Disclaimer: Knock knock. Who's there? Stephenie. Stephenie who? Stephenie Meyer. Cool! Really? These are her characters!
Alice's POV.
"Alice," Edward began in a warning tone, but I cut him off.
"I know, I know, there are ground rules."
He nodded, still glaring at me. He was being especially unreasonable about this. I was considering having Jasper send a little wave of cooperativeness his direction if he kept it up. "Honestly, Edward, do you really expect Bella to get married without a bachelorette party?"
"No, but I expect you to keep the party within certain limits. She is human, and only nineteen, after all."
I just glared at him. The last few weeks were a blur of wedding planning activity and bustle. Bella was trying hard to be excitedand optimistic about the whole thing, but I could tell she was nervous…and getting more so the closer the date came. She needed a break. I needed a break. We just all needed a break!
"Please stop yelling at me." he snapped.
"I'm not yelling. I haven't said a single word." I shot back in defense, though I knew perfectly well he meant I was yelling in my thoughts.
He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, trying to keep his temper in check. "Fine, Alice. Bella could definitely use the distraction right now, and you do deserve a break from all this planning. I suppose that between you and Rose you should be able to keep her safe enough."
"I know that."
He narrowed his eyes at me, but continued in a decidedly calm tone, "Keep it nearby. No crossing international borders, and preferably nowhere that requires flying." Well, there goes shopping in Milan. I started to say, "Fine," but he wasn't finished yet.
"No breaking any laws, whether you think they are 'silly' or not. No strippers. No making Bella the center of attention in a large crowd of people – the wedding itself will be as much of that as she can handle." I was nearly fuming. He had just nixed every idea I had come up with so far, and he knew it.
"Edward, be reasonable! How are we supposed to have any fun at all if you won't let her leave the house?"
"I didn't say she couldn't leave the house, I said she couldn't leave the country and preferably would stay within the region. Take her out in Portland or Seattle, but keep her comfortable. Surely you and Rosalie can find something to do in a city that size that would amuse you without scaring Bella."
As the word 'Seattle' left his lips, I remembered an ad I'd seen recently and a vision hit me: the three of us dancing in a crowd of closely packed bodies…a stage with giant speakers blaring music…Rosalie flirting our way past security…Bella blushing furiously as the band signs her jeans… It was over as quickly as it struck. "I've got it!" I announced, bouncing on the spot.
"I thought you might." Edward replied coolly. Obviously he had noticed me zone out for a second and 'heard' the vision as I saw it. He was just waiting for me to explain the decision behind it.
"We'll go to a concert in Seattle! We'll get a limousine for the trip, and it will be just us three girls. Oh, this is perfect! Bella will have lots of fun but it won't overwhelm her." Edward just blinked at me for a few seconds, I think stunned that I could come up with such a 'reasonable' plan.
"Not stunned, exactly, just surprised you came up with it so quickly." He smirked, answering my thoughts instead of my words. He could be so annoying. His smirk turned into a grin. "I know." My responding growl made him laugh outright, and he walked away still chuckling.
"That's right! Just walk away. You don't want to make me angry!" I called after him, still a little miffed about my ruined plans for a shopping trip abroad but also excited about the new one for the concert. I could still hear him laughing under his breath downstairs. I poked my tongue out at him for good measure, knowing he would hear the sentiment behind it in my thoughts. Stupid, mind reading, interfering vampire brother.
Rosalie was immediately on board with the plan, and we set things in motion as soon as possible. It wasn't really difficult – Bella had grown so anxious and moody as the wedding drew near that Charlie was glad to be rid of her for a weekend. He agreed to her 'sleepover' with us before I could even get the whole story out of my mouth, and things were all taken care of with just a couple of phone calls. I saw that Bella would be less than cooperative if we kidnapped her, so I settled on a compromised plan in which I would tell her about the sleepover and bachelorette party – just not exactly what we were doing until I had her in the limo.
That just left the bridal shower to arrange. This was a little bit trickier because it would involve Renee and Bella's school friends. Esme suggested a quiet afternoon party at our house, Rosalie thought it should be a lingerie shower, and I wanted the whole thing to be a surprise. We knew Bella would never agree to a lingerie shower willingly, so we decided to combine the three ideas and have an afternoon surprise lingerie shower at our house the day after the concert in Seattle. Carlisle suggested that the boys go hunting together while we had our 'girls weekend' and, to everyone's surprise, Edward agreed. Emmett was the only one truly disappointed that they wouldn't be allowed to attend the party.
"Do you have any idea how red she's going to turn? How can you not want to see that?" he begged the other guys loudly and persistently, but those three had no intentions of being in the same house with that many females at the same time. Edward was not entirely comfortable with the lingerie party concept, and Jasper was horrified by my vision of the silliness that was to ensue. Emmett sulked a while, shooting comments like "prude" and "chicken" at Edward and Jasper whenever they walked past him. Carlisle prevailed however, and they soon turned to discussions of which area would have the best large game this time of year.
I, for one, was looking forward to having Edward out of the house for a couple of days. Jasper and I had been giving Bella dance lessons on the sly for the last week or so, and it was getting really difficult to keep our mind reading brother from figuring out what we were up to. Rosalie was equally relieved; she was planning one heck of a surprise for Edward and that's not the easiest thing to do.
AN: Read and review, please! I haven't quite decided yet where and how this story will end. It might depend on how much feedback I get...maybe. Thanks!