We Were Here by lola-pops

Official Description:

Upon waking, there’s a brief, blissful period in which you don’t yet recall the sins of the night before, but eventually, you have to open your eyes. I’m Bella Swan, seventeen years old, cheerleader. This morning I woke up in the wrong bed.

I know a lot of people love this story already and my own reasons for loving it may vary with others. But personally, I am just a sucker for angsty stories and this has just the right amount of it but is very refreshing too. I love the plot and I love the characters. As you could probably surmise from the summary, we know that in the beginning, Bella slept with someone else who wasn’t her boyfriend. We learn she is a senior, a cheerleader, and she appears to be living a pretty charmed life except she’s tired and bored of it all. She’s in the process of rediscovering herself. And she has been dating Jasper for 6yrs. By now I’m sure you realized already who she slept with in the beginning. Yup. It’s our boy Edward.
Edward has his own interesting back story and I love this sort of mystery he exudes. You can’t predict what he does because he’s very shy and private. He and Bella don’t exactly belong in the same clique and they haven’t exchanged a lot of words in all the years they know each other prior to that one fateful night. Bella is actually under the impression that Edward dislikes her as you can see in their interaction here:

“Bitch.”
He’s looking at the ground when I look up, but I know it was him. I throw my books in the back seat and slam the door.
“What did you say?”
He shifts uncomfortably and won’t meet my eyes. I stomp around the car and right up to him.
“Damn, E, who is this chick?” One of the guys asks. I don’t look to see who it is, though, because my eyes are trained on him.
“No one,” he says, and turns his head to nod toward the shop. They file through the door talking in low voices, leaving us standing in the dark spot between street lights. He leans back against the brick wall and finally makes eye contact. I realize that I haven’t really looked at Edward Cullen in a long time. I lose my breath for a second at the intensity of his expression, the symmetry of his face…and something else that I can’t put my finger on. There’s anger, which I expect given the fact that I just called him an asshole, but also lust, which is so out of touch with his words that it doesn’t make sense.
His words echo through my head. No one.
“Fuck you,” I whisper, but there’s no fire behind the words. Maybe that’s because I know he’s right.
He moves that slow gaze to my lips and then…and then I’m not really sure I can explain what happens next. I take another step forward and he drags his teeth across his bottom lip, and then I’m fisting his shirt and that bottom lip is between mine.

So yeah… that’s what brought them to that fateful night. Bella comes clean to Jasper but things didn’t immediately happen for our two lovebirds. Bella made a lot of discoveries about Edward, one of which is that he’s been pining for her since forever. There were or ARE still struggles but they’re finally trying to really be together now. That’s what you will actually love about it. They’re still in the early stages of their relationship and they’re prolly gonna encounter a bunch of problems but you’d like to see that journey they take.
Romance story aside, I particularly love how lola-pops use the usual characters here. Rose and her “mobile pharmacy,” usually high as a flying kite and not the usual perfectly coiffed Rosalie we read in most stories. Jasper is a douche and Alice is a b!tch but not a main cast here and it feels refreshing to read that she is not her usual bubbly annoying self. Lord knows I’m really becoming sick of that. Edward’s group of friends are the original wolf pack: Jake, Paul, Embry, Quil and Sam. But the best one is Esme. She is actually Edward’s aunt here who took him in once his own mom flounce on him after his father died. I’m sure you’d love her set of rules that’s hanging on their fridge. Example would be BYOB (buy your own beer) and Hugs, not drugs.
This story is from the same author that gave us Summer of Salt. If you haven’t read that one, I highly suggest you read it too. But if you have read that one, then I’m sure you need no further encouragement in checking this gem out.

You don’t need me to tell you to read this story. It’s by the seriously fuckhot lola-pops, so you already know it’s awesome to the second power.

But, in case you need a little encouragement, this is how the story begins:

It pounds through my head in flashes.

Skin. A moan. His lips.

I know by the t-shirt hanging from the desk chair whose room this is. Whose bed this is.

Oh, fuck.

The images start to slow and linger in my vision, which is so much worse, because I have a chance to process the alternating waves of arousal, confusion and guilt. Mostly guilt.

“Oh, fuck.” I whisper it out loud this time.

He shifts behind me, sitting up. Rolling cautiously onto my back, I peek up at him. He rubs his eyes, elbows resting on his knees, the sheet barely covering parts of him that I’ve now seen…touched…kissed. I want to reach over and run my hands down his taut stomach, over the muscles in his arms.

It doesn’t escape my notice that he doesn’t smile when he looks down at me.

I sit up, leaning back against the exposed brick next to him and clutching the sheet to my chest. We don’t speak. Early morning light begins to hit the building tops outside of his window.

I try to orient myself in the present, like I’ve just been momentarily waylaid from my set path. I have to cheer at a game tonight, my uniform is at home and I have a Chemistry test third period.

And I fucked Edward Cullen.

Then, even though I’m thinking of that thing he did with his tongue, I’m also thinking of holding his face in my hands as I look into his eyes, inches apart while I move on top of him, his breath hitting my lips. Barely touching. The kisses…fuck. I need to stop.

*thud*

We Were Here is a high-school fic, which is my favorite kind. Five chapters in, we are not even close to discovering all that there is to know about Edward Cullen, and Bella has a way to go in her self-discovery as well. This fic is romantic and dramatic. Knowing lola, it’ll be rip-your-heart-out angsty too, but she promised no Skanktoria (hehe) Trust me, if you aren’t reading this fic, you’re seriously missing out!

[dcs_p][/dcs_p]