Chapter Two
Ribbons and Lace
Bella's Point of View
Edward and I had gone to the county offices the next day to buy the meadow and some land around it to build the house on. We had stayed up until the early hours of the morning discussing ideas, only falling asleep when the darkness began to fade. When we woke, Edward cooked us a breakfast of pancakes and fruit. As we started eating, the phone rang. I jumped about three feet in the air in shock and Edward chuckled. "I'll get it; you can finish your breakfast." And he walked off into the small kitchen to get the phone. "Hello, Cullen household," he said. "This is Edward." He paused, listening to the person on the other line, and then said, "Hang on a second, I'll go get her." He walked out of the kitchen and handed me the phone. I took it and looked up at him, wondering who it was. "Angela," he said, answering my unspoken question.
"Hey Angela," I said, still somewhat groggy. I definitely hadn't gotten enough sleep last night. "What's up?"
"I just wanted to ask you something that I forgot in the chaos of last night. Would you like to be my maid of honor?" I gasped in shock. This was unexpected.
"Oh, wow, Angela! I'd… I'd love to! I can't believe it!" I stammered.
"Great!" she said. "I asked Alice and Rosalie to be my other bridesmaids. We're going shopping today for dresses; apparently Alice can't wait even one minute. I guess I should have known," Angela laughed. "Can you meet us at the bridal shop off of Main Street in about an hour and a half?"
I looked at the clock. It said 10:30 am. "Sure, no problem!" I agreed. "I'll see you there!"
"Yup! Bye, Bella."
"Bye, Angela. Talk to you later!" I said as I hung up the phone. I looked up at Edward. "She asked me to be her maid of honor! Can you believe it?" I asked excitedly. "We're going dress shopping at twelve; Alice's idea, of course."
"That's wonderful, Bella." Edward answered.
"I wonder who Ben picked as his groomsmen." I mused.
"Oh, he asked Jasper, Emmet and I last night. I guess I forgot to tell you that," he said, answering my question. "I'm sure we're going to look at tuxes later, too, knowing Alice." Suddenly the phone rang. I was almost positive that it was Alice. Edward picked up the phone and said. "Hello, Alice. I'm assuming your calling about something to do with the wedding, am I right?" A pause, and then Edward laughed. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow at 12. Bye, Alice," he said, hanging up the phone once more. "I guess I was right. We're going shopping tomorrow."
I laughed. It was so like Alice to want to get the wedding organized as soon as possible, even if it meant driving herself crazy. We finished our now-cold pancakes and soggy fruit and headed upstairs to get ready for the day. I took a shower first, letting the warm water run over my body, relaxing me. I knew today would be stressful. I hated shopping, but I kept reminding myself who I was doing this for. Just think of Angela. I finished showering, turned off the water and toweled off. I slipped into a pair of jeans and a dark blue form-fitting t-shirt that Alice had gotten me, knowing of my hatred of anything too complicated and Edward's love of the color on me. I pulled my dark brown hair into a ponytail and brushed my teeth. I walked into mine and Edward's tiny bedroom and sat down on my bed, unfolding a pair of white socks. I pulled them over my feet and tied my tennis shoes on over them tightly. I kissed Edward goodbye, pulled on my jacket, walked down the hallway, and headed out into the rain.
I walked slowly toward the apartment building's parking lot. Surprisingly, the sky was a pale blue, and the always-present clouds had vanished. It was relatively cold, and I shivered as I walked toward my car. Edward had insisted on buying me a new car once my old truck had passed on. I insisted that the car should be nothing too over-the-top or pricey, so he had gotten me a red VW Beetle. I unlocked the door and climbed inside. I shivered again, and turned up the heat as I headed for the bridal shop on Main Street.
When I stepped out of my car, I immediately saw Alice standing beside her bright yellow Porsche. I walked over to her and saw Rose and Angela getting out of Alice's car. We walked into the bridal shop together. Bells chimed as we opened the door and a friendly-looking woman behind the counter looked up. "Hi, how can I help you?" she asked politely.
It was Alice who answered her. "Well, Angela here is getting married," she began, pulling Angela gently to the front of the group. "And we need bridesmaid's dresses!" The woman nodded and led us over to the back wall of the store, which was covered with dresses in every style and color. I hopped that Alice knew what she was looking for. The sales clerk looked that way too.
"What color were you thinking?" she asked Angela, obviously not realizing that Alice was in charge of everything. Angela giggled.
"She's my go-to girl for weddings," Angela said as she pointed at Alice. "What were you thinking of, Alice?"
Alice perked up a bit and said, "I was actually thinking of dark blue dresses. How does that sound to you, Angela?"
"That sounds perfect." The sales clerk led us to the left side of the store, towards a rack of blue dresses. She told us to help ourselves and ask her if we had questions, then she headed back towards the counter to finish reading her magazine. Alice grabbed a bunch of the dresses and headed for the dressing room. Rose, Angela, and I followed suit.
Alice started taking of her clothes the second she walked into the room, and pulled on one of the dresses over her head. She handed identical dresses to Rosalie and me, and we pulled them on. I took a look in the mirror and gasped. The dresses were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It was a floor length strapless dress, which was gathered around the top. It seemed to shimmer in the light, but only slightly. I looked over at Rosalie, and her expression matched mine exactly. We both turned to look at Alice, our faces in shock. Alice looked up at us and frowned. "What don't you like it?" she asked, sounding a little disappointed. I turned around to look at Rose and we both burst out laughing at the exact same moment. We fell to the floor in fits of laughter, Alice looking down on us like a strict school teacher. "What's so funny?" she demanded.
"How on earth did you pick out the perfect dress first try?" I asked between giggles. "Usually your shopping trips take hours!" Alice's expression lightened considerably. Then she started laughing too. Now it was our turn to be confused.
"No, we still have to help Angela find her dress, remember?" she giggled. Now Alice and Angela fell to the floor laughing, so we all were left lying on the floor. After we were all crying from laughing so hard, Alice said, "We should probably get out of these dresses so we don't ruin them. And we have a lot of shopping left to do!" Rose and I groaned, but agreed. We put our jeans back on, and put the dresses back on the hangers. We left them in the dressing room, and went to look for Angela's dress. The store seemed much larger now than it did when we first walked in. There were hundreds of dresses to choose from. Alice told us each to pick out five dresses for Angela to try on. Angela stayed in the dressing room and tried on dress after dress. Alice wanted the dress to be perfect. Rose and I gave occasional comments, but after a while, we zoned out. Then I heard Alice gasp.
"Angela, this is perfect! Absolutely beautiful!" Alice cried. Rose and I looked up and I heard our gasps, which were identical to Alice's. This dress was unlike any of the others Angela had tried on. It was perfect for her. It was a strapless, flowing white dress strewn with sequins. A dark blue bow around her waist, matching our bridesmaid's dresses perfectly.
"Angela, I love it! This is perfect for you," I half-whispered, still in awe.
"Its beautiful," was all Rosalie managed to say.
"Now all that's left is shoes!" giggled Alice triumphantly. We headed back out into the store in search of shoes, Angela still wearing her dress. Alice waved us over to the far right wall, which was filled with shoes. She plucked a few pairs of high heels off the shelf and handed them to Angela, Rose and I. "Aren't you glad that Ben is finally taller than you?" asked Alice.
Angela laughed and then said, "Yeah, its nice being able to see him without having to hunch over!" We all laughed as Angela picked out a pair of shoes and headed back to change out of her dress. We then grabbed all the dresses and shoes and headed back up to the sales clerk. Her eyes seemed to bulge a bit and I stifled a laugh. I guessed by her expression that she was paid on commission. Alice insisted on putting everything on her shiny black credit card. She wasn't going to let Angela do anything herself, I could tell that now. We all said our goodbyes as we headed for separate cars. "I'll see you later, Bella!" called Angela as se was being stuffed in the car by Alice. I heard her muttering something about 'tablecloths and napkins'. I was glad that I was not going along on that trip. I laughed in pity for Rosalie and Angela as I drove back to my apartment.
A/N: Here's chapter 2! Please review and tell me if there are any mistakes (if there are, blame it all on Laura, my editor...it's all her fault! : D ) or if you have any comments or suggestions! Thanks.