Chapter 14: What Am I Going To Do?
I craned my neck to look up at the big building in front of me. I gulped nervously and took in a deep breath.
It won't be that bad… I thought to myself. Yeah right…
"Come on Izzy!" Alice whined, clamping her hand around my arm and practically dragging me into the building. It still amazed me how someone so small could be so strong.
"Let the girl breathe, Alice." Jasper scolded gently. Alice huffed but complied, letting my arm out of her vice grip. I rubbed it with my hand.
"Gees, what are you giving this girl? Protein shakes?" I guessed. I saw Alice roll her eyes and stick her tongue out at me childishly.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." Rosalie snickered as she and Emmett followed Jasper and Alice.
"Do we have to go in?" I sighed, looking up at Edward.
"Yeah. Alice will have our heads if we don't." His lips twitched in amusement. I pouted and looked at him from underneath my eyelashes. Suddenly, his breathing hitched and his pupils started dilating.
"Hey, are you ok?" I asked, concern lacing my words. Edward shook his head.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He mumbled. I raised an eyebrow at him but shrugged it off. We followed the group into the mall and I gasped when I saw the inside of it. There were endless rows of shops and to make it worse, there were two floors.
"Oh my God." I breathed. Suddenly, I wished that I had gone back to visit Phoenix with Will and Scott.
"Alright, so I say we split." Alice announced, turning to us. "Jasper, Emmett and Edward, and me, Rosalie and Izzy." I gulped and clung onto Edward's arm.
"Save me." I mouthed, but he simply smiled and chuckled slightly. I glanced at Alice and saw a serious expression on her face.
"Right, we have five hours until we meet up for lunch and…" I tuned her out as I was already imagining my grave stone;
Here lies Isabella Swan, also known as Izzy Sinclair,
Beloved Daughter and Friend,
"She was too young to die…but that's what shopping with Alice Brandon does to you…"
I was suddenly pulled out of my thoughts as Alice latched onto my arm and started dragging me past the crowds of people with Rosalie following close behind.
"Alice, why do we need to go shopping for five hours?" I asked when the boys were out of hearing range.
"Because we need to get stuff for the Winter Formal!" She rolled her eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Then why did you bring me along?" I wondered.
"Because you need to get a dress for it."
"But I'm not going." I replied. Big mistake.
Alice spun around to face me, making me walk into her slightly.
"What do you mean you're not going?" She shouted. I shrunk back a little as her face held a picture of pure anger.
"As in, I'm not going to the dance. Besides, it's not as if anyone will miss me, nobody's asked me." I shrugged. Her eyes narrowed for a minute before she mumbled something under her breath. I couldn't hear her properly but I'm sure I heard the words "Edward" and "stupid".
"Please Izzy! You have to go!" Alice cried.
"Why?" I asked, perplexed.
"Because there is a certain someone who will miss you if you don't." She said, defiantly.
"Well, I'm sure this certain someone will be fine without me." I snapped.
"Please Izzy." I heard Rosalie beg. I turned around to face her. "It would make us feel guilty knowing that you were at home on your own."
I sighed and looked at Alice who unleashed her puppy dog eyes on me.
"Please." She mouthed, her bottom lip quivering.
"Ugh, fine!" I threw my hands up in surrender. Both Alice and Rosalie grinned and hugged me.
"You won't regret this Izzy!" Alice sang as she danced ahead of us.
"I bet I will." I mumbled so that no one could hear me.
xoxox
"Alice, my feet hurt!" I whined. We had been in a grand total of twenty shops and had around fifty shopping bags, all of which Alice paid for much to my annoyance.
"Oh hush! We've got to meet for lunch anyway in a minute." Alice sighed. I internally did a happy dance.
"Thank God." I breathed. Alice scowled at me before turning back to the clothes rack that she was looking through.
After Alice had finally declared that we had finished shopping, I practically ran to the food court. My stomach was rumbling as Alice hadn't even let me or Rosalie have a break from trying on clothes. As I ran, I noticed the boys sitting around a table in the food court, laughing at something that Jasper had said. I stopped and looked at Edward for a moment and observed how his eyes lit up when he was happy, or how he ran his fingers through his untameable bronze hair.
"Jesus Izzy, don't run so fast!" Rosalie gasped as she and Alice stopped next to me.
"Sorry." I mumbled sheepishly, looking down at my shoes.
"Oh look! The guys are already here." Alice trilled, "Let's go." She started pulling me along and I was thankful as I would have collapsed without the support.
"Hey girlies!" Emmett greeted as we sat down. I placed my head on the table and groaned.
"What's wrong Izzy?" I heard Edward's voice, close to me.
"She can't handle one of Alice's shopping sprees." Rosalie chuckled, rubbing my back. To prove that point further, I groaned a bit louder.
When I regained a bit of my strength, we decided to order our food. We talked for ages about what we had bought and the guys just looked on, not surprised by the amount that Alice had bought.
It was reaching three o'clock when we decided to head to their house. Alice had already picked up my over night bag this morning and had placed it in her house. We drove back to her house and then scrambled to get inside, what could only be described as, their mansion. It was huge!
"Ok, everybody into the living room and make a circle!" Alice called as she danced into it. We all followed and obliged to her demand.
"Why are we sitting here?" Rosalie asked Alice.
"Truth or dare!" Alice squealed. A mischievous grin spread on Emmett's face and he rubbed his hands together.
"Excellent." He smirked.
"Pipe down Mr. Burns." I told him which caused everyone to laugh.
"Ok, I'll go first." Alice smiled, tapping her chin. "Rosalie, truth or dare?"
"Truth." She replied.
"Have you ever had sex with Emmett?" Alice asked. Rosalie's face dropped slightly in embarrassment.
"Yes." She said quietly.
"Rose!" Jasper gasped which had us cracking up.
"Alright, alright, belt up." Rosalie threatened. "Jasper, truth or dare?"
"Dare." He grinned.
"I dare you to not change your clothes for a week." Rosalie smirked. Jasper gulped and looked at Alice who was glaring murderously at Jasper's clothes.
"O-Ok." He stuttered. He glanced at Alice and then cringed at the look she was giving him.
"Um…Emmett, truth or dare?" Jasper turned to Emmett.
"Pssh, dare obviously." Emmett grinned, ready for whatever Jasper was going to throw at him. An evil glint entered Jasper's eye.
"I dare you not to touch Rosalie for the rest of the night." He smiled smugly. Emmett and Rosalie's jaws dropped open.
"What!" They cried.
"You heard." Jasper grinned wickedly.
"I'm so gonna get you for this, dude." Emmett mumbled, shuffling away from Rosalie. He immediately turned to me.
"Izzy, truth or dare?" He asked.
"Dare." I said without a moment's hesitation. I figured that it's better to do something you don't particularly like then have your secrets spilled out to other people. Emmett glanced between me and Edward for a few times before he grinned.
"I dare you to sit on Eddie's lap for the rest of the game." My eyes widened and I looked at Edward who was glaring slightly at Emmett. Edward met my eyes for a moment and then sighed, opening his arms. I swallowed nervously and crawled into them, getting comfortable on his lap. He tenderly placed his arms around my waist and we both exhaled. I would never admit it out loud, but I liked the way that this felt.
"Alice, truth or dare?" I asked. She tapped her chin thoughtfully.
"Truth." She smiled at me. I bit my lip and thought for a moment and I couldn't help what I came up with.
"What's the worse thing you've ever done to anyone?" I blurted out. I immediately regretted it as her face turned grave. I saw the others stiffen slightly.
"I…um…hit someone." She mumbled, looking down. I saw Jasper give her a reassuring hug and felt Edward's arms tighten around me.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to cause offence." I apologised, but deep down, I wasn't sorry. Some part of me wanted to see them suffer from all that they had put me through.
"It's ok." She smiled slightly. Suddenly, she perked up once again. "Rosalie, truth or dare."
"Dare." Rosalie sighed.
"I dare you to kiss Izzy on the lips for a full minute." Alice smiled. Rosalie looked over to me and smirked, beckoning me over with her finger. I smiled slightly and got out of Edward's arms.
Looks like I'll have a second lesbian kiss…I chuckled slightly. Rosalie sat up and kneeled as I kneeled in front of her.
"Tell me when." She told Alice.
"One minute starting from…now." Alice called. Rosalie immediately crashed her lips to mine and I responded, kissing her back. We continued like that until the minute was up.
"Damn Rose, if I went for girls, you would be on the top of my list." I said, causing her to laugh. "Emmett, watch out, or I might steal your woman from you." I joked as I walked back to Edward. I settled down into his lap and he immediately wrapped his arms around me again.
"Damn Rosie, that was hot!" I heard Emmett whisper to her, but of course, everyone heard it. We continued to play truth or dare for the next hour and I got a really good kick out of the game when Rosalie dared the boys to do sexy dancing for us.
Eventually, we piped down and began to talk about school. We ordered pizza and it came half an hour later and I had to admit, it was delicious.
"Oh my God!" Alice screamed, running to the window. "It's snowing!" We all scrambled up and looked out of the window. It was indeed snowing, with snow falling heavily onto the already white ground. It must have been snowing for a while then.
Once we finished our pizza, I glanced at the clock at saw that it was six o'clock in the evening.
"Movie time!" Alice screamed. We decided to watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Emmett ran to set up the DVD as me, Alice and Rosalie went into the kitchen to grab drinks and popcorn.
"So, are you enjoying the night so far?" Alice asked me and I nodded my head, waiting for the popcorn to warm up.
"I think she enjoyed sitting on Edward's lap the most." I immediately spun around and saw Rosalie smirking at me.
"Ha-ha." I laughed sarcastically.
"Seriously Izzy, do you like Edward?" Alice's expression told me that she wasn't joking around.
"Of course I like Edward; he's one of my best friends." I shrugged, purposely avoiding what she was really asking.
"Oh, come off it Izzy!" Rosalie complained.
"What? We are just friends. And even if I liked him as more than just a friend, there is no way he would like me in that way." I glared, turning back to the popcorn.
"You are so blind." Rosalie mumbled.
"What do you mean?" I asked, focusing on the popcorn. Someone grabbed my shoulders and turned me around. I found myself staring at Alice.
"Don't you see the way Edward looks at you? It's like he's just seen the sun for the first time! I've never seen him so happy since he's made friends with you. He talks about you non-stop to Esme and Carlisle!" She huffed.
"It's true." Rosalie piped in. I stared at them for a moment and started feeling uncomfortable.
"Look," I sighed, "believe what you want to believe. But I know that Edward and I are only friends." Alice smacked her forehead and groaned as I grabbed my bowl of popcorn and stormed back into the living room. I looked around and sat down on the single chair. I ate a bit of my popcorn before Alice and Rosalie marched in and took a seat next to their significant other.
"Come on Eddie-boy!" Emmett boomed with the controller in his hand. Edward bounced into the room and searched the room, his eyes immediately brightening when he found me. However, his face dropped slightly as e saw what chair I was in. His eyes went from the other single chair to me before he started making his way over to where I was sitting.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no! I thought as he sat down on the floor in front of me. He shifted slightly, trying to get more comfortable.
"You know, there is another chair over there." I murmured to him. He simply shook his head and leaned back against my legs. I sighed and ruffled his hair and he looked up to me with a lazy smile on his face. Alice danced over and turned the lights off as the movie began.
After half an hour, I glanced around the room and saw Alice and jasper cuddling up to each other and so were Rosalie and Emmett. Looks like that dare didn't last very long.
Suddenly, I started to feel nauseated. I was practically lying through my teeth at these people and I couldn't help but feel sick at my actions. Over the past few days I had been seriously thinking about telling them who I really was. It would hurt more if I delayed it any further.
The room started to feel crowded and I couldn't breathe properly. I quickly got up out of my seat.
"I'm just going to go for a walk." I announced, "I'll be back in a bit." Everyone watched as I walked out of the dark room. I quickly grabbed my jacket and shrugged it on. I opened the front door and was immediately hit by the cold. It was dark but it had stopped snowing, allowing the already fallen snow to stay on the ground. I sighed and started walking towards the forest, the snow crunching under my shoes.
"Izzy, wait!" A voice called. I turned around and saw Edward running towards me, buttoning up his jacket.
"Can I come with you?" He asked nervously. I looked up at him and saw a hopeful glint in his eye. Suddenly, Alice's words came flooding back to me.
"Don't you see the way Edward looks at you?" I shook my head and glanced back at Edward.
"It's a free country." I mumbled. The smile that lit up his face was brilliant and we started walking towards the forest.