Chapter One

AN: Hello, all. I haven't put up a story in quite a while, but I've been attacking this idea fervently lately, so I thought I would share it. Hope you enjoy!

"You can't just switch sides like that," Jacob explained with the sort of glare he wore whenever sports became the topic of conversation.

Brian snorted. "You can if they're paying you better. Jake, you gotta understand. At the end of the day, this isn't personal. It's a job."

He shook his head and shoved another nacho into his mouth. "No, man." He swallowed. "I don't buy that. People are people. And Derek Williams may be a great ballplayer, but he's still a person first. And that's messed up."

Kelsey contemplated her soup and sighed loudly. "Honestly, it's like another language. An unimportant, inconsequential, silly language. Can't we talk about something more worthwhile?"

I smiled at Jake and Brian's offended faces. "I think that's doable. What can we all talk about?"

Rachael perked up, "We read this really interesting article in General Psych today about the Matching Hypothesis. Apparently, people perceive themselves at a certain level of attractiveness and will make themselves fall in love with someone who they feel is, like, at an even level."

Jake looked over at me with a playful smirk. I shook my head. "I feel like that's not true at all."

"Really?" Rachael took a bite of her barbeque chicken.

Kelsey laughed. "Well, yeah," she said. "Jake's clearly way hotter than you."

"Well, clearly." I smirked, looking over to him. "But I don't even mean that, exactly. I just—don't you always see these gorgeous people with these partners who are…you know…"

"Less than gorgeous?" Brian crossed his arms, pretending to be offended.

I laughed. "Obviously, not you. But, right? You guys have seen this, haven't you?"

"Right," Rachael nodded. "But that's just it. That's what makes it so interesting. Like, take this whole phenomenon of beautiful women with these sort of average Joes. It doesn't seem to make sense, right? But it's not how actually beautiful you are, it's how beautiful you see yourself. So, it really shows how, you know, hard women are on themselves. That they see themselves as attractive as these guys do, even though—in some cases—clearly not with the lovely gentlemen here, but the women are generally more attractive."

"Wow," Jacob leaned back in his chair. "That's deep."

Brian smiled. "Really insightful."

"You guys are creeps," Kelsey said half-heartedly.

Rachael shook her head. "I'm sorry, did I wound your egos? You poor things."

"Things," Jacob noted, nodding to Brian. "We're things now."

Brian shrugged. "God, the objectification in this room is unbearable."

"I feel so violated," Jacob added.

We had gathered in the apartment Rachael, Kelsey, and I shared just off campus. Jacob had a three-day weekend, so he'd come up to the Seattle University campus to visit. But as Tuesday morning loomed on the horizon, he would have to head home tonight. With a final crunch, Jacob let out a satisfied sigh and smiled over at me. "Well, I guess I should get going. It's getting kind of late. Billy will throw a fit if I get home after 11."

Brian laughed. "God, I forget you're still such a baby, Jake."

"Right?" I smiled over at him. "Seven feet tall, and yet."

"And yet," Jacob said, shrugging his massive shoulders. "I have to go face another week of high school."

"Ugh," Rachael said in sympathy.

I stood and grabbed his duffel bag, already by the door. Leaning over to him, I placed it in his lap and ran a hand through his hair. "I'll walk you out."

My friends chorused their goodbyes, and Jacob gave them a little wave before following me out into the building's stairwell. He took my hand, and we walked down the two flights of stairs to the ground floor. He pushed the main entrance's door open, and we both walked through into the chilly night air. When we got to the Rabbit, I looked up at him. "Drive safe."

"I always do," he assured me.

"I'm glad you could come down."

"Yeah, so am I," he agreed. "Your friends seem like good people."

"They are," I said. I leaned up as he leaned down to kiss me. We broke apart, and kept a hand on his cheek. "Call me when you get in, okay?"

He shrugged. "It'll probably be pretty late. Are you sure?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I'll be up anyway. I've got that French test tomorrow."

"Ah, oui," he said, smiling.

I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "Love you."

"You too, Bells," he said. "Talk to you soon."

"Bye." I let go of his hand, and he climbed into the driver's seat. He honked as he sped out of the parking lot as I watched him leave. I was going to be traveling back to Forks in three weeks for spring break and our two-year anniversary. We'd both agreed that we'd rather celebrate the milestone with quiet reflection—no presents, no corny greeting cards, no big deal—but we wanted to at least be together on the day.

"Bella, he's gorgeous!" Kelsey nearly pounced on me when I returned to our apartment.

Brian made a sort of disapproving grunt. "And on that note, I should go. See you in class, Rach." He got up from the small table in our miniature kitchen and moved to the door.

Kelsey stared at me. "Like. Gorgeous."

"And he seems really sweet," Rachael added. "And funny."

"And gorgeous!" Kelsey reminded me. Her long, red hair was pulled up into a messy bun on the top of her head, and she wore an oversized hoodie that she got for five dollars at a thrift store. She was still picking at her food.

Rachael laughed. Her peach shaped face was framed with a blonde bob, coming to her chin. Her eyes shown a light hazel that matched the sweater she wore.

"Thanks, guys," I said, sitting back down at the table. "I'm glad you like him. He thinks you guys are pretty cool, too."

Kelsey shook her head. "God, who would've thought they grew guys like that out in Hicksville, USA."

I laughed. "Believe me, most of the guys in Forks look nothing like Jacob."

"Ugh," she said. "I need to stop eating. I've got mountains of homework. See you guys in the morning." She gave me an impressed smile and ascended the black, spiral staircase that led to our bedrooms.

Rachael automatically picked up Kelsey's half-cleared plate and dumped the rest of the food in the trash before starting to wash the dishes. We'd set up a chore chart at the beginning of the year, but Rachael always got to our chores before Kelsey or I had a chance. "Rach, stop," I urged her. "Let her clean it up. It's her night."

She shook her head, scrubbing the plate. "I like cleaning. It's cathartic."

"Weirdo," I joked. I tried to run the list of French verbs I needed to know through my head, citing each of their conjugations. There were a lot of blank spots in my memory. I had a lot of studying to do.

"Hey, Bella?" Rachael asked; her attention still focused on the dish.

"Yeah."

"This is probably stupid. I just want to make sure you're okay," she said quickly, never looking away from the sink.

"Okay?" I shrugged. "I'm great. Never better. Why?"

She placed the plate on the counter next to the sink. "I don't know." She grabbed Brian's plate. "It's just, when we were talking about that whole, levels of attraction thing…Kelsey made that crack about Jacob."

"That?" I laughed. "Rachael, that was nothing. He's prettier than me. I know that. It's fine."

"See, that's the thing," she said. "I don't like you thinking of yourself that way. You are incredibly beautiful, okay? And Jacob sees that. He's lucky to have you."

I shrugged. "Thanks, Rach. But really, I'm fine. I don't have any inferiority complexes with Jacob. I swear. We're all good."

She turned to grab another dish, and I could see she was blushing. "All right," she said. "Sorry, then. I guess I kind of fail at that whole perception thing."

"Huh," I said. "Well, don't worry about it. You want help with the dishes?"

"No, no," she insisted. "Go study for your test. I'll see you later."

"Okay," I said and trudged up the stairs to my bedroom. We were lucky enough to get an apartment with three single bedrooms. Usually they go to juniors or seniors, but we got our application in very early and were annoyingly persistent, asking about the apartment to the residence office. We planned on staying there for junior and senior year as well.

He's lucky to have you. Rachael's words echoed through my mind. I had never even considered the idea before—that I would feel inadequate when held up against Jacob's beauty. It wasn't that he wasn't beautiful. Of course, he was just as gorgeous as Kelsey had said, but it would be impossible for any boy to measure up to the ideal beauty I'd seen.

No one at Seattle University knew about Edward Cullen. It wasn't as if I'd hid him, exactly, but no one had ever asked if there was someone before Jacob. Even to me, he seemed like a distant, passionate memory. I never heard his voice anymore on the very rare occasion that I did something stupid or reckless. It was getting harder and harder for my mind to sketch the planes of his face. Only his sharp, golden eyes were still crystal clear in my memory. They were almost impossible to forget.

I pulled out a notebook and a pen. I wrote:

Oublier. J'oublie. Tu oublies. Il oublie. Nous oublions…

AN: Let me know what you think. There's a lot more already written, and I'm itching to post it, but I'd like to wait until I get some feedback. Thanks!

French: To forget. I forget, You forget, He forgets, We forget...