Hello friends!

Here's the next chapter. Friendly reminder that I'm working without a beta, so forgive mistakes.

SM owns Twilight.

Here we go!

"You look beautiful, Bella."

"Almost too beautiful. You better not overshadow me on my wedding day. I will cut you."

"Alice!"

"I'm kidding!"

I roll my eyes at Esme and Alice as they continue to talk about my dress and my shoes and how well my dress is going to match Jasper's tux, but not in a manly way, etc.

"Don't move! If I poke you, it will be your fault," the seamstress hisses at me.

Alice's personal fashion guru was a somewhat terrifying Russian woman whose name I can't pronounce. She hasn't poked me with her needles yet, but I feel like a part of her really wants to; she's already yelled at me at least four times. I couldn't even itch my nose without getting yelled at.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is all for Alice and Jasper.

I tune back into Alice and Esme's conversation-they have moved away from talking about me and are now discussing the honeymoon. They're going to France; Alice has always wanted to go just for the fun of it, but the only time they'd gone in the past had been when Edward filmed a movie there.

At the mention of Edward, Esme glances out of me from the corner of her eye. I pretend not to notice. Since I saw her for the first time this morning, she hadn't brought up Edward. Every time the conversation started to lead in that direction, she would steer it away. I appreciated that she was trying to be sensitive, but at the same time, I was going to be seeing him soon. If I couldn't handle talking about him, how was I supposed to handle seeing him?

I clear my throat, making sure to hold still so I don't get yelled at.

"How is Edward?" I ask, pretending to be very focused on my reflection in the mirror.

I see Esme startle slightly, but Alice doesn't miss a beat.

"He's Edward," she says, as if that explains anything. "He's been doing a lot of work out of the country lately. Mainly Canada, but still. Out of the U.S."

"That's…exciting," I stutter out. Not exactly what I wanted to know, but exciting.

"Yeah, well after the wedding, he's heading to Australia for some movie or other," Alice says as she stands to observe the seamstresses' work.

"Wow," I whisper. Australia.

"You are done. I will have dress finished by tomorrow morning," the woman says. "Go take it off carefully!"

I resist the urge to salute and go into the dressing room. I look at myself in the mirror. The dress is a light green off the shoulder v-neck. It goes down just below my knees and is made of a really soft, silky material. I have to give it to Alice; she's probably the only bride in the world that would actually pick a dress that I could wear again in the future.

Still, I was happy to put my pants back on.

When I come back out, Alice hands me a box. "Here are your shoes. I figured you might want to practice walking in them."

I take them but don't open the box. I don't even want to know yet.

"Probably a good idea."

Esme and Alice take me out to lunch where we meet up with Carlisle, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie. Emmett greets me like we're the oldest and best of friends, wrapping his arms around me in a great big hug. Rosalie is nice to me still, giving me a less abrasive but slightly awkward hug.

Carlisle gives me a warm and welcoming hug. "We've missed you, Bella," he says with a smile.

"I missed you all, too."

We spend a lot of lunch catching up. Emmett and Rosalie moved to Texas a few months after they got married and Rosalie apparently loved it. Emmett said he still wasn't sold on staying there, but I knew if Rose wanted to stay, he wouldn't put up a fight.

They start to ask me a million questions about college and all the traveling I did. The questions all seem innocent enough, until Emmett, being what I can only assume is his usual self, makes things a little uncomfortable.

"Make any interesting friends out there in New York?" he asks. "Are you dating one of those hipster liberal arts students?"

Jasper does a face-palm and Alice glares at her brother.

I try to play it off as casual. "I've met a lot of interesting people, but I've been a little too busy with classes and work to date." I try to think of a way to steer the conversation in a different direction, but come up blank. I look at Jasper for help.

"Bella actually finished her first year with a 4.0," he says with a proud smile. "My little girl is growing up."

I resist the urge to throw one of my fries at him. "It's not that big of a deal; they were all easy classes. I mean, that's how freshman year normally is, right?"

Emmett lets out a guffaw. "Oh please, my freshman year…"

I smile in thanks at Jasper. The rest of the conversation seemed to focus on all of Emmett's crazy antics from his college days. The kid was crazy, which in all honesty didn't really surprise me.

~O~

I spent a full hour walking up and down the hallway in Charlie's house attempting to master the heels Alice gave me. And it wasn't going well.

"Why don't you try straightening your back?" Charlie suggests as he watches the struggle with more than an appropriate amount of amusement on his face.

I grab onto the wall and glare at him. "Oh I'm sorry, dad. I didn't know you were an expert on high heels. Do you want to have a go, show me how it's done?"

Charlie snickers at me, but does the safe thing and walks away. I take the high heels off in a huff and stare at them. They were about 5 inch heels. Normal girls could walk in them easily. But for some reason, equilibrium has never come easy to me. I stare at them, at the shiny silver material, and decide to give up for the evening.

I'm bringing flats to the reception. Alice can just deal with it.

~O~

The night before the rehearsal dinner, I decide to throw Jasper an official bachelor party. And by that, I mean I decided he should come over so we could eat food and watch movies. Alice was fine with it; she said she had too much to do and it would be a blessing to not have to worry about him messing things up.

So that night, we sat on the couch in my living room, an empty pizza box and a half eaten cake sitting on the floor in front of us. We had the pizza delivered, but we saw the premade cake at the store when we ran to get pop and couldn't resist.

Now, we both severely regretted it.

"Hey Bells?"

I grunt in response. I'm afraid if I open my mouth, all the food will come back up.

"I ate too much."

I laugh and regret it immediately. "Me too. But hey, some guys get drunk and make unforgivable mistakes at their bachelor party. But not you. You get a tummy ache from eating too much cake."

He tosses a throw pillow at my head. "Brat."

"What should we watch?" I ask.

"You pick," he says.

I grab the movie Once from the DVD stand and toss it in. Jasper and I discovered it a few years back and thought we were super hipster for watching it. But we both ended up enjoying it a lot and it became one of our favorites.

"So are you nervous?" Jasper asks once the movie starts.

I raise an eyebrow at him. "I think I'm supposed to be asking you that question."

"Yeah, well you can ask me after you answer." He takes a sip of his water as he waits for me to say something.

"Yes, okay?" I say, keeping my eyes glued to the TV. "I'm terrified. But it's not like I haven't seen him at all. He's on every single magazine cover all the freaking time. I'll be okay. Trust me. As far as awkward reunions go, this won't even make my list."

He gives me a look.

"Okay, it'll be on the list, but at the bottom."

"Just promise me that if you need-"

"Jasper," I interrupt, holding a hand up. "Stop it. This wedding is about you and Alice and you officially starting the rest of your life together. My problems with Edward have nothing to do with that. So I want you to stop worrying about me and focus on your wedding."

Jasper smiles at me and grabs my hand. "I just love you, Bells," he says with a smile. "You'll always be my best man."

I smile. "You'll always me my maid of honor."

He hits me with a throw pillow again.

~O~

I've only been to one wedding rehearsal in my life, and that was when I was 13 and Charlie's best friend got remarried. At the rehearsal, we were allowed to wear pants, and the dinner after was held at a pub.

I should have known Alice's would be different.

She called it "semi-formal," which meant she wanted me in a dress. But because of the "semi" part, I decided that wearing my comfortable black flats was okay.

When I show up for the rehearsal at the church, I glance at myself in the reflection of the window. I like simple, but nice. A purple dress that falls below my knees with a modest neckline that only shows my collarbones. My hair is clipped back so it's half up, and I put on a bit of mascara and lip-gloss. I didn't bother with any blush; my face has been flushed since I woke up due to nerves.

I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and open the door.

Hehehehe.

Next chapter will be up oh so soon! I promise :)

Review and let me know what you think!

Lots of love,

Emilia Elliot