and a nipple ring !”

 The voices were coming from two butts in the air, the bodies they belonged to, clearly staring into an oven.  The thing that Bella noticed very quickly was, the voices and the butts definitely didn’t belong to females. 

Confused as to who these males could be she cleared her throat, causing both butts to turn around.  They belonged to two completely handsome, in so many different kind of ways, guys.  Bella noticed the one to the left was tall and lean, but muscular. He had blonde wavy hair that was tucked behind his ears.  His facial feature was unique and very hard to miss, he smiled at her and it was like sunshine.  Bella cleared her head and looked to the Sunshine Smile guys’ right.  Standing next to him, wearing what looked like an apron with…cupcakes on it, Bella noticed a large solid guy with brown hair.  He had piercing blue eyes and looked like he belonged on the football team. Definitely on the football field, not in a kitchen with a cupcake apron on, she thought. He was holding a wooden spoon and licking it, with a smirk on his face.  He turned to his co-cooker and winked at him. Sunshine Smile punched him in the arm, and Cupcake Apron  guy flicked the spoon at him, missing his intended target of his arm he splattered cake batter all over Bella’s face.  Bella let out a squeak of shock.

The Cupcake Apron guy spoke first. “Oops, Hey Pretty Brown Haired Girl, How you doin?” he said with a nod of his head and a wink.

Bella looked at him, wondering if he realised that he had just done a really bad Joey from Friends impersonation.  From the smirk still on his face, she guessed he did. As she wiped off the batter that had landed on her nose, she introduced herself.

“Hi, I’m Isabella Swan, Bella.  I’m looking for E.Masen, E.McCarty and J.Whitlock” she said, looking at her paper for reference.  “They’re supposed to be my room-mates and this was the room number assigned.”

Both guys looked at each and started laughing.  Sunshine Smile looked at Bella and said, “Sorry darlin, what were those names again?”  Bella detected a very strong southern accent on him and wondered where he could be from, before she repeated the names that were on the paper.  She was thoroughly confused as to what could be so funny. 

“Well I’m pretty sure there isn’t a Jaspina or Emmy who live here, although sometimes Edwina does hang around,” said Cupcake Apron. Both of them started laughing again and fist bumped each other while Sunshine Smile said, “Good one man.”  Bella was still suspended in uncertainty and had no idea what these guys were talking about.

“Are you sure that’s what’s on your room assignment?”

“Yes” she nodded, handing over the paper for them to inspect.

“Well, well, well, looks like we’ve got ourselves a new room-mate Jazz,” Cupcake Apron said to Sunshine Smile.

A great paw of a hand extended and introductions were made.  “I’m Emmett McCarty, or, as your paper says, E.McCarty, and this here is Jasper Whitlock, J. Whitlock.” He nodded his head towards Sunshine Smile.  “Your room-mates reporting for duty,” he said with a mock salute and a stamp of his foot. “Seems to be a bit of a paper bungle has occurred, but don’t worry, I’m sure we can work it out.”

Bella looked at Emmett and Jasper and nodded, unable to form any words. 

“Would you like to come and sit down and see what we can figure out while our cupcakes bake?” Emmett said to an obviously very stunned Bella.  The boys on the other hand, thought it was funny and would be kind of cool to have a female around the place.  They hoped she liked football and baking as much as they did!

They moved from the messy kitchen and into the living area, to the dining table.  Bella sat down, still in a daze.  Jasper came through the kitchen arch and handed her a glass of water.  Bella sipped and wondered what she was going to do now. She was in a complete and utter panic as to what was going to happen. Room assignment changes were almost impossible, especially after move in day. She would never get re-allocated now.

Jasper and Emmett spent the next 15 minutes gently reassuring her that it was going to be ok.  Bella was slowly starting to breathe again and to relax.  Jasper and Emmett were really nice guys, she thought to herself.  They were definitely funny.  She learned that they were best friends growing up, along with another room-mate who wasn’t there yet.  His name was Edward.  They had all been friends since kindergarten and had moved to Arizona, from a small town in Washington to go to university.  Jasper and Emmett shared one of the rooms, and Edward was in the other. If she wanted to stay with them and was up for it, she’d be sharing a room with Edward. They had told her that although Edward was a bit of a grump sometimes, it was only because he liked things to be methodical.  He was studying medicine and was precise and practical.  That had answered the question as to who the books belonged to that she had seen in the bookshelves. 

Bella was pondering all the things the guys had told her.  It did make sense that she would just stay with them.  She had chosen a co-ed dorm, so it wasn’t as if she wasn’t going to interact with males at all.  She was taking a drink of water and laughing at a story Emmett was telling of how the boys had built a tree-house as teenagers for the soul purpose of inviting girls up to it, without their parents knowing, when the buzzer rang on the oven.

“Cupcakes are done!” announced Jasper. “I’ll just go get them out of the oven, and I better start cleaning up the kitchen.”

“I’ll help you,” volunteered Bella.  “I need to get things straight in my head before I decide what I need to do.  I think I’ll need to contact the student resident advisor as soon as possible, but I’m sure I can help clean up first.  They smell great!”

Bella and Jasper were in the kitchen making good work on the cleaning when there was the deafening bang of the door being slammed shut, followed by loud ranting.

“Edward must be home,” stated Jasper.  “Obviously something isn’t going right for him.  It’s how he gets when his routine is thrown out” he explained to Bella.

She just bit her lip and nodded.  She was a little nervous about meeting Edward.  He would, after all, be the one she’d be sharing a room with if it came to down to that.

 “What the hell.  Today is NOT a good day I tell you,” he said, throwing down his backpack and looking at Emmett. Emmett had parked himself on one of the two lazy boys and was channel surfing.

He didn’t have time to say anything before Edward started pacing in front of him and continuing, “I’m running late for my chem lab sign up, and I’m never usually late, and then when I get to the lab, there is a note on the door saying that it has been postponed to another day.” He took a breath and continued as Emmett muted the television.  He had a hunch that this was going to taken some time.

“That’s not what has me twisted up though. Guess who I happened to bump into in the hallway?”

Before Emmett had a chance to answer, Edward was off again.

“It was her Emmett.  THAT girl I have been telling you about.  The brown haired goddess from my psychology class, the one that is in my head all the time and I don’t know why.” Edward raked his hands through his hair and grabbed the ends, tugging as he continued pacing.

“There is seriously something about this girl Em.  Every time I’m in the same room as her my heart races and I get these strange feelings going up my spine.  It’s like I’ve known her in another life or something.  It’s frustrating and exhilarating at the same time.  She makes me nervous and I’ve barely said three words to her.  When I did talk to her I was already running late and made such a dick of myself.  I snapped at her before walking away.”

Emmett was looking at Edward in disbelief.  He’d never seen him act this way before, and never over a girl.  Sure, Edward had mentioned this girl, but never had he worked himself up this much.

“I just want to sit and talk to her.  I know from class that she’s really smart and funny. I just can’t get myself to approach her.”

The strange behaviour made Emmett question Edward.  “How come she has you so worked up man? I mean, I understand you’re obviously attracted to her, but we all know from your past that that’s not been a problem for you.  Go up to her and talk to her.  If you say she was moving into the building you’ll get your chance to.”

Edward stopped pacing and seated himself on the other Lazy-boy next to Emmett.  Turning to him he continued, “I know man, but I just don’t get what it is that is stopping me from talking to her.  It’s like when I catch her eye she is seeing into my soul. You know with my past I don’t like letting people in. Everything about her invites me in, she’s definitely different and that scares the shit out of me. I don’t know what I’m going to do.  If first impressions are anything to go by then I’ve probably screwed everything up already.”

“Well,” said Emmett “We’ll just have to find her and figure it out.  You know her name right? Being in the same class and stuff, you’ve heard her name.”

“Yeah, I know her name.  It’s Bella.”

Emmett looked at Edward and stared.  He ran through everything Edward had just said and the things that he’d said in the past about the brown-haired goddess.  Surely it couldn’t be, he mused.  Only it completely made sense.  Emmett smirked and was about to say something when his thoughts were interrupted.

“Hey, that box, does that belong to our new room-mate?” Edward asked Emmett, gesturing towards the box by the door.

“Are they here already?  Where are they? What are they like?” he started to enquire.

Bella and Jasper had been in the kitchen cleaning up the mess from the cupcakes and getting the frosting ready for when they had cooled.  They had heard the door burst open and slam shut. There had been a feeling of electricity shoot through Bella the moment another body had entered the apartment.  She had paid attention to everything that had been exchanged between the two guys in the living area.  Bella was blushing wildly at the realisation that her new room-mate was in fact Edward, from her psychology class last year.  The same bronze haired Edward, that she had dreamt and thought about non-stop. 

Bella realised there was no way she could share an apartment, let alone a room, with this guy.  It would be way too awkward and she didn’t think she was really ready to go down the path again so soon, of actually feeling out any mutual attraction to a guy. 

Sensing her apprehension of the situation and also overhearing everything that was said. Jasper began putting two and two together; He came over and put his hand on Bella’s arm.  He smiled down at her and steered her towards the archway. 

“Let’s go meet the other room-mate, Bella,” he said.  The way he said it instantly made Bella feel calmer.  There was something about Jasper that put her at ease immediately.  She had noticed this during their time in the kitchen.

Bella and Jasper entered the living area just as Edward was rising from the chair.  He spotted Bella instantly, brows furrowing in confusion.

“What is she doing here?” he asked Jasper.  Bella instantly got very angry.  First of all, she had heard everything he had said to Emmett, so she knew exactly what he was feeling not five minutes ago, and second, she was standing right next to Jasper - he could have easily addressed her, she thought.

 “Seems like this here is our new room-mate, Bella.  I believe if I heard correctly, you may already know her?” Jasper responded grinning from ear to ear.

“What? What do you mean our room-mate?  She can’t be our room-mate.” He looked to Emmett and then to Jasper before making eye contact with Bella.

“Well, there was obviously a misunderstanding with room assignments,” Bella said, looking directly at Edward, before avoiding his eyes and looking away quickly. She lowered her head and mumbled, “I’ll just go and sort it out with the office,”

Bella was feeling completely rejected, even though she hadn’t even been in a position that would justify her emotions. She started to move towards the door to retrieve her box.  Emmett made a move towards her, saying to her, “Wait Bella, just a minute.”

Jasper moved towards Edward, flicking his head, indicating he wanted to talk to him in the kitchen.

Edward stomped off into the kitchen behind Jasper, but not before giving Bella one last glance over his shoulder.  He was confused.

Jasper turned to Edward, hitting him on the shoulder.  “What are you doing man?” he asked.

“What do you mean? She can’t stay here. I can’t be around her, not right now.  I just don’t think I can deal with everything I’m feeling,” Edward responded.

“Are you kidding me Edward? You were are out there not five minutes ago professing you couldn’t get this girl out of your head, and that you didn’t know where she was but you felt that you needed to see her again.  She is right here, in front of you, with a perfect opportunity to get to know her and you’re acting like a child who has had candy taken away from you.  She’s awesome man.  In just the short time that Emmett and I have been with her this morning we really like her.  We think she should stay.  I mean… think about it.  Getting a new room assignment is going to be near impossible.”

“I don’t know Jasper, I just don’t know,” Edward said pulling at the ends of his hair again and bouncing on the balls of his feet, feeling every bit as childish as he was acting.

“Listen, how about we just try it out.  Give it a few weeks.  If it doesn’t work out and you find out you actually don’t like her or don’t want to be around her, we’ll help her find somewhere else to live.  It’s senior year man, there’s so much happening that she probably won’t be around all that much,” Jasper pleaded, giving Edward a minute to think about it.

Edward sighed and looked at Jasper. “You guys like her?” he asked.  Jasper nodded.

“Ok.  I’ll give it a few weeks, but I’m telling you right now.  If I can’t handle it, we need to figure out somewhere else for her to live.  This could be the best or the worst decision I make,” he said resigning himself to the fact that he really couldn’t just toss a girl, especially this girl, out with the probability of her not being able to find new housing accommodations.

Bella had been waiting with Emmett in the living area.  She had just turned and set out for the doorway, when she felt a hand grab her and that warm sensation coursing up through her arm.  He had her arm again.  She raised her eyes, instantly meeting his gorgeous green gems.  She was immediately rooted to her place on the floor, unable to move or speak.  What was it about Edward that did this to her?  “Stay,” he said.  “We’ll figure it out; it’s probably too late to be re-assigned anyway.  We won’t tell if you don’t.” His voice had lost its harshness and there was a kindness in his eyes that she wanted to know.

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  Could she do this?  Could she stay in an apartment with three guys and be the only girl.  They all seemed so nice and friendly so far, except for the incident with Edward.  Bella decided in that instant, that she would stay.  She would stay, because Edward asked her to. 

This was definitely going to be an interesting senior year for all the room-mates.

Graduation Day:

Bella and Edward stood under an old oak tree, arm in arm.  They were in their cap and gowns, having just completed their graduation ceremony.  Renee was standing in front of them, camera in hand, snapping photo after photo.

Bella looked up into Edward’s magnetic green eyes and couldn’t help widening her smile.  Edward tightened his grip and returned the smile with a quick peck on her nose.

They both looked towards the crowd at the same time.  They could hear noise that could only be Emmett coming through the streams of people. 

“Move along people, nothing to see here” he said with a laugh.

Emmett was followed by a tall blond beauty.  Rosalie looked like she belonged in the pages of Vogue magazine, not adorned with the maroon gown she was wearing.  She did manage to pull off the cover very well though. 

Jasper was close behind arm around the shoulder of a short spritely girl, Alice.  Alice and Bella had been best friends since they met in the coffee shop on campus their freshman year.  They had hit it off immediately. One night half way through the year, Bella had invited Alice over for a movie night on the big screen.  Nobody could have guessed that when Jasper had come out of his bedroom and locked eyes with the Alice the world would never be the same again.  They were inseparable from that night on.  Alice had later told Bella that she knew Jasper was the one for her, because she had been dreaming of meeting him for over two years.  She just didn’t know how she would ever find her dream guy!

Alice and Rosalie were cousins.  They were close and when Alice had decided that Rosalie would be a perfect match for Emmett, she set them up on a blind date.  Although it wasn’t smooth sailing in the beginning, Emmett persisted in his pursuit of Rosalie and won her over with his brain, instead of his brawn.

As they all gathered for a group photo Bella couldn’t believe that at the beginning of the year she was confused and scared and unsure of what was going to happen.  Accepting to share the apartment with three guys had been a big step, but one she would never live to regret.  Bella and Edward had been through some rough spots, throughout the year, but had faced their demons head on and together; they were able to come through on the other side stronger. The love they formed and the bond they had was impenetrable by anyone.

Senior year had definitely been interesting, fun, emotional and well worth it.  Everyone was going to be going off into the big, real world and continuing to study or work across the country.  This would be the last time they would all be together for some time

Renee called their attention, “Ok guys, Let’s get one more photo of you all before you go party!”

This resulted in a loud “Whoop!” from Emmett and the rest of the group laughed.

As Renee snapped the photo, the group of six threw their caps in the air and shouted, “To Friends!”