Rain Falling

Rain Falling

Chapter 5

Alice POV

'Okay, just 2 minutes left,' I say as I start walking towards concourse B from the central terminal. I finally have it figured out how I am going to meet her. I'm just going to bump into her by accident, you know, and then ask her…what? 'Oh crap, what am I going to say?!' I only have 45 seconds left. I start to panic as I continue towards the corner I know she is about to come around.

'This is it,' I tell myself, rounding the corner. I catch a glimpse of her just before she runs into me, not quite paying attention to her surroundings. She is looking slightly to the left, her full lips not smiling or frowning, just relaxed. Her whole face is relaxed. Her hair is slightly messy from the plane ride, but it looks ravishing. Just seeing her hair messy was new and exciting for me. In my visions her hair was always perfect, not a single strand out of place.

Then comes impact. Her whole body rushes up against mine. The contact is pleasantly hot on my cool skin, making me forget to stumble for a fraction of a second. My late reaction is not noticeable. She falls all the way to the floor, backwards. I briefly contemplate falling to the floor too, but it was already too late.

"Shit, ouch…I'm so sorry," she apologizes. I was pulled in by the sound of her voice; smooth, and light, with a gentle low-pitched purr beneath it that I am sure only my sharp ears can pick up. "Are you okay?" she asks, scrambling off the ground, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. The blood rushing to her face causes me to zone in on her heart beat, loud and strong in her chest, the smell of her blood pulling at me. My mouth floods with venom and I struggle to stay in control.

I stop breathing, swallow my mouth full of venom, and then answer her "I- I'm fine," I choke out. She finally looks at me, really looks at me. Her eyes are the same curious chocolate brown. She glances at my hair, short, dark and spiky, and then does a quick look up and down my body. I feel elated, 'Did she just check me out?' My hunger is instantly suppressed at this new thought, and my mind begins to take control again. "Are you okay? You fell pretty hard," I ask, genuinely wanting to know.

She smiles, a smile that makes my knees weak and my heart ache from wanting to kiss those upturned lips. "You don't have to worry about me; I fall down all the time." I arch my right brow at this, and then bend down and pick up her bag.

"Here," I say handing it to her. She takes the bag, her hand brushing mine. I see a subtle look of surprise cross her face as she feels my cold skin. She shakes her head quickly.

"Sorry again for running into you like that," she says, blushing yet again, and walking past me to her initial destination. I watch after her, my eyes gazing wistfully at her shapely body. I smile and look down at the wallet I just removed from her bag. I moved around the corner and opened it.

"Isabella Marie Swan," I say quietly to myself. Such a beautiful name…hmm…Swan. That name sounds familiar…I glance back down at her driver's license. 17? I can work with that. In her wallet I also find a credit card, a card for the Phoenix Public Library, for Blockbuster, for her first aid and CPR certification, a couple business cards, and a little cash. I glance at her wallet; simple and generic, yet it suits her. Anything would look good on her, even a brown and gold no-name wallet. I would love to go shopping for her…I snapped out of my day dream 'Better get this back to her.'

I start to walk toward the arrival and departure board. I see her, Isabella, searching through her bag frantically. "Hey," I call out hold out the wallet "are you looking for this?" She looks up, relief washing over her face.

"Oh my God, I thought I lost it!" She walks over to me quickly and hugs me. I can't move. The closeness is almost too much for me to bear. It wasn't the same as her brief contact when slamming into me, but longer, gentle, soft. Hot. I hear her inhale deeply, and then pulled away with a cough. "Thank you, you have no idea the kind of day I had, if I lost my wallet too..." Her sentence trails off. I hand her the wallet and smile, still stunned. I stare at her for a few moments until I see her shift uncomfortably under my intense gaze. I quickly look away.

"Don't worry about it." I look over to the board, to keep my eyes from wandering back to her. Pretending not to know what was happening, I gasp. "All the flights are canceled!" I look over to Isabella and groan "I can't believe this…"

She shakes her head "Tell me about it…" she sighs. After a few moments she looks back at me "Oh, by the way, I'm Bella." She holds out her hand.

"Alice," I say taking her hand in mine. I let my hand linger in hers for a moment before pulling it away. I love the feel of her hand. She is so tantalizingly soft and warm.

"Looks like we are gonna be stuck in the airport for a while," she says walking over to a wall and sitting against it. I follow her.

"Mind if I keep you company?" I ask. She smiles at me and pats the ground to the left of her. "Do you need to call anybody?" I ask, sitting down and pulling out my cell phone. I was a little closer to her than polite, but I didn't care. I hear her heart rate pick up a bit. There was a slight pause before she answered.

"Oh! My dad." I hand her my cell phone. "You don't mind?" I shake my head.

"Not at all, go ahead." She flips open the phone and begins to dial. She puts the phone up to her right ear. She moves to the right and turns so she is facing me; her left side is up against the wall.

I hear the phone ring twice before a rough voice answers, "Hello?" I hear the familiar purring undertone I had heard in Bella's voice.

"Hey Cha-Dad, it's me, Bella," she answers.

"Oh, hey, Bells, what's up? I was just about to leave for the airport."

"No, don't, the airport has canceled all the flights into or out of Seattle because of the storm." She switches the phone over to her other ear. "I think we are going to be stuck here overnight."

"Do you need me to get you a hotel? I could call someplace," he answers.

"A hotel?" She asks. I wave and raise my eyebrows at her to get her attention. "Wait, hold on a sec, dad."

She gives me her attention, phone against her chest. "My dad will get me a hotel room; we could share if you want. Save you some money. The hotel that the airport usually books is in a bad part of town," I tell her, thankful that my voice didn't shake and betray my nervousness.

She nods her head. "Hey dad, my friend Alice…?" she looks at me questioningly. She just said my name…

"Cullen," I answer quickly.

"Alice Cullen, her dad is going to book her a-

Bella's dad cuts her off.

"Alice Cullen? Dr. Carlisle Cullen's kid?" he asks. How does her dad know Carlisle?

"You know her?" Bella asks. She looks at me curiously. "Is your dad Dr. Carlisle Cullen?" With my eye brows bunched together in confusion and I nod once slowly. "Yeah," she answers her dad, still watching at me. "How do you know her dad?"

"He is the doctor here in Forks." She is coming to Forks? Who is her dad? Swan, Swan…Police Chief Swan?! I knew that name sounded familiar! This is his daughter? The one the whole town has been talking about? She is still looking at me, her eyes catching me up carefully and pulling me down into them. It becomes hard to think coherently with her looking at me like that. So I stop, awed by her.

"Oh…well do you mind if I stay with her? Her dad is going to get her a hotel room," she asks him, breaking eye contact with me, looking at the floor. I take an unnecessary breath, taking in her scent. She smells like…like rain, clean and pure…Distantly I hear her father.

"Yeah, Bells, no problem. I'm glad you two met. The Cullen kids are great," he answers "Just call me when you find out the new flight times, kay?"

"Okay, thanks dad, bye," she says turning her body so it's against the wall again.

"Bye, Bells, be safe." She closes the phone and hands it to me.

"Thanks, my dad said it was okay." She turns her head to look at me. "You're from Forks?" She asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "And you must be Charlie's daughter; everyone has been talking about you showing up for weeks now," I tell her, and then smile "You're the talk of the town." Bella rolls her eyes and laughs.

"Great," she says with false enthusiasm.

"Let me call my dad real quick." I open my phone and dial Carlisle. He picks up after one ring. "Hey, umm…dad, do you think you could book me a hotel room? I'm stuck in the Seattle airport, big storm." He chuckles softly, but I can still hear him. 'Did Edward say something to him…?'

"Yes, dear, I can do that. I'll call you soon with the details," he answers. In the background I faintly hear Emmet whistle and then laugh.

"Damn, sis! Day one and you're already gonna get a hotel room with her!" I hear a smack, probably Rosalie hitting him. My eyes narrow.

"Tell Eddy when I get home, he's in trouble." I glance at Bella and my stomach swoops. "Thanks again…er…dad." I say quickly, hanging up. "Well that's settled, he will call me back with the details," I tell her before looking at the clock. It's half past noon. "Oh, it's still early, we can go shopping!"

She coughs nervously. "Shopping?" she asks me weakly. I bring my left arm across my body and lay it on her forearm, turning slightly towards her.

"Don't worry, it'll be fun!" I say excitedly. As I pull my hand back, I intentionally drag it lightly across the small hairs on her arm. She shivers, her heartbeat skipping around, Goosebumps prickling. 'Oh yeah, it'll be fun…'

"O-okay?" She says stutters out, slightly flustered.

A/N: For some reason this chapter was a little harder to write…Anyway, hope you liked it. Again, Jocelyn Torrent is amazing for being my beta, and you guys are amazing for reading my fic. Thanks.

Jade