Phase Five – Shopping Delay

"Bella..." She paused there and I didn't know what was she wanted to say. I wanted to know but I didn't want to push her. I watched her face as she thought of the next word, I had never seen Alice to be lost for words before so this surprises me. Instead of urging her, since I didn't want to interrupt her thoughts, I waited patiently even though the car was still speeding down the road.

A few seconds past and she looked at me with uncertainty in her eyes. Now this got me to be curious, what exactly that she wanted to tell me? I wish that I could hear her thoughts like Edward, or have her ability to see the future, because her silence right now. If she didn't tell me soon, I was going to jump on her and demand it. As if she could hear my thought, then again she might had seen it since her eyes phased out and phased back in just a mere of a second, and now she was laughing at me. I narrowed my eyes at her, then folded my arms and looked away from her, fuming. Her laughter died after that, and I felt her hand reaching for my cheek but then her hand withdrew.

"Bella, I'm sorry. I just don't know how to word it out." She said apologetically, and I felt bad for getting angry at her, even if it was just a little. I heard her sigh and as soon as I turned my head to face her, her eyes were already on the road ahead. Now I felt even worse since it looked like I've just hurt her feelings. I wanted to hear her laugh again, and I didn't care if she was laughing at me.

"It's okay, if you can't say it, you don't have to." I quickly said, only because I wanted her to be her cheerful self again. This felt awkward somehow, and I've never felt this awkward with Alice before. This, it was just weird. How the hell did my name turn the whole comfortable atmosphere into an awkward one? Oh right, I'm bad luck.

"Bella, it's not that I don't want to say it. I just don't know how to word it, to make it the less awkward for us." Wasn't it already awkward? What would it matter if she'd make it more worse?

"Just say it, I don't mind." Since it was already awkward, so whatever she said now would just ease the tension, or increase it by tenfold.

"Well Bella, I love you." Well, it couldn't have been worse, would it? She just said she loved me, and I felt happy, not extremely happy only because I knew that she loved me. So, what was the point in telling me this? I didn't forget that she loved me, this I was sure of.

"I know Alice, and I love you too." I said with a smile, and I saw the corner of her lips curled up into a smile, before she turned to me. The look in her beautiful honey eyes held something that I thought I was just imagining it. Love, longing, and…was that lust? The love was there, and I understood that. But what about the longing and the lust? I should ask her about this. However, before I could her smile broke into a chuckle and this was when I felt her hand on my cheek, in such a long time. I couldn't believe myself that I had missed the feeling of her touch for this long. And now when she put her hand there, on my cheek, I felt like I belonged to her, and only her. Then she sighed, a content sigh and her lips moved. If I was still a human, I wouldn't be able to comprehend the words.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do this." Did I just hear that? Or were my ears playing tricks on me? I didn't know that my head had turn and nuzzled against her hand some more, but my eyes were now on her, looking confused as ever. Alice giggled, and turned the car to the exit, towards Vancouver. By now, I didn't even pay attention to the road, since Alice was using her senses, including her ability, to see where she was going. She surely didn't need help by the look of it.

"Do you want to know why I stopped myself from touching you, even if it was only friendly, sisterly touches?" My unasked question was going to be answered, and now she made me curious. I nodded, and I felt the car moved somewhere, I didn't know where nor did I care. Alice was going to tell something that I've been wanted to know. Alice seemed to think about what she was going to say, but then I heard the car skidded to a stop, and I took this chance to glance outside, and saw that we weren't even at the mall. In fact, we were at a natural park. Why were we at the natural park? We weren't going to hunt, even so, there wouldn't be any animal that would satisfy us anyway.

"Well Bella, whenever I touch you, I feel sort of…weird, in a good way. I thought only Jasper could give me those feelings, but it looks like he's not the only one." What was she saying? I think I zoned out at the part that when she touched me, she felt weird in a good way. Then I zoned in and out again when I heard that someone wasn't the only one. Confusing much? Very.

"Whoa Alice, wait, fast forward, say what?" Did that just come out of my mouth? Well, at least I didn't embarrassed myself. Okay, I did, since she had started giggling, again.

"Okay, in short, I'm in love with you." Excuse me? Was all that was in my head when she said that. She didn't just confess, did she? I looked at her with disbelief eyes. She looked back at me, and for a moment her cheerful, excited eyes turned into pain ones.

"Excuse me?" There, I said what was in my head. At least I got it out now, but the pain in Alice's eyes seemed to increase. It hurt me to see it, but I didn't know if what she said was true or not. I needed to confirm this, before actually believing it, so that I won't be much of a dork than I already was. She withdrew her hand from my cheek, and turned her head away as she looked down at her lap.

"Bella, I'm in love with you. I understand if…" I flung myself at her before she could even finish. My arms were tightly wrapped around her, and I was smiling like a mental woman.

"You've just made me the happiest woman in the world." I squealed into her ears, and now I could feel her body shaking with laughter. Then her arms were around my back, pulling me into her body some more and hugging me tight.

"And here I thought you don't feel the same way." I heard her said between laughter, but it looked like it had gotten down a little. It was my turn this time to chuckle, and I did just that as I nuzzled my face to the crook of her neck.

"Well, you thought wrong. I've been in love with you ever since you and Jasper left that time during the confrontation. I've never thought that I would miss someone that much, more than I'd miss Edward." There, I said it, the truth and my undying love for Alice. I pulled back when she had stopped laughing, but I didn't close the distance between us, and I found myself staring deeply into her honey eyes. Now it was her turn to be confused.

"So you don't actually miss Edward at the moment?" Well, wasn't it obvious? I shook my head, and she continued. "Not even a little bit?"

"Just a little, but I miss you more." Even when you're right here.

"But I'm right here though." There was no confusion hinted in her eyes, and the sound of her giggle had returned to my ears again. I grinned at that, knowing that she found my statement to be rather amusing to her. Then she stopped, placed her hand on my cheek with her thumb stroking it. I leaned into her hand, nuzzling against it before I turned and placed a soft kiss on her palm. I saw her smile, the smile of happiness, and all I could do was just return it. Then I thought I was just imagining things, again. Alice leaned into me, and my breathing got caught in my throat, not that I'd need to breath anyway. But breathing was essential, especially if I wanted or needed to smell Alice's scent, and her scent was so close that my head was singing a very stupid song. Then reality hit me when I felt her lips upon mine. My eyes were already close when she had lean in, and now I felt her lips against mine and I could already feel sparks flying through my body. However, the kiss was too quick, but at least it lasted for a lifetime.

"Well, umm, shoppeh…I mean, shopping?" Well, I let one kiss clouded my mind, now I totally sounded like a dork.

"You can open your eyes Bella." Now I even look like a dork. I opened my eyes and was greeted with her giggle face. "Well, we can do the shopping later, or do you want to get it done now?"

"Now sounds much better than later, because then Renesmee would come back and she might wonder where I am, before realizing that I'm with you." That would be true, it would be Renesmee dinner time when she came back, and I didn't want to leave her starving even though Esme and Rose would already be home.

"Well, we have the whole day, so I guess I might just have to let you go until she falls asleep." Alice said as she winked at me, and I flushed again, except that there was no blood stream in my system. She backed out of the parking lot and drove to the mall. And since there was traffic, and cops, she had to reduce her speed. It was torturous, for the both of us since we like speed. Now we got stuck in the human speed, and it looked like we weren't going to get to the mall anytime soon.