A tad OOC for Bella, but hey, if you feel like complaining, I'm sure I can take it.

--

Bella was like a cherry.

So small and simple and all it takes is a little bit of force to break through that thin layer of skin and let the red juices flow. Juices that once you tasted, none could get enough of. At least, no sane person could get enough of.

And boy did Alice feel her sanity at this moment. Because it was driving her insane.

All Bella was doing was sitting across from her at their lunch table, half listening to Edward talk, half staring off a little to the left and slowly, every now and then, popping cherries into her mouth, one by one.

Alice had been noticing the steadily increasing ache in her chest over the last few minutes. It was almost as if the cold heart at it's centre was trying to beat harder and faster than it normally should; if it could beat at all.

Bella's scent was almost as tempting to Alice as the memory of what cherries tasted like. And mixing the two temptations together as one desire was enough to make Alice realise she had to make an exit.

Before she could move though, Bella picked up another cherry and the dark haired vampire was once again transfixed. She could feel in the air; there was something new this time. Bella was moving slower, making deliberate movements instead of the lacklustre ones she had employed earlier.

And as she raised the single red orb to her now dyed lips, Bella altered her gaze so that she was looking sideways through her lashes at Alice. The older girl felt her own lips part as Bella bit into the cherry unblinkingly, an eyebrow raising at Alice's trance like state.

A gulp brought her back to reality as the dark haired girl pushed herself away from the table hastily. As all eyes fell on her in the minutest fraction of a second, she made up a half hearted excuse.

"I might go freshen up before class." She muttered, dragging her eyes away from Bella as she moved off half way through her sentence. It was to the toilet block she went, hoping she could collect her thoughts in the hope of keeping them hidden from her family.

--

Bella's eyes had followed Alice's exit as she finished off the cherry in her mouth. Glancing to the side, mentally calculating how many cherries were left in her bag, she shrugged slightly and added the pile of pips into the bag that was headed for a bin. It didn't really matter how many cherries she wasted; Alice was worth it.

"I think she's got the right idea," Bella said levelly to Edward as she stood up, thanking God he couldn't read her thoughts. "I think a rest stop's in store."

--

True to her word, Alice was standing in front of the mirror in the girl's bathroom, splashing an inordinate amount of ice cold water on her already ice cold face. It wasn't helping to calm her down.

Who would have thought that after all these years it was a young girl called Bella, armed with a couple of cherries, that would almost make her loose control. If she had been on the outside, looking in, she might have laughed. Only, she was stuck being the leading act.

Why, oh why, oh why, oh why, did Bella have to smell so good? And why did she have to look so sexy sucking cherry pulp off a pip?

"Well, I think the answer's in the question for that one, Alice." She muttered, almost jumping as the outer door opened. She thought she'd scared everyone off with her speedy entrance a few minutes before. She looked to her left, hands planted firmly on top of the bench, as she waited for the intruder to realise their mistake.

It was as the inner door opened that the first whiff of Bella and Cherries met her sensitive nose. Oh God no. She thought as the girl walked in and shut the door purposefully behind her.

The candid smirk on her lips made Alice jerk up and away from the sinks. She knew she was in for it.

The gulp was caught half way down her throat as Bella pushed forward and stalked towards her, the lines between hunter and prey beginning to blur. Alice could feel the younger girl's heart rate in the air as she crossed the room, and it was almost enough to make her sweat.

"I think," Bella began as she closed the distance between them, slowly backing Alice into a corner as she tried to escape. "That we need to have a little chat."

Alice could feel the walls at both of her shoulders, blocking her escape from the girl in front of her. She didn't even realise that her head had started shaking until Bella placed a hand on either side to stop her.

She shuddered under the touch and broke through her mental (and physical) bonds, Bella turning to find her on the other side of the room in a split second.

"Not here." Alice half stated, half pleaded. "Not now."

Bella took a moment before she nodded half heartedly, a smirk still managing to grace her lips.

"Fair enough." Alice was half way out the door by the time she continued. "But my window's always open, and there's always cherries in the fridge." The smirk that Alice returned was enough to make her blood boil.

"Does that request come with a please?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"How about we make it a 'pretty please'?" Bella threw back, smiling widely.

Alice's light laughter hung in the air even after both doors had swung shut behind her.

Oh yeah, Bella thought. There would definitely be a cherry on top too.