Chapter 3: Growing up…

BPOV

She turned her pixie-like face to me, held out her hand and said " I am afraid I did not introduce myself properly. I am Mary Alice Brandon.I prefer being called Alice though! And you must be Isabella Swan. The admin guys told me that my roomie was from the States as well. I was so thrilled. Yay…I can't wait to go around the campus. I wonder if we have any shops near-by…you know for clothes and stuff".

She spoke all of that in one single stretch that I felt I had trouble breathing just in my attempt to catch every word that was being said. Whoa…she was one hyper-girl. "Yes, I am Isabella Swan. You can call me Bella. I am from New York. Where are you from?"

"I am from Chicago. I can't believe my parents actually agreed to let me go to this school. I have always wanted to be in a boarding school, you know, independent and stuff! And I can see that we are going to be quick friends Bella. I already like you. Will you be my maid of honor at my wedding? And I can be yours if you would like."

"W-What? Are you getting married soon Alice?" I stuttered. I had been of the opinion that such a system had been in practice in the past century but not in recent times.

"Silly Bella…I am talking about when we grow up. Oh…and I should tell you about my dream guy, the prince charming whom I would like to marry!"

8 years later…

With Alice, 24hours was never enough. She was so full of energy and she never failed to amuse me. I had never been back home after coming here. I spent a couple of the breaks vacationing with Alice's parents, who were like my second-parents and the other times, Charlie visited me in Dover and took me to some exotic place on vacation. Over the course of the years, I had slowly lost touch with the Cullens, even though I was quite well informed about their where abouts from Charlie. For some reason, he felt the necessity to constantly remind me about my betrothal to Edward.

I had changed a lot in the past 6 years. I was no longer the shy girl who wanted to hide her face in the book. I was confident, cool, level-headed and most of all I knew I looked beautiful and could make a guy go down on his knees begging for mercy. Alice had rubbed off on me quite a bit. I am now applying to universities in Paris to graduate in Fashion Design. Alice wanted to graduate in photography and studio design. As we moved to the end of our high school days, I felt myself feeling a little depressed at the thought of having to move away from Alice. She was my lifeline in so many ways. She was going back to the States, to NYU for her degree. She said that she wanted to be in the "happening" place to get first hand experience of what she wanted to become – A fashion photographer in a lead advertisement company.

Fall that year…

It was time for good-byes once again and this time was more painful than the last time I had had to say goodbye to my friends. Alice and I promised each other that we would call each other every weekend and that we would meet up during the vacations.

We gave each other a long hug, tears streaming down both our cheeks and vowed to keep our friendship alive…

I took my flight to Paris and reached the hotel quickly. My dad had put his foot down and told me that I could not stay over with some seniors at the university who might be ready to host me. I checked into Ritz and decided to get some dinner and go to bed early so that I can start my apartment hunt tomorrow.

Its been 4 hours since I started on my apartment search with the real estate guy and I still had not found one that I could imagine calling "home". I told him that I wanted to quit after seeing just one more house and start again tomorrow. I was not optimistic when I promised me that I would love the next option. But I must say that I was awestruck at the beauty and openness of this house. It was a fully furnished house with a large spacious living room, a dining room attached to the kitchen through a narrow passage and three amazingly romantic bedrooms. I loved this place! The rent was quite high, considering it was in the city and quite close to the university. Not that I cared about how much I had to pay. It was just equivalent to the amount I spent per week on buying clothes, not including the accessories! I told the agent to get back to me with the contract for the house! I wanted to move in as soon as I could before the classed started next week.

I spent the rest of the going around the city. Its not like this was my first time in Paris. I had been here on numerous occasions with Alice during my stay at Dover. But who wouldn't wanna shop in this place!

The week flew by in a haze and I had settled down comfortably in my new apartment. I also got a new car, a silver Porsche Boxster S.

My classes were set to start from tomorrow. I decided to choose my outfit for my first day at the university. I chose a simple tiger stripped knee-length skirt and a plain coffee-brown peasant top to go with it. But I had trouble choosing my shoes. I imaged what Alice would choose and picked a pair of brown pumps with about 2.5 inches of heals. It was my average preference for the size of heals I wore. Neither too high not too flat!

I then called Alice and we caught up with the week's happenings. I took a hot shower and went to bed quickly, not bothering with putting on anything since I preferred sleeping naked, it gave me a sense of freedom and openness that I enjoyed...