Chapter 1: I hate you, Alice.
"I hate you. I HATE you. I hate hate hate you." I said through my teeth, jaw clenched shut.
"Aw, I love you too, Bells. You're number 11, so go. Scoot!" Alice shoved me off towards table 11. I sat down and looked at the people here. Some of the guys were... presentable... but obviously slime. Others were just disgusting. The women were disasters. Don't take me wrong, I don't think I'm all that either, but, jeez. It looked like they either tried to hard or didn't try hard enough. I saw business suits, dresses that stopped right under the ass, and a long sleeved flannel lumberjack shirt. Wow.
"Ladies take your seats for the evening and men; find the table you will start at. Each date is 10 minutes long. When you hear the sound of the bell, the men will rotate to the next table. You may begin!" And with the sound of the bell, I braced myself for the worst night of my life.
-Flashback-
"Alice! I'm home!" I opened the door and hung my jacket on the wall, dropping my keys in the bowl on the coffee table.
"Yes! No! And Yes!" I heard Alice scream from the other side of the apartment.
"What?" I walked to the back room where Alice was yelling from and marveled at the mess she had made. She only gets home half an hour before me!
"Yes, you're going. No, you can't get out of it, and YES you ARE wearing that." She motioned to bag of what I presumed to be an outfit.
"Now, go get ready so I can do your hair and makeup." She stared into her closet, trying to figure out what to wear. If I were her, I'd probably be trying to figure out if I would be able to get out of that closet. It was huge! She converted the entire third bedroom for her closet. It was insane.
"Alice, can you please tell me what's going on?" I tried to sit on her bed but she ran over and scooted me out of the room.
"All in due time. You don't have a choice anyway, so what does it matter?" She shoved me into the bathroom and shut the door. I started the shower and got in, using the ice-cold water to wake me up. I stared into the showerhead and wondered, if I stared up long enough with my mouth open, would I drown? I decided not to test it and finished showering. When I got out, I wrapped a towel around my hair and myself and walked into my room, finding the bag of clothes on my bed.
I pulled the outfit out and gave it a once over. It wasn't that bad. Dark wash straight leg jeans and a silky button up sapphire blue blouse. The shoes weren't bad either. Black peep-toe flats. I think I may actually enjoy wearing this. I had just gotten my feet into the shoes when Alice barged in.
"Okay! Good, you're dressed. Vanity, now." She shoved me into the seat in front of my hardly-used vanity mirror and brought out the curling iron. She curled my brown hair into loose ringlets and started on my makeup.
"Tonight's gonna be easy." She swiped on some eyeliner, mascara, and lip-gloss on me and then started on herself. Thankful that my makeover session was over, I walked to the kitchen for something to eat.
"Ally! Are we gonna be eating dinner wherever we're going?" I asked, leaning into the open refrigerator.
"No," she called, "Could you heat me up some of that ziti?" She stuck her head out of my room.
I grabbed two plates, cut us off a couple of squares of the pasta, and nuked it for a couple minutes.
She walked out of my room all glammed up in a little black dress. Not the slutty kind, but fancier than what I was wearing. I didn't even want to think about her shoes.
After eating, we got into my blue Scion TC and Alice drove us to our destination. The car was a forced present from her after my favorite red truck up and died. I didn't like that she was driving my car, but what could I do? I didn't know where we were going. After a few minutes of driving around, she pulled in front of a small crafts shop.
"Alice, I don't get it. Why did we get all dressed up to go shopping for fabrics?" I started unbuckling my seatbelt and was about to open the door as Alice spoke.
"We're not going in there, silly. We're going there." She pointed to the building next to the craft store. The neon sign in the front identified the building as Speedy Date.
"Oh no. Alice! You didn't!" She had signed us up for speed dating!
-End Flashback-
I went through so any rounds of the same questions I just started rattling them off without thinking.
What's your sign? Virgo.
What's your favorite color? Blue.
Do you like kids? Not particularly.
The bell rang for the final guy and I couldn't be more relieved that this night was almost over. I had my face in my hands, I sighed heavily, hearing the chair across from me scoot back, and then forwards as someone sat down. I looked up to see the final annoyance of the day and was met by the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen.
They were bright green with golden specks in them. It was so hard to look away. The only thing that snapped me out of my trance was a musical voice.
"Uh, Hi. My name is Edward."
