Rhapsody in B

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5427856/1/Rhapsody_in_B by Lillybellis
When a rising musician falls in love with his small-town childhood friend, can their yearly New Year's Eve tradition bring them together once he rockets to stardom and leaves her behind?
12 chapters
Anyone who follows my blog knows that I love a SweetWard and this Edward is sweet. He's a few years older than Bella, but he falls for her nonetheless. Only problem is she's young, naive, and doesn't get it. So he has to wait. But by the time she's ready, he's not - he's in the middle of his rising fame as a musician. Sigh. We all love UST, and a love story where two meant to bes can't be together - at least for a while, right? Well, that's what you'll get from this beauitfully written fic by Lillybellis.

Every year Edward has a tradition that he sings to Bella on New Year's Eve. It's super sweet the way he goes about it, and it also reminds her of her mother who's no longer alive. Charlie is a badass dad in this fic and lays down the law. I love it. He snatches her from parties and yells at her and keeps her safe. Way to go, Dad! Something else that I found fascinating about this story is that the author doesn't use the usuals for usual parts. For example Victoria becomes Charlie's wife. I know! And James becomes Bella's annoying little step brother. Their relationship is super cute.


Growing Up With Bella
Low on the Smut-o-meter
Team Jacob safe.


And because the author's writing is so much better than my own some massive excerpts because I can't decide . . .


"Do you like to dance?" Edward asked, but it came out like one big, jumbled up word.

"You mean…slow dance?"

"Well, yeah," he said, tracing the checkered pattern on the tablecloth with his fingernail. "I thought maybe you might want to…"

"Won't Lauren be mad?" I asked, watching my fingers while they twisted around each other in my lap.

"What?" His voice was low, like he was trying to hold back a cough.

"You took her to the formal, and I just thought that you two-"

"It's not like that with Lauren and me," Edward said. "My mom wouldn't stop nagging me to go - she didn't want me missing out on it since I'm a Senior. And the person I wanted to ask..."

"What about her?" Edward never really showed much of an interest in girls. I wondered who it was he even thought about asking.

"Nevermind," he said, shaking his head. He was quiet for a long time before he finally spoke again. "Do you think you might want to dance?"

"I probably won't be any good at it - I'll step all over your feet. I've never danced with a boy before." Right away I wished I hadn't told him that, even though I was sure he already knew anyway.

"I'll show you how." His hand rubbed the back of his neck, and he was looking at my lap, not at my face.

"Okay," I said as I stood up. Edward stood up at the same time too, and our foreheads knocked together.

"Show her how to do the Lambada, Eddie!" Jasper yelled out after us.

"Don't listen to them," Edward said as I turned around to look at him.

When we got out onto the dance floor, Edward gently put his hands on my hips and pulled me close to him.

"Put your arms around me like this," he said, taking his hands off of my hips to bring both of my wrists up around his shoulders, clasping my hands around the back of his neck. He was just a little bit too tall for that position to be comfortable. "Your arms are stretching a little too much, aren't they?"

"Kinda," I said, feeling the skin underneath where his hair stopped. That spot was really soft to put my hands on.

"Here." He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me up a few inches, so that my feet were on top of his. "Is that better?"

"Yeah, but aren't you uncomfortable?"

"No," he said, moving his other hand that was still on my hip around my back so that he was holding me against him, so close that my stomach touched his stomach.

We kept dancing as everyone counted down to the new year, and once the ball dropped and everyone around us cheered, Edward leaned down until his lips almost touched my ear. "Happy New Year," he said, and then he kissed my forehead, just like I'd seen him kiss Alice's so many times before.

"Happy New Year," I replied, but my heart was beating fast and my voice didn't feel that strong, so I wasn't sure that he heard me.

"B?" I could feel the stubble from Edward's chin in my hair when he rested it on top of my head.

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you a question?" His hand grabbed a bit of my hair and twirled it around his finger. It was probably tickling him as he held me, because it was way too long.

"You just did," I teased, but he didn't laugh. "Go ahead."

"Why do you like Mike Newton so much?" Edward asked, and it sounded like he'd been waiting his whole life to ask me that question.

"Um...well...I think he's cute. He tells me lame jokes all the time, but I know he does it just to make me laugh. He sharpens my pencil for me every day in Geometry. When I'm with him my heart feels like I just ran the mile in P.E.," I explained. "He holds the door open for me all the time, too."

"I hold doors open," he said, and I could feel his thumb moving so slowly across my back.

"I know. I really like that about you." I thought maybe I should say something else, but I didn't.

"What else do you like about me?" he asked as we swayed to the music.

I wanted to tell him that I liked the way I felt so comfortable around him. I liked how I could tell him anything, and he never made me feel like I was a horrible person for feeling the way that I felt. But he was Edward, Alice's brother who gave me rides home, and always made sure I was okay, and kissed me on the forehead like I was his sister. I wasn't sure what he wanted me to say, so I-

"God, Chief!" I heard someone squeal after a loud pop went off in my ear.

The next thing I knew I wasn't on Edward's feet anymore, and he wasn't twirling my hair or holding onto my waist. Dad had his hand around my elbow and was pulling me back, holding a couple of balloons and a pin in his hand.

"Dad!" I said as he pulled me away, and poor Edward, he looked so embarrassed to be caught dancing with me.

"I told you Bells, no dating 'til you're sixteen," he said, his voice so loud over the crowd now that they were quiet and the jukebox was off.

"He doesn't want to date her, Chief," Yorkie yelled, and everyone laughed.

"You watch your mouth, son," Dad said, pointing at Yorkie as he dragged me in between my friends toward the kitchen, and I just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole.

Once we were in the kitchen, he let go of my arm, and I rubbed my skin where it burned just a little from where he had grabbed me.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you, sweetheart," he said, reaching over to touch that spot. "I lost my mind when I saw you out there with that Cullen boy."

"But Dad," I started to say, and I knew I sounded like a whiner, but sometimes that was the only way I could get him to hear me out. "We were just dancing, Dad. It's not like you caught us up on Crescent Point making out or something. I don't even like Edward Cullen like that. We're just friends. He treats me like a sister."

Dad rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, and when he finished, his eyes were all red and wrinkly and he looked really, really tired.

"Bells, I'm trying here, okay? You've got to cut your old man some slack. I let you get that permanent in your hair, and I've let you slide when I've seen that blue stuff on your eyes. I even let you go see that New Boys on the Street concert-"

"New Kids on the Block, Dad." He never could get that name right.

"Whatever. My point is that you can't date until you're sixteen." His arms were folded across his chest, and I knew I wasn't going to win this one, but I tried one last time anyway.

"It's not dating, it's dancing. Mrs. Cullen lets Alice do it." It was a pretty lame argument, but it was worth a shot.

"Bells, if your friends' parents are okay with them touching and grinding and groping on each other, well, there's nothing I can do about that. But as for you young lady, no dating, no dancing, no kissing, no touching, no holding hands, no passing notes, and no sitting within twelve inches of a boy until you turn sixteen, understand?" He put his hand on my shoulder, as if that made the fact that I was a total freakazoid better somehow.

Bella goes over to the Cullens' home in hopes of meeting up with Mike . . . 

"Can I sit with you?"

"Yeah." He took his Walkman off and set it beside him. The swing creaked a little as I sat down. "Mike's on his way over."

"He is?" I asked, trying not to sound too excited, even though I really was.

"He said he'd be here in a half hour or so." Edward sounded really disappointed. "Does your Dad know you're here?"

"No. He thinks I'm at Jess's house." I couldn't look at Edward's face as I said it, because I felt like a total scumbag liar.

Edward nodded, but he didn't say anything about my lie. "Well, I guess you're happy," he said, strumming a chord on the guitar strings. "About Mike coming, I mean."

"Yeah. I don't know why, though. You heard my Dad. I can't date until I'm sixteen."

"If he's smart B, he'll wait for you." He plucked one string and played a high note over and over, looking at it like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"I wanted one of these for Christmas," I said, turning Edward's yellow Walkman around and around in my hands, trying to change the subject. I hated myself for feeling disappointed that I didn't get one. I knew we didn't have very much money since mom died.

I thought Edward was ignoring me as he sat there strumming on his guitar, but the music stopped when he put his fingers across the strings that were on top of that big hole in the middle. He tapped on the wood a few times and watched his feet before he finally looked at me.

"Sometimes, Bella...we can't always have what we want," he said quietly as his eyes watched my mouth, and I wondered if maybe I had something stuck on my lips.

I licked them, just to check, and Edward let out a small groan and turned away. He could be so weird sometimes.

"Are you going to sing to me like you did last year?" I asked, hoping to make him act like Edward again.

"You...you want me to?" He looked really surprised.

"Well, yeah. I like hearing you sing. It could be our thing, you know? You sing me a song on New Year's. You're going away to college next year, and I'll hardly ever see you. It'd be nice to have a-"

"Tradition," he said, finishing my sentence. "Our thing." He smiled at me, so big.

"Definitely." I reached over and touched a string, but his eyes never left my face.

"Do you want me to sing your mom's song like I did last year?"

"Um..." I thought about it for a few seconds. "No, I don't think so," I told him. "I love that song, but it'll make me cry, and I don't want to cry tonight."

Edward nodded. "Knock knock."

"What?"

He repeated himself, smiling. "I said, knock knock."

"Who's there?" I asked, grinning back at him.

"Bella."

"Bella who?" I was giggling already, even though I knew the joke would be dumb.

"Bella bottom pants."

We both cracked up as we sat there on that swing, going back and forth really slowly and having a pretty good time.

"That was bad," I told him, but I was still kind of laughing when I said it.

"I know," he replied. "But I made you laugh, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did. Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said, bumping my knee with his. "Do you want me to pick a song, or do you?"

"I want to pick, please." I thought for a minute, and smiled really big when I thought of a song I wanted him to sing. But before I could say it, Edward spoke, almost as if he could read my mind.

"I'll sing anything but that," he said, and I thought for a second that maybe he could read my mind.

"Okay," I replied, looking up at the ceiling, trying to think of another song. "If you won't sing that, then I want you to sing…Livin' on a Prayer." I knew how much he hated that song, and he did say anything.

Edward shook his head. "Okay, anything but that and the other one."

"Nice try, Cullen, but nope. You said 'anything', and that's the 'anything' I want."

"I swear, you have the worst taste in music, B," he said as he moved his guitar under his arm to play.

"I like your music, so my taste can't be that bad."

He thought for a second, and then moved the guitar further down his lap until it was sitting face up across his legs. "Bella," he said, reaching out and playing with my fingertips as they rested on my lap. "I did something that I want to talk to you about."

"Will you sing to me first?" I asked, squeezing his fingers. I really wanted him to sing and I knew he was trying to stall.

"If I have to," Edward said, laughing as he picked the guitar back up and positioned himself to play. He acted like he didn't want to do it, but he grinned anyway.

I closed my eyes when the song began, because hearing him sing was one of my favorite things, even if it was a song he didn't like very much. I couldn't keep them closed for long though, because I loved the look on his face when he was singing. He looked like he had just eaten a really good piece of chocolate, or his mom's spaghetti, and I could tell there was nothing else in the world he'd rather be doing. He always played songs just a little bit slower than they were supposed to be, and he made them sound like his, even though they weren't.

I clapped when he finished. He hated it when I did that when it was just the two of us.

"Thank you," I said. "I loved it."