A/N: This amazing and brillent chapter is written by my good friend Abbie (aka spidersfrommars)because she said that my chapters were really short and I should fluff them up. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any books from the Twilight series or NME clothes or the made up shop lipgloss, that belongs to my mate Abbz!


Chapter 12: Misgivings

Bella's POV

"No, Alice, I'm not wearing this."

"Oh, Bella!" Alice's face fell as I handed the monstrosity on a hanger back to her. "Come on, that's a great dress!"

"Alice." I sighed in exasperation, getting ready to explain to her again why I didn't like the dress. "Be reasonable. The dress is indecent. I look like Lauren in it! It's a hooker dress!"

Alice huffed and held it up against herself. "Just see what it looks like on you, at least, don't knock it until you've tried it."

I took the dress from her and entered the changing room, pulling my jeans off unwillingly and tugging the dress over my head. I glared at my reflection balefully in the mirror. A slick of red lipstick was all I needed to have men rolling down their car windows and asking how much for half an hour. I looked ridiculous, my cheeks slowly turning pink from annoyance and shame.

"Bella!" Alice rammed on the door. "Come on, let me see it already!"

I unlocked the door and stepped out, my head hung low to hide my shame. A little girl in flowery leggings gazed at me in astonishment and her mother shot me a look, handing the skirt she had been trying on back to the assistant and leading her daughter out quickly. Alice beamed at me.

"Oh, come on, don't smile like that," I wailed. "Look at me!"

"What?"

"The full length mirror never lies Alice."

We stared at me reflection and my cheeks grew pinker as I took in the full scale of my appearance. The dress she had given me was strapless and dangerously low cut, displaying a large section of my chest, cut halfway down to my navel. The hemline was barely skimming my underwear, and a large slit revealed my knickers, grey and worn, but at least decent. I moved my arms, and the dress shifted. I gasped as I realised the material was sheer, and my ratty underwear was the least of my problems. To think I'd almost taken my bra off to get into it when I realised it was strapless…

"Alice!" I yelled. "What have you got me into?"

Alice consulted her fashion magazine. "I swear it was different to that…"

I grabbed the magazine out of her hands. "That's because the model has a corset on underneath it and there is a very good use of lighting!" I dropped the magazine and hurtled back into the changing room. Alice knocked on the door.

"Bella? Don't get dressed again, okay? I found another dress…"

"Alice, is it any shorter than knee-length?"

"Yes -"

"Not interested." I emerged from the cubicle, dressed and decent, the hooker dress slung over my shoulder. "Let's find another place. Does this specialise in tarty clothes or something? Is this Sluts R Us?"

The assistant shot me a withering look as I handed back the dress on our way out. Immediately my cheeks flushed.

We left the shop and stood back out in the immense shopping centre. Clothes stores screamed for our attention from all directions. I gazed longingly at Underground and NME Clothes, but Alice grabbed my hand and tugged me along mercilessly. I stumbled after her, weighed down by the bags of shopping she had already insisted on buying.

"Where are we going?" I asked, trying to peer over her shoulder, still stooped down.

"Can't you tell?" Alice called back blissfully. The thumping bass music met my ears and I groaned. "Lipgloss!"

I loathed Lipgloss, in all its chavvy music and strobe lighting glory. Girls hung out outside there in their low-cut tops and mini skirts, just waiting for some poor unsuspecting boy to walk past so they could pounce on him. Or suspecting boy. They weren't too fussy about who they picked up. All the store could sell was revealing clothes. It was common knowledge now, it wasn't like they could stop dressing sluts. I would have been surprised that Alice wanted to go there, but I already had the feeling she was on first name terms with every shop keeper in the vicinity.

"Alice," I pleaded. "Do we really have to?"

"Yes." Alice replied firmly. "There's a dress I want you to see."

I sighed inwardly and steeled myself to walk into the shop. Already my heart was sinking.

"Hey Alice," the girl at the counter grinned, her eyes gleaming. I could read sell, sell, sell! written all over her features. "You here for anything in particular?"

"Yeah, Becky, as a matter of fact I am." She dragged me over to the counter. "This is Bella; she's the one I reserved that dress for."

Becky smiled at me fakely, tapping her chin with her massive false fingernails. "You're Bella? Well, this dress is going to look great on you!" She blinked at Alice, the mascara caked on her lashes almost gluing her eyes shut. "Don't you think so, Alice?"

Alice nodded encouragingly at me. "Yeah, I think you'll really like this one. I admit, I may have been a little off with the last one, but this should be more to your taste…"

I nodded and followed her to the changing rooms. Becky picked something off a rail and handed it to me. Then they both leaned in and beamed at me expectantly.

I was starting to wonder if this was some kind of personal torture chamber designed specially for me. The dress hung limply from the hanger, bright pink silk and the perfect length… were I three feet tall that was. I held it up against myself and whimpered.

"Alice!" I hissed, trying not to let Becky hear. "This is practically a waistcoat!"

"Nonsense," Becky laughed. "This is the height of fashion, my darling! This… this… Edmund will go wild for you at your little disco!"

"It's Edward, and this is a formal dance!" I spat out through clenched teeth. "And thanks, but I'll pass. Alice, I'm sure I could get my mum to send me something…"

"Please, Bella," Alice begged. "Just try it on, would you? I did go through all of this to find it for you…"

Guilt got the better of me, and I grudgingly stepped behind the curtain. The dress was really difficult to get on, tight around my thighs and positively crushing my ribs. When I walked over to the curtain my knees were locked together and I had to shuffle like a penguin.

"I can't get the back done up," I moaned, inching my way out of the changing cubicle. Becky moved behind me and tugged the zip up slowly but as forcefully as she could without breaking it. She yanked it up the last couple of centimetres and suddenly I could barely breathe.

"Is that it, is it on now?" I managed.

"Not yet, we have to lace it up. It's not really a corset, but it looks like one. All it will do is get a little tighter, okay sweetheart?"

I held my breath obediently and Becky took an end of the ribbon trailing down my back in both hands. I squeaked as the corset dug sharply into my ribs as the first tug.

"Come on Bella, you can do this!" Alice's encouraging voice floated into my sphere of consciousness, forcing its way through the pain. I nodded and straightened up. Becky pulled again and I cried out. "Come on Bella!"

Eventually the corset dress was tied up, and I stood up straight, wondering if my ribs would be permanently dented after this. I glared at my reflection in the mirror, adorned in pink silk and crushed into the shape of a sand-timer.

"Bella?" Alice's voice was concerned. "You're looking a little purple."

My reflection had indeed taken on the shade of a ripe aubergine. I gasped as best I could and tried to unlace it.

"So," Becky grinned. "Do we have a sale?"

Alice looked at me doubtfully, my arms flailing around as I tried to get myself out. "I don't think so, Becky." She stepped over and undid my dress in one fluid movement. I breathed deeply and rushed back into the changing room.

I emerged again, deeply squashed but noticeably less purple four minutes later. Becky gave me a disdainful look.

"You know, you'll never get quality like that anywhere else," she told me. "Or such high fashion standards. Anything else, it'll never come close."

"Yeah, yeah, of course." I handed it back to her. "Thanks, but no thanks."

We left and I could feel her shooting daggers into my back. Alice turned and looked at me sadly. "I could have sworn you would have liked that dress…"

"Yeah, Alice, don't worry."

Her face brightened. "Oh no, of course, I have fifty seven other dresses I picked out for you, and I found color coordinating bags and shoes to go with them…"

"Alice – first, though, can we go look in some shops that I want to go in. Not that I don't appreciate you doing this for me, it's just… well, there's some, er, jeans I want to go look at."

"Of course." Alice smiled. "Anything you want Bella."

I led the way to one of my favorite shops, NME clothing. Some days I had practically lived in there. It was the only time when I was ever interested in anything remotely fashionable.

Alice looked around with interest at everything while I scanned the rails, looking for a dress I could substitute for any other monstrosity she might have picked out for me. I guessed she must have already been in this shop a thousand times, but her face broke into a huge grin as she spotted the shoe rack. I smiled to myself as I watched her run over, and then turned round to come face to face to what I had been looking for.

"Alice!" I cried, my voice actually trembling. "Come here! I've found the perfect dress!"

Alice's head popped up over a rail covered in band T-shirts. Her mouth fell open and then next minute she was at my side. I wondered how she had done that so fast.

"Bella," she breathed. "That's amazing."

I nodded emphatically in agreement. It was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. I wound my fingers in its folds wondrously, the taffeta brushing my skin. It was a deep, true scarlet, with black velvet around the waist leading up to a beautiful brooch, gleaming crystal. It fell knee-length and reflected the light slightly so it almost seemed to be glowing. It was perfect.

"I have to have this," I said, still gazing at it. "I don't care what the price is. This is going to be the dress I wear to the dance."

Alice lifted the price tag, and I glanced down at it. £158. I immediately pulled oput my purse and began searching for money. All I had on me was £85. I sighed and stuffed the purse back into my jeans.

"I'll ask Charlie for some money," I said hopefully, already imagining how that conversation would play out. Not too well.

"Bella, come on. Let me buy it for you."

I gaped at her. She was already rummaging for her credit card in her bag. "Alice, I can't let you do that!"

"Why not?" She produced the card with a flourish and grinned. "You're my friend, Bells; I want to do this for you."

"How am I meant to repay you?" I demanded.

"Buy letting me buy you lunch. And -" she added, cutting off my protest. "I'm not taking no for an answer. Come on, I want to do this. Are you coming with me while I pay or are you just going to stand there and gawp at me like I'm crazy?"

I followed her to the till and then all the way down to the food court. She settled herself down at a little café and patted the seat next to her. I slid in beside her.

"Alice, thank you so much! You have no idea how much I wanted this dress."

"I think I can guess." She smiled wryly as I hugged the carrier bag it was in lovingly. "Want do you want to eat?"

"Aren't you having anything?" I asked in surprise. She looked almost embarrassed.

"No, I'm not hungry."

I took in her minuscule frame and decided that at some point I'd make sure she got a decent meal. Some one as slender as her should definitely eat. I picked a ham and cheese panini and was about to take the first bite when I noticed her gazing at me through infinitely sad eyes.

"What's up?" I mumbled through a mouthful of panini. She jumped and smiled sheepishly. "You're looking at me as if this is the last you're ever going to see of me."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, as if I'm about to die or disappear or something." I laughed. "Guess it's just me being paranoid, huh?"

She smiled back, fidgeting with her sleeves. "Yeah. I guess it must be."


A/N: A picture of the acctual dress is on my profile! That last bit was the only angst that I allowed Abbz (thats Abbie btw) to write into it. Her story is 'Every Last Breath' by spidersfrommars, chech it out its AMAZING!

Review!! Do you to have a chapter of the sleepover or do you want to get on with the mysrious tragety! Nothin really will be happening on the sleepover so you wont be missin anything!

Love Ya!

Holly :)