Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Slept So Long

Chapter One

Edward's POV

"How's your fettuccine, sis? It definitely smells good," I mused lightheartedly to my younger sister, Alice, who lifted her spiky black head of hair up from hovering over her steaming plate of pasta upon hearing my question.

"It is good; everything is great, big bro," my pixie-sized sibling smiled jovially at me after swallowing another bite of her meal, prompting me to easily smile along with her enthusiasm and genuine good nature.

"Good," I replied, directing my eyes back down towards my own porcelain plate filled with a delicious lasagna bake which I personally knew to be one of the best in town, "...mine is really good, too. Would you like try some?"

"Sure!" Alice beamed at me from across the checker-clothed table we were currently sitting at, our location within the classic-style Italian restaurant being at the front of the establishment where the large, thick-paned windows showcased the bustling city streets beyond.

Blinking my emerald eyes at her nearly contagious vibrance before picking up my knife and fork to begin sizing up a respectable portion to offer her, my mind briefly drifted over the facts of my situation.

It had been out of the blue, a split-decision on my part, to call my younger sister one afternoon of the previous week and invite her to dinner as my treat.

She had agreed without hesitation, as the two of us barely saw each other anymore, and I had felt instantly relieved that my idea for entertaining a member of my family had succeeded.

Truth be told, I knew why I had called Alice so suddenly, taking her away from her college dormitory located upstate so that we may have a nice meal wherever she wished.

I was lonely.

Again, with my baby sister focusing on her studies, and my brother Riley happily married and living in another state, I felt that I had been somewhat left behind...or that I had intentionally stayed behind.

It had not been a completely conscious act for me to gradually lose all my once close-knit ties with my family, but it had happened...and I was beginning to tire of being alone so much.

"Eddie, your lasagna tastes great!" Alice confirmed to me after theatrically swooning over her bite of the portion of lasagna I had forked over to her during my seemingly constant self-berating, "...the next time we come here, I think I'm going to get that."

I chuckled at Alice's glee about our food, admittedly pleased that she wished to have dinner with me here again sometime, as I nodded at her words and reached to retrieve my glass of red wine.

"Oh, holy cow, Eddie..." Alice suddenly leaned in a little bit, speaking in a lowered, more covert tone, as she kept her large eyes glued to something outside through the glass windows whilst she spoke, "...don't look now, but there is this gorgeous guy on a motorcycle that just pulled up...!"

I could not help but raise an inquisitive eyebrow at my sister's strange but endearing antics as I set my wine back on the table, and turned a little in my chair to follow Alice's line of vision that lead out to the sidewalk just beyond our restaurant.

Having expected to see a mere pretty face on yet another mediocre-looking guy, my jaw fell open in utter shock as I beheld long, toned, jean-clad legs swinging off from an impressive motorcycle, making this unbelievably attractive man rise to his full, delicious height.

His fitted, black leather jacket that sported a few orange and white stripes that ran down only the right side of his chiseled chest, clung to his arms, as he lifted them up to unstrap his helmet, instantly revealing dazzling, golden curls that fell to his strong chin that seemed to instantly brighten the dreary, grey-tinted city.

The people around this man, the buildings behind him, just seemed to subtly slip away from my focus, as my jade-colored eyes blinked at nothing whilst zeroing in on solely him, his stature proving to be powerful in its modesty, his presence completely commandeering my own the more I watched him.

I swallowed hard at the striking image of such unexpected beauty happening right before my eyes, all of me completely intrigued by the fact that his choice of transportation was a sleek, black motorcycle, of how impossibly tempting he looked smoothing out his white tee-shirt underneath his opened jacket...how unmistakeably...downtrodden his flawless profile appeared to be.

"I told you so...!" Alice chimed in merrily, her chipper words only minutely breaking the spell this enticing, stunning man seemed to have on me, as I unabashedly gaped at the way he bent his perfect body over to hang his helmet on one of the handlebars of his motorcycle, allowing me a mind-warping view of his taut back and broad shoulders whilst he did so.

"...damn..." I mentally murmured to myself upon seeing such an involuntarily seductive action performed by this indisputably fascinating creature as he stood up straight once more, allowed someone to pass in front of him on the sidewalk, and then began stepping along with the sporadic groups of passersby that made downtown this time of evening flourish and move.

My gaze followed the gorgeous, blonde-haired man as he made his way from his motorcycle, mixing in with the passing crowd on the sidewalk but not entirely as he still stood out to my eyes, as he headed away from the restaurant and towards another part of the downtown district and I could literally feel the world come back to me as a result.

I faced forward in my chair once more now that I could no longer track his movements, my eyes downcast and pensive as I simply could not get that man's stunning profile out of my head, how quietly troubled he had looked, how enrapturing his whole aura was still to me.

I had not even seen all of his face, but I knew the expression he wore perfectly...because I had seen it on myself too many times to count.

It was the face of a man burdened by the trivial as well as the trampling in spite of not voicing a word of it aloud to anyone; I knew it all-too well to mistake for anything but.

The motorcycle riding, jacket-wearing man's god-like form made him sexy, but the sheer melancholy that I had seen in his handsome features...made him mesmerizing.

...a perfect contradiction that had taken place within the space of a few minutes.

"What are his reasons for such a look...why is he so...sad...?" I re-envisioned the magnificent, nameless contradiction almost immediately, my mind sifting through a million different reasons as to why such a man, a man who just seemed born and bred for sunlight and smiles, would seem so impossibly downhearted.

"...Eddie...?" Alice voiced to me, tilting her raven head to a side as she, no doubt, puzzled over my far-away expression and blatant ignorance to everything else making up my surroundings but the tiny chip in my plate whilst I pondered the wonderment I had just witnessed.

"He was...absolutely lovely...beautiful blonde hair...strong build...Jesus...looks like he could probably lift that bike right off the ground if he wanted to..." I continued to feed my own imagination through my recollections, the idea briefly occurring to me that some aged workshop master somewhere had actually crafted this man out of the finest marble so that his radiant male beauty would last forever and dazzle all those whom cast their eyes upon him.

"...speaking of casting their eyes upon him...his motorcycle is parked just right outside here...that means he is going to have to come back here...right here, right to this spot...to get it later..." I deduced such logic to myself, already able to picture short scenarios playing out in my mind's eye as to how I would be waiting for this tall, blonde-haired gentleman, leaning against his own motorcycle with my hands coyly yet casually inside my pockets, and, when he returned...he would smile this charming smile once he saw me.

"Edward! Earth to Edward! Come in, Edward!" Alice shouted across the quaint table at me, effectively shattering all of my rampant mental musings about my imaginary meeting with the mysterious man with the most enchanting, lonesome eyes I had ever seen.

"Huh...? Sorry about that; what were you saying...?" I relied lamely to my chuckling sister, finding my sense with reality struggling to catch back up to me even as I watched as Alice bring up one of her elbows onto the table so she may rest her cheek against her palm whilst she regarded me.

"Man...you must have got it bad, big bro..." Alice commented smartly, earning a slight frown from me which made her smile all the more and continue, "...not that I blame you or anything. I mean, did you see that guy? He was totally hot."

"Alice..." I began speaking as if she was dead wrong in spite of how my seemingly always perceptive younger sibling had been spot-on correct.

"Oh, don't even try to deny it, Eddie...I saw how you were looking at him..." Alice reaffirmed as she sat back in her chair and reached a dainty hand forward to retrieve her glass of water, "...which brings me to my next question. Have you been...seeing anyone, or...?"

My frown deepened.

So, even my college-bound sister had picked up on the fact that I had become somewhat of a recluse as of late.

"No, Ali...no one at the moment. I've been concentrating on work, and..." I started, reverting to my usual dodge of something work-related to explain for my extended absences from love and life.

I hated trying to cover for my own short-comings, things that I did not even know how to explain and identify and yet I had to try to talk around them to make sure that others did not worry about me as well.

This routine was definitely getting old, and I felt horrible for initiating it between us once more.

Alice set her glass down upon the table with a subtle but significant 'clink,' instantly drawing my apt attention as I focused on her seldom stern features directed right into my own.

"Edward," Alice addressed me in a surprisingly no-nonsense voice, her eyes trapping my own with her fierce gaze and I could feel the love and caring flowing out of her change in demeanor and tone with me, her words cutting right through my attempt to blur through such personal examination, "...I would really like to see you settling down with someone...we all would."

"I know you care about your work, but we care about you...and we just want to see you happy..." Alice concluded, practically stunning me into an awestruck silence for a moment as I processed the meaning of her words, how she was referring to the whole Cullen family being worried for me, wanting something better for me...still thinking of me.

I sighed solemnly through my nose, lowering my gaze from hers as I collected my thoughts before speaking aloud.

"It means a lot to me that you said that, and... I..." I trailed off, sort of tipping my unruly bronze head to a side as my clarity on what I needed to convey to smooth this over with her was beginning to rapidly elude me, "...I know what you're saying is true enough, because...well...lately, I guess I have been feeling a little down."

I was putting my situation lightly, and I realized that she it knew it.

Alice nodded at my reply, seeming to take in the worth of my words, as she picked up her fork that was still lying half-way across her remaining pasta.

"I want nothing but the best for you, Eddie...I just hope you do, too," Alice commented somewhat cryptically to me before lifting up her fork to her mouth to begin eating her pasta once more.

I said nothing as I lowered my eyes to the red-and-white checker pattern in between our plates and various glasses, my mind admittedly chewing over Alice's last comment, before I, too, picked up my fork to attempt to finish what remained of my lasagna, our light conversations picking up again after only a small moment.

"Maybe she's right..." my low-toned thoughts whispered to me as Alice and I continued with our dinner, making casual comments and asking questions as they came to us, just as we had been doing before that enchanting man had flooded my vision and drowned out everything else I had ever known in the world, "...maybe... I could do some things differently...live a little more."

"...but that color was totally wrong for her, so before she could even blink, I was laying out a whole truckload of different dresses that I knew would be better for her skin tone as well as for the mood of the date that they were going to go on..." Alice continued to ramble to me about another one of her many friends at school, her words and positivism delighting me well enough in spite of how my thoughts were currently reading like a storybook inside my head, like I was detailing some sort of cognizant list of things I needed to do for myself.

Alice was right.

Everyone had been right.

I needed to start experiencing life, seeing the joys in it instead of just the problems.

I needed to start taking some risks...especially if I was to ever meet someone.

I needed to become happy.

"...one thing is for absolute sure, though..."my thoughts continued, gaining more momentum and confidence in spite of their inner dwelling and magnitude as I watched as Alice laughed at another one of our playful, sibling jokes, "...if I ever see that man again...I'm definitely going to talk to him."

X

Authors' Note: This comes out of total boredom...so I hope you like it! XD More is on the way as we shall next find out a little more about Jazzy. Stay tuned and let be know how I am doing, yeah?