I own nothing. Stephenie Meyer is the owner of all things Twilight.

So here is a new story...very different from my others, so give it a chance. I wanted to try and write a Bella and Edward fall in love story. Everyone is human and living in Portland, Oregon. Review and let me know if it sucks It's based on that cliche that as soon as you stop looking for a girlfriend/boyfrined that's when you fall in love.

Boycotts and BarFlies

Love isn't something you find. Love is something that finds you.
--Loretta Young

BPOV

I found myself on yet another bad date...the story of my life it seemed. The Italian restaurant was dimly lit, with the smells of garlic and tomatoes filling the air around us. The clanking of dishes rang in my ears as I intently studied the red and white checkered tablecloth, pushing breadcrumbs from my roll into a small pile, wondering how much longer I would have to endure this torture. I glanced up when I suddenly heard my name called, and saw my date, Tyler, looking at me with an irritated look on his face.

“Sorry Tyler, I zoned. You were saying... something about that new computer program at work. I'm listening, I swear.” Tyler worked for an insurance company...Mr. Exciting... not! He had been dribbling on endlessly about accident rates in the Pacific Northwest since we got to the restaurant. Like an answer to an unspoken prayer, my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I glanced down at the phone and saw the caller ID said 'Alice'. Thank God! I was almost free...

“Oh, Tyler, I'm so sorry, I need to get this. I told Alice not to bother me unless it was an emergency.” Yes, I was using the oldest trick in the book, having the girlfriend call midway though the date with an 'emergency' so I could bail if the date sucked. Unfortunately for me, this happened quite often on my dates lately, so much in fact, that I started going to church regularly so God wouldn't be tempted give my mom some terminal illness as a punishment for all my lying about her health.

“Alice, I told you not to call unless it's an emergency, I'm on a date with Tyler.” I mouthed the word 'sorry' to Tyler of extra effect. He shrugged like it was no big deal.

“Hi Bells, does he suck?” Alice giggled. I heard Rosalie in the backgrounds scream “I warned you Bella...”

“I had no idea...” I answered, trying not to burst into laughter.

“Oh come on, he practically has 'dull' tattooed across his forehead. What story are you going to use today, mom in the hospital, mom took a nasty fall, mom hit by a bus? You know those would require extra prayers this week Bells...” Alice teased.

“I that's terrible...” I quipped back. Tyler looked confused trying to decipher my end of the conversation.

“Ok, it's that bad huh? Going for maximum impact, ready to bolt immediately? Well, I don't know what you were thinking in accepting the date, he isn't even cute Bella. Just because he lives in the building, doesn't mean you have to go on a date with him, you should have just said no or told him we were lesbians...something. God, we seriously need to discuss raising your standards when you get home. Put him out of his misery...go with the naked mom story. Movie starts in fifteen...” Fortunately, Alice talks incredibly fast so it only took her seconds to relay the message. Every so often, I would drop my head into my hands to sell the story a bit more.

“Of course I understand... no, thank you so much for letting me know Alice! I'll meet you there. ” I snapped the phone shut and tossed my napkin on the table. “Tyler I have to go...” I proceeded to replay my favorite sob story of my schizophrenic mom who forgot to take her meds and was found naked in a phone booth downtown. I turned on the waterworks, a gift I had, that came in quite handy. After a few apologies and a doggie bag, no point wasting perfectly good food when there are starving people in the world, and it was Alice's payment for saving me, I ran out of the restaurant into the chilly, Portland air. 'Free at last, Free at last' I thought, as I jumped into my car and cranked the radio.

I smelled the popcorn as soon as I stepped off of the elevator. Alice and Rosalie must be close to starting the movie, so I rushed down the hall, not wanting to miss it. “Hi Honeys! I'm home...” As I came through the door, I gently tossed my keys into the wicker basket on the counter. Alice and Rosalie were perched on the couch, remote control and popcorn in hand.

“Bella!” They squealed in delight. “You escaped!!”

Rosalie, Alice and I had been best friends for the last two years. We met during college, and after a horrible time living with insane roommates in the dorms, we decided to get an apartment together and have enjoyed every minute of it. These days, we were all currently in the midst of a 'dating drought' as we liked to call it. None of us could find a decent guy so we had been going on a series of random dates that ranged from bad to disgusting on the date scale. Lately, our Friday nights involved one or two of us being saved from a bad date, a big bowl of popcorn and a Brad Pitt movie to take our minds off of our misery.

“Rose, what are you doing home already? You had a date too...how'd you get home before me?” Her date was at the same times as mine but I remembered she had already been home when Alice called me.

She blushed furiously at my question. Rosalie had very high standards when it came to guys. I loved her, but if a guy wasn't able to be on the cover of a magazine, she really had no interest in him. That was Rose, that's just how she was wired. If it was a blind date, she always had the guy wear a red rose on his lapel so she could check him out before she actually introduced herself to him, or run away if he wasn't up to her standard of good looking.

“You know I hate blind dates, I did it as a favor to this girl at work, and after seeing this guy, I'm not sure I'm going to ever speak to Cindy again! He was this scrawny blond guy with a cheesy mustache! I mean really, when have I ever liked a guy with facial hair? Ug! I gave the hostess twenty dollars to tell him I threw up in the parking lot.” She said completely unashamed of her actions. Rosalie was not one to waste her time with being nice, and I was glad she liked me, because I wouldn't want to be on her bad side.

They made their way over to the kitchen counter and plopped down at the bar stools. I placed the foil swan with my leftovers in it in front of Alice. “Thank you for saving me from Tyler the Dull.” I said with a bow as I stood across the counter from her.

“No problem Bella, but next time, please listen to us when we tell you someone isn't right for you, we know these things...I can see the future...” She said in her silly psychic voice as she rolled her eyes back in her head. It was her silliness I loved most about her, Alice could always put a smile on my face.

“So we are the big losers this weekend Rosalie, at least I got a decent appetizer out of it and Alice got a foil swan of lasagna.” I laughed trying to be a 'glass half full' girl.

Rose rolled her eyes “Yes Bella, but that is also an hour of your life you will never get back, an hour wasted... on a dork. I however, spent my hour productively...shopping! Look at these fabulous shoes I found.” She squealed as she threw her foot into the air happily.

After an extensive discussions about the versatility of black patent leather heels in your fall wardrobe, I let out a loud sigh. “Girls what are we going to do about all these losers we have been going on dates with? Where are all the good guys hiding?”

Alice laughed “If we just keep going, eventually we will have dated every loser in the greater Seattle area, and then we'll finally come across a nice guy.”

“Yes, but we'll be eighty years old by then, in a nursing home, eating pudding, and making Popsicle stick sculptures!” I teased. “OOHH can we be roomies in the nursing home?” Alice squealed. “Then, we can wear out Juicy sweat suits and make all the other old people jealous of our fabulous style.”

“Enough about getting old and wrinkly, lets focus on the here and now, where we look fit and fabulous. I'm with Bella, I'm tired of kissing frogs, I want to make out with a prince.” Rosalie whined. “Is that so much to ask? One hot, gorgeous, mentally stable, gainfully employed, guy that doesn't smell like mothballs with an amazing personality...” Her eyes glazed over as she began to dream of her perfect man.

I glanced over at Alice and she had the same dreamy look on her face. I went to the refrigerator, took out three beers and opened them before I placed one in front of each of us. “I propose we go on a Boy Boycott until 2008.” I said as I waved my beer into the air. “Who's with me?”

Both of them thought about it for a few seconds before smiles crept onto their faces. Alice of course, had questions “What are the rules of a boy boycott? No dates I assume, but what else?? Can we kiss random boys? What if they kiss us, well it doesn't happen to me much, but Rose gets that a lot so I figured I'd ask...”

“Whoa there Alice, lets make a list!” I mumbled as I dug in the drawer for a pen. Rose snatched a notebook off the nearby desk as I chucked her the pen.

“Ok, Boy Boycott Official Rules” she wrote across the top of the page.

Rule number one : No dates.

Rule number two: No tongue kissing with boys. Closed lip kissing fine. If a guy crams his tongue down your throat unexpectedly, it doesn't count unless you kiss him back. (AKA Roslaie's rule)

Rule number three: No sex... of any kind. If you wouldn't want to see your parents do it in front of you that counts as 'sex' and it's off limits.

Rule number four: Each of us puts $200 into the pot. If you break the rules of the boycott, you lose the money. The last person (s) standing gets the money to spend on a hot new pair of shoes to be worn on their first date of 2008 and gets eternal bragging rights about their superior will power.

Rosalie flipped the paper around so Alice and I could read it and check to see if we agreed with all the rules. We quickly scanned the list, and I was the first to sign the paper followed by Alice, and finally Rosalie. I ran into my room and grabbed my emergency money and put $200 cash onto the counter. Alice and Rose did the same thing. We hid the winnings in the cookie jar and tucked it in the corner of the counter.

“To the boycott!” I said as I raised my beer into the air. “To the boycott!” Rosalie and Alice said in unison.

EPOV

The smoke in the club was starting to burn my eyes. I glanced to my left and saw Emmett and Jasper sitting on the nearby bench, with a blond draped over each of their laps. Suzie and Sandy, were a set of twins from California with incredible bodies, but about as much personality as a toilet seat.

“Eddie...” I heard a whiny voice whisper in my ear. I turned to my right to see Donna, my date for the evening, and brainless friend of the twins, pouting inches from my face. “Eddie, why aren't you paying attention to me.” She asked as she snaked her way into my lap. Because your dull, dim, disgusting, drab, desolate, demonic...I thought to myself. Nice use of the letter 'D' Edward...

I flashed a smile that I knew would let me get away with anything and said “Donna, my name is Edward not Eddie, please try and remember that or I won't answer you next time...” I saw Emmett start laughing out of the corner of my eye as Suzie, or was it Sandy, stroked his hair.

“Come on Edward let's dance!” Donna squealed. “I love this song.” She shouted over the music, pulling on my arm.

“I don't dance Donna, sorry.” Jasper raised an eyebrow at me. He knew I was lying, I loved to dance, but Donna wasn't even worth the walk across the dance floor. I looked at both Emmett and Jasper and pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingers which was our sign for 'Get me the hell out of here before I vomit.'

They both laughed, and stood up, somewhat knocking Suzie and Sandy to the floor. “Sorry ladies, Edward has a migraine, we need to be going. Thanks for a pleasant evening...we'll... see you around.” Jasper said, as he gallantly kissed Suzie's hand, or was it Sandy's?

We went through the formality of exchanging phone numbers with them, however, the one I gave Donna was to a local pizza joint. My favorite way to end a bad date. A few kisses on the cheek later and we were in Emmett's Jeep flying down the highway.

“What the hell were we thinking guys? If I had to listen to one more story about Donna's boring sorority I was going to stab myself with a pencil.” I shuddered at the memory. My evening had been filled with countless stories about rushing and pledging...she was mind-numbingly dull.

“Hey man, it was twins! I had to go for it, you never know, sometimes twins can be a really good time. Of course this time, not so much...God were they stupid or what? You know Suzie ...or was it Sandy...well anyway whoever she was, she actually asked me if she was the first girl I'd picked up at work! Can you imagine...” Emmett laughed.

Jasper, Emmett and I had known each other for years. We met in college and started bar tending at a local nightclub The Downunder for the last eighteen months. It was easy money and working with my buddies was the best. On more than one occasion, we had taken out girls we had met while bar tending. We lovingly called them the 'Bar-Flies'. Some of our co workers I'm sure, considered us man-whores for our free wheeling ways, but we were young and good looking so we used what we had, to our advantage. More often than not, the girls ended up being bubble heads and we left them sitting in some nightclub, never to see them again. Tonight was no different.

Since it was common knowledge I always kept my refrigerator stocked, Emmett and Jasper parked the car and followed me up to my apartment for a late night snack. Three beers, and a package of mini corn dogs later we were sitting around my kitchen table questioning if there were and real girls in the Greater Portland area.

“Look at us. Just how pitiful are we? It's 10:45 on a Friday night and we are huddled around the table eating mini corn dogs and drinking beer alone.” I complained. Of course, being alone with my friends was a far better option than being out on a horrible date with another brainless Barbie, but I needed something... something more in my life.

“We do look like losers I'll give you that. And we are good looking guys, what is wrong with us?” Emmett asked with irritation. Jasper looked at me and shrugged, but Emmett was right. We were good looking, tons of girls threw themselves at us every night, unfortunately they weren't girls you could have a conversation with that lasted more than 3 minutes. Their skills were more in the physical realm, rather than intelligence. Definitly not the kind of girls you'd ever take home to meet your mom that's for sure.

Jasper thought about it for a second as he chewed on his last corn dog. “You know, I don't think there's anything wrong with us...what's that one song...'Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places'...I think that's our problem. I mean, my mom keeps telling me I'm not going to meet a nice girl at the bar, all the nice girls wouldn't be caught dead picking up a guy in a bar, they're off at the museum or the library. Maybe she's right.”

Emmett's mouth fell open in shock “Are you seriously suggesting we go trolling the library for chicks? Or a museum...wait, like Art museum or are we talking dinosaur bones, I could do the dinosaur bones, Art will just make my eyes hurt.”

I considered Mama Whitlock's point, most nice girls don't hit on the bar tenders at the bar...it seemed like a reasonable assumption. It only followed suit that libraries and museums wouldn't be filled with bimbos and brainless twits. You had to actually know what a book was to be at the library and one must appreciate Art to be at a museum.

Slamming my hand on the table, I said. “I think we should give it a try! Let's go look for the nice girls in town. No more Bar-Flies. If we meet them at the bar, they are off limits.” I glanced back and forth between Emmet and Jasper trying to gage their reactions to my suggestion. Emmett was more interested in chugging his beer than answering my question. Jasper however looked deep in thought.

“I'm with Edward, no more Bar-Flies, bring on the smart girls.” He said with great enthusiasm. “Emmett?” Jasper asked. We both knew it was an all or none proposition it was the only way it would work.

A grin came across Emmett's face “Care to make it interesting, say with a small wager?” As childish as it sounded, we loved making bets with one another. We'd bet on the weather, how much snow we'd get over the winter, if Jasper would go home with a blond or brunette. If there was something to bet on, we found it.

“What is the bet Emmett?” I asked, my interest peaked.

“Well, don't they say sex ruins a relationship? And we are looking for quality girlfriends right? So, we each put $200 in a pot and the last guy to have sex wins the money. That helps make sure none of us cheat and go have some meaningless quickie with a Bar-Fly. Sound reasonable?”

“Let's do it!” Jasper and I said enthusiastically. This probably wouldn't be easy, we were well outside our comfort zone by looking for nice girls, but we were going to give it our best effort. I for one loved a good challenge and this was sure to be one. Smart girls were...well smart.

Who knows what we may find if we look for love in all the right places.

So there it is chapter one... do you like it? Do you hate it? Please review and let me know. I am still working on my other story too...this has just been in my brain the last few days and I'm having fun with it! Thanks to my friend who I shared it with...you know who you are :) Review...