I don't own Twilight.
Ch. 11 Shopping
It was mostly a quiet trip to school, but I was starting to get extremely irritated with Edward. He must have a mind gift of some kind because he kept trying to use it on me. It wasn't working. The look of frustration on his face was humorous and I had to choke back a laugh.
"What's got you so frustrated?" I couldn't hold back my laugh as he turned to look at me, the emotion written on his perfect face.
"Nothing," He grumbled and looked out the window.
"So, do you do a lot of hiking?" He asked out of the blue.
"Sometimes," I answered hesitantly. I had no idea where he was going with this.
"You know there are a lot of dangerous animals in the woods," He hinted. Now I see where he was going with this.
"I can handle myself," Not a lie.
"I know that, I am just saying. You know how you have that large animal in your house, it's not safe," He said deadpanned.
"Alright Edward," I felt a thrill go through me when I said his name. "I understand where you are going with this, and there is no danger. As I have said, I can take care of myself," I told him.
He grumbled something unintelligible as we pulled into the school parking lot. I smiled at him as I parked the car and got out, heading over to the rest of the group.
"So what's going on today?" I was curious; they always seemed to have something going on.
"Shopping," Alice screeched at the top her lungs.
"Alice, you are killing my ear drums," I moaned while I rubbed my ears in pain.
"Bella, we are going to go to that new mall in Bellevue. It's a bit of a drive but it will be completely worth it," She smiled widely as she explained.
"Oh, alright," I shrugged. "I just need to tell Charlie," I didn't quite know how Charlie would react.
"He will say yes," She told me in a serious voice. I raised an eyebrow at her. How could she know?
"I'll talk to him ton tonight," I said, unbelieving.
The rest of the day went by quickly, go to class, talk with the group, go back to class, and have lunch. It was basic and routine so when the school day finally ended, I was relieved, school was truly boring.
I drove down into town and into the Forks Police Department parking lot. Alice told me that she would pick me up half an hour later, so I assumed that she still thought that Charlie was going to allow me to go.
When I walked in I immediately spotted Charlie playing a game of cards with another officer.
"Dad?"
His head shot up when he saw me. "Bella! What's wrong?" His voice was demanding and worried.
"Nothing," I reassured him, quickly. "I was just wondering if I could go shopping with a few friends today?"
"Sure, Bells. What time do you think that you will be home?" I exhaled a breath that I didn't know I was holding.
"I think that we will be home before eight," I shrugged.
"That's kind of late for a school night," Charlie used his serious tone.
"Dad, I will go to school tomorrow, and I need new clothes," It wasn't a complete lie.
"Fine," He huffed. "Who are you going with?"
"The Cullens," I told him.
Charlie eyed me for a minute before his shoulders sagged and he looked down at his cards.
"Have fun," He said to me before I hurried out the door and into my car again.
When I arrived back at the house, everyone was already there.
"Ready to go Bella?" Alice asked with a smirk on her petite face.
"Do you see the future or something?" I chuckled but she stilled for a moment, giving me my answer.
I looked down at the ground to hide my expression. I was worried for a brief moment that she could have figured out my secret but then with a quick realization that my shields were still in fact up, I was pleased.
"Alright, give me two minutes," I told her before heading into the house and grabbing a bottle of water and a protein bar. Always a necessity when you go shopping with a vampire. I dropped Willow and Ainslie off in my bedroom before leaving a quick message to not run down the place.
They had both been bored throughout the day; school was not exciting as they thought it would be. Willow has also been on a few shopping trips in the past, and had decided that it would be better to stay home this time around.
"Ready," I exclaimed as I shut and locked the front door quickly.
"So we are going to need two cars so we can all fit," Alice explained, I nodded in agreement. "Rosalie has decided to let us ride in her car," she finished.
Looking around I finally noticed a very flashy red convertible parked next to the house. How had I missed it? She must have pulled up while Alice was explaining.
"So, me, Bella, and Rose will ride in your car," Alice explained as she pointed to Rosalie. "Then, Edward, Emmett, and Jazz can all ride in Edward's Volvo," She finished.
So for the entire car ride I chatted along happily with Rose and Alice about anything and everything. It was fun to just have some girl time and laugh with them, they were wonderful friends. Rosalie talked at great length about all the new improvements and upgrades that's she's added to her car and Edward's Volvo. Alice chatted about all the different stores that they had at this mall, and which ones were our 'priority' stores where we could not miss them.
"Alice have you done any research on this mall about what stores are there?" This would prove to me if she was psychic or not.
"No. Why?" She looked at me curiously as I twisted in my seat to face her.
"Well, you seem to know a lot about which stores are there," I shrugged.
She seemed to realize her mistake and back tracked. "Well, I have read an article on the internet about the opening and scanned the list of stores," She explained hastily. Well that explains that.
We arrived a few minutes earlier than the boys thanks to Rose's incredible driving skills. Even I was having trouble seeing out the windows because everything was mostly a big blur. I knew for a fact that when I looked over at the speedometer she was going over 200 miles an hour, I made sure my shield was up firmly before I could relax.
We were all talking and laughing when the boys' car finally pulled up and parked next to us.
"Hurry up, we have to get a move on," Alice urged us all as she took Jasper's hand and started to pull him towards the mall while he just grinned at her.
"Let's get a move on before Alice has a panic attack," I giggled. Everyone but Alice laughed as we continued on into the store.
I had never seen Alice with such an intense look of concentration before but watching her choose between a yellow or a green tank top was just to humorous that I couldn't hold back my laugh.
"Bella if you don't be quiet right now, we are going to be wearing matching outfits," She threatened.
That shut me up quickly. Mom had picked out matching outfits for herself, dad, and I once when we went shopping together in Italy, and I had thought that we would never actually wear them but I was proven wrong when there was a carnival a few towns away. We went in matching dark blue exercise outfits, which was a day that I wish that I could block from my memory.
She went back into her authority mode and told us to give her some space as she thought about what color would look best on Rosalie. The shopping may not have been the fun part but watching Alice shop sure gave me a good laugh.
"Are you hungry?" Edward asked at about 6:30. It was almost our usual dinner time so food was starting to sound good at the moment. "There is Subway we passed, sound good?"
"Sure," I answered immediately. They always made good food.
"Alice," Edward called for her attention. "We are going to get something to eat," He told her even though she still hadn't looked up from the two different pairs of pants she was looking at.
"Hurry back," She said, still focusing on the clothing.
I chuckled and so did Edward once we were out of the store. "Is she always like this?"
"When it comes to shopping, nobody can stop her," He chuckled.
When we arrived at the fast food store, my stomach grumbled, making Edward laugh and myself blush.
Edward paid for both of our sandwiches and soda; even though I told him that I could have paid for it myself. He had his own method of getting me to give into him and it was very effective, and it didn't work on my shield.
"Please, I want to," He told me as he looked deeply into my eyes, making my knees weak.
"Okay," I breathed.
"Thank you," He said, obviously pleased.
"I'm paying next time," I grumbled, he ignored me.
Once we had found a seat near the back, Edward started in on the interrogation.
He asked me everything from where I was born to what schools I attended my entire life. When we started to talk about family matters things started to change and I became more hesitant to answer. I wasn't used to people asking me so much about myself that didn't already know, and that was the Volturi only. Edward seemed to understand my reluctance for answering these personal questions so he changed the subject again.
Halfway through my dinner, and Edward poking at his and picking it apart, I turned the conversation around on him.
"So," I started. "You say you were adopted. What were your birth parents names?" I knew when there were times that he had to lie, so I made this a question where he didn't have too.
"My parents were Elizabeth and Edward Sr." He smiled. "I don't remember much about them but I do know that I loved them," he smiled.
"I am sure that they loved you very much too," I smiled back.
Loving Edward didn't seem like a hard task to accomplish. He was smart, sweet, a gentleman, beautiful, kind, and just plain good. Through and through he put everyone before himself and cared only about the others of his family, he didn't think much about himself. I was surprised that nobody had already scooped him up.
I was astounded by the jealousy that coursed through me at the thought of Edward with another woman. I knew that I liked him as a friend, and I was hopeful that he enjoyed my company at least a fraction of how much I enjoyed his. With a sudden realization I looked down at my sandwich that I had finished a couple of minutes ago, and frowned.
Did I love Edward? Yes.
The answer was so simple yet so complicated at the same time; it was too difficult to process. The main reason that I didn't like this revelation was that I had expected myself with someone who was plain, and ordinary, like me. Edward is anything but ordinary, he so different than anyone that I had ever met or even conversed with. He was like a dream, someone nice to look at, maybe be friends with, but then at the end of the day he would go home to his loving wife.
Just a dream, while I stood in the background hiding. My camouflage was myself, so ordinary that nobody even notices me.
"Bella, are you okay?" Edward's concerned voice brought me out of my internal self pity.
Woe is me.
"Just fine," Even my boring voice sounded strained.
"You don't look fine," Edward disagreed, always the kind heart.
"Just a little tired. Didn't get much sleep last night," I shrugged.
"Would you like to go home?" Edward looked anxious, probably to get rid of me.
"It's still early and Alice would be mad if we left right now," I chuckled.
"True," Edward agreed with a smile.
We went and found the others in one of the last stores that were on the bottom of Alice's list that she was prattling on about earlier.
"There you are!" She screeched when she spotted us.
"How's it going?" I looked warily at the many bags in Emmett and Jasper's hands.
"Boring. Swiss Miss over here is just so demanding. 'Go try these on, put that down, don't touch that, put these bags in the car'," He imitated Alice's voice poorly as he motioned to her with his bag laden hands.
I laughed loudly as Rose smacked the back of Emmett's head in exasperation and sighed.
"Well, I am ready to get going. You think you got everything, Alice," Rosalie looked warily at Alice's concentrated form as she examined something I couldn't see.
"Just a minute," She said absently. A couple of seconds later I was surprised when she held up a matching pair of lacy blue underwear and bra.
"Here you go Bella, go try these on," The glint in her eye was unmistakable. I blushed a deep red and ducked behind Edward.
Emmett laughed loudly and soon the rest joined them, except for Edward.
"Alice, that is hardly appropriate," Edward was holding back anger, I could tell.
"You should have seen your face," Emmett was gasping for air as he leaned on Rosalie for help. I buried my face in the back of Edward's shirt, wishing to disappear. Even Jasper couldn't hold back his own laughter and he was giggling like a girl, I wanted to smack him.
Edward tugged me out of the store and down to where we had parked. He went to the passenger side of the Volvo and opened the door for me. "Thanks," I muttered, still embarrassed.
"You're welcome," The scowl had finally lifted from his face and a small smile had replaced it.
We didn't bother waiting for the others as Edward peeled out of the parking lot and got onto the highway.
I didn't even realize that I had fallen asleep until I heard Edward voice slightly waking up. I looked up, startled and blushed crimson; I had fallen asleep on Edward's shoulder.
"Sorry," I apologized. I couldn't look him in the face.
"Its fine, Bella," He told me, he sounded different. I couldn't place it.
"Well, thanks for driving me home," I still couldn't look at him.
"My pleasure," I finally got the courage to look at him and he was beaming. The smile so wide on his face I thought that he would break out into a happy dance any second now. I raised an eyebrow.
"What's got you so happy?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Nothing," His smile didn't fade.
"Alright well I got to go," I smiled. "Have a nice night Edward," I said as I opened the door of his car and got out.
"Sweet dreams, Bella," I heard him say before I closed the door.
Edward waited till I was inside the house before he pulled out of the driveway. I gave a small wave before disappearing behind the door with a heavy sigh.
I would surely have sweet dreams tonight.
Thanks for reading and special thanks to my Beta!
~Heidi Ann
