"Edward?
Can you come down here for a moment?" Alice chirped with
unnecessary volume. She knew that I could hear her perfectly fine
with a whisper. Hell, I could hear her perfectly fine without
conversing aloud at all. Bella could read the hesitation on my face,
and she stifled a giggle, "what is it? You can't leave alice
waiting."
"Bella, my beautiful angel, I'm just
contemplating whether or not answering her is safe..."
"why
not?" she smiled.
"You of all people should know that
Alice can be the scariest of us all at times?" I raised my brow,
waiting for her to catch on. She did.
"oh no! She isn't
planning another shopping trip, is she?" the horror in Bella's
voice almost had me rolling on the floor.
"Edward Cullen! You
tell me this instant, do i really have to endure another day of bags
and credit cards? I had to buy a new dresser just last week..."
"And
for good reason!" A very hurt looking Alice said, standing at
the doorway. "why didn't you answer me?"
"sorry
Alice, Bella was being unintentionally funny." was all i could
muster through laughs. Alice was quite the pixie.
Alice's eyes
glazed over, like she was concentrating very hard on something
unseen. Then her expression suddenly changed to a twisted, erratic
smile. I caught on to this, and pried at her mind, searching for
whatever plastered that look on her face-sending chills down my
spine. But instead, all i could hear was a song that we heard on the
radio last week. if
you want my body, and you think I'm sexy...She
was being sneaky, eh? "Hey! not fair." I mock-whined.
"No
way, big brother, you're coming with me." she turned to my
angel, "You too, Bella. This was what I was telling you about,
at the thing, with the thing." But her surreptitious eyes
suggested more than a Thing.
Bella's
near-constant look of horror when Alice plotted shopping trips
suddenly flipped into a devilish smile-her eyes seemed to sparkle,
like a prepubescent child, clearly satisfied with getting away with
something they shouldn't have. Was the excitement I could see in
her eyes, apprehension maybe?
"So, Edward, will you be
joining us at the mall today?" Alice probed. What could I do,
resist? How could
I resist? I needed to be with my Bella. Besides, what if she needs
me? Alice can be vicious. What if my dear sister drowns her in a mass
of halter tops and daisy dukes? Oh, who was I kidding? I had nothing
else to do today, and the more-than-suggestive look on both of their
carefully constructed faces told me that I may not wanting to be
missing out on this particular shopping trip.
The car ride was maddening. Every time I would look at my Bella, she would simply smile and that sparkle in her eyes seemed to peak and she would giggle. Alice was still "Jamming to Rod Stewart" as she called it; hardly an excuse. She knew that I knew she was hiding something from me. And I knew she knew I knew. So frustrating! Instead I converted to counting the cars that I passed, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one. Weren't we there yet? Suddenly the movie theater came into view and I realized that we were closer than I had thought. Thankfully...