Author's Note: Your reviews make me feel all warm and fuzzy :) Ok, so one of you guys asked if I was going to write a chapter in Alice or Jasper's point of view (for when they meet, because it's pretty obvious that's where I'm headed). Honestly, the thought hadn't occurred to me at the time, but it could be pretty interesting; what do you guys think? Thank you again for reading :)

Nice reviews are better than chocolate, unless maybe you're licking that chocolate off someone.

Fifteen

August 8th

"Wait…we're flying first class?" I was looking at my ticket on the way to security; the new knowledge making me even more nervous. I was wearing a pair of ratty sweatpants and a t-shirt with my old university's initials on it. I had a pair of sunglasses hooked onto the collar and my slightly damp hair left a wet spot on the back of my shirt; they'd probably kick me out.

"You look fine," Alice glanced at me appraisingly. "You have that rich hippie thing going on, granted it's not exactly my favorite look, but it's popular."

"Thanks, I feel a lot better." My nerves and sarcasm seemed to be working together. We went through security; Alice was fine, but I set off the metal detectors and had to go through again. I had taken everything off but my clothes, but it was still beeping at me. Alice grabbed our things off the belt while the TSA lady took me over to a more remote area to frisk me. I could have died. Her hands moved nimbly over my body as I chewed over the fact that I hadn't been this felt up in years; I giggled. The lady looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry…ticklish." My face was burning up.

She moved her hands over the edges of my bra. "Aha, it's probably just the underwire."

I didn't say anything; I tried to pretend I was somewhere else. She let me go after another second and I rushed, barefoot, over to where Alice was waiting at a row of chairs. "You ok?"

My red face was just barely fading. "Yeah, it was just my bra." To her credit, Alice didn't laugh at me. I slipped my shoes back on and slung my carry-on strap over my shoulder. We found our gate without a minute to spare.

"C'mon, we get to board first," she grabbed my hand and led me to the front. I had this weird premonition of the ticket lady taking one look at me and laughing, telling me to get in the back of the line, but she didn't. She just smiled pleasantly and told us to have a good flight.

We were in the third row of the large plane. We put our things in the overhead bin and settled into our seats; Alice took off her shoes and curled her legs underneath herself. The big leather seats made her look even tinier. I set my book on my lap and put my seatbelt on, fumbling with it for a moment. "I'm glad you're coming with me," Alice said quietly once my seatbelt was in place. She looked a little nervous.

"I am too," I smiled. We were quiet during the flight attendant's speech; I think it just made us both more on edge.

Once it was finished, Alice pulled her sweater off to use as a pillow. "I don't trust the airplane ones."

I opened my book to read, but couldn't concentrate. Edward had offered to meet us at the airport, but Alice told him to come to our hotel instead. She said, to me, not to him, that she wanted to fix me up first. "You only meet your soul mate once," she'd said. I didn't argue with her.

Instead, she instructed him to meet us in the lobby of our hotel, the W. She said she wanted to go down and meet him, but would leave the two of us alone for the evening. She had plans to meet with the stylist for her show for dinner so I didn't feel quite so much like I was abandoning her. I replayed the many different ways the night could go. We'd meet and it would be awkward and uncomfortable all night. Or maybe he'd come up to me and tell me that he loves me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me. Or he could not show up at all. Or we could not be attracted to each other. I mean, we'd only ever really seen each other from the shoulders up. Or –

"Bella, your food," Alice was handing me a covered plate of whatever the plane meal was; I grabbed it and pulled down my tray table. I hadn't even realized Alice had woken up from her nap.

"How much time is left?" I asked.

"A little over two hours I think."

I didn't say anything more. When I finished my food, I waited for the flight attendant to come by with the trash bag before reclining my seat to take a nap.

My phone was ringing again; people had been calling nonstop since we all found out. I'd kill Mike for telling our friends if I had the energy. I rolled over and lifted the receiver once before putting it down again. Then I lifted the receiver again and set it down on the nightstand. I hadn't been feeling well, physically I mean, mentally I don't know what I felt – nothing? But that wasn't right either. I felt like the light had left me. And the physical pain was getting worse; my insides felt like they were shredding and reconnecting in ways that didn't fit. They tightened and pulled in places that couldn't be right. I hid it at first, but now I was folding over on myself. I could hear Mike in the kitchen; he didn't know how to be around me. Carefully, I got out of bed and clutched my arms around myself, barely making it into the bathroom. I felt…something. "Mike –," I called to him, hoping my coarse, frail sounding voice was loud enough. My eyes were beginning to water, but I didn't have the strength to wipe the tears away. I kept one arm around myself and the other on the rim of the sink for balance. He opened the door a second later and his eyes widened in shock. My teeth chattered; I could barely get out the words. "Something's wrong."

I inhaled sharply as I opened my eyes; outside the plane, the sky seemed too bright. I closed the plastic shade and looked over to Alice who was sleeping soundly. Catching my breath, I closed my eyes again, trying to focus on slowing my racing heart and stilling my shaking hands. When I no longer felt like I was having a panic attack, I heard a deep calm voice come over the speakers telling us that we'd be landing within the next twenty minutes. It did nothing to maintain my forced composure. Next to me, Alice stretched her legs out in front of her and rolled her head from one shoulder to the other. She looked at me, "it's a good thing Edward isn't meeting us here, you look like hell. I mean that in the nicest way possible."

"Thanks, same to you," I smirked.

She made a sound of amusement and stretched her arms over her head. The closer we got to landing, the more nervous I got; I was surprised Alice didn't say anything. She talked idly about how she was planning on fixing my hair and what she wanted me to wear. I packed my own suitcase this time around, but I knew she'd stuck some things in her own bags that were for me.

I held my breath as the plane got in line with the runway, not letting it out until we had safely touched down. Alice and I gathered our things once the plane stopped and waited for the door to open. "Here we go," Alice said quietly when we were let off.

My body felt a little like it was vibrating and I found myself looking at every face I passed, thinking it might be Edward. He's not even here, I reminded myself. We followed the signs through the myriad walkways until we finally found baggage claim. Standing there waiting I began to crave a mirror. My hair felt tangled and messy and I had an urge to brush my teeth again and take another shower. Even Alice looked tired, which was a rarity. After a few minutes, the belt started moving, suitcases going by one at a time. We both took an automatic step forward to watch for ours.

My bag was one of the first to come around; I reached down to grab it, but when I went to pull it up, the wheel got caught on the strap of the bag next to it. I tugged on it, trying to get it loose by force, but that didn't seem to be working. If I didn't hurry, I was going to be walking with my bag around the belt.

Two hands came into view, deftly pulling the strap from around the wheel of my suitcase and then grabbing it to lower it to the ground. The hands were large, but the fingers slim; they belonged to a man. I followed them up to lean muscled forearms, partially covered by the rolled up sleeves of a white shirt. The shoulders were broad and square; the neck had the same kind of lean but strong build as the forearms. Above that was the sexiest smile I'd ever seen in my life.

"Hey, you looked like you could use a little help," his gaze made me feel like I wasn't wearing any clothes.

I couldn't get the stupid half grin, half surprised expression off my face; it was the same look I had the first time Alice sat me down in front of my webcam. I opened my mouth a little way but no sound came out. I felt a sharp little elbow in my side.

Say something.