Hi All!! First of all, sorry for the lack of updates. Life can be lame sometimes, esp when you're a struggling grad student. This chapter doesn't really move the plot, but it gives a little background for ya. More progress next time hopefully!!!

So a few of you have added this to alerts... I'd love to hear what you have to say about it. Leave me a note and I'll love you forever :D

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We drove home in almost utter silence. I couldn't stop thinking about what Edward had said, and how I felt when he had touched me. I was in enough trouble here; I most certainly did not need boy issues on top of it. Every so often, I would catch Alice admiring how her ring twinkled in the moonlight. Lucky for her, it was a full moon tonight. I was ridiculously happy for her and Jasper. I couldn't think of two people who deserved each other more, or deserved to be endlessly happy. I was thrilled for them.

Once we pulled up to the front of our complex, Alice turned around and look at me. "I was going to stay with Jasper tonight, is that ok?"

I chuckled. Only Alice would ask permission to stay with her new fiancée on the night they got engaged. "It's more than ok. I insist. Lord knows I won't be sleeping with your headboard hitting the wall all night, so by all means, go. Fornicate. Enjoy." Alice laughed and Jasper turned away, slightly embarrassed. I leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "I'm so happy for you Al. Really." I pulled back and she had a thousand watt smile on her face.

I climbed out of the car and walked around the back of the car to get to the entrance of our complex. The building had once been a hotel that was converted into a bunch of condos. It was nice because you had to have a key to get in the building and into our apartment. I slid the key into the large glass door and waved back to Alice to let them know I had gotten in okay and that they could leave.

Alice waved back and as I watched the car start to pull away, I caught Edwards staring at me. The intensity I felt from his gaze sent another shiver up my spine, but it wasn't unpleasant. Less like the shock you get from your car on a dry fall day, and more like the tingles you get when you played with electricity in high school chemistry and physics. I watched the car turn the corner and headed up to the apartment, trying desperately to not think about those burning jade eyes, and his fuck-me hair. I had bigger problems, and I certainly didn't need to add to them by dwelling on some momentary infatuation that was never going to lead to anything.

I didn't get much sleep, even with Alice staying at Jasper's. I spent most of the night tossing and turning in bed, wondering how I how in the hell I had gotten myself into such a mess. Thinking about that night with Jake led me to thinking about meeting Jake during auditions, which reminded me about the months Alice and I spent preparing for that day, which made me think of the day I met her at UW.

I had only been in Washington a year. My dad had a heart attack the last week of my senior year, so once school was finished, I rushed up here to be with him and took care of him until he was back on his feet. This primarily consisted of removing all the red meat from his diet and reintroducing the man to vegetables. Being from the Pacific Northwest, you would think he would be familiar with green leafy things, but no. Not Charlie.

So we got his diet adjusted, gradually eased him into an exercise paradigm, and by my 19th birthday, the county saw fit to give him his badge and gun back. Why they gave them to him in the first place was beyond me, but he could not go back to pestering the local teens in an official capacity. Sadly, this also meant that he had enough energy to pester me about college, which I had put off to help him. This included him pestering me about my dancing. I hadn't strapped on my proverbial point shoes and tutu since before graduation and to be honest, hadn't really missed it. Until he brought home an ad for a dancing instructor and a UW application for admission.

I took the job telling Charlie that it was the only thing I was good at and that I could help out with the bills since his medical tab was pretty astronomical. The application, however, sat on the kitchen counter for 9 weeks. What need did I really have for college? Besides prancing around on a stage, I wasn't really good at anything, certainly nothing marketable. But in those nine weeks, I began my job working with the area kids, teaching them how to prance around on a stage themselves, and I found myself loving it. Really loving it.

So I filled out the application with the aim of getting a major in elementary education and a minor in dance. I figured I could teach at some school, or a dance academy, whichever had an opening.

I applied for housing, which was the smarted and luckiest fucking thing I've ever done. Alice was already in our room when I arrived and didn't shut up until… well it's been nearly 5 and a half years and she's still going. My own personal energizer bunny of chit-chat and shopping.

When we started our final semester, one of our dance professors approached us with an offer. His wife, a world-renown prima ballerina from the Ukraine, was setting up a dance studio in Seattle and had asked if we would audition. It was to be a touring company unlike any other I had ever heard of. Victoria, our professor's wife, had acquired a special set of funding (on the order of millions it was rumored) from the National Foundation for the Arts to establish a very unique dance group. We would tour, along with a full orchestra, performing all types of dance. Ballet, ballroom, tab, step; you name it, we do it. But we take it beyond the performance. The following afternoon, we put on a clinic for anyone who wants to attend to either try out an instrument, take a stab at a few steps, anything we can do to expose American's to the arts again. Alice even convinced them to set up a painting and sketching station that she oversees.

Alice and I had been a part of Exposure for over a year, and now I faced losing not only my position as lead in most on the scenes, but losing my position as a member of this group overall.

6 o'clock came around too damn early. As the alarm blared it's annoying tone, I contemplated taking care of it like I had the test yesterday, but decided against it since the clock has cost considerably much more than the test had. I slammed the button on it to turn the alarm off, and that helped a bit. I wasn't a morning person, and dreading go to rehearsals didn't make things any better.

I knew that I would need to make a decision pretty quickly. If I kept the pregnancy, I would need to bow out of the tour during pre-production, so someone else could be brought in and still have time to learn the routines. If I didn't keep the baby, I would need to take care of it soon so that I would have ample recovery time before we actually started but still be able to get enough rehearsal in. But I couldn't do anything about it until I saw a doctor. Victoria was an amazing dancer, and she had a vision I admired, but she was a bitch. If I told her what was going on without providing a solution, I would lose my role for sure.

It was a good thing I set my alarm for an hour early, cause as soon as I moved to get out of bed, the nausea hit, and I spent 45 minutes dry heaving into my favorite porcelain god. This was getting out of hand. I stood on the scale after my shower to find that I had lost 3 lbs since last week. Who loses weight when they're pregnant? Apparently I do.

On my way out of the apartment, I grabbed my trusty bottle of pepto, and survived the drive to the studio without coating the inside of my car with bile. The same could not be said, however, once I reached the studio. It took me half an hour before I could stand for more than 5 minutes without needing the wretch. While I cowered in the studio's bathroom, Alice again kept me company.

"You know, we used to have conversations in far more pleasant arenas B," she stated as I hovered over the sink. I glared at her from the mirror.

"You can go to hell." She shrugged. "On a happier note, how was last night? Everything you expected and more?" I wiggled my eyebrows at her.

"It was magical, but do you really want the details? Cause I could tell you about how he tried this one thing where he bent me over and…" I didn't get to hear the end of that statement over my puking. Thank god for small miracles. "Oh, I talked to dad last night and he said he would have some time this afternoon to see you."

"Jesus Christ PLEASE tell me you did not tell your father about my unfortunate circumstances. I'm fairly certain they already don't approve of you being friends with a pleb like me, the defiantly don't need to be alerted to my after school special status." I was beyond irritated at this point.

"Whatever, my parents are ambivalent towards you. And no, I didn't tell, I just said you needed to see someone soon."

"Did you stop to think that maybe I don't want your father examining my girl bits? Ugh, I might as well let my father examine me."

"I thought Charlie was a Sherriff?"

"Ugh, ALICE! NOT THE POINT!"

"Woah there Bitchy McHostile. Just trying to help you here. There are a few women that work for my dad, I'm sure if you tell him he can ask one of them to do the exam. I just figured you would want someone you know to talk to during the appointment. Go, don't go. No hair off my back."

I had stepped over a line. She really was trying to do the right thing, and at the end of the day, I had put myself in this situation. "I'm sorry Al. I'll go. Thanks for doing that, I appreciate it. Really. Stupid hormones."

She hugged me. "It's okay. But pregnancy really doesn't suit you." We both laughed at that.

We walked out the bathroom shortly after that. Victoria wasn't pleased, but seemed appeased when I told her I was sick but not contagious and was going to push through for the good of the company. We rehearsed the acts consisting of only girls, then tomorrow the guys would join us. Wednesday the girls would have off while the boys worked on some of their routines. Then Thursday we would come back together to practice together. Saturdays would alternate between the three sets of rehearsals, boys, girls and group. And so it would go for 3 months until we debuted in Chicago.

It was going to be a long three months.

The morning session went okay. Could have gone better, but we were learning a new dance, and we had four new girls to work into the group. By 12:30, we were all ready for a break.

"I'm gunna go call Jas," Alice said as we were getting out stuff out of our bags to head across the street to Joe's Deli. I rolled my eyes and smiled. They really were tooth-achingly sweet together.

At the diner, I chose some chicken soup, figuring it was mild, and probably wouldn't burn too badly when it came back up. I was sitting at a table by myself, reading some inane article in Cosmo, when a hauntingly familiar voice broke into my thoughts.

"Is this seat taken?"