"Hey Bella." Alice said bouncing into Bella's room. "I've got a question I want to ask you." Alice said sitting on her friend's bed.
"Yea? What's up?" Bella asked looking up to see a very serious Alice looking in her face. "Is everything ok?" She asked putting down her book she was reading and sitting up.
"Well you have been with us for a while now and I know that you have been nervous around big crowds. But we were wondering since Mike has been gone for a while being detained and all. Rose and I were wondering if it was ok if we have a party? Its ok if you say no. Do not feel pressured to say yes at all. I want you to be ok with the idea of a party not just say yes because we want to have one." Alice went on rambling a little
Bella smiled and waved her hand at her friend. "Calm down Alice. No need to get so nervous. I think the idea of a party is great. Like you said since Mike is…detained it seems like a good idea right now. Plus I can't just keep sitting around like this I need to come out and learn to move on." She said confidently.
"Alright then Rose got someone to cover her shift today at the restaurant and since we already have the day off we were wondering if you want to go dress shopping?" Alice said starting to bubble with excitement.
"But I just said yes right now. What if I said no?" Bella said pointedly to her friend.
"Bella, Bella, Bella, when are you going to learn that you can never have too many dresses? It didn't matter what you said we noticed you were lacking and decided it was time to update your closet anyways." Alice said in a matter of fact attitude as she bounced out of her room
"I guess that's ok." Bella said as she picked up a pair of jeans pulling it on and grabbing a blue tank top pulling it on. "What do you think Sam… it couldn't be that bad….right?" Bella frowned as she watched Sam run into her closet. "That's not very reassuring, boy." Bella mumbled as she walked out the door to meet her best friends.
Bella looked over the racks and felt like she might just have a panic attack. What made her think that this was ok? Alice did ask her. She did tell her she was only going to do it if she was comfortable with it. Bella didn't take a minute to think about it she just wanted to make her friend happy and say it was ok. She wasn't sure at all of it was ok. In fact she was pretty sure that it wasn't ok. I mean Alice did make a good point that Mike wasn't around anymore and he wouldn't be able to hurt her anymore. But at the same time as she kept thinking about how Mike just might burst through the door any moment and start to hit her like he did before. It was just a process that's it Mike will not come through the door and start to beat on her. It was just going to take time and this party has to be her first step. She may not be comfortable with it but if she didn't try now she probably never will.
"Did you find anything yet?" Rose asked, a high pile of dresses in her hand already.
"Uhm.. What about this?" Bell picked up and showed off a floor length gown.
"Bella you would be the only person here to find a dress with sleeves." Rose said rolling her eyes. "Sorry." Rose said quickly realizing what sleeves used to mean to Bella. "Come on lets get you something to wear. We're doing short dresses for this party."
"What about this!" Alice said picking up a short black dress that had a sheer cover to what was a more form fitting dress underneath.
"Alice it looks like a sheet and lets try to get Bella in something with some color I'm tired of seeing her in black." Rose said reaching for a green dress, inspecting it before throwing it away.
"Rose, you see me in black all the time because I spend all my time at the restaurant." Bella countered.
"Which is why we need to have this party, Bella, we need to get you out more. It time for you to see the world as it is things are bigger and better here." Rose said giving Bella a Blue dress. "Try this one on Bella."
Bella slipped on the dress and was instantly in love. It was a nice strapless royal blue dress with rhinestones designs under the bust and again right next to her hips. Bella's fingers lined the rhinestones under her bust and along her hips. "Mhmm pockets." Bella slipped her hands in her pockets now scrutinizing every detail in the mirror. This was something that was new to her seeing herself in a short dress. Bella couldn't remember the last tome see was in a dress that was both strapless and short. She didn't have to worry about hiding any new scars or any that might come up. Turning around she inspected the back of the dress and saw how the dress complimented her frame.
"Bella are you making a house in there? Get out already so we can see how it looks." Alice said banging on the door to her dressing room.
"Alright Alice I'm coming out don't break the door down." Bella said as she opened the door to see a shocked Alice and Rose.
"I think we found our dress for you. Lets go pay." Alice said grabbing her dress. "Come on Rose let's get in line. We're done here."
"That's it? I don't need to try on anything else?" Bella said thinking that usually there was more to this. Longer and an endless supply of dresses… on second thought many Bella should have just kept her mouth shut.
"There is no need, Bella, you should see yourself in the mirror you're glowing. We're not going to find another dress that's going to measure up to this."
"Alright then I'll get changed and meet you in line." Bella said turning around to quickly change out of her dress before her two friends changed their minds.
"We have one more store to stop at before we go home." Rose said grabbing Bella's dress and putting it in a pile on the counter.
"Sure what else do we need to get?" Bella asked picking up a matching necklace for her dress and a couple bangles.
"Masks!" Alice said jumping up and down. "That's the other part that I didn't tell you just yet." Alice said grabbing her dress from the cashier. "It's a masquerade party. We're going to be all dressed up and have masks. We're still thinking about doing a big revel at the end of the night. We're not sure just yet."
"Masquerade huh?" Bella said taking her own bag following Rose and Alice out of the store right into another one a few stores down. A masquerade can be fun she could 'hide' from people and not have to worry about if they knew who she was. Well some people probably could tell who she was but it wasn't the same. It would almost be like a veil covered her.
Walking into the boutique Bella saw what looked like a place for jus accessories. She laughed thinking that it would be like pulling teeth to get Alice and Rose to leave this store. Walking over to one section Bella could see an assortment of different types of masks. Looking over the different ones Bella wasn't sure what she should get. There was gold ones, pink ones, green ones, and purple ones. Pretty much all colors of the rainbow and at least fifty different kinds of styles to go with it.
"There are just so many I have NO idea what we should get!" Rose said grabbing four different masks at the same time.
"Yea I don't know what to get either." Bella said grabbing a couple black and blue masks. "They all look so amazing." Bella said as she held up a blue sequence mask to her face. "I don't know about this one." She said putting it down as she picked up a black mask with a lace overlay on it. "I like it but I don't think it matches my dress as much."
"Oh I'll take it!" Alice said grabbing the mask from Bella. "It'll defiantly match my dress. Its black and blue."
"Sure go ahead an have it." Bella said handing the mask to her friend. Bella turned to the wall of masks to see a black mask that had silver trim around it and silver designs under and over the eyes. "Its perfect!" Bella said grabbing the mask and holding it up to her face. "Ok I got my mask." Bella said getting excited. This was the first time in a while she as excited about something. The more that she thought about this party she was excited about it. "What about you Rose did you find a mask?"
"Yea Bella. I found this black and gold one with peacock feathers on the side." Rose said holding her own mask up to her face.
"That's cute!" Bella said her excitement showing on her face. "What kind of dress did you get?"
"Its super cute. It is a gold and black bandage dress. The mask matches it perfectly."
"Awesome! So I guess were set right? Lets get going girls we got a party to plan!" Alice said practically running to the front of the store.
Hope you guys liked the chapter. Next chapter is the party! Let me know what you think about it. I'll try to update as soon as I can between stuff I need to do for the summer. Anyways Read and Review please!