Well, hello lovelies! Yes, I have officially started my next story. All The Right Moves is winding down, so I thought it was a good time to start posting this one. I have a few chapters written, and I promise the second one in a few days, since that's when things get a little more exciting. But ATRM will be priority until I hit that complete button.

Anyway, new story, kinda OOC Edward. I think he's hot, though, so what are you gonna do? *shrugs* I will tell you right now, that he doesn't show up until next chapter, though.

Alright, I'm done talking. See you at the bottom!

Chapter One

Shut Up and Drive

August 26th, 2015

8:14 am

The trunk slams shut of my little car, filling me with a sense of finality. My dad shoots me a hesitant grin as he leans against the hunk of metal he had bought me for my graduation a few months ago. I hear the telltale sound of tires running over the gravel in front of the house I have lived in for the past eighteen years of my life. Well, eighteen years minus that three months that I lived with my mom and her new husband when they were in Arizona. I had quickly realized I didn't appreciate unbearable heat, so I promptly moved back with Charlie when the opportunity presented itself.

"Bella, are you ready for our road trip?" Alice asks in a sing-song voice. I look over my shoulder and see my pixie of a best friend and her mom unloading stuff from their car.

Alice Brandon barged her way into my life on our first day of kindergarten, all three and a half feet of her. I remembered being approached by this tiny girl with a squeaky but demanding voice and her spiky little pigtails. Not much has changed in the thirteen years we have known each other. She's still tiny, at a whopping five feet and ninety pounds, and she definitely still commands any room she is in. She is still as beautiful as ever, with her porcelain skin, dark hair cut into a messy pixie cut, and piercing blue eyes. The only real changes to her appearance since we were five are the stud in her nose and the hoop through her septum.

Alice and her mom, Lisa, come over and start filling the back seat of my car with Alice's things, since mine are currently occupying the trunk. Alice and I had both been accepted to the University of Massachusetts and we are now taking a road trip out there together instead of flying. I want to have my car on campus instead of having to rely on public transit, so my dad and her mom had agreed to us driving all the way out there from our small town of Forks, Washington. It was going to be a long drive between pit stops, sleeping, and Alice wanting to sightsee everywhere, but we were hoping to make it in about a week.

"You've got all the maps and the money?" Charlie asks. He has provided me with maps of all the states we are going through in case we aren't able to get cell service anywhere. He has also been setting money aside for me since I decided to attend Massachusetts so I'd have plenty of money for gas and food and motels on the way there. I had also been saving money from the job I had taken at the local grocery store. I'd been working there since my junior year of high school, so I have a good chunk of money to use until I can find a job in Boston.

"Yep, maps are in the glove compartment and money is in my purse," I confirm. "I've got everything, Dad."

"I'm just making sure, Bells," he says. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me into his side, his version of a hug. Charlie isn't one for physical affection, so it meant a lot when he actually hugged me.

"You guys should get going," Lisa says, finally closing the back door of my car. It has taken her and Alice a few minutes to get all of Alice's things in there. "You don't want to get stuck in traffic to start off your trip."

"Yeah, let's go, Bella," Alice agrees. She pulls her mom into a bone crushing hug, which Lisa returns with just as much ferocity. If you didn't know any better, Alice and her mom could pass for sisters with how similar they looked, and not to mention Lisa looks like she was in her twenties, not her late thirties.

Charlie surprisingly pulls me into a closer hug and presses his lips to the top of my head. I wrap my arms around his middle and try to suppress the tears I can feel welling up in my eyes. I had spent eight years with just my dad and now I have to say goodbye. I was going to the opposite side of the country and I probably won't see him until Christmas. We aren't exactly close, but Charlie is a good dad, and I was going to miss him.

"Call me if you need anything, Bells," he says, releasing me from his grip. I see his eyes were rimmed red, and I know he is holding back tears, too. This is the most emotion I have seen from him, aside from when the Seahawks won the Super Bowl last year.

"I will, dad. Love you." He smiles at me as he helps me into the car, closing the door after me when I am all the way inside.

Charlie and Lisa wave to us as I pull out of the driveway and onto the street. They stay in my rearview mirror all the way down the road until I turn the corner and can no longer see them.

}ACH{

11:42 am

"Bella, can we stop soon? I'm hungry and my bladder is yelling at me," Alice says. She has her feet kicked up on the dashboard and the window down, her dark hair blowing back from her face. We have been on the road for a few hours, and we were somewhere in Oregon.

"Yeah, we'll get off at the next habitable exit," I tell her.

We have spent the last three hours singing along to the road trip playlist we had composed on Alice's iPod a few days ago. It consists of hundreds of songs ranging several decades and all of the genres. We are currently listening to some Taylor Swift, but our last song had been by Smashing Pumpkins. Anything goes when you're going to be on the road for several days.

I pull off the highway at the next exit and quickly find a McDonald's. I order our food while Alice dashes to the restroom. and we trade positions once she came back. We take our order to go and are back on the road within ten minutes of getting off it.

"Have you talked to Mike at all?" Alice asks once we are done eating. She kicks her feet back up on the dashboard as she awaits my answer.

"No?" I say, glancing at her like she's crazy. "I broke up with him, why would I talk to him?" Breaking up with someone usually means you don't want to talk to them or see them anymore, right?

"You're not sad about this at all? You guys went out for quite a while."

"I mean, I guess. But it was only six months," I say, shrugging my shoulder. "It's not like I had any real emotional investment in the guy. There's not even anything about him to really miss. He wasn't even that good in bed."

"You said you guys had fun," she argues, looking incredulous.

"He had fun," I stress. "I told you, Mike was a virgin when we started dating. He didn't know any better. I, however, just kinda went through the motions. I've definitely had better."

"Riley?" she asks, a knowing smirk on her face.

"Riley," I agree, nodding. We both chuckle together.

Riley Biers was a junior when I was a freshman at Forks High. Riley was one of the guys that all the girls wanted and all the guys wanted to be. He wasn't an athlete, but he was popular and what some would call a bad boy. He smoked cigarettes and had alcohol at all his parties. He got his motorcycle license soon after getting his normal license. He was the hottest guy at school, and he knew it. Somehow Riley took notice of me by the end of my freshman year, and we spent a lot of time together that summer. By the beginning of our sophomore and senior year, I was Riley's girl and everyone knew it. I lost my virginity to him by homecoming, and my sex life became quite active and adventurous. I had nothing to compare it to at the time, but now I knew Riley was the best I ever had, and no one since even held a candle to him. Riley was into some things that I didn't know about before we were talking, and it turned out that I was very much into them, too. And Alice had a press pass to all the juicy details.

When Riley graduated that year, we had broken up because he was going to school in New York and he didn't want a long distance relationship, much like I had done with Mike. I was pretty upset about the breakup, but I knew it was for the best, because what college student wants a relationship with a high school girl back in Podunk, Washington? Riley and I had cared about each other, and he was a really good boyfriend for that year, but the split had been pretty clean. We left each other in a good place, and I only thought about Riley with good memories.

After Riley, I had had a brief fling with a boy from the nearby reservation. Jake and I had known each other since we were kids, and it just kind of happened one day. Jake wasn't a virgin, but he wasn't the type of lover that I was used to, and I couldn't really get into it. Where Riley was demanding and controlling, Jake was willing to sit there as I took over. I was used to being handled with sure hands, and Jake was passive in everything. Our little relationship lasted about a month before I had to call it quits.

Mike and I didn't get together until after winter break of our senior year. We had been friends since his family moved here our freshman year, but he had always liked me, I had been told several times by Jessica, who had a major crush on Mike. I had always denied Mike's requests to go out with me, because I was a good friend to Jessica, and I wasn't really into him. But it had been a while since my last relationship, and Jessica was dating some guy from Port Angeles, so I agreed to dating Mike, and we were together until after graduation. We slept together over spring break, and it had been mediocre at best, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt since he was a virgin. I kept expecting him to pick up on what I was trying to teach him, but that never really happened. School starting and me moving to the other side of the country gave me the perfect opportunity to break things off. Mike had been crushed, and I tried to console him as best as I could, but there was only so much I could handle.

"I wonder if he's still at NYU," Alice ponders.

I shrug. "No idea, haven't talked to him since he left, except for the brief birthday wishes on Facebook every year."

"Ooh, Facebook," Alice exclaims like she's just gotten an idea. She quickly opens her phone and starts intensely pressing buttons, probably on Facebook and searching Riley Biers. "Alright, I've got his profile." There is a pause as she looks through his information. "Oh my dear lord, he's cuter now than he was two years ago. Tattoos and piercings have done this boy well."

I roll my eyes, but the image in my head of Riley covered in tattoos and with a few piercings is a good one. I have always had a thing for guys with tattoos, and Riley had always talked about getting a bunch when he had the money to do so. I think that has just spurred my picture of an ideal man.

"Oh my god," Alice gasps. Her thumb starts scrolling faster, and she seems to be frantically scrolling through his posts.

"What is it? Is he okay?" I ask, worried that her surprise is bad, like he has gotten hurt or died or something.

"Oh my god," she repeats, a bit more reverent than surprised. Now I am really curious.

"Alice, what the fuck? What happened?" I am kind of irritated that she isn't telling me, now. It's not like I can look it up on my own phone; I'm too busy trying not to run into any other cars.

"So, Mr. Biers did attend NYU for two semesters. But he transferred schools and is now attending University of Massachusetts as a third year computer science major. And from all these pictures, it appears that he lives on campus."

"Holy shit," I breathe. "We're going to the same school?" I can't really believe it, since I figured I would never see him again. But now we are going to be together on the same campus, albeit a large campus. But it is a very real possibility that we will see each other again, which I have mixed feelings about.

"Ooh, you guys should try to be a thing, again. That relationship was hot," Alice swoons, fanning herself. She laughs when I glare at her from the corner of my eye.

"I don't think that's gonna happen, Al," I tell her honestly. "I don't know if I even wanna see him again."

"Why not? You said there weren't any hard feelings."

"There weren't," I confirm. "I feel fine about possibly running into him. I had just resolved myself with never seeing him again, and now it's kinda being undone. It's just a weird feeling, ya know?"

"Well, it's a bridge we can cross when we get to it."

}ACH{

7:51 pm

"Bella, when should I get off?"

"Just pull off whenever we get into the Boise city limit. We'll just find a motel for the night," I instruct Alice.

We have been on the road nearly nonstop all the way through Oregon, and now into Idaho. We had stopped twice for the restroom and to stretch our legs, and Alice took over driving about four hours ago, since I didn't think I could physically push the pedal down anymore. We are making pretty good time, and we can probably keep going, but I want to be in a fairly habited area when we stop for the night. It is always a possibility to leave early in the morning, anyway.

It takes one or two more exits for us to finally see a city limit sign for Boise, so Alice pulls off the freeway and we quickly spot a Motel 6, which is as good a place as any for us to rest for the night. Alice pulls into the parking lot and gets out of the car to go get us a room. Since I am not yet 18, Alice has to put the room in her name, so I go and get us food from the KFC across the street while she gets everything straightened out.

When I return, Alice is standing in the parking lot waiting for me. She gets our overnight bags from the car and leads me up to our room, which just has a single queen size bed in it. We have no problem sharing a bed, especially if it means the room is cheaper.

We quickly eat and chat about our plans for the next day. We figure if we wake up by six, we can be on the road shortly after, and we can be in Salt Lake City by ten or eleven. If we can make good time, we plan to stop to get some breakfast/brunch and wander around a little bit before taking off again. We want to be in or around Cheyenne, Wyoming by eight o' clock tomorrow night before deciding what our next move is going to be.

Alice showers that night after I decide I am just going to shower in the morning, since my hair will not take kindly to being slept on wet. We fall asleep quickly, exhausted from the day full of traveling.

The next morning, I wake before Alice to take a shower. By the time I am out and dressed, Alice is awake with two cups of coffee and some English muffins from the continental breakfast the motel served. We eat our makeshift breakfast while we chat about places we for sure want to stop on our journey. We have already agreed to make a pit stop in Chicago, even though it is a little bit out of our way. But I really want to see the Bean, and Alice really wants to have authentic Chicago style pizza.

We are back on the road before seven, and we don't stop until we get to Salt Lake City, Utah. We both desperately need to pee, so we stop at the closest gas station to fill up the tank and empty our bladders before deciding on a place to eat. After asking a few locals that are at the gas station at the same time, we head to a diner a few blocks down.

Alice and I are quickly sat in a booth once we arrive and the waitress immediately puts down cups of coffee in front of us. I have a serious caffeine addiction that hadn't been satisfied yesterday, so I am more than making up for it today.

"Is there anything really to do in Cheyenne, or are we saving all the fun stuff until we get more towards the coast?" Alice inquires.

"Well, there's a transportation museum, if you wanna hit that up tomorrow morning," I tell her, faux enthusiasm thick in my voice.

Alice rolls her eyes. "I'll pass." She focuses back on the menu as she decides what to eat. "Will there be anything fun to do any time soon?"

"Omaha is more populated, and I know there's like, botanical gardens and outdoor malls," I tell her. "I wanna get some pictures there, if I can."

"How many pictures have you already taken, Bella?" Alice asks me, raising her eyebrow.

I shrug. Alice always indulges me when it comes to all the pictures I take, but I know she sometimes gets annoyed. I have taken pictures of us at every state line sign that we have passed so far, and I want to get pictures of us at any sights we go to see. I know I am going to get quite a few once we go to Chicago, but I want more along the way.

Renee had introduced me to photography when I was younger, since she was going through a phase where she was really into photography. She had bought me a polaroid camera, and she had quickly moved on to her next project, but I became hooked on it. I never travelled anywhere without my polaroid and my digital camera that Charlie had gotten me for my sixteenth birthday. I love playing with lighting and experimenting with background and foreground contrasts. If it was practical, I would major in photography, but it isn't and UMass didn't offer it, so I chose the only other thing I was really interested in: journalism. I plan to keep up on the photography, though.

The waitress comes back to take our orders and refill our mugs before flitting away again.

"Have you thought more about the whole Riley thing?" Alice asks, taking a sip of her coffee.

"I wasn't aware that there was a Riley thing," I counter, raising my eyebrows at her.

"Oh, come on, Bella," Alice huffs, rolling her eyes. "You know what I mean. What if he wants you? From what I heard, the sex was fantastic." She wiggles her eyebrows at me. "Maybe he'd want to rekindle that flame."

I shrug. "But what if he has a girlfriend, or he really has no interest in me anymore? It has been two years, Al. People move on. I really don't want to think about things that might not even be a reality. Like you said: it's a bridge we'll cross when we get to it."

"Okay, humor me, here," she says. "What if you guys run into each other, and he's just as taken with you as he was when we were in high school? What if he tells you he wants to have a thing again, and he's not tied to anyone else? Would you do it?"

I shrug again. "Sure, why not? Even you knew the sex was good, and I'm all for great sex, because lord knows my life has been lacking that since Riley left." I huff at the sad state of my sex life. "I'd probably do a friends with benefits thing with him, but I'm not sure I'd really be interested in a relationship. I want to take part of college to just be me and figure out what exactly it is that I'm doing with my life. I care for Riley, but I don't think I'd want to date him again. At least not right away."

"But you'd be open to sucking his cock and getting boned by him every once in a while?"

"Absolutely."

There is a serious look on my face for about five seconds before we both burst into laughter.

}ACH{

August 27th, 2015

3:28 pm

I have just pulled off the highway at a rest stop in Middle Of Nowhere, Wyoming, when my cell phone begins to ring. Alice checks the caller ID for me before telling me it is my dad. I groan when I realize I haven't called or texted my dad since we left Forks. I tell her to answer it for me, since my dad will have an absolute fit if I talk to him on the phone while I am driving.

"Hey Chief," Alice greets. She pauses for a few moments while Charlie speaks. "No, she's fine, she's just driving right now. We're about to stop to stretch our legs and use the little girl's room. Do you want to wait or have her call you when we get out?" Alice nods as my dad responds. "Alright, will do. Bye, Charlie."

Alice turns to me. "He's pretty pissed."

I grimace. "Shit, I know. I totally forgot about calling him. Between eating, sleeping, and driving, my mind hasn't had a whole lot of focus on anything else."

I find a parking spot closest to the restrooms, and Alice and I quickly get out of the car. Alice is taking over driving the rest of the way to Cheyenne, so I will finally get a break. After I relieve my bladder, I pull my phone out and call Charlie back; he answers on the second ring.

"Bells, what did I tell you?" he demands more than asks.

I sigh. "I'm sorry, I totally forgot last night, I'm sorry. I was exhausted once we got to Boise. I pretty much ate and then passed out. I promise to call you when I get to the motel tonight." I feel like shit for not calling Charlie. I know both his paternal side and his cop side are worrying with possible scenarios of why I haven't called him.

"Thank you," he says gruffly. "Have you decided where you're stopping tonight?"

"Yeah, we're gonna stop in Cheyenne. We're about four or five hours out."

"And then where are you headed tomorrow?"

"Omaha. It's about eight hours away, so I figure we'll stop somewhere at the halfway point, get some lunch and then stay the night in Omaha. There's some gardens and an outdoor mall that we want to check out, so we'll probably hang out for a few hours before getting back on the road."

"Do you know where you're going after that?" Charlie likes to know details.

I shake my head, even though he can't see the action. "No, we'll figure that out tonight or tomorrow morning."

"Alright. Just text more or something when you settle down for the night."

"Will do, Dad. Love you."

"Love you, too, Bells." With that, we hang up, and Alice comes out of the restroom.

"Ready to get going?" she asks. I nod and toss her the keys to the car.

When we settle in, she hooks up her phone to the auxiliary cord and selects a song. Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi starts playing, and we sing along as she heads back onto the freeway.

We sing along to several songs on the playlist before Alice turns the music down. She glances at me from the corner of her eye.

"Bella," she says, somewhat hesitantly. I raise my eyebrows at her tone, because Alice is always sure of herself. She is the type of person that never gives a shit what anyone else thinks, and she makes sure you know she doesn't give a shit about your opinion. Of course, she values mine above almost everyone else's, but she never sounds hesitant.

"What's up, Al?"

"What would you say if I told you I wanted to get another piercing?"

"I'd say 'go for it'," I tell her, shrugging. Alice already has two on her nose, and the several in her ears that she's accumulated since she was little.

"What if I told you I wanted to get my nipples done?" she asks. "And what if I asked you to get them done with me?"

I furrow my eyebrows. "Since when do you want to get your nipples pierced?" I ask. Alice has always said that her next piercing is going to be her belly button, she just hasn't gotten the chance to do it yet. I was the one that always said I had wanted to get my nipples pierced.

"Since about thirty seconds ago when I proposed the idea to you," she says giggling. "It sounded like a good idea, all of a sudden. So what do you say? When we stop in Omaha tomorrow, do you wanna get our nipples pierced?"

"Alice, I'm not eighteen, yet. I can't get my nipples pierced." Of all people, I figure Alice would remember this detail, considering she has been itching since her birthday in March for my birthday, which isn't until September.

"Do you honestly think anyone in Omaha, Nebraska is going to ask for ID?" she scoff. "They didn't even ask for ID when I got my septum pierced, and I had just turned eighteen."

"I mean, we can try it, but I'm not promising you anything." I will hold her hand through it if I can't get them done myself.

"I bet you they'll do it," she says.

"We'll see, Brandon."

}ACH{

August 28th, 2015

6:17 pm

We make it to Omaha much quicker than I expect, so Alice and I visit the outdoor mall, where Alice buys a few clothing items, and I cave and buy a few things, too. We eat at the food court for dinner before heading to the botanical gardens, which surprisingly don't close until eight. On our way over, Alice spots a tattoo shop and demands that we go once we are done at the gardens. I agree, although I am skeptical that I'm getting pierced tonight.

At the gardens, Alice fawn over the beautiful plants and flowers and all the butterflies while I snap pictures of whatever I think looks good. I get a few of Alice standing amongst foliage, darkened by the rays of the setting sun that are shining in through the glass panes that make up the walls. I remind myself to go through these once I get to Boston so I'll be able to print out all the good ones and post them up in our dorm.

Once the botanical gardens closed, I drive over to the tattoo shop Alice had pointed out and park after making sure it is still open. Alice leads me in by the hand, and we are greeted by a man and a woman who are hanging out behind the front counter.

"Hey, what can we help you ladies with?" the guy asks. He is a little older, with a greying beard and mustache and crinkles around his eyes. Both arms are covered in tattoos and the smile on his face is warm and friendly.

"We wanna get our nipples pierced," Alice tells him.

The guy throws a thumb at the girl beside him who is younger than him, but definitely older than Alice and me. She also has several tattoos and several piercings in different areas of her body. "This is your gal."

The woman smiles and lifts the partition of the counter, allowing Alice and me to step through to the main part of the shop. "Follow me," she says. Alice and I trail behind her as she leads us to a room in the back that has drawers lining the walls, a seat in the center, and a rolling cart, much like ones they have in hospitals.

"Both of you are getting them done?" she asks, donning a pair of latex gloves. We both nod as Alice takes a seat first. "One or both, sweetie?"

"Both," Alice says, before pulling her shirt over her head. Alice is already bare underneath, since she rarely ever wears a bra, especially in the summer time. She can get away with not wearing one, since her small A-cups are perfectly perky and look great in whatever she wore. I am not as fortunate. Even though my boobs are plenty perky, thanks to wonderful genes, my full D's are much larger than Alice's. She has told me on several occasions that I can go without a bra, and I do when it is just her and me, but I typically put one on if I am going to be out in public for an extended period of time.

The woman asks Alice if she wants barbells or hoops, and Alice answers barbells. She quickly sterilizes the area before placing the clamps, which Alice winces at, and opening the needle and jewelry. The woman is quick and sure in her movements, steadily piercing the needle through Alice's skin and swapping the jewelry out in its place. To do both sides, it takes her probably about a minute total, which is very impressive. Alice quickly throws her shirt back on and bounces up, motioning for me to take her place.

I am really surprised that they didn't ask for ID, but I know I definitely look older than eighteen. Alice may be questionable, but I'm sure the piercings in her face make people think she is at least her age. I sit in the chair and remove my top and my bra as I tell the woman that I want barbells, as well. She just nods and goes through the motions again, putting on a new pair of gloves before wiping me down and clamping the area off. I wince, as Alice had, and wince again as the needle passes through. The second one definitely hurts more than the first, since my adrenaline has warn off by the time she gets to the second one.

Within five minutes, both Alice and I are clothed and paying forty bucks a piece. We quickly thank the two and they wave goodbye as they bid us a goodnight.

Since it is still early, and Alice and I are still on an adrenaline rush, we decide to keep driving on into Iowa, since it will cut back on our drive tomorrow, and we'll be able to spend more time in Chicago. I take over at the wheel and have Alice text Charlie that we are going to be stopping later than expected.

After about a two and a half hour drive, we arrive in Des Moines, Iowa and decide to call it a night. We settle down in a hotel and decide to leave around seven the next morning. At this rate, we'll be in Chicago by one o'clock tomorrow afternoon.

So, how are we feeling so far? Any suggestions, comments, concerns? I read each and every review, and I will try to respond to all of them this time around. I know I was really bad with that for ATRM, and I apologize.

As always, I love hearing from you guys! Even if it's to tell me you think this sucks. I literally appreciate all comments. Seriously. Please review.

Alright! I plan to have the next chapter up by the end of the weekend. Maybe sooner if you bless me with reviews. I'm a very praise-motivated person. Not even gonna lie.

Until next time, lovelies!