BPOV

Chapter 2: Shopping With Jess

A week past, the holiday I dread would come was nearing ever more closer than before and I had nothing to do about it. Waiting for a phone call from Jessica was one of the two things that popped into my mind. The second was Edward of course, he'd always be on my mind. I sighed at the thought of his golden eyes and his brown locks. Those thoughts always made me happy. Suddenly, the phone rang and as I thought, it was Jess.

"Hello, Jess."

"Hey Bella, ready to go?"

"Yep, I'll be right over." I hung up and grabbed my jacket. Slipping it on I dashed out to my truck. Sooner than I anticipated, I heard the hiss of the icy wheels against the cool winter streets. I weaved my way on the wintry pavement until I reached my destination. As soon as I reached her house, Jess was dashing out to my truck.

"Hello again Bella, how much did you bring with you?" she asked as she entered the truck.

"About a hundred dollars or so." I'd managed to save a few paychecks, totaling my glorious sum of a hundred. A few short moments passed and we were maneuvering through the streets, heading for the local mall. As the light turned red I glanced out the window and caught sight of a silver Volvo. Could it really be Edward? Shopping for Christmas gifts? Eh, it could have been any old person in a silver Volvo, right?

"Bella, the lights green, GO!" Jess snapped, breaking me from my moment of insanity. As she said the word go, my foot pushed against the gas petal and we were racing above the speed limit. I could tell without looking that Jess was clenching her seat, afraid I would hit something, or someone at that matter. After a few short seconds I was slowing the car, putting less pressure on the petal and I could feel Jess's grip on the seat loosening.

About twenty minutes later, we arrived at the mall, although it was crowded and hard to find a spot, we managed to squeeze ourselves into a spot near the main entrance. Jess pulled me along through the many stores to get gifts for her family, lightly nudging her I escaped her weak grip.

"Jess can we go and do our shopping and meet up after we're both done?" I suggested.

"Oh, fine...but you will help me with a few things, right?" she answered.

"Sure, anything." I replied eager to get my short list done.

"Okay, how about we meet at the fountain over there?" She asked as she pointed towards a giant fountain sculpted of marble to look like what I thought to be a lion, in the pouncing pose.

"Right, see you later." I said waving behind me with one hand as with the other I pulled out my shopping list that was written on a crumpled receipt, on which the printed part was fading and the only word I could make out was cap. Looking down the list I found the first item, a book for Alice and started to the nearest book shop. I scurried through the isles, looking for a certain book I searched online to make sure she'd enjoy it. Soon I found it and ran over to the check out and purchased the book, and payed extra to have it wrapped because I knew if I didn't have it wrapped here I would have been in a mess wrapping gift. I shivered at the thought of it.

Running to get the fifth item on my list I tripped and fell over, I should have known that'd happen, at least to me it would. I felt the cold sting of a hand grasping mine and pulling me up.

"Are you alright Bella?" the words seemed to sooth the pain the was creeping down my leg, it was Edward.

"I think I'm alright." I said. Right then pulled me to his side and kissed my head, pulling me along to a bench sitting across from us, soon gently sitting me down with my head snuggling against his chest.

"How do you always manage to get yourself into a state of unawareness, seeming to get you to hurt yourself one way or another?" he asked softly brushing a tiny scrape on the top of my hand.

"Trouble always follows me, you know that." I replied as he gave a soft chuckle and looked down at me.

"You should get back to shopping so Jessica isn't here all night, shouldn't you?" he asked through his cool, beautiful lips.

"Jess, right" I wished he hadn't known I was here with Jess, than I'd have more time with him. "Would you mind coming with me just to get the last of the gifts?"

"Sure." He said, starting to stand, pulling my gently up and then swiftly to the final stores I needed to get gifts from. When we finished we headed over to the fountain, to my surprise Jess was already done and sitting at another conveniently placed bench. I started towards Jess and was slowly drifting away from Edward. I could tell be Jess's emotion that she was stunned that Edward had caught up to me so quickly and that he was actually here, shopping...for the most part or so she would think.

"Finally your here, what took so long?" She said, sighing as she saw my expression, which was somewhat blank.

"I tripped and Edward saw me and helped get the last few things I needed." I said placing a load of bags in front of me. Jess was silent, but she seemed pleased by my story.

"So what are we going to do now?" I asked, trying to break the silence.

"Go home I guess, it's getting sort of late anyway." She replied picking up her bags and heading for the exit. I followed after but, a bit slowly because of the weight of one of the gifts. I got to the car and unlocked the doors after placing the bags in the back. I turned on the heat because snow was starting to fall and the cold was seeping through my jacket. The sound of the warm air hitting against my face was soothing, a sort of hummm that could easily put a small child to sleep.

Sooner than I'd thought, we were in front of Jess's house and she was getting her bags. "See you later Jess." I said in a gentle tone.

"Good bye Bella." She turned and smiled trying to get her myriad of bags in through her house door. I was rushing through the streets towards home so that I would be home in time to make Charlie dinner.

When I arrived, I grabbed the bags and maneuvered towards the door, turning in every which way trying to fit the into the limited space of the door. After finally getting into the house and getting the gifts into my room I rushed down stairs to make dinner. Tonights would be spaghetti and meatballs. I rushed to the kitchen and began the cooking process. Charlie made it home right when dinner was being set out at the table. "Hey Bells, how'd the shopping go? Did you get everything you needed?"

"Hey dad, the shopping was great, I got everything on my list as planned." I answered.

"Thats good." he said devouring his portion of the meal in a few minor seconds.

I soon finished up and started up the stairs to my room, where I knew Edward would be waiting.