"Oh, this is the perfect suit for you for tonight!" Alice gushes. "Rose, come over here. What should we go with? Classic black and white, right?"
Rosalie strides in. She looks at the suit and looks at Zachery, as to imagine how he will fit in it. Then she nods and smiles. Her whole blonde, beautiful posture changes from the 'ice princess' icon she's known for to a nice and warm person. Zachery
/is stunned how she can change her appearing so quickly. It's scary.
"Yes, definitely, he'll pull that look so easy. And with a really nice tie, it has to match the suit, of course. Coal black."
"The shoes too," Alice adds, running to find Zachery a pair of shoes.
"Black and white and shoes?" Zachery sounds stressed and confused. He's never been out shopping with only girls. In fact, he's never been shopping like this before. If he wanted something, he just went and bought it and disappeared, or his mum would shop
/and he had to stand still and have every inch on him covered in an additional layer of clothing.
"For tonight," Rosalie smiles, "most people think they look good in the classic black dress and white shirt, but few ever do. But we believe that you will pull that outfit like a handsome superstar."
"Right," Zachery mumbles. "I don't think I can afford it," he admits sheepishly, "and I kind of have an outfit for tonight."
"The shirt and the dark black jeans?" Alice shows up with tons of shoe boxes in her small arms.
"Yes," Zachery confessed.
"Not a chance that you'll be wearing that tonight, Zach. Maybe you can do it on your flight back home or something. That will make every woman fall for you. And don't worry about the money, we'll pay for it. Bella ordered us to take you out on shopping
/– said she owed it to you after that incident that happened last week. Edward really isn't like that at normal."
Zachery shuts his mouth.
"How do you know that this will fit?"
"I can see your size from what you're wearing now, and I know how the different brands differ slightly in sizes too. Come on now, Zach, let's head to the dress room. You'll change and come out so we can look at you."
She snatches a black, sleek and modern silk tie from the hangers and gives it to Rosalie before all of them head to the dress rooms for men.
Zachery sighs. "Do I have to try everything? I thought you said that black and white was good enough."
"Sweetie, there are tons of different types of black and white. Try this." She hands him the clothes. "And when you're done, we have the shoes and the tie. Off you go."
Five minutes later Zachery opens the curtains and goes toward Alice and Rosalie who are waiting on him with a huge mirror that covers at least three feet in wide.
"This okay?" he sighs hopefully.
"It's marvellous!" Alice gushes.
"It fits him too," Rosalie marvels and they both go in circles around him and pat him here and there, gushing in wonder and awe.
"Here, take these shoes. I believe that colour will match your dress jacket." Alice hands Zachery a pair of black shoes. They smell expensive. He takes them on. Rosalie gives him the tie and takes off his dress jacket. Zachery turns to see himself
/in the mirror whilst he's doing the tie. He only knows two different tie knots, the simple full Windsor knot, and the last one he used a whole week to learn: the Novotny knot.
"Look at that, the boy can tie ties," Rosalie voiced. "You learned that by yourself?"
"Yeah, I did." Zachery turns to the two women. He's ready for the call.
"Adorable, absolutely perfect!" Alice squeals like a little girl in a candy shop. And she also jumps up and down. Zachery laughs.
I have to say, they're quite a show the two of them, he thinks for himself.
When they arrive outside of the Cullen house, Alice whispers something to her sister and they both stiffen and turn to look at Zachery who's in the backseat.
"What is it? Did we forget something? Or are we late?"
"No, nothing's wrong. I just remembered that we have to polish you really nice tonight too."
"Like what exactly do you mean by polishing me?"
"Don't sounds so terrified. We'll fix your eyebrows and your hair, nothing more."
Zachery coughs. "I guess I don't have much of a choice?"
"Exactly!" both Alice and Rosalie snicker.
They walk up to the house with shopping bags filled with clothes. Zachery first thought that they were only going to buy an outfit for tonight's celebration, but he quickly figured out that the women meant for the rest of his stay. They didn't listen
/when he said that he couldn't have more than 20 kilos of luggage on the plane back to San Francisco. Alice kept saying that they would drive him back to his apartment building where he lived with two other college guys. After that, Zachery just kept
/his mouth shut whenever he wanted to protest.
"We're home. And hey, you people have to see what we got for Zach to wear tonight," Alice starts babbling the second they enter the front door. Everyone's in the house now: Carlisle and Esme are in the couch, sitting close to each other while watching
/Jasper and Emmett playing on the X-box. Jacob and Renesmee are doing some homework together; Zachery didn't knew that Jacob still went to high school – Bella is sitting behind the piano and Edward's next to hear, teaching her how to play it. Theyall
stop with what they're doing and gather around the dining table where Alice and Rosalie dump the bags, opening them and study the clothes.
"I…uh, didn't know that they would buy all of this," Zachery quickly says in self-defence when Jacob whistles and Emmett's booming bass laughter fills the whole house. Jasper nods in sympathy and kisses his wife.
"You did get a little overboard, didn't you?"
"Indeed."
"She wasn't the only one," Zachery declares, giving Rosalie a meaningful look. Her lips twist in a weak grin.
"That's how our daily life is, can you imagine that?" Jasper chuckles as Alice turns and stares him down. "But I enjoy every minute of it," he's fast to assure.
"Okay, we have two hours until the guest are arriving," Alice goes through the program, sounding excited like ever. "The first one to come is Charlie I think, but he'll come with Sue and Seth and maybe Leah comes too." She glances at Zachery before continuing:
/"I believe the next one to come are Billy with Paul and Rachel. Jacob's already here so he will just have to shower and change. And please, shave. You're looking like a shabby dog." Jacob fakes a hurt expression. Renesmee hugs him and he smiles. "Then
/Sam and Emily are coming with their little boy. And so we have us. All of us are here, which is perfect. The tables have a table card with a name on it. Don't try to switch places. Then what more do we have to do?" Alice turns to the all, waiting
/for any of them to answer.
"Uh…don't look at me," Jacob says, "as I recall, I didn't have to do anything else than shower and shave."
"And get dressed," Rosalie and Alice adds sternly.
"Yeah, that too." He drawls out.
"Actually, I think we're all set," Esme replies to her daughter's question. "We have the food ready in an hour, and you all have two hours to get ready. That's plenty of time."
"Right," Carlisle inhales and looks around. "Now, let's act civilized people. No jokes and no hints." He shoots Emmett and Jacob a knowingly look. They both look down.
"What should I do?" Zachery asks.
"Shower," Alice yells before disappearing upstairs. "And get Rosalie to help you with the hair. And yeah, you too shave."
Zachery presses his lips together and nods. Carefully his fingers caress the thin layer of beard he has gotten himself over the past month.
"Okay," he sighs out loud before taking his new suit and shoes and the tie in the bags they came from and heads upstairs. He dreads the next hours he knows he will be in the claws of the little pixy and the blonde ice princess.
Where is Bella?