Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or the characters... I merely borrow them for my girlish pleasure. Actually, I don't own Italy, either. Who owns Italy? No one, right? Italy owns Italy. GAR. Confusing! /

Summary: Alice and Bella move to Italy for the year, right after they graduate college. They say that Italy is the place to meet your soul mate, but how much do they know...

A/N: I'm currently working on this, Blue Hour (which is being changed to The Last Blue Moon), Notes, and I'll Be Your Hero If You'll Be My Heroine. Ahh, and then school. SO MUCH! I'll probably be gradually slowing down on the writing, although I WILL get a lot done during the year. Okay? Thanks to my reviewers! All human, too.

A/S/N: (authors second note) Each chapter will have a... SONG! Now, I couldn't find a very good one for this, but the only one that I could think of that was really good is.. AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE! The songs or bands will be the chapter titles. Thanks! :b

Being Bella

"Bella? Could you come in here for moment?" called a tinkling soprano from my almost-formal dining room. I absentmindedly looked up, figuring out a second too late that I wouldn't be able to see Alice and our guests from here.

'Here' was actually a pretty interesting spot.

Packing for our trip tomorrow, I had realized that I was missing my blow dryer, and if Alice lost hers on the plane (which would happen), all hell would break loose if I didn't have one either.

Apparently, I had dropped my blow dryer near my bed, and accidently kicked it underneath my bed and on the steps to our basement, which was behind a trap door under my bed.

How does that happen? I thought as I heaved my bed about a half an inch away from it's original spot.

"Bella?" called Alice again.

"One moment!" I groaned.

Alice immediately went back to chatting with our family and friends, which I had excused when I realized that there was one blow dryer unaccounted for.

After pushing the bed- option one- didn't work out too well, I moved on to option two; climb underneath the bed, open the trap door a bit, and just reach for the blow dryer until you get it.

I almost had my left shoulder under the bed when I heard Alice's soft step come into my room at a slow pace.

"Ciao. That means 'hello,'" she translated.

"I know, Alice. Not right now, please."

"Do you know what Bella means?" she tried.

"I don't care, Alice," I snapped, pulling my body back out of the dust-bunny world, shaking off a few escapees.

"What are you looking for, Bella?" she asked, her tone down a few octaves. I would hate to bring Alice's good mood down the day before we fulfill one of her many dreams, so I answered nicely.

"My blow dryer. It's in the basement," I explained.

"Oh, yours? I used it this morning."

My jaw must've dropped to the floor, since Alice walked away quickly and quietly before I could react. Smart girl.

"Don't forget, Bella! We need to make a toast!" she called from the hall.

I collected myself, wiping off a few more specs of dust before I presented myself for the second time of the night.

"Oh, it's nice of you join to us again," said my dad, Charlie. He's usually not a big talker, and probably felt uncomfortable with Alice's family and our friends.

I took a look at our large, inexpensive table, covered with a nice tablecloth given from Esme, Alice's mother. Everyone was there; Carlisle and Esme, Alice's parents; Charlie, my father and police Chief Swan; Laurent, Alice's boyfriend of four months; Emmett, Alice's big bear of a brother; Angela and Ben, Angela being one of my good friends and Ben being her steady boyfriend, and finally, Alice. Her perfect, pale face was raised a bit, a wide smile reaching her ears.

I took my seat between Emmett and Charlie, automatically placing my napkin in my lap, even though we had already eaten.

"A toast," Alice began, standing and holding up her drink, "to family, to friends, to love, and to being bella!"

As everyone clinked glasses, I felt confused. "Being me?" I wondered aloud.

Alice and Laurent laughed, gazing into each others eyes. "Ha, silly Bella. In Italian, 'bella' means beautiful!"

I heard a round of "oh", "yes", and "that sounds about right."

I nodded, understanding. Of course Alice would say something like that.

Next, Laurent stood, his right hand in his pocket. "If I could get the attention of everyone..." Everyone stopped talking, and looked up to Laurent. "I have an announcement."

We all waited for his "announcement", when he dropped to his knee, facing Alice. I gasped. Would Alice say yes? They've only known each other for a few months!

"Alice, I know that it hasn't been that long of a time that we've been together, but I love you with all of my heart, and want you to be mine. Would you marry me?"

Just like when Alice told me about my blow dryer, my jaw dropped and my eyes widened. Who does Laurent think he is?! I thought to myself.

And just like the whole blow dryer ordeal, Alice ran away.

"Get. Out," I ordered, pointing a finger at Laurent. He complied, running almost as fast as Alice had.

I heard faint weeping, and ran to the direction in which Alice went. I found her in her bedroom, lying down on her bed, looking pathetic.

"Oh, Alice." I jumped onto bed with her, soothing her.

"Bella! I couldn't say no in front of everyone!" she cried. I pulled her into a hug, feeling sincerely sorry for my best friend.

I shook my head and spoke. "He's an idiot. He did the wrong thing, and you did the right thing." She sobbed into my shoulder, ruining my borrowed cocktail dress.

She sniffled, wiping her eyes with her fist. "Your right," she decided after a few minutes.

"Let's go say goodbye to everyone, and then we can finish packing."

She nodded, one arm around my waist, needing my support as she sniffled and choked.

--

We had printed our boarding passes at home, expecting the worst of long lines. I thanked Alice a few times for remembering to, even after her engagement scare, print them out. I don't know what I would do without her.

The thing that took the most time was finding the gate, since a few planes at different times were heading out for Rome, Italy. We would make it all the way to the bag-check, hand over our pass our whatever, and end up having to go somewhere else. It was awfully time consuming.

Thankfully, the bag-check wasn't too long of a line, so that took only ten or twenty minutes, even though Alice had to have the big, masochistic, security guard that smelled like fish check her all of her body, every so often Alice wincing at his odor... And yet I got to pass right through, with no masochistic security guards in my way, laughing the whole time at Alice- especially when she stood in front of the x-ray machine tying the straps on her heels, resulting in a few vulgar things being said from the line.

"Oh my gosh, that guy smelled so gross," complained Alice when we went to grab a quick drink and packs of gum.

I laughed at her, and then gave my money to the gothic cashier behind the counter, who had ear plugs in her ears and a piercing in her nose. I waved goodbye, murmured "have a nice day", and walked with Alice to the plane entry.

Alice hadn't had time to tie the left strappy heel to perfection, so one strap was hanging off- a hazard to my klutzy self.

I watched out for it, until I handed my boarding pass down. After I got it back, I tried to slip it back into my carry-on smoothly, but instead, I tripped over the heel, all of my plane-entertainment and a few other things were sprawled all over the passageway to the plane.

"Ugh," I moaned as I got up, blushing red.

A tall, tan, man bent down and picked up my iPod, handing it to me while still bent. He looked especially handsome from this view, but I didn't know quite yet if he was until I could see his face.

After he had pulled together most of my things, he sat up and handed it to me, gazing at me from his gorgeous brown eyes. His hair was black and curly, and he definitely was handsome.

"Thank you," I said, blushing again. He smiled, and then shook my hand.

I packed my stuff back up and rushed inside. Why hadn't he spoken?

"Alice, what is your seat?" I asked her as I pulled my ticket out. "I'm... F234."

Alice looked at me, ticket in hand, gaping. "Uh, uh..."

"What, Alice?"

"I'm F245. I'm no where near you," she said.

"This must be a mistake. We bought these tickets at the same time! Oh, no, I'm going to end up next to some fat, fish-smelling man..." I went on and on, until Alice stopped me.

She chuckled. "You could end up with the curly-haired hottie," she reminded me.

I smiled. "I could..."

"Go find your seat, Bella," she said, walking far down the aisle after I had found where I sat.

Luckily, no one was there yet, so I could pick my seat. I chose the window seat, wanting full access of the blinds.

"Bella, Bella," murmured the curly-haired man, sitting down next to me. He had no accent, so I was sure that he wasn't Italian like I thought.

I pathetically tried to flirt, blinking slowly. "How did you know, smart-one?"

He smiled the same smile as before, doing the same thing that I was with my eyelashes. "Bella," he repeated.

I looked up at his smiling face, bemused. "Yes."

"Bella."

"Mhm."

"Bella, Bella."

I sighed, and then looked backwards, towards Alice. She was sitting next to the cutest guy ever, probably flirting a hundred times better than I ever could.

Alice's POV

I walked farther down the aisle then Bella did, happy that I wouldn't have to sit next to her. I wouldn't have thought that if I wasn't trying to get a new boyfriend or a job. I could be sitting next to anyone- a Italian designer or an Italian stud. Didn't matter to me.

When I made it to my seat, I noticed that an adorable American boy was sitting in the seat next to mine, looking out the window and writing something out of the mist on the window. How childish, I thought, but still how adorable!

"Hello," I said, putting on my usual charm. He looked up at me, his blue, blue eyes smiling.

"Greetings."

I was taken a step back by his voice and his looks. A squeaky, girly voice did not go with a muscly, boyish body. Really.

I scooted in next to him, batting my eyelashes.

"Did you know," he started, startling me with his voice again, "that you blink about eighty-four million times in a year?"

I shook my head, trying to see what he wrote on the window. A formula. Could've guessed that.

"So. What do you prefer?" he attempted at making me laugh. "Blinking more or less than that unbelievably monstrous aggregate? I couldn't give it credence even when my professor told me that it was unelaborated!"

"Aggregates. Right," I said, turning the other way.

"Did you know that babies are born without kneecaps?" he tried.

"Could you give that a credence? I mean, could you stop, please? I'd like to get to sleep," I lied, pulling out my iPod.

He came closer to me, looking at my iPod as I scrolled through the songs.

"What a fascinating devise," he observed, breathing on me. He had morning breath, and obviously didn't brush them.

Trying to get rid of him, I sneezed.

"Did you know that a sneeze can discharge out of your nose at great speeds? Speeds greater than 100 miles per hour! Isn't that just fascinating?" he mused.

I turned my head the other way and tried to lose myself in sleep, wondering if Bella was having a nice time with the curly-haired hottie that I had swiped tickets with.

Bella's POV

"So, what do you do?" I asked this weird man, trying to make small talk.

"Bella."

"Oh, my," I muttered, letting sleep take over me.

A/N: The song for this chapter is... Shut Up And Let Me Go by the Ting Tings! Hope I did it right! C: