EPOV
I made sure I wasn't completely disgusting, trying to unsuccessfully tame my hair and even put on extra deodorant.
After giving myself a minute to breathe, trying to work up enough courage to talk to her, I went out on the main deck and I looked around for the mystery girl. I couldn't see her anywhere.
Had she already gone back to her room?
I decided to walk around for bit, casually scanning over the people for her or the girl with her. I passed Alice and Jasper, but I didn't stop to talk. Alice raised an eyebrow at me, but didn't say anything, choosing instead to drag Jasper to the pool.
I went to the dinning hall, but she wasn't there either.
Damn it! Did I imagine her?
After a half hour, I started grumbling to myself and headed to the pool, the only place I hadn't looked yet.
It was a good sized pool, a couple dozen people were already littered around it, lounging in those tanning chairs or floating around in the pool.
"Hey Edward!" Alice called from her chair.
"Hey." I said once I got closer, sitting down in Jasper's chair since he was in the pool.
"What's wrong?" She asked, pushing her sunglasses down her nose to get a better look at me.
"Nothing." I said. She gave me a look that told me to stop bullshitting her, so I spilled. "Okay, I saw this girl and now I can't find her again. I've looked all over the ship. I'm starting to think I imagined her or something."
"What does she look like?" Alice asked. I was thankful she'd skipped teasing me about liking a girl.
"Really pretty, long brown curly hair, pale, about a few inches taller than you, she had a little girl with her that looked around seven." I described.
Alice frowned for a moment, concentrating.
"Do you mean Bella?" She asked.
"What?"
"Bella. Jasper and I met her on deck, she was really nice. The little girl that was with her is her sister Nessie." She explained.
My mouth fell open. Here I was, searching all over the damn ship for her, and Alice was becoming best friends with her.
"Well where did she go?" I exclaimed.
"She said that she was going up to her room to get some stuff, then she was going to meet Jazz and I down here." Alice said.
Huh.
"But don't you do anything!" She said suddenly, leaning toward me.
"What?" I asked innocently.
"This girl seems really nice and fun. I don't want you hurting or scaring away my future best friend." She said sternly.
"I'm not going to hurt her, or scare her away… hopefully." I said truthfully.
I didn't want to hurt this girl… I wanted to do a lot of things with her, but hurting her isn't one of them. And I hoped I wouldn't scare her away with my nerves or the sudden blabbering that I usually developed when trying to have a conversation with a pretty girl.
"Good." Alice perked back up again, sitting straight in her chair and pushing her sunglasses back up.
"Oh look, here she comes!" Alice said a couple minutes later, nodding to her left, past me.
My head turned to look and saw the girl - Bella, apparently - walking toward the pool, still in those damn tight jean shorts, but she'd taken off her white t-shirt, leaving her in a small blue bikini top that showed off her flat, toned stomach, flared hips and very ummm… generous sized breasts.
I was trying to be somewhat respectful here, all right?
"Bella!" Alice exclaimed, waving her over.
She came closer and I noticed that her eyes were a deep brown… but there was something off about them.
There was a smile on her face as she looked at Alice, but it was strained, and her brown eyes were nervous, worried… upset. She looked like she'd either jump out of her skin and run and hide, or snap and strangle someone.
A part of me was saying… You finally find a girl you might like and you pick the crazy one.
The other part was saying… What the hell was wrong with this girl, or what had happened to her, to make her like that?