DISCLAIMER: Don't own Twilight or any of its characters. I do own a pimped out Britney Spears jacket. Yeah.

A/N: Erm. Those of you who know me by now should know I'm a bitch at updating. I would have had this out sooner, but this past week was my dad's birthday, and I had to go visit the cemetary. It was just a tough week for me. ANYWHO.
I wrote the majority of this chapter tonight so yayy.

Thanks to everyone who's reviewed or added me to their alert/favorite thingy. LOVE YA.

Enjoy, sparklebabies!

-nikki. :)

Sleepwalker
Chapter Two - "Grocery Shopping"

*

"No, Alice. You don't have to come over. I'm…busy anyway," I said slowly, sitting on the couch.

It was the next day, and Alice and I were having one of our daily phone conversations. She would call and tell me what was new with her fashion line and how James was doing, while I would only listen and nod uselessly. When it came for my turn to talk, all I ever had to tell her was that Edward came home late last night or he didn't come home at all.

He didn't by the way.

My life was so uninteresting compared to hers, yet she still listened and sometimes attempted to offer advice on the situation. Most of the time she didn't though. I could understand that. There wasn't really anything she could say that would actually make things better.

"Doing…?" she persisted.

"Um." I hesitated, looking around. My eyes darted around the room, finally landing on the shining silver refrigerator sitting behind the island counter.

"I'm about to go out. I have to do some grocery shopping."

While the fridge and cupboards were stocked with enough food, it wasn't technically a lie. I could go for some sugar cookies right about now.

"Ooh, I need to too!" Alice chirped into the phone. "I'll meet you at the grocery store in, oh, let's say…thirty, forty minutes?"

"Alice–"

"Bye, Bella!" A loud abrupt click let me know she had hung up her phone.

I rolled my eyes. Alice always had this way of putting people in positions she wanted, whether they wanted it or not.

Not like that sounded sexual or anything.

I scoffed and heaved myself off the couch. I needed to change out of my pajamas if I wanted to go anywhere.

Entering the bedroom, I made my way towards our walk-in closet across the room. It was spacious, thank goodness, since I had so many clothes from my constant shopping sprees.

I grabbed a black pair of sweat pants and ignored the matching jacket that went along with it, instead grabbing a black sweatshirt. I didn't feel like getting dressed up. It was only a grocery store, after all.

I changed into my clothes and checked my appearance in the mirror above the dresser. I sighed with unhappiness as I gazed at myself. I wasn't ugly. With long brunette hair and chocolate brown eyes that I've been told could melt a glacier, I was actually quite pretty. Maybe not as striking as Alice, but not that bad. I ran a brush through my hair and pulled it into a high ponytail. I added a black headband as a final touch to keep back and loose small fly-away strands.

Leaving the bedroom, I walked towards the kitchen area by the front door. I didn't feel like hauling my purse around, so I snatched up keys and wallet and shoved them in the front pocket of my sweatshirt.

I locked the front door to my our apartment behind me as I left and turned around, pausing as I looked at the door opposite myself.

A rush of blood filled my cheeks when I remembered the embarrassing moment last night between the new neighbor and me.

My eyes rolled at the thought. There was a possibility he could've been a male stripper.

Geez, Bella…

I briefly wondered what the new resident was doing if he was even home, but then turned away and walked down the hall towards the elevator.

The apartment building was nice and quite modern, but it seemed the elevator shaft was a little outdated. Sometimes it would stop for a short bit in between floors, and other times it would halt for an hour or two. We were lucky enough that our building's maintenance guy, Aro, was a pro at fixing it in a jiffy. To be honest, I hated taking this elevator, but I hated even more to take the stairs.

Luckily, it only stumbled and shook a bit as it dwindled down the seven floors and to the lobby level.

I offered the deskman, Caius, a polite smile. He grunted and gave me a curt nod. Always a moody one, that Caius.

Lifting my hood over my head in case it was raining, the doorman opened the glass door and gave me a charming grin.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Cullen."

I smiled and replied, "Afternoon, Felix. And you know I'm not married just yet."

Felix was always in a good mood. Not to mention always in a flirty one…which was actually refreshing. He knew I was married yet still never failed to hit on me. Nonetheless, he never ceased to make me smile.

"I know. I love that fact about you." He smirked then asked, "Should I hail you a cab?"

Standing under the small awning, I shook my head and laughed. "Now Felix, you know you don't have to do that. You're only supposed to open doors."

He chuckled. "Is that a yes or a no?"

"I think I'll be taking my truck today, thank you."

Pursing his lips, he commented, "So, not a backseat kind of girl?"

With a little smirk, I teased, "Wouldn't you like to know."

"Oh, yes."

I quietly laughed to myself and wished him a good day. Across the street, my red pick-up truck sat waiting for me. I had had an older one, a more rusty and almost broken-down truck, but Edward had insisted I trade it in for something more up to date. It was thoughtful at the time, but it still had slightly pissed me off.

Oh, boy, did I miss my old truck.

I sighed and started the vehicle, ready to meet Alice.

It was really only a ten minute drive, but once I got in my truck, the rain had really started to pour down. You'd think that living in a city where it rained quite a bit, people would be used to driving in the rain.

No such luck. People still acted like maniacs.

Arriving at the store, I could already see Alice's little vibrating figure, all excited in the automatic opening doors.

I waved at her and parked my truck towards the back of the parking lot. By the time I reached her, I was drenched from head to toe. That's another thing: Everyone goes shopping on a rainy day and in horrible weather. Why, I'll never know.

"Hey," I said out of breath.

I could tell she was about to say hello when she paused and stared at me, a horrified expression washing over her.

"What?"

She grimaced and looked me up and down. "Um, Bella. Did you get dressed in the dark or something?"

I scoffed and pushed past her, grabbing a shopping cart. "Sorry I can't be as glamorous as you all the time."

Alice shuffled quickly by my side with her own shopping cart and said, "I'll take that as a compliment."

A quick glance at her wardrobe confirmed what I had said indeed. Alice was looking particularly spiffy for a trip to the grocery store. She was wearing an adorable grey long-sleeve knit dress with black leggings and black high-heeled boots. Her hair was styled in its usual spiky fashion and she had long, dangling black earrings hanging from her lobes.

"Really, Alice? We're grocery shopping," I commented, eyeing her wardrobe

Raising her eyebrows, she said, "Well, why not? I'm only simply promoting my fashion line." She stole another glance at my sweatshirt before nudging me in the ribs. "Which I think you could use a special complementary access pass to right about now."

"I'm having an off day."

"Edward?"

I ignored her and shuffled towards the bakery.

"Thought so," she said to herself.

I groaned. "Maybe I'm just having an off day."

"You've been having quite a bit of those lately," she noted.

"So?" I snapped, grabbing a plastic container of sugar cookies.

I heard Alice huff and a spin of a shopping cart's wheels, and before I knew it, she had turned her cart in front of mine, blocking me from going any further. Her eyebrows were drawn together and she looked annoyed.

"Bella, I love you. You know I do," she started. I could feel my eyes begin to roll and tried to back away.

She quickly pulled back to my side and said, "Just listen to me, please."

I pushed towards the frozen foods aisle and replied, "Alice, I don't feel like a pep talk. Please let me wallow in my self-pity."

"I'm ashamed to say that's all you ever do," she said, snatching up a bag of frozen vegetables.

I snorted.

"I'm not joking! It's really all you ever do!" she exclaimed. "Now, I've listened to you complain about my ass of a brother and while I agree with everything you've said about him, I don't think you should let him ruin your life."

Stopping in mid-aisle, I gaped at her. "What are you suggesting?" I asked. "You think I should–"

"Oh, I'm not suggesting anything," she hastily said. "But I am trying to say is that Edward has become an ass. You know it. I know it. We both know it. His job has become his mistress and who the hell knows what became of his actual mistress if he even had one." She glanced over at me to see if I reacted towards her mention of a mistress.

I didn't flinch one bit.

Alice stopped and reached for a pint of strawberry ice cream, tossing it in my cart.

"Like I was saying before, I love you Bella. You're my best friend and on top of that, the sister I never had. I hate seeing you miserable."

Honestly, I hated it when Alice talked like this (which was rare). Her little pep talks made me feel warm and fuzzy and damn right guilty for being such a mopey bitch all the time.

"Edward's actually is your brother," I pointed out.

She stopped her grocery cart once more at the end of the aisle; I did the same. She looked around as though to make sure no one we knew was lurking nearby,

"Edward may be related to me, but that's as far as our relationship goes these days."

I cocked my eyebrow in surprise. I had no idea. I had assumed they chatted every now and then.

Alice continued to gush out the details. "When I first started dating James, Edward immediately disapproved. I don't know, but something about James, threw him off. So of course when I married him, Edward got his panties in a wad and decided to never talk to me again."

I gaped at her. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

She shrugged. "It wasn't really that big of a deal. I treasure your friendship more than my own brother's, and I didn't want you to get mad at me."

"I wouldn't have!"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Still. It was just easier to not tell you."

Blinking, I still couldn't fathom what she told me. Edward and Alice hadn't talked for two and a half years and she was okay with it.

Alice smiled warmly at me and placed a small, pale hand on my shoulder. "I told you this because I want you to know that I've known Edward was an ass longer than you have."

I couldn't help but laugh as she kept on poking fun at her brother while we continued to grocery shop. Before we knew it, we were done. She told me she'd call me later as we parted ways outside.

It was still raining hard when I arrived back at my apartment building, so I was soaked as usual and my groceries almost mirrored me. Felix greeted me with his usual persuasive comments, bringing a delightful smile to my face. He even offered to help me carry my grocery bags up to my apartment, but I politely declined. Knowing him, he'd expect a certain kind of tip. I grinned at the silly though.

Even ole Caius greeted me. Maybe not as cheerful as my favorite doorman, but it was still something.

By the time I reached the old, wobbly elevator, I was in a pretty decent mood. Seeing Alice always lifted my spirits, and this particular conversation we had was pretty informing if not insightful.

My fiancé, Edward Cullen, was a jerk.

It wasn't just me who thought it, it was his sister too. And boy, did that make me feel better.

Hey, maybe I'd even leave him. Alice was right. I was unhappy and miserable and in desperate need of something exciting.

I was feeling fairly optimistic and hopeful when a hand suddenly appeared in between the closing elevator doors, stopping them in their tracks.

"Phew. Almost missed it!" a southern accent drawled.

My heart almost stopped and my grocery bags dropped to the floor.

Holy fuck. It's my neighbor, Mr. Male Stripper.

A/N: I never re-read my chapters once I finish them, so I have no idea how they turn out. Huahaha.

So whataya think?! :D

Next chapter should be fun to write. ;)

Review, sparklebabies! I freakin' love you sexy bitches! :)

-nikki. :D