CHAPTER TWO: Ready

I packed a change of clothes, some pajamas, and a toothbrush in my bag. After the party, I would spend the night at Alice's house, and would return home the following day. Although Esme seemed pretty excited at the thought of having me out of the house for the entire evening and part of the next day, she wouldn't say anything when I questioned her. I was very suspicious.

"Mom, do you, like, have a date tonight or something?" Ever since Dad died, she had become very quiet, turning to her interior decorating job more and more. Even though she claimed to be happy, I could see that her life was more empty than all of my friends' moms' lives, and I was happy that she was finally moving on.

"No, what would make you say that?" she giggled. She totally had a date.

"Who is he? Anyone I know?" I questioned.

"Aren't you getting late for Alice's party?" she asked me, changing the subject. "Get your bag; I'll drive you." Once we were both seated in the car, she put in her favorite CD and turned it up too loud to allow conversation. At Alice's house, she just waved and drove off, without another word. Who was this guy anyway? I had fully expected Mom to give me the sex talk at least a million times before I went to the party. She did that before I went to any other parties. This time, she didn't say anything.

-+-+-+-

"Stand still, Bella!" Alice complained while she was adjusting the dress, putting on makeup, and curling my normally pin-straight hair.

"Alice! You've been doing this for two hours and forty-five minutes!"

"You want to look good, don't you?" She adjusted my hair so that some of it was in front of my shoulders and some of it was behind. "There. You look perfect." She moved me in front of the mirror. "What do you think?"

I was wearing the stripper outfit, as I'd come to call it, with a long row of beautiful curls running down my back. A few wisps of hair stayed in the front, framing my face. "I like the hair, but Alice! Couldn't you have found a better dress?"

"Nope. That was the best dress in the store."

"Then why didn't you wear it?"

"Jasper wants me to wear more modest clothing."

"Funny—you'd think he'd want the opposite."

"He doesn't want any guy to see how I look, except for him." I was about to answer, but then the full implications of the sentence hit me.

"Wait a second. Holy crap!!! Alice, you slept with Jasper! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well," she said, looking guilty, "I know that you've never done anything of that sort, and I didn't want you to feel bad."

I rolled my eyes. "Alice, I don't want a boyfriend, so you can stop worrying about that, alright."

She nodded. Then, she seemed to remember something. "Hold on, I left your purse in my closet." She rushed into her enormous closet, which was at least twice as big as her room, and returned with a tiny beaded bag.

"It's beautiful, Alice."

"Oh, and I stocked it with everything you could possibly need tonight," she added as an afterthought.

Curious, I opened the tiny bag and examined everything inside. Some lip gloss, a comb, some breath mints, a band-aid, a—was that what I thought it was?!

"Alice!!! Why is there a condom in my purse! You can't possibly think that I'd want to use this tonight!"

She seemed unaffected by my outburst. "No, you obviously wouldn't want to use that. Believe me, it's a lot more pleasant when you're on the birth control pill, and you don't have to worry about those kinds of things. However, since you're not on the pill, you kind of need that."

"Alice!"

"I'm just being realistic. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go get ready."

With that, Alice walked into her bathroom, holding a floor-length, modest, black dress—the complete opposite of mine, as well as some silver heels. Half-an-hour later, she came out not only wearing the dress and the shoes, but like ten pounds of makeup. She walked over to her dressing table, and pulled out her jewelry box. She wore a simple silver chain, some silver bracelets, and some black earrings.

"Alice, why didn't you give me any jewelry?" I asked curiously. Alice would never forget anything as vital as jewelry. Well it was vital to her, at least.

"You didn't think I'd forgotten, did you?" Alice replied. "Alice Brandon never forgets anything. You're not wearing any jewelry, because that would distract people from the dress."

"There's nothing wrong with that," I insisted.

"No jewelry for you," Alice said firmly.

I sighed. "Fine."

"The party starts in another hour!" Alice sang happily.

Just perfect, all right.

A/N: So what do you think????? Please review...it really motivates me to update faster...*hintt* Do you have any predictions...comments...theories....etc????? I love to get ideas, even though I have about 10 chapters written already....