The sun rose on a chilly Sunday morning, and the dark haired woman shivered as she pulled the collar of her blue coat up against the cold. Her heeled boots slid slightly on the icy tarmac, and she cussed under her breath, and continued to walk on the grass, which crunched beneath her feet. Bella had never had an excellent balance, and didn't quite feel like a visit to A and E today. It had been unseasonably cold for October, and Bella was hyper aware of this as she carried her shopping through the suburban park. Renesmee had stayed at Charlie's all weekend, and she knew that her young daughter had a unique bond with her aging grandfather - it was if they could communicate telepathically, knowing exactly which LEGO brick had to go where or which crayon was the perfect match for her bronze ringlets.

She ached for that sort of relationship with, well... anyone. Charlie had always been hilariously abysmal at interpreting her feelings, and Edward was always quiet, seldom laughing, and only at things that Bella found excruciatingly unfunny. But they got on fine, taking turns to take Nessie to school and equally dividing homework and bath duty, but their jobs meant that they spent little time alone together, since Bella was always long gone by the time he awoke, and was occasionally asleep by the time that he returned from work, since he preferred to mark papers at the silence of the campus instead of the noise of their small London flat.

But they were alone today, and Bella was unsure what to feel about this, she wanted to feel excited, glad or at least a single recognisable emotion, but she was strangely ambiguous about it, and hoped that her morning excursion would help clear things up. However as her block of flats loomed ever closer, she realised it was a wasted effort, still just as confused as she was when she first left the tiny apartment.

When Edward heard the familiar rattle of his wife's keys in the door, he took a deep breath and tried to mentally prepare for the day ahead in the few seconds it took her to unlock the perpetually jammed door. You are glad he pathetically thought to himself, just as emotionally unperturbed as Bella, well, he could certainly sense nervousness in there somewhere, which is at least something.

"Hey b-" he got out before he began to splutter and cough for a long moment, leaving his wife with a stupid smile on her face for too long "Hey babe" he eventually managed, his voice hoarse.

Bella took this as a cue to drop the smile, turning to place her shopping on the kitchen counter before hurriedly kissing him on the cheek.

"Hey babe, fancy a DVD?" She said, nodding over at their meagre selection of movies.

"Sure, yeah, how's about... Jack and Jill?" Bella winced at this, but was surprised at Edward's diplomacy at this choice, knowing full well they'd hate it equally, so at least it was fair.

"Yeah, go for it" She said with a noncommittal smile as she removed her navy coat to expose a burgundy woolen jumper that she adored (or had at least learned to, due to the price tag).

She placed herself down on their cream sofa, which had stopped being spotless a long time ago, since messes abound when one has a five year old running about. Edward began to load the DVD, the flatscreen tv flickering to life as he did so and Bella, the moment the title screen flashed up, prepared herself for the single most uncomedic comedy she had ever had the misfortune to watch.

An hour and forty minutes later, Bella peeled herself from the couch, the most bemused that she'd been in her life, and decided that if she was doing everything she hated all at once, she might as well buy a magazine as well. She was really just fishing for excuses to leave the claustrophobic flat, and was dying for some fresh air. Edward grunted affirmatively when she donned her coat and exclaimed to the room in general that she was leaving to go to the off-license down the road.

The icy cold wind hit her in the face as she stepped out into the frosty midday sun (sun being a bit of a poetic stretch for bugger all), at least this time Bella had remembered to properly wrap up, mittens and all. Everything was colour coordinated, because that was so Bella, and if you think this was extreme, we are talking about the woman who actually goes to the dentist when she recieves the postcard telling her it's time for a checkup.

"Hello" She chirped to the familiar man behind the counter, who she mostly saw whenever they were out of milk and so desperate they were willing to pay two pounds for it.

"That'll be three pound" the blotchy faced shopkeeper grunted, and since his prices were quite that offensive and Bella was generally having a pretty shit day, she muttered fuck it under her breath and inhaled deeply

"Also, can I have 20 Rothman blue king size" she said, giving up on her carefree facade.

"Twelve pound" he grunted after a while, clearly not used to the logistics of a customer buying more than one item. She grimaced at the thievery going on before her, but paid it anyway, replacing her mittens tentatively after she tucked the magazine and the cigarettes into her handbag

When the door shut behind her with the tinkle of a bell, Bella paused, unsure about what her plan was now. She had always kept a lighter in her bag (well, not so much kept as not taken out), and strongly debated whether to just throw caution to the wind and light one, but she had been doing so well and couldn't stand the disappointed look on Edward's face when she sat back down on the couch stinking of smoke. He had first talked her off them when Bella was seventeen, trying to ground her rebellious ways, and then she'd gotten pregnant aged eighteen, and never regained the habit. She knew it was bad for her, but she honestly couldn't care less. With a pained grunt, she dropped onto a bench, cigarette free, and to distract herself, picked up the sickeningly gregarious magazine, promising her the best sex of her life if she turned to page fifteen.

Instead she scanned the front page, coming to terms with the fact that she had just wasted three pounds on this crock of shit, when one of the eyewateringly bright titles caught her eye. I

It read: In a rut? Tired of the same routine? Follow our five steps and learn to Live a Little!

Bella rolled her eyes at this, but for the sake of morbid curiosity combined her with a desperate urge not to have just thrown away three quid on a magazine, turned to the indicated page and felt her eyes flitting left to right as she absorbed the brightly coloured and vernacular filled text, but the basic message was becoming clearer as she read on: get out of your comfort zone, try new things, take a chance, be impulsive.

None of these things sounded at all Bella, but that's why it fascinated her so, she had been constantly bombarded with the many hijinks and adventures of Jessica and Angela, Facebook friends from a different era, an era when Bella had smoked, gone out and gotten pregnant at eighteen. The only reminders of this age were their sunny pictures and mountainous backgrounds that filled her with the memory of adrenaline coursing through her veins. She missed it, if she was being honest, yet she wasn't.

Bella flicked to the front cover, light snow beginning to dampen it, and reread the title, over and over, but only comprehending the same phrase repeatedly, and came to the final decision that it was now time to Live a Little.

Thanks a bunch to my bestie Anna for agreeing with me that the first chapter was shit, hope you enjoy this one better (I know I do). Thanks to everyone for supporting this story, it really gives me the motivation to write more, got chapter 4 in the works, currently at 6k words and I'm not even finished yet. It's a cracker - lots of love,

Gemma