A/N: First off; Thank you thank you thank you! I bow down to the feet of each and every one of my reviewers, you are amazing.

Alright, on to business- to answer a couple of questions i've been getting asked; Firstly, I have 19 chapters (so far) lined out for this story so i hope that if you like this little piece of work that you're in it for the long haul with me and thank you in advanced if you are. Also; I am currently a full time college student with no life outside of that, so expect updates frequently, im not gonna leave you guys hanging for too long (trust me, im just as obsessed with writing it as you are with reading it... its 3 am right now... im a very crazy person) however, im also not gonna get chaps out before I think they are polished to perfection.

EEEhneywayz: Here is chapter 3 i hope you enjoy! and don't forget to review

Disclaimer: Yep, I don't own twilight

Chapter 3:

It Was Always Burnin' Since The Worlds Been Turnin'

I didn't have the greatest first impression of Alice Cullen. I thought she was a goody two shoes rich bitch, she just had that demeanor about her that screamed

"Yeah I know how hot my yellow Porsche is, and yes my daddy bought it for me, he would probably buy me the lost city of Atlantis if I threw a big enough fit"

But when I looked beyond the cover of the book and started to read the pages, I found to my delight I couldn't get enough of her. She was funny and smart yet so precocious and I could talk to her, hands down, about anything. I had never had that kind of relationship with a girl before.

I had always been the kind of female that was just... one of the guys. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't all Butch Cassidy up in this bitch or anything, boys were just... simpler. I found it was always easy to get along with them on the hull.

Before I knew her though I had seen her around campus a handful of times but paid little mind, we shared exactly one class and she was always speaking up and never let anyone else try and answer anything. Pissed me right the hell off.

The day we formally met I had been standing in the rain, why you ask? Because Its just my thing. I like cleansing my soul in the great natural tears of mother earth. It sounds like a bunch of hippy shit but hey I've got a pretty deep soul when it comes right down to it.

I like to experience life one day at a time. I try not to worry too much about the future and just live every moment like I might get struck my lightening any second now which, combined with my weird obsession with standing in the damn rain, was probably likely to happen sooner rather than later.

Poof! Asta la vista Bella

Alice had walked up to me in her bright yellow rain boots and designer blue raincoat with this silly beaded flower relishing her left breast pocket. It dazzled from the light radiating off the street lamps. Pretty snazzy stuff.

I had given her a once over glance before I turned my head back towards the sky letting the rain shower my face in all of its divine perfection. I started to open my mouth to let the raindrops in when I heard a small wind chime sounding giggle escape from my uninvited guest.

Immediately I closed my mouth and returned my head to its upright position. My hair was drenched now and dripping down onto my clothes which had already shared a similar fate.

"You know if one of the dude brahs around here ever caught you with your mouth wide open and inviting like that they might try and jump on your face and stick their willy in it, jus sayin" Her face beamed with her snark little comment.

Whatever, she didn't know me, if any one of them ever tried to pull a fast one like that on me I would happily partake in the oral induced castration of any of those little twerps, successfully aiding in the prevention of any future generations of the keg stand professionals of the world. I might even receive some kind of Nobel Peace Prize.

I looked at her dauntingly and suppressed a quick comeback, which just killed me by the way, I loved being a smart-ass.

Then she gave me my first ever preview of the very Alice smile that I would come to love and admire.

She broke the smile as it turned into a full symphony of laughter, and I swear to you that you've never heard any other person laugh like this, and if you searched the world over three times you wouldn't find any that would compare. I imagined that it could probably cure cancer or end hunger in some third world country.

We were quite a pair, saving the world with one eccentricity or another.

I noticed then that she wasn't wet at all due to her holding a clear umbrella with black trim. Probably designer as well, figures. I was working through in my head the necessity of designer umbrellas when she stepped a few feet closer to me.

Still smiling she coyly offered "Would you like to stand under my umbrella?"

Of all the fluff filled moments in my life, which there honestly wasn't treasure chests filled amounts or anything, this had to be the cherry on top of the cotton candy flavored sugar sprinkled sundae.

I was already soaked though and thought it pointless to accept the strange girls invitation. I didn't want to be rude, it was a really sweet gesture, however irrelevant it may have been.

And It seemed that I just couldn't wipe this stupid grin, that had sprung up when I was in Bella la land, off of my face.

So finally I was just like "Sure" shrugging my shoulders and I ducked my head so that we were standing right beside each other in the rain watching the cars pass, capturing a slight mist as their tires ran through the puddles that had accumulated on the street.

I could see my breath in front of me now and remembered the time when I was little and thought it was ultra cool to pretend I was smoking cigarettes with my friends on cold days like this.

I chuckled once at the thought and I don't think she had noticed because she didn't mention it and opted on extending her hand to me

"Hi I'm Alice Cullen"

I took all her nimble fingers carefully into my own, feeling a faint spark, it was a dream like soft burning sensation that hummed throughout my hand and straight up into my arm finally putting a small kiss of significance in my chest. She must have felt it too because it caused us both to jump slightly. Stupid static electricity.

We started to laugh together now and I finally responded "I'm Isabella Swan, but I prefer Bella".

She flashed me her flawless smile one more time and complemented it with "Its very nice to meet you Bella"

We had been inseparable after that day. Alice became my girl Friday. She helped me with everything about college that I couldn't deal with on my own, and in turn I was always there for her. Through boyfriends and one night stands, I was consistently around to offer bowls of coffee and the almost unhealthy dose of aspirin for the morning after.

We had decided to move in together when the first year of college was over and we both had little desire to endure the dorm life any more than we had to.

We found a pretty reasonable two bedroom and calmed down on the party life for a while. Which was good because both our GPA's had started to drop significantly the last semester and we had to bust some real tail to get passing grades on our finals.

A few all nighters, about 46 Starbucks and gas station trips later, we finally pulled it off. And don't think I'm being too gentle on the details here, it was an honest miracle to behold. We must have slept for two weeks straight after the whole ordeal was said and done.

Then we spent the summer at either of our families houses, she liked being around Charlie and he adored the living crap out of her, I'm sure he would have traded her for me in a heart beat, while I wasn't looking.

I would cook us meals every day and we would go down to La Push to see Jacob, who had been staying with Billy all summer. The three of us spent some time at the beach and ended up just getting ourselves into a lot of mischief, mostly inspired by Alice's bouts of insane and unpredictable imagination.

Her family on the other hand was super uptight, I barely got along with Esme as she didn't approve of the "street rat" that Alice liked to associate herself with.

I kept trying to tell her my dad was like the chief of police in Forks, Washington, which has one of the lowest crime rates in the country. Her perception of me never eased up much though, and I wasn't going to try to change who I was to please that snooty stuck up son of a whores discarded spawn.

So we spent most of the summer just by ourselves, her family sort of just ignored us, I mean her dad was alright... as far as I could tell. We made small talk here and there but never got to know each other, he was gone most of the time. He worked a lot of shifts at the hospital as a doctor, which I'm sure had something if not everything to do with spending some quality time away from his shrew of a wife.

We would all have dinner together on Sundays and Esme would give us all the 4-1-1 on their elusive son Edward, who I had never met but heard loads about. From all the hype, he was apparently gods gift to the human race, and I promise you I probably could write a damn book about Edward Cullen after having to sit through weeks upon weeks of painfully forced details about every aspect of his life.

But no one was perfect, and it got boring, I always tried to imagine him killing his grandmother and burying her under the rose bushes in the backyard right behind their unsuspecting backs. It got me through a strenuous dinner... or five.

We made it out alive though, and were finally able to set up our own place.

Our apartment was located a few miles from campus, and beside the constant debate over the temperature of the place, it was quaint and perfect for us.

Everything had been going so well before today. I smiled as I recalled all these memories, they drifted me into a euphoric state. I could play them over and over again, I could smell every blade of grass at La Push along with the beach air. The fresh blueberry pie that the kitchen staff had prepared at the Cullen place also made an appearance in my memories senses. They were some of the best times of my life thus far. Filled with so much laughter and love, and the undeniable chemistry I had with my best friend.

I tried to stay in this happy place that I had wondered into as a means to block out the fact that I had recently made out with my before mentioned bosom buddy right smack in our very own living room.

Simultaneously I had been attempting to avoid severe contact with Alice's eyes. It ended up being in vein, as she was burning them straight through the back of my skull.

We were sitting on opposite ends of the room in our matching leather arm chairs that her father had bought us. I had objected but he wouldn't take no for an answer, which as I came to understand was exactly how Alice had acquired so much crap.

She cleared her throat then, finally calling my attention to her. There was no way on Pluto's severe ego bruise that I was going to be the one to talk first.

Her stare never faltered, she just kept looking at me, I'm positive that she was waiting for me to say something, after a few minutes I could tell she grew weary and finally gave

"What exactly happened earlier Bella? I really just need some answers"

My palms were so clammy now, I attempted to wipe them on the arms of the chair nonchalantly, in retrospect, this was just a dumb idea.. it was leather. I left a small streak of sweat on the surface and it kind of made a small screechy sound. I could have died of embarrassment.

Despite this altercation, she made no comment so I was free to continue. "Alice... I wa-"

Her phone suddenly screamed with a demanding intensity, the ringtone I recognized to be The Vitamin String Quartets tribute to Coheed and Cambria. That one was Alice's personalized ringer for Esme, I vaguely remembered.

She snatched it faster than a speeding bullet and it caught me a little off guard. Damn, Esme must have torn her a new one if she is rushing to pick up her call that fast.

I watched Alices eyes as she answered the phone with a monotone "Hello"

I couldn't make out what Esme was saying, but suddenly the look on Alice's face turned from stiff and pensive to completely horrified.

Her eyes were darting back and forth rapidly and her mouth opened only slightly, she was listening hard until she finally responded quietly "OK, I'll be there soon, just tell him to wait please, I'm on my way, I promise"

I had sat up straight and was now anxious to hear what exactly had happened, it didn't sound good and now, contrary to before, she had my attention.

After hanging up the phone Alice looked at me, her eyes were a little red and she seemed on the verge of tears.

In a tone barely above a whisper she finally let me in on the news "Bella, Carlisle is in the hospital, his heart condition..." that was all she could muster out, tears started to alienate her soft porcelain cheeks.

At first I couldn't move, I couldn't comprehend and suddenly it hit me.

As my heart tugged at the image in front of me. My arms ached with the need to wrap her up in them, I rose to stand but she was out of her seat with her keys and bag. Any kind of comfort I could have offered to her was lost, because she was out the door faster than you could say "I'm Sorry".