a/n- this has been floating in my head for awhile and started putting it down as a distraction when i was stuck on my other story. please review!!

i don't own nothing.

Rose took two mini bottles from her purse, handing one to me and opening hers.

"You brought your own liquor for the flight?"

"This is just for the airport," she laughed.

We held them up and tapped them together. "Vegas, Baby. Vegas," she said.

..........

I could not believe it. I was finally done.

I'd taken my last final this morning, commencement was next week. In the meantime we were going to blow off a little steam. Rosalie and I were sitting in the San Jose airport ready to hop on a flight to Vegas, Alice would be joining us tomorrow, since she still had a couple weeks of classes. Rose's parents had gifted her with a trip for her, Alice and me. Must be nice to be filthy rich, but seriously, I'm not complaining. This was going to be awesome.

After graduating from Forks High School with a 4.0 and more extracurriculars than a sane person would possibly participate in I headed off to Stanford. I'd worked my ass off to earn academic scholarships and I had a partial sports scholarship as well, there was no way that Renee and Charlie could have afforded to put me through my dream school. It was a ton of work, but I'd done it. Next week I'd be a Stanford graduate. My parents were ecstatic, four years ago no one would have thought this possible.

That summer after high school graduation was the worst of my life. That was the summer he left.

Edward and I had known each other forever. Everyone was like that growing up in Forks, but with us it was, well, it was like we were meant to be. It was always like Edward was my other half. We did everything with and for each other. We'd started "dating"just before high school, and 3 days after graduating from Forks High, he told me he was leaving. He was going to spend his summer in Europe, before heading to NYU. We both knew we'd be in schools on opposite ends of the country, but we had never discussed what that meant for us.

But he had apparently thought about it. A lot. He thought it was best if we just ended things then, "a clean break". Rather than enjoy the 3 summer months together, he would go now so we wouldn't have to think about the coming end. What an ass.

It tore me apart. I spent my entire last summer before college in a haze. Alice, my best friend since forever, tried like hell to bring me out of it. She would drag me to every party in town and I'd sit in a corner the whole night nursing a beer. Then there were the girls' shopping weekends in Seattle, those were the worst, her mom Esme and her would spend ungodly amounts of money on clothing that I'd never wear since I rarely changed out of my yoga pants. Alice tried so hard that summer to make me feel whole again, looking back now I felt terrible about my behavior.

I was still a shell of myself when my parents drove me down to Stanford to move me in. My roommate was tall blond and gorgeous and completely disgusted by me and the fact that I could have cared less about my looks. We avoided each other for weeks. Then there was a party on our floor, apparently she'd had enough of some guy following her around and came back to our room to hide out. I was sitting on my bed leaning against the wall, being my reclusive self when something in my closet caught her eye.

The tag still hanging from some designer dress.

"You have this?" she asked in an accusatory tone. I reluctantly looked up, when her blue eyes caught mine, I shrugged. "And you wear those?" She gestured her long perfectly manicured fingers over me. "Every. Fucking. Day?"

"Um."

"What else is in here?" she screeched, throwing the closet door open. "Holy hell, Bela!"

My tiny dorm room closet was jam packed with clothes, tags still hanging from most. Alice had helped me pack. I bit down on my lip. Rosalie ran over to my dresser, tearing it open and rummaging through my drawers. "Why?" she accused.

"Why what?" I mumbled.

"This," she grabbed my long cardinal deck coat from the hook on the back of the door. I loved that fucking coat. I lived in it. I earned it, I should be able to enjoy it's long fluffy goodness.

"It's comfy." I stated simply.

Rosalie's eyes looked ready to pop out of her head. "And I assume that's the excuse for the stretchy yoga pants too. Or is that going to be the daily servings of ice cream in the dining hall." Her arms were folded firmly across her chest as she looked down at me.

I shrugged. I wondered if I continued to be unresponsive if she'd stop.

I guessed not when she squealed, "The tags are still on most of this." I stared at her blankly. "Isabella, this stuff was meant to be worn, not hidden in a closet."

"Bella."

"What?"

"Bella, no one calls me Isabella. Except my grandma."

"OK, Bella. What is with all this wonderful stuff in your closet and you wearing yoga pants and a deck coat all the time."

"You forgot about the tee shirts."

Rosalie rolled her eyes and lowered herself into my desk chair. "Don't get me started on the shirts." Then she laughed "Do you have any that don't say 'swim team' on them?"

"Maybe."

"Bella, you are far to pretty to dress like that. And, what acceptable sorority is going to take you when you dress like that?"

"I'm not joining a sorority."

"Yes, we are." I laughed. "What?"

"You remind me of my friend Alice back home. She's the one who bought me all that."

"What a good friend," Rosalie replied, raising one perfectly sculpted eyebrow at me.

"She was just trying to distract me."

"So what'd you bring it all here for if you weren't going to wear any of it?"

"Alice 'helped' me pack." I used air quotes as I spoke.

Rosalie smiled. "What was she distracting you from?"

"Boy trouble."

"Ah. Now I see. Some high school boyfriend broke your heart. But Bella, now were here," she gestured around her. "In college, it's a whole new ball game. And I, for one, think it's time you got out there and played."

"I'm a swimmer, not a ball player," I joked.

"You don't actually swim. You dive. And it's time you dove into life."

"Touche." I shrugged. "I used to swim."

I was a clumsy kid. Hell, I am still clumsy. But the water was the one place I felt comfortable. I used to spend all summer at the Forks pool. When I was 8 my mom started driving me to Port Angeles three times a week for lessons. It was an hour trip each way, but she never seemed to mind. I think cause it made me happy. When they renovated the pool there and got a diving tank, it was a whole new world for me. Diving was amazing I felt so free. I could do anything on the diving board. When I was accepted to Stanford and started looking into financial aid I looked into scholarships for the swim team. They sent a scout to watch me dive, then offered me a small sports scholarship and a spot on the team. I felt awesome. That was one of the best days of my life.

Of course, it was shortly followed by one of worst.

After that night, it became Rosalie's duty to bring me back to life. And I guess it worked. We pledged TriDelta together, and lived in the house there together our Sophomore year. We double dated and she enjoyed playing "dress Bella" as much as Alice did, without the insane hyper level that Alice managed spend her life in.

Our Junior year Alice decided to go to the Fashion and Design Institute in San Fransisco. So we found a house in Palo Alto and Alice moved in with us and commuted to her classes. The three of us had a great time together and worked hard and enjoyed the two years that lead us to were we are now.