Chapter 21
"Bella, I'm not taking no for an answer," Alice said tersely as she started to pick up the clothes that I put back on the rack. We were clothes shopping for school. So far, Urban Outfitters has had a major portion of its inventory purchased by none other than, Alice Cullen. When we walked into American Apparel, I could only groan. All the guys were chilling out at a coffee shop nearby, pretending to drink coffee but actually gossiping about how much of a shopaholic Alice is.
"But Alice, I have a ton of clothes," I said as she handed me another stack to try on in the dressing room.
"It's all from last year, though." Alice threw over the top of the door, a sapphire blue figure skater dress.
"When am I ever going to wear this?" I mumbled. "I have a ton of clothes that you bought me over the summer," I complained. I liked my old clothes. I knew Alice wanted to throw them out, but I know which pair of jeans work best with which halter top, and which pair of jean shorts look good with which short sleeved shirt.
"Bella," Alice said sternly. I came out of the dressing room, wearing a blue double-breasted cardigan over a white and gray racerback tank. I felt really stupid after Alice tucked it into my silver jean shorts. "You are going into high school, tomorrow. People in high school do not wear the same thing at the people in middle school. I would know; I've been to high school many many times. Do you want to crash and burn and become an isolated outcast in high school? Do you want to be a friendless loner?"
"No, I guess not," I mumbled, stumped. I guess she was right.
"Good, then stop arguing with me." Alice turned me around to face the mirror. My outfit did look pretty cool. "This is your first day of school outfit."
I smiled. "Definitely."
Alice seemed really happy that I was satisfied. "Okay, go change. I need to pick out a few more things," She said as she pushed me back into the dressing room.
"Alice," I moaned.
"Who said they were for you?" Alice asked, pretending to be offended.
When I came out of the dressing room, Alice was waiting for me at the register. In the pile of clothes on the counter I could pick out a red high-waisted skirt, a light charcoal schoolgirl skirt, a gray circle scarf, a gray wool peacoat, a khaki and navy fleece hoody, a forest green and sea blue zip hoody, and a pair of black high waisted skinny jeans with red suspenders. She must be crazy if she thinks I'm going to wear those.
Alice handed over her black credit card and waited patiently as the guy folded all the clothing and put it into a bag.
"Okay, now onto Abercrombie," Alice stated.
"Do you really need me there, Alice?" I pleaded with her. "I'm just a bother. Just buy whatever you want. I'll sit with the boys." We were walking towards the Coffee Bean where the boys were at. Instead of waiting for her answer, I just walked inside.
"Bella, just take these bags first," she said as she handed me the Urban Outfitters and American Apparel bags. I took them and almost fell under their weight. Of course to Alice, this was nothing.
"Hey, Bella. Did you have fun?" Emmett asked with that stupid grin. I dumped all of the six bags on his lap.
"What do you think?" I asked. Edward picked up a medium hazelnut ice blended from the counter and silently handed it to me. How did he know me so well? "I've taken off my clothes so many times, the last time I couldn't remember which were my clothes and which were the ones I was trying on. And Alice does not take no for an answer. You should see the things she's buying for me."
"Like what?" Jasper asked.
"In Victoria's Secret she bought me a beaded thong. She said it's for my future boyfriend," I said as I casually took a sip.
"Bella? Can I see that Victoria's Secret bag?" Jasper asked me. I handed it to him. He got up and threw it into the trash.
"Hey, my new black lace bra was in there too!" I protested.
"Well, you don't need that either, so everything's fine," Emmett said with a satisfied smile.
"Alice is going to kill you," I threatened Jasper and Emmett. Jasper paled and Emmett just scoffed. "Oh, you guys, do you want to see my first day of school outfit?"
"Oh wonderful, who let her in? I thought this was supposed to be male bonding time," Emmett commented.
I pulled out my top, then cardigan and then shorts. "Bella, those shorts look too small, are you sure they fit you?" Emmett asked.
"Yeah, they fit perfectly in the dressing room," I told them. Were they saying I'm fat?
"These are really small, you need to eat more," Emmett said. Coming from him, I laughed. Of course all of my clothes would look really small to Emmett.
"That's the last thing I need to do," I told them. "I am definitely not going to be fat for my first day of school." All the guys roll their eyes. "What? I have a lot of fat."
No, no, no, no, no, no, NO! Why does my mom have to do this? Why does she have to be so interested in my life?
Alice knocked on my door. "Here you go," she said as she handed me a Marc Jacobs lilac garden popline dress. It looked hideous. Alice must have seen my face because she sighed and handed me another dress. "I knew you wouldn't like that one, so I bought another one." In the other hand she gave me a Stella McCartney cropped twill jacket with a white trim. I looked back the dress's label, Joie. Hm, never heard of that one. Considering its Alice, that means that the dress is probably really expensive.
I looked over at Alice's Jay Godfrey's black and white floral print dress. The skirt looked sheer and lacey. I had some weird urge to feel it. She walked effortlessly around in Jimmy Choo black sling back peep toe pumps. Esme came in and turned on the flat iron. She mentioned something at breakfast about straight hair looking perfect with my dress. Of course with her simple Diesel light gray and dark gray v-neck dress, she didn't need to do her hair for her dress. She looked radiant without evening having to touch her hair. Me, on the other hand, can scare small children when I wake and have a severe case of bed head.
After Mom and Alice fixed my hair, I was starving. I didn't have my dress on or my makeup done yet but I thought I deserved a break. I saw Rosalie in the kitchen fixing some bowls of chips. She looked stunning. She had on a Gypsy v-neck very light blue ankle-length dress. I always envied women who were tall enough to pull off the very long dress look. It swishes around her ankles when click-clacked across the wood floor in her gold sandals. It reminded me of the ocean.
"So, are you excited?" she asked me. She reached up to make sure her hair was still intact. It was. Her hair had been pinned up in a sloppy bun with a few wisps of blonde hair framing her flawless face. Her silver hoop earring matched perfectly with the thin line of gray eyeliner she applied on her upper lids.
"For what? My humiliation?" When my mom came to pick me up this morning on the last day of practice, she started talking to Coach Davis while I was showering. I didn't think much of it, except that my mom was probably the only mom to actually wait for her daughter to get out of practice. So when I walked over to them to announce that I was ready to leave, I was informed of an event. Apparently, we were holding an end of the summer barbeque that night. She had invited my coaches and everyone on the water polo team. I stared at her, shocked.
"I don't remember hearing about this," I argued with her.
"Oh, Bella, I told you last night, remember. And Alice has been working all morning to get things prepared," my mom reasoned. It was an end of the summer barbeque. She invited my water polo team, because we could swim while the adults mingled and danced. They would all stay in the gazebo which was only about thirty yards from the pool.
So before everyone left, Coach Davis made it a requirement for all the players to go. I'm pretty sure he did this to just annoy me. He liked teasing me, pushing me into the pool, or just joking with me. Unfortunately, everyone seemed very enthusiastic about this party. I assured them that it would be boring, of course, but they said that they were planning a bonding event already and now this was just a convenience. Wonderful.
"Everything is going to be fine, Bella," Rosalie assured me. She smiled slyly. "You're going to have fun, Alice confirmed it." As I bit into my apple thoughtfully, Rosalie turned around, picked up the bowls of chip and a tray of vegetables and headed outside. "You should get dressed, Bella. People are going to start to arrive soon." At that moment, Alice called down the stairs, "BELLA! Get your butt up here. I still need to do your makeup." I sighed and trudged up the stairs. It was one thirty, the party was supposed to start at two, and end around eight. I had no idea what people would do during those six hours. Our house wasn't very fun.
"Bella, stop fussing," Alice said as she tried to get me to relax. I was nervous. I sat there, letting Alice work her magic, and couldn't help but think of all the possible outcomes of this evening. Christian had to do with many of these scenarios. I could see Christian, bored out of his mind, and wanting to leave. I also saw Christian, weirded out by my family, or my family's friends, and then never speaking to me again. But on the other side, I envisioned Christian being totally romantic, and then confessing his undying love to me as he walked through the door. That was the most unlikely one.
I opened my eyes to the made-by-Alice Bella. She had thin black eyeliner perfectly applied on her eyelids, with an even complexion. Alice had traced the black eyeliner with silver sparkly eyeliner. Then a dab of gray eye shadow on the edges of my eyes made eyes look like they had depth inside of just my plain brown eyes. Alice forced me to look up as she traced my eyelashes with the Dior Diorshow Blackout mascara wand. She rubbed some Rosebud Salve on my lips and smiled in satisfaction.
"Perfect," Alice complimented. "Let me just brush your hair one more time, and now we can put on your dress." She said as she walked over to where I laid it on my bed.
"Wait," I told her. "I need to put on my bikini first." Alice rolled her eyes. We had just finished arguing about whether or not to wear my suit on under my dress. I wanted to so that I didn't have to waste anytime getting in the pool, where I really belonged. But Alice thought that the bikini straps would not looked pleasant with my dress. Also, she said, the panty lines will be embarrassing. But I really didn't care. I would spend as little time as possible in that dress. I would say hi to all my family friends and then go off with my friends, swimming.
Alice tied the straps to my all white bikini. Alice forbade me to wear a colored bikini that might show through my Joie dress. She said that it would ruin the entire romantic mood of the dress if there were hot pink bikini straps showing through. And the dress did have a romantic quality. It was a vintage cotton short summer dress. It was A-line shaped, with adorable red roses lightly displayed on the smooth bottom and the ruffled top. I loved it. I smiled brightly, and hugged it to my chest.
"I knew you would love it," Alice laughed. "I also knew that you wouldn't love these. But too bad," she said, laughing still. My smile fell when I saw the three inch leather strapped open toe pumps. They were beautiful, no doubt, but I knew that I wouldn't be beautiful when I fell on my face. But the heel was thick, and the straps looked pretty secure, so I didn't worry too much.
I strapped them to feet, just as Alice left to go answer the door. I stayed in my room looking out my balcony window, waiting for my friends to arrive. I don't want to have to spend any more time than necessary downstairs. Finally, though, after ten minutes of reading my current book, I saw Christian's car, Lina's car, Amanda's car, Cassandra's car, and two other cars I didn't recognize. But I identified Coach Davis as one of the drivers. All the cars were carrying a few people. Not too much, though, thank God. I didn't want my humiliation to reach farther than my immediate friends.
I opened my door and was about to turn to the main stairwell to meet my guests, when I bumped into Edward. He was dressed nicely in long khaki pants, which I might add, showed off his amazing butt. I instantly blushed. I can't believe I just thought that about my brother! He smoothed down his white Lacoste short sleeved polo. Edward usually dressed in jeans and whatever shirt happened to be lying around. This was weird.
"Alice?" I asked, knowingly.
"Partly. You?" He said raising his eyebrows at my heels.
"Of course. But I got to keep my bikini, for later." I smiled triumphantly. His bronze hair was messy as always, but this time there was gel, like he was trying to make an attempt at fixing it, and then gave up. It didn't matter; I liked it messy better anyway.
"Do you want help going down the stairs? So you don't fall in front of your guests?" He asked, holding out an arm.
"You know, sometimes I think you're just lying about the whole not-being-able-to-read-my-mind thing." I said as I gratefully took his right arm and we walked toward the stairs that faced the two door entrance to our house.
"No, I just know you so well," Edward said. I laughed as we walked down the first few steps. I kept my head down, looking at my feet while laughing, so I didn't see all my friends in the foyer. I felt Edward stiffen beside me, and held onto his wonderful-smelling arm, tighter. Finally, I looked up to look straight into Christian's covered eyes. I could still faintly make out the shake of his eyes behind his Ray-Ban Aviator shades.
"Edward, these are my water polo friends, friends, this is Edward," I announced. I noticed Cassandra staring at him with ogling eyes. Oh, no.
"Hey,Edward," Scott piped up, confidently. He came over to slap my brother's hand like they've been friends forever.
"Hey, Scott. Haven't seen you in awhile." I let go of Edward's arm and kept staring at Christian. His gaze was magnetic. It made me forget about Edward, and the weird things I've been feelings towards him.
"Yeah, I know. I guess Bella doesn't want me around anymore." Scott trailed off, waiting formy response. I just stood there, not even processing what he said. "Right, Bella?" He said a little more loudly this time, to catch my attention.
"What? No, that's totally not true," I said as I was finally able to turn away from Christian May. Alexandra, Tally, Eileen, Camille, and Becky showed up right then. I led them all to my room, where they dropped of their swimming bags. We were planning on getting something to eat before swimming.
"Wow, this is a great room, Bella," Amanda said appreciatively. She laid down on my bed.
"Thanks," I responded. I was trying to lead them out of my room, so that my parents didn't think I was having my own party in my room.
"I'm in love with this bed," she announced. I looked over to Christian again. He was sitting in my desk chair looking at some pictures I had posted up on the corkboard. One was the picture that Scott liked, the one of Alice and I in the rain, on the street in front of our house. She was giving me a piggy-back ride, while we were wearing matching outfits; yellow and pink rain boots, black skinny jeans, and sweatshirts under a black peacoats. We both had our hair in braids, while I was holding a pink poka-dot umbrella. We were smiling like idiots, but having the most fun in the world.
"This is cute," Christian commented.
"Yeah, that was a fun day." I commented. He flipped to the next picture. It was of Edward holding me in his arms, while my hands were wrapped around his neck. I was crying, clinging onto him with all my might, while he looked down at me lovingly. "I have no idea what I was crying about."
"Must have been something important."
"Not really, I remember I use to cry about everything, and Edward was always there to comfort me."
The next picture was of Edward and me again, holding hands and walking through leaves. "First day of school," I informed him. Next was Emmett carrying me above his head to my room. "I hated going to sleep."
It was funny. The next three just happened to all be Edward and me together. Although, the fourth one was of me lying on Rosalie. I was either sitting on Edward's lap in the car, or him feeding me, or him and walking in a park.
"Looks like you're really close to Edward." Christian stated.
"I guess so. I just never noticed it."