A/N: Hey guys! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post this chapter, but I only just got proper internet in my house today :(
But at least you can now get updates as soon as I bother to write them :D
This is the build-up to the Halloween Ball, and there may be a guest appearance in the next chapter from someone if he can guess my age right haha
So yeah, its a slight filler chapter, but kind of essential so you lot understand what happens at the Ball I guess
Anywaysies, read on people! Read on!
BPOV
I can't believe I'm sitting in this damned chair of doom... again!
This must have been, what? The SEVENTITH time that Alice has held me hostage and slathered me in beauty products and pulled half my hair out for her own amusement.
BUT that's not the only thing, oh no.
Because the Halloween Ball was a masked ball Alice went the whole nine yards to ensure that none of the three of us would be recognized.
And she had left Esme in charge of disguising the boys so not even Alice herself would know what they looked like tonight...
I didn't get it.
And another thing...
Why did she have to dye my hair silver?!?
I mean, of all the colours she could have picked, she went with silver...
"Seriously Alice... silver?!?" I moaned, again.
"It matches your mask! I wouldn't be doing my duty as your best friend if I let you go to a ball with mismatching colours!" She trilled gleefully.
"You know Bella, you might as well sit still before Fashion Nazi here decides that she's had enough of your moaning and leaves a fifth of your hair un-dyed..." Rose warned.
I shut up after that.
After what seemed to be hours after I had shut up (it had, in fact, been only fourty-five minutes) Alice proclaimed that my make-up and hair was done.
I had clenched my eyes tightly shut a little while ago to try and block out Fashion Nazi and her ridiculous amount of products, but once she had declared I was fit for public display I timidly opened my eyes again.
I looked in the mirror and gasped.
All my hair was silver, every single strand, none of it remained untouched.
It was also braided and piled up at the crown of my head, with black pieces of fabric wound through it, looking very surreal...
And it also looked rather shabby, and Alice being Alice I thought she would have worked to make it perfect...
But it all made perfect sense when I saw the dress she had got me.
It was all black with off-the-shoulder cuffs and the skirt was so many different layers of fabric it was amazing.
The part that really got me though was the fact that it had an asymmetrical semi-corset round the waist made of a shiny almost-leather fabric.
It was stunning.
"Told ya you'd love it." Alice giggled smugly from beside me.
"It's pretty awesome innit?" Rose said, nudging me.
I was in awe and, much to my surprise, absolutely dying to try it on.
"Is that really for me Alice?" I asked, still incredulous.
"Of course it is silly!" Alice exclaimed, bouncing up and down with my dress in her arms.
"Now Bella, close your eyes and raise your arms!" Rose trilled.
I knew the drill, they dressed me every time that I got a makeover from them two.
"You guys really don't trust me to dress myself yet?" I said tiredly, I still hated makeovers even if they did involve an amazing dress.
I heard them laugh, a beautiful soprano and alto tinkling.
Everything about my friends was beautiful.
It was kinda depressing sometimes...
"Look, Bella, it's not that we don't trust you to be able to dress yourself, it's that we don't trust you to not fall over while doing so." Rose chuckled, interrupting my random musings.
"Look at it this way Bella, say that we had just spent hours doing your hair and makeup and we've given you this fabulous dress to get changed into. Now, what you would do is take all the clothes you are wearing right now off the wrong way and therefore mess up your hair or smudge your makeup. But that wouldn't be the end of it. You would then get the amazing dress and try to step into it, but you would end up getting your foot caught, ripping half of the dress, trying to get your foot out while hopping around, hop straight out of your room, end up falling down the stairs, getting yourself completely tangled in the dress, ripping it to shreds, breaking your leg or your arm or both of them, probably getting a concussion, your hair would be all over the place, your makeup would be ruined by the falling and smashing your face off of things and the crying and then they would have to take you to hospital still all entangled in the now completely obliterated dress and you'd end up encased in bandages and plaster and have black and blue bruises everywhere and you would never get to go to the Halloween Ball!"
Silence followed Alice's rant.
I was in shock, what the hell had she been taking?
"Second time today Alice, are you on something?" Rose asked warily.
I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing and opened my eyes to find Alice giggling behind her hand and Rose looking between us as if we were both crazy as hell.
Once we had calmed down and Rose had stopped looking at me as if I was mental (she was still giving Alice wary looks) then I thought about what Rose had said before.
"Second time today? When did Alice spout another load of garbage and how the hell did I miss it?" I asked, not sure whether I really wanted to know or not.
APOV
"It was after you escaped from her puppy dog pout this morning, she got so annoyed that she just kind of exploded. Scared the hell out of the rest of us too." Rose laughed.
"Only because that bloody ginger brother of ours said that the Mallory-bitch was wearing THE new Gucci's!" I said defensively.
And yeah I know, Edward would kill me if I ever called him ginger to his face...
Bella and Rose started laughing, but my mind reflexively blocked them out as something clicked.
I had never got round to interrogating Bella.
I had convinced her to come to the Halloween Ball, and then the bell had rang and I had to go to class, and Jasper looked particularly pretty and he whispered things in my ear all lesson.
No wonder I had forgotten about questioning Bella, that silly Southern boy...
But by God was he hawt!
Mmmm...
Anywaysies... back to interrogating Bella. I had to find out what had happened between her and Edward, and then figure out the best plan of attack for tonight...
Simple, right?
Well it would be if Bella wasn't the most stubborn person on earth.
This could take a while...
How could I cut down that time?
Bulldozer tactics Alice, plough straight in there.
Ah well, here goes...
"Bella, can I ask you something?" I said sweetly, grinning widely at her.
I could tell that she wasn't fooled, she knew I wanted to know something major.
"No. I refuse to answer your question." Bella said bluntly and took a teensy step back.
She also looked rather scared, she knew I would get what I wanted one way or another.
Torture was an option.
"Oh come on Bella, just one teensy little question. It won't hurt." I laughed.
"Much." Rose interjected and laughed along with me.
Bella threw Rosalie her best 'thanks-for-being-so-bloody-helpful' look and backed away a little again.
"Bella... what was with Edward this morning?"
Well that threw her, she looked at me like I had just asked her why she reminds people of Bambi (which she sometimes does by the way, especially when attempting to ice skate, it's cute).
"You what? You think that I'll know what's up with Edward?" She was so confused.
Hah!
There!
She had just given away exactly what I had wanted.
Ever since the thunder incident she hadn't talked to him, had hardly acknowledged him.
And ever since the thunder incident she had never referred to him by his actual name.
"You talked to him." I said, pointing a finger at her.
"What? Don't be stupid Alice. You know fine well that I've been deliberately ignoring him." Bella said defiantly.
"We also know how hard it has been for you to deliberately ignore him." Rose said quietly.
Bella sighed and started twirling a little loose piece of her silver hair.
"He doesn't fight fair." From the ring of finality in that little sentence I knew that Bella didn't want to say anything more about Edward and his dismal glances and sorrowful moods that he had been in... until today of course.
A tiny silence followed.
And I am such a nice person that I actually considered dropping the subject and just leaving my Bella and Edward plotting for another day.
"You did talk to him today." Rose said, breaking the silence and making both mine and Bella's heads snap in her direction immediately.
Plotting back in motion.
"When?" Bella said sarcastically, so sure that she hadn't.
"Right before you escaped this morning. He distracted Alice with the idiotic idea that Mallory would get her claws into the new Gucci's before she would and then told you to make a run for it while you could. You laughed, said thanks and walked off." Rosalie said rather smugly.
Bella's face fell, but she looked more relieved than annoyed.
Interesting, but I could get to that later.
"Hate to say it, but I told you so!" I giggled.
Bella rolled her eyes.
"How did you know anyways?" Rose asked curiously.
"I'm psychic" I laughed, but gave Rose a 'tell-you-later' look.
She nodded slightly and I turned to Bella who had missed the little exchange between me and Rose.
She also hadn't noticed that she was wearing one of the most fabulous dresses ever...
Silly girl.
"So Bella," I said casually, "Like the dress?"
I laughed as she gasped and muttered something about totally forgetting she had it on.
When she turned and looked in the mirror her face was priceless.
She stood there, gaping in shock at her reflection, for what must have been at least three full minutes.
Then she did something very un-Bella-ish.
She started jumping around and squealing about how much she loved the dress.
"Calm down Bella, you look like Alice!" Rose laughed.
It was weird, but Rose was right, it was a very me thing to do.
Bella started laughing with Rose and I just rolled my eyes at the two of them.
Woah, me and Bella were switching characteristics.
Heaven help me if we switch fashion senses...
EPOV
"Alice?" I asked uncertainly into my phone.
"Look Edward, I don't have much time so shut up and listen okay?" Her voice sounded tinny through my beat-up mobile, I seriously needed a new one.
"Uh, yeah, okay... what is it you need to tell me?" Normally Alice would chunter on for ages when she phoned anyone, I wondered idly what the problem was...
"Right. Look Edward, I know that Bella talked to you today. I know that you need to talk to her. I know that the Halloween Ball would be a good time to talk. Okay?"
My mouth was suddenly dry, did Alice know?
Had Alice figured it out? Was it that damn obvious?
"Okay." I answered Alice weakly.
"Edward, I know that there is something underneath all of this that either you or Bella isn't saying, but none of this is going to sort itself out if you two don't talk okay? No matter what, you have to talk to Bella tonight. Got it?"
I let out a massive sigh of relief, she didn't know about my feelings for Bella.
Thank fuck.
"Edward? Have you been listening to me?" I heard Alice ask as I drifted back to reality.
Um, shit...
"Yes?" I said, cursing myself that it had come out as a question instead of the confident statement I had wanted it to be.
Alice sighed at my general existence and started talking again.
"So, what I said was," She said with a slight hint of venom creeping into her voice, "Bella will be the one in the black dress, black and silver mask and silver hair. Talk to her, or I will hunt you down."
"You dyed her hair silver?!?" I exclaimed before I could stop myself.
I heard Alice giggle on the other end.
"It was really good fun actually, and she looks absolutely stunning in the whole ensemble. Oh, and can you tell Jasper and Emmett to try and find me and Rose at the ball please?" She laughed.
"Will do Alice. Is that everything?" Please say yes, please say yes...
"Please tell Jasper and Emmett that if they get it wrong then they will die. Same goes for you Edward. Fuck this up and you will be so sorry." She sounded deadly serious, scary as hell, you don't cross Alice when she's using her 'psycho-voice'.
"Kay Alice." I managed to choke out.
"Have fun tonight!" She trilled cheerfully and hung up.
That girl has serious issues.
But so will I if I bugger this up...
"Edward! We're leaving soon! Hurry the hell up you prissy!" Emmett hollered up the stairs.
Oh great...
Let the fun begin...
A/N: So guys, what did you think?
Also please tell me what you think is going to happen at the Halloween Ball, if anyone gets it right then they can have a guest appearance in the next chapter and/or borrow Edward from my basement for a night.
Unless you want any of the other characters for a few nights, I'm willing to negotiate :P
So please review and send me love!
Next chapter should be up sooner than this one was :)
I love you all :D
X Seraphie X