Hey tidyKat, Cutiepay, blondette1, melibaskie, Uvabunchies and KaylaSimms1990! Thank you all so much for the reviews and you're enthusiasm! And thank you to those who checked out my other stories. I hope you like this chapter!!!

As Angela parked the car Bella took a deep breath. Ok, I can do this. Angela turned to her best friend with an encouraging smile.

"Let's do it!" said Bella quickly and she hopped out of the car as fast as possible. She wanted to make sure that she wouldn't give in to the impulse that was telling her to run.

As they got to the front entrance they passed a big yellow sign welcoming them back. And as they passed through the well light halls Bella stopped to take in her surroundings. Angela did the same. They could hear the music coming from the gym and a couple of waiters passed them by, carrying a few bags of ice.

"It's like we've gone back time isn't it?" whispered Angela as she looked around at the rows of lockers and educational posters on the walls.

"Creepy," answered Bella with a nod. The two of them stared at their surroundings in silence for a few minutes. Angela was the first to break out of their reverie.

"Come on. It's time," said Angela gently.

Bella turned to look at her best friend with an anxious expression on her face. Angela stepped forward and gave Bella a comforting hug. When she pulled away she placed her hands on Bella's shoulders, gripped them tightly and looked directly into her eyes.

"I love you, more than a million white chocolate chips," she said firmly.

Bella sighed nervously.

"I love you, more than a million macadamia nuts," she answered with a slight smile.

To a random person walking by this would seem like a very strange conversation. But they knew what it meant to each other. Back when they were in college they had lived together in the same dorm room. They were both very different people. But the one thing that they had agreed on was that, if you were to ever eat ice cream, it had to have crunchy bits. For Angela it was chocolate chips, for Bella it was macadamia nuts. So whenever one of them was feeling low or just wanted some ice-cream, the other knew that they also had to bring the other their desired crunchy bits. And after ten years of friendship, this had become something that they would say to each other to comfort the other. It was their way of saying, 'I'm here, you're not alone, I have your back'. When you're friends with someone for a long time, you start to develop your own personal language or way of saying things. And you know you have your own secret way of communicating if it sounds ridiculous.

Together they both turned and walked in the direction of the gym, their heels making a clicking sound all the way until they reached the crowded, carpeted hallway. There were heaps of people lining up to get their name tags. Bella's eyes scanned the crowd to see if Edward was there. She had no idea what she would say to him if she were put into a circumstance where she would have to talk to him. Her main plan was to ignore him and to make sure that she was nowhere near him at all times. With any luck he would ignore her too. (Funnily enough, luck wouldn't be on her side tonight.)

Once they had their name tags on, there was nothing left to do but enter the gym. As they walked through the doors they were greeted with quite a sight. There were circular tables set up all around the gym, each with about fifteen chairs. There were blue and silver streamers all around and the same colour balloons were held in place by a net on the roof, they would obviously be released at the end of the night. There was room enough for a dance floor and the DJ was set up at the front of it. Bella' quick eyes made a note that Edward wasn't there yet. She silently prayed that for some reason, any reason, he would not be able to make it.

"Come on," Angela pinched her friends arm gently, "We're on table four. Let's see who we're sitting with!"

Bella followed her friend, her eyes darting around the room in case she had missed him. They got to their table and so far there were only two couples there. Bella recognised two of her old classmates, Nikki and Jackson, they had been a part of the drama club, each had bought their partners. Bella felt a stab of jealousy. She hoped that she wouldn't be the only single one at the table. They all reintroduced themselves to each other and sat down, it was a little awkward, but having Angela there made it easier. Angela never found it difficult to make conversation.

"Bella are you waiting for someone?" asked Jackson's partner Ashley kindly after they had been talking a while. Bella's head whipped around when she heard her name.

"Uh, sorry pardon?"

"Are you waiting for someone?" Ashley repeated. "You keep looking towards the door. I was just wondering if there was someone you were hoping to see." She smiled gently.

"Oh," Bella laughed nervously. "Uh, no," she continued to laugh. "Definitely not." She took a deep breath and stood up. "Actually, I was thinking of getting a drink from the bar, do you guys want anything?"

They were all still on their first drinks and Angela said that she would get hers later.

As Bella headed to the bar, she mentally kicked herself. Why did she keep thinking about him? High school was over, it was a whole decade ago, even now she was letting him ruin things for her and he wasn't even here yet.

"What'll it be," the Bartender asked her when she got to the counter.

"Uh, tequila sunrise, thank you."

As she waited for her drink she thought about what she would say to him if he tried to talk to her. She was fairly certain that she would have to restrain herself from punching him or throwing her drink in his face. Name calling came to her mind also. So much for growing up over the last ten years. No! I have to be mature about this. If I act emotionally he'll know that he still has control over me. I'll just pretend that it's nice to see him and that I barely remember him. I'll act both polite and bored and then he will see that I don't care. Bella sighed. She felt stupid for preparing herself for a conversation that would probably never happen.

But fate would have it another way. She was actually barely moments away from having the chance to put her plan into action.

The bartender handed her, her drink and she took it gratefully. She could use some liquid courage. As she turned around to head back to her table, there was someone standing directly behind her, she was startled by his closeness and bumped into him spilling her drink her all over the floor.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" she said as she looked up to see who it was. Her eyes widened slightly. She was staring into the gorgeous golden brown eyes of Edward Cullen.

They both stared at each other for a long moment. Bella noticed that she had somehow managed to splash a part of her drink onto his tie.

"I got it, I got it," said a waiter as he came running to mop up the mess. Neither of them moved or said anything until the waiter was gone.

Edward noticed that Bella was staring at his chest. He looked down at the yellowy orange stain on his tie and then back to her.

"I'm sorry," she said again quickly. This was definitely not how she had wanted to meet him. "I'll pay for the dry cleaning of course."

Edward seemed to be looking at her as if he was in some type of strange trance. When he realised that it was his turn to say something he quickly snapped out of it. He smiled a devilish smile and chuckled softly.

"No, no don't be ridiculous." His hand moved up to loosen his tie and then to take it off. "You know, if you wanted me to take my shirt off for you Bella, all you had to do was ask." He placed his tie in his suit pocket and grinned mischievously at her. "Would you like me to get you another drink so you can aim for my shirt this time?"

Bella frowned. Yep, still the same jerk! She hated how he had called her Bella. He wasn't her friend.

"It's Isabella."

"What?" he asked confused.

"My name. It's Isabella," she said firmly.

"Oh," he answered. He frowned slightly. He mind wandered to a time when he used to tease her. He had known that she had hated her full name, that's why he had purposely called her by it. In fact, back then he had made up a horrible rhyme for her. 'Isabella is a smella, ugly girl will never get a fella!'. He shook himself mentally as he remembered how embarrassed she would look when he had said things like that.

"Excuse me," Bella said and turned quickly to find Angela.

"No, no, no wait," he said and put a hand around her upper arm to gently turn her back to him. They both felt a jolt of electricity run through them as their skin made contact. She was upset by this reaction of hers. She looked at his hand and then up to his eyes, a serious expression upon her face. He immediately let go.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she tried to look bored. The truth was that she couldn't believe she was there with him or that she had felt a spark of electricity when they touched.

"Well," he said quickly. "This is a reunion Bel-Isabella. Tell me what you've been doing with yourself?"

Bella couldn't believe he was taking an interest in her. She half expected him to say something sleazy or mean like he used to. She could feel the rage building within her as those memories came flooding back. Relax, just stay calm. Be cool. Act like you don't care, as if you're in control and then get away from him.

"Well, about two minutes ago I was there," she pointed at the bar. "And then about one minute ago I managed to save this guy from wearing a really ugly tie in public." Bella plastered a calm seeming to be confident smile on her face. "And now here I am," she laughed.

She was using the voice that you use when you met a person you know from work, while you're out shopping or at the movies. It's always awkward but you use that light, 'it's funny that I'm bumping into you' voice and pretend that everything is ok. Before he could open his mouth to respond she spoke again.

"Anyway Edward it was really nice seeing you again," she pat him lightly on the arm, then took a few steps back. "I'll see you later," and she turned to leave.

"Yeah you too." he said softly to himself as he watched her go. "You look just as beautiful as you always did."

Hehehe, I hope you liked this chapter! The chocolate chip/macadamia nut thing was inspired by the movie 'what a girl wants' where the mother says "I love you a million Swedish fish" and the daughter answers "I love you a million red m&m's. So cute. And also by the fact that I firmly believe that ice-cream is not proper ice-cream without crunchy bits!

Please review, it always makes me want to write more! XOXOX.