Hello, my lovely ones!

THANKYOU FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! 26 for the first chapter...i was blown away! And thankyou to all the College Talk readers who came and read this, and (for my college talk guys) the sequel will be out mega soon, I promise!

So here's the next chapter...again, i'm just building it up. Alice is making an appearance soon, so bear with me!

DISCLAIMER - all i have is this pizza here, and some birthday presents (which are all pretty awesome, i must admit) SM owns all.

Bella's POV

My phone vibrated in my pocket, making me jump as I tore my gaze away from the wall, which I had been staring at for the past 10 minutes. Angela, sitting in the desk opposite mine, grinned and laughed as I scrambled up in my chair, nearly falling off it in the process. I shot her a glare as I flipped open my phone.

"Hello?"

"Bella, baby!"

I suppressed a groan. "Hey Mike. Whats up?" I had agreed to go out with Mike, who lived in the apartment next to mine, after he begged continuously for months. He eventually annoyed me so much I said yes, just so I could shut him up. And now it was proving hard to escape him.

"Nothing, I just wanted to talk to you."

"You talked to me 30 minutes ago."

"Oh…yeah. Right. Anyway, you feel like going out tonight?"

"Erm…" I racked my brain for some way to get out of it, "No, sorry Mike, Angela and I are watching a movie tonight."

"Ok then. How about tomorrow?"

"Working late."

"The next day?"

I sighed; there was no getting out of this. "I guess I'm free."

"Great!" His voice squeaked in excitement, "I'll see you then!"

I hung up without saying goodbye, and put my head in my hands.

"So, we're watching movies tonight, huh?" Angela giggled.

I moaned, "Why why why doesn't he just leave me alone?!"

"Because you're his girlfriend." I hit my head on the table as she said it, and Angela frowned, "If you hate him so much, why not just dump him?"

I bit my lip, "He's perfectly nice, I don't want to upset him."

Angela rolled her eyes, "Bella, you'd be hurting him more by dating him. He'd understand, wouldn't he? I mean, it's MIKE." Angela and I had lived together for a while now, having met years ago in my hometown, Forks. We'd both turned up for the same interview at the newspaper, and, after a few laughs, became close friends again.

"I know, Ang. You are right, I guess." I sighed, "I'll take the plunge when I see him next."

Angela nodded, satisfied, and turned back to her desk, typing busily. I sighed again, then turned back to the sea of cuttings spread out all over my wooden table.

I did quite enjoy my job; after graduating from college I had pursued journalism, as had Angela, but I had never enjoyed reporting on proper stories as she had. I much preferred writing about things I'd seen, or events in the city that interested me. The interview Angela and I had both turned up for was a proper journalist interview, and I was glad I had decided to drop out and go for something else, as I thought it was the best decision I'd ever made.

Instead, I'd landed a large column, on the fifth page of the newspaper, in which I could write about whatever I wanted. I was forever searching for new things to report on, driving my few friends crazy when I was lost for ideas and spent hours wandering around the streets of London looking for inspiration. It didn't help that my sense of direction was non-existent, so most of the time Angela had to come and pick me up from a distant corner of Croydon and drive me home.

I also got to sort out and arrange all the adverts we received from readers, and in my time here I had seen some pretty strange ones. My personal favourite was an old man who sent in a new one every week, normally asking people if they'd seen things that he had lost in his house. His glasses, his cat…he'd even sent in one saying: Has anyone found a pair of grey trousers, last seen in the frozen food section of Sainsbury's?

I always put his ads into the paper, just because I knew people loved to read them.

I looked through the personal ads, picking out good responses for the ads I'd seen before, and reading each dating profile carefully. I had to make sure I only put the serious ones in the newspaper; we'd had problems before with fake adverts sent into the paper, and, once or twice it had gotten too far and ended with a court case and restraining order. That was why I was chosen to do this; I had some weird sense of who was serious, and who wasn't.

Mike called again at lunch, so I turned my phone off.

"He'll just get nervous and attack you when you get home," Angela said wisely, but I just stuck my tongue out at her and carried on with my writing.

Angela headed out a while after that, saying something about research for her article, and after a bit I decided to take a break from writing. I put my feet back on the table, saved my writing quickly, then shut my eyes.

The phone on my table rang almost immediately, and I almost screamed with frustration.

I yanked the phone out of its holder and hissed, "What?!"

"Woah, Bells, I just called to say hello!" My older brother chuckled, and I smiled.

"Hey Emmett! How's it going?"

"I'm good, oh little sister of mine. How's working life treating you?"

"Same old, same old. I'm just finishing my latest column up now, so expect an email sometime in the next half hour." I always sent the drafts of my columns to Emmett, who would proof-read them for me. He was surprisingly good at spotting spelling mistakes, even though he failed English completely when he was in school.

"Sounds good."

"How's Rose?"

Rosalie was my brother's fiancée; they had been dating ever since they got out of college 3 years ago. How Emmett managed to catch a girl like her was beyond me, as she was tall, stunning, yet infallibly sweet and kind. We'd been best friends ever since we'd met.

"She's fine too, it's going great. She's completely buried in wedding stuff…I think the big crisis at the mo is whether she should have pink or…light pink flowers."

I laughed, "I always knew girls were too complex for you, Em, because pink and light pink are actually two completely different colours. Are you sure you're ready for this?" I giggled and Emmett scoffed.

"What about you, Bells? Is your dating life still non-existent?"

I sobered up immediately, "Oh, haha. No, in fact, I am dating someone at the moment."

"Let me guess. He's a twit who you're only dating out of pity?" Emmett knew me too well.

I sighed, "I guess."

"Just dump him, Bells. It'll be like a band aid – rip it off quick so the wound is exposed and bleeding…" Emmett laughed to himself and I rolled my eyes.

"Great."

"Na, you're way too good for someone like him anyway. Get rid of him then keep looking for someone better, that's what I'd do."

"No, you'd scare the 'better' one away, that's what you'd do." My brother was fiercely overprotective of me; when I was going to prom I had to physically knock him out to stop him interrogating and probably threatening my date.

"Yup, sounds like me," he replied jovially.

"Anyway." I turned off my computer, "I've got to go, Angela and I are having a movie night tonight; one of my ways of escaping Mike."

"His name's Mike, is it?"

"Shut up. As I was saying, I was wondering if Rose would like to come along, if she's not doing anything tonight."

"I'll see. Rosie!" Emmett shouted, still into the phone, "Bella asks if you want to go to her place for a movie night today."

"Yeah, sure, sounds cool," Rosalie replied, her voice a little muffled.

"She'll come," said Emmett.

"I heard."

"Ok, just have her back before 10…we have stuff we need to do." Rosalie giggled and I made gagging noises.

"Didn't need to hear that, Em. Tell Rose to be at mine at 6, ok?"

"Yup yup."

"Ok, see you."

"Bye, Bells."

"Tell Dad I said hi."

"Will do."

The call cut off and I placed it carefully back in its holder, then stretched, flexing my sore fingers. Typing all day really takes it out of a girl; I reminded myself to rub some cream on them when I got home. Last time I didn't do that my hands looked as if I'd put them in a blender.

I stuffed everything back in my bag, slipped my shoes back on and left for the station. The ride home was as boring as it always was, and I sat perfectly still, watching the stations as they slipped slowly by, until it finally landed on my stop.

I stood up gratefully and jumped off the train, ignoring the appraising glances from the men sitting opposite me. I could never understand why men looked at me like that; it wasn't like I was anything special. Rosalie always said I was gorgeous, as did Angela, but, next to them both, I definitely couldn't see it.

The first thing I saw was the National Ballet poster; the one I had written on this morning. I sighed and rubbed my head, embarrassed in spite of myself. How could I have written that stupid message? I bent down and took out my pen, ready to scratch out my messy scrawl, but a second message below it stopped me.

My heart began to beat faster in excitement, someone had written back!

Hello there. How are you?

The writing was much neater than mine, but in the exact same colour. I stared at it for a few more seconds, wondering who could've written back to me.

I rewound my mind back to this morning; remembering the bronze haired man; the only person on the platform other than myself. He had certainly seen me rip the paper, so he might've caught me doodling on the wall. I smiled happily, my mood brightening inexplicably. I couldn't explain it, but those 4 words written there made me feel…strange. Like my stomach had twisted itself into knots and I was finding it a little hard to breathe. I shook my head, trying to clear it, but the strange feelings remained.

Smiling, I uncapped my pen, glad that the platform was now empty, and began to write.

I'm alright, you?

After a moment's thought, I added:

I'm Bella.

Before I could change my mind I threw my pen into the depths of my bag and walked of quickly; the strange feeling that someone was watching me prickling the back of my neck. As I rounded the corner I caught a flash of bronze out of the corner of my eye, and my stomach flipped. I peeked back out at the platform and saw the same bronze haired man standing with his back to me, obviously fiddling with the corner of the advert.

I smiled to myself, turned and ran up the stairs, not wanting to meet the man face to face…he made me strangely nervous. I had no idea why he was replying to my messages, but of one thing I was sure: this was about to get very interesting.

Edward's POV

As I jumped off the train my stomach clenched as I saw the brunette hop off the carriage a few yards down from me. She was here.

I watched her go to our advert and gently lift the paper up with her slim, pale fingers. She refused to look up at all, keeping her eyes fixed on the wall, so I couldn't see her face. My smile grew as she took out a pen, wrote something quickly, then put it back in her bag and walk away, her beautiful hair swinging over her shoulders. I resisted the urge to run straight up to her and demand to know her name; knowing it would scare her.

To tell the truth, I was a little scared of myself right now. I couldn't explain it, but all I wanted was to know exactly who this interesting woman was; to know why she wrote on tube walls, to know…her.

I held myself back until she went around the corner, disappearing from sight, then I ran and sat down on the seat, peeling the paper away so I could see what she had said.

I'm alright, you?

I'm Bella.

Bella.

Of course that was her name…it fit her perfectly. Bella…I tested her name out in my head, surprised by the strange feeling that swept through me as I said it. Yes, I was definitely scaring myself. What was happening to me?

I found myself smiling widely, drawn in by her untidy scrawl. Without a second thought I wrote back to her.

I'm great, thank you Bella.

I'm Edward, nice to meet you. Do you take this tube often?

xx

I didn't know what possessed me to write the x's at the end, but I couldn't make myself scratch them out. For some reason, I felt as if I could really talk to this Bella.

I hummed to myself as I walked home; a completely new tune that sprung into my mind involuntarily. I was toying with the idea of catching Bella – I relished saying her name – in the act, so I could talk to her properly. Then again, I didn't want to seem like some kind of stalker…maybe just writing to her would be best.

Bella was on my mind the rest of that night, the tune that came to me in the tube station playing repeatedly in my head. I couldn't get the image of her walking away out of my head…I wondered what she looked like.

As I lay in bed that night, I made a decision. One way or the other, I was going to make sure I met Bella.

Bella's POV

That night my dreams were plagued with visions of the bronze-haired man. He starred in every single one, and I woke often, my heart always beating fast and my head always spinning. I didn't know who he was, but already he had managed to lodge himself in my mind, and I couldn't get rid of him.

I'd hidden and watched him leave the station, then ran back inside to see what he'd said. My heart didn't feel like it could beat any faster as I read his little message, completele with x's at the end. My eyes had widened when I saw that, and I nearly fainted from lack of oxygen right there and then.

In the middle of the night, when I woke yet again and couldn't get back to sleep, I realised I was well and truly becoming obsessed with Edward. I was going to have to meet him, one day, but I just wasn't sure how. I wondered if he was as interested in me as I was in him. Was he just replying to my messages out of pity, or did he sincerely want to talk to me?

A thousand questions, and I didn't have one answer. I groaned and turned over in bed, pulling my pillow over my head. This was going to be a long night.

Not too much is it?

I wanted to show how they already are thinking about each other, you know, I hope they dont' sound too stalker-ish.

Review, please, guys!

Love ATO Xxxxx