Chapter 17: The dress debacle

Edward's point of view

On Friday, I set my plan into action.

"Hi Bella." I greeted her as I sat down at the table next to her in Biology. She smiled up at me and then continued taking out her stuff for the lesson. Did she still think that I disliked her?

Obviously, because her face spoke louder than her silent thoughts ever could.

"Do you already have a dress for the dance?" I politely asked her. She seemed to be a little confused by my question, but maybe that was just my lack of ability to small-talk. When did one of the undead ever get the chance to practice exchanging pleasantries with mortals?

It was only really possible for my family and the Denali clan because of our choice of diet. One had to feel the need to talk to the mortals, though, which hadn't been the case for me before now. If I didn't want anything from them, I normally didn't bother conversing with humans.

"Um..." She fumbled for words for a few seconds, but then answered. "No. I'll go dress-shopping with Angela next Saturday. We are hoping that we won't have to return for accessories on Sunday."

"What were you thinking about? Color-wise, for example?" I inquired.

"Blue or green, but I'm not sure yet..."

Since blue was my favorite color- I tended to wear it almost every day- and it would look absolutely lovely on her, I decided to make a suggestion. "I personally prefer blue. It would look pretty with your skin." Her skin was so pale that it almost matched mine. It seemed to be even more translucent, though. One could mistake her for one of us if it weren't for her steady heartbeat and her brown doe eyes.

"I'll just see which one I like best. I might even select a dark red one." Bella explained, obviously not too keen on talking to me.

"You do that. I'm sure it'll look great, anyways." I complimented her. A slight blush rose in her skin at my words, so subtle that no human eye would be able to make it out. Bella wasn't just perfect, she was perfect for me. And she was still only human.

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As always, I had inconspicuously tabbed in on her fellow students' thoughts during her lessons to make sure that she was okay. This way, I might also find some useful information about her likes and dislikes.

Bella was very accident-prone. During her P.E. lesson she had almost stabbed herself and another student with a javelin. After only ten minutes of class she had to watch from the sideline. She seemed so innocent and so much in need of protection.

What would I give to be her protector! And how big was the irony of that thought:

A monster of the dark trying to be a guardian angel for a sweet human. But maybe I could be that for her. I would at least try to keep her safe. Who else could do that for her? I was the only qualified being with supernatural talents and abilities plus the necessary restraint. If anyone planned on hurting her, I would be the first one to know with my mind-reading. I was the only one who could protect her without anyone noticing at all. We were a perfect match.

On my way to the next class I made a choice: I was going to be her hidden guardian angel. She had even told me where she would be going next weekend, so it would be easy to follow her and her friends. Especially since I was already familiar with the tone of Angela Webber's thoughts. Via her mind, I would be able to keep tabs on Bella throughout each school day.

'Saturday, Newton, dress-shopping' I kept chanting in my head.

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Bella's point of view

Finally, the dreaded day of dress shopping had come. While I was excited to spend the day with friends, I feared a long day without finding anything I would like. I was excited to find a dress which would wow Jake, but unsure of how to accomplish this goal.

I still hadn't decided on a style or a color, but one thing I knew for sure:

"It can't be a blue dress. Don't even point any out to me because I won't try them on, Angela." I warned my friend as she drove us to Newton. We had agreed on not taking my truck in case we had to drive all the way to Seattle and back to Forks from there. My poor vehicle probably wouldn't have survived the trip in one piece. It could almost be my own grandfather age-wise.

"Okay, okay, if that is what you want... I'm open to anything you think would look good on me. I'm a huge fan of yellow, though, you probably already noticed." Angela laughed as I smiled and nodded. "But now that you made such a big deal out of the color, you have to tell me why you have such a strong aversion to blue." Her eyes sparkled with curiosity.

I was a little embarrassed by the reason and didn't answer at once, so she started begging. "Pretty please? It can't be that bad, seriously."

"You can't tell anyone, but it's because of Edward. He questioned me about the dance and my dress and suggested that I take a blue one. Obviously, it's his favorite color. He tends to wear it quite often, now that I think of it, too. I don't want to risk matching with him!" Angela seemed to be surprised by my admission.

"And the bad thing about matching would be...? I mean, with any color you could possibly pick you'd always match someone. There will be too many people attending to avoid that." she explained her confusion.

"He told me that he wanted to ask me to the dance after he knew for sure that I was going with Jacob. It seemed a bit unusual, so I'm just being careful not to lead him on. Since that day, he has taken a bit too much of an interest in my plans and interests. I wouldn't want him to think that I picked the color of my dress just because it's his favorite!" I frowned.

"You're right, if you are uncomfortable with it, you shouldn't go for blue. I'm honestly surprised that he asked anyone to go with him, he always seems so aloof! I'm pretty sure that half the girls in town would pay money to go to the dance with him, but since you don't want his attention, I agree with you." She seemed to understand.

"Especially since the dance is such a good opportunity for me and Jake..." I left the sentence unfinished. "I wouldn't want Edward to ruin the dance for us because he misinterprets the color of my dress. He can be a bit dramatic. I'm scared that he might like me a little too much..." I confided in her.

"Oh, come on. It's Edward Cullen you're talking about. He doesn't like girls!" Angela exclaimed with an air of finality. I sincerely hoped that she was right.

The dress store in Newton didn't seem to be specialized on formal dresses. They had beautiful accessories and shoes, but the dresses were mostly made from cotton or thin fabrics.

"May I help you?" a sales clerk came to our help as we searched for something to try on.

"We're looking for formal dresses for our fall dance next week." I briefly explained our situation. The clerk gave us a most pitiful smile.

"I'm afraid that we're almost sold out. Newton and Forks High are both having their dances soon and they bought us out. I'll try to gather the remainders for you. You might have to look somewhere else, though, and return for accessories. We still have a wide selection of necklaces and other jewelry." She pointed to a display next to the register and Angela and me scurried over there to kill time while the clerk tried to find us something formal to wear.

"This one is so beautiful!" Angela said with her nose almost to the display's glass front. She was looking at a wonderful green necklace that sparkled in the light. I couldn't quite put my finger on what color it was exactly, but then decided on emerald-green. It even had a perfect length to wear it with a strapless dress. "I'm a strong supporter of a green dress for you. It would go wonderfully with your eyes."

Angela voiced my exact thoughts about the sparkly piece of jewelry. I thought the necklace was really beautiful. I decided to try to get a matching green dress just so that I could wear it. Angela's statement surprised me, though. "My eyes are brown, though."

"Yes, they are, I know. But they also have some green highlights in them. A green dress would really bring out the contrast." Angela smiled at me.

When the two of us had almost stared a hole into the display's glass with our longing glances, the sales clerk returned with a few dresses. Three of them were different shades of blue and most in dark colors or too bright for our tastes - orange for example- which only left us with two dresses each to try on.

None of them fit Angela or me, just like the clerk had predicted. I couldn't buy the necklace yet because I didn't know if I'd find a matching dress. Angela grew quite fond of some pretty shoes which were available in several pale colors. They were her size, but she had to force herself not to like them too much without a matching dress. So we left the store emptyhanded and headed towards Seattle.

Since Seattle was so much bigger than Newton, they fortunately weren't sold out at the mall's dress store there. We tried to find something on our owns, but it was almost impossible because of the sheer number of possibilities: Straps or no straps, dark or bright colors, red, blue, yellow, green, long or short, with intricate details or plain.

Maybe I should've made up my mind before trying to find a dress. It would have been helpful to have a specific image in mind which I could now search for. On the other hand, this might have been a bad idea in case they weren't able to fulfill my wish.

Soon, we gave up on finding things ourselves and asked for help. Our assistant of choice was a bouncy, petite girl with loads of curls on her head. She was a tremendous help and made our quest for dresses much smoother. Her name-tag identified her as Kate. Kate was able to guess our sizes quite quickly and knew the store by heart.

She briefly asked us for our preferences and soon came back with her arms full of dresses.

Among her first suggestions was a red dress for Angela as well as a pale yellow and blue one. And a strikingly beautiful green one, some more modest dresses in darker colors for me. I decided to try on the green one last. It was the exact same color as the necklace we had seen in Newton and had the perfect design for it, too.

All of the selected dresses fit well, yet the green one was the only truly perfect one. Trying them on took longer than I had expected because they were often difficult to fasten or tighten properly. As soon as I had the green one on and pulled it tight with the straps in the back, I knew that it was the one for me, though.

It clung to my body perfectly and had just the right length and design. It was strapless, slightly ruffled below the waist and flared out. The emerald-green really brought out the green specks in my eyes, I noticed as I looked myself over in the changing room's mirror.

"You have to take that one!" Angela insisted when I came out of the dressing room in the green dress. I didn't even have to think about it beyond checking the price tag, since it really was perfect. Finding a dress for Angela was slightly more difficult. Finally, we found the right one for her, too. It was a pale yellow neckholder dress. She had discarded it at first because it was so long, but Kate had insisted she try it on. It went down almost to the floor and highlighted her long legs.

"You wouldn't look out of place on a runway." I told my friend. It really made her look beautiful. I almost felt sorry for poor Ben, he wouldn't know what hit him.

"I'm already tired of shopping." I admitted as we left the store with huge pink bags in our hands. "We should just get the accessories in Newton tomorrow and eat close to this mall now, then call it a day. I'll get the necklace there tomorrow and you don't need jewelry if I didn't misinterpret you earlier, so it'll be more relaxed this way. They had the shoes you liked in pale yellow in Newton, right? I think they should match your dress perfectly, so that store would solve all our open points on the checklist." I suggested.

Angela confirmed what I had said about her accessory needs. "I really like yellow, so the dress should match my favorite necklace perfectly. I don't have any plans tomorrow, so it shouldn't be a problem to dedicate the rest of today to eating and resting. But are you going to go bare-footed? What will Lauren say?" she asked me, making a mock-shocked face.

"I have some black shoes that are already broken in. That way I'll avoid permanent damage, blisters and everlasting humiliation because I fall on my face in new heels. I've got a matching black purse, too." I explained and grinned widely. "It's easy to match black with black. And hey, I will be accompanied by another type of Black so it makes sense."

"I don't think that Jacob will be looking at your feet either way." Angela winked at me and I blushed.

I sincerely hoped that she was right.

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Angela and I were back in Newton to buy a necklace for me and her shoes Sunday afternoon. I was a little panicked that someone else already bought them, but my fear had been unreasonable: Shoes and accessories were all exactly in the same place as I remembered them to be.

Wonders never ceased to happen. One of them was that I was willingly going shopping twice in the course of one weekend. The second time had even been my idea! Shopping with Angela was enjoyable, though. She was efficient, fun and a calming influence. My previous experiences on shopping trips with Renee had been very different.

When I pointed at the emerald-green necklace and the sales clerk handed it to me, I was surprised to see that it wasn't nearly as expensive as I had expected it to be.

"What do you think?" I held the sparkly accessory next to the dress. I hadn't misjudged: They really matched perfectly as though they had been made to go with each other. "It's so pretty. I'm almost jealous!" Angela grinned at me.

She got lucky, too. They really had pale yellow shoes in her size. She was going to wear them to the dancing classes next week so they'd be broken in by the time the dance would come.

'Maybe I should wear mine, too'I mused as we left the shop. Jacob was tall enough to be my height even with high-heels higher than I would dare to wear.

Now that we had the important stuff in our bags, we decided to split up as we reached the bank. "We'll meet at the small café down Main Street, okay? I might take a while, so you just go ahead and get some drinks and food." Angela suggested. I nodded; the café was easy to find and they had muffins to die for.

We waved at each other and Angela went on. While she had volunteered to do the family's grocery shopping, I had to re-stock my purse with money, so I stopped as Angela went on. The weekend had left my wallet empty: First the dress, now the necklace and the money for gas that I had given to Angela earlier.

When I entered the bank building, I immediately noticed that something was amiss. For one, none of the customers moved. They all appeared to be frozen in place. It was also very quiet, quiet enough to hear a pin drop. I froze in place right in the entrance hall and scanned the bank to find out what was happening.

Only my eyes moved from one customer to the other. That was how I noticed a hooded figure by the service desk. He held a gun in one hand and his eyes whizzed around to keep the frozen people inside the bank in check. Slowly, I took a step back.

"No one moves! Get on the floor. Now!" the hooded bank robber bellowed as he perceived my movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked frightening and absolutely ready to use this revolver of his. Carefully, the people before me lowered themselves to the ground. Just as I set out to copy their movements, something gripped me by the waist, my vision blurred and suddenly I was sitting in a car.

"Wha... What?" I blubbered, confused to no end. No one was beside me as I was sitting in a closed car's passenger seat just outside the bank.

"You're safe now, Bella." the voice of no other than Edward Cullen sounded next to me as he got into the driver's seat.

"How? How... di-did you...?" I was rendered speechless. I had suspected that the guy sitting next to me had supernatural abilities, but this type of lightning-fast movement was something else.

"I happened to be walking by the bank, saw you and got you out of the line of fire. I called the police, too." Edward calmly explained. "How come they didn't notice you?" I started another attempt at lightening the mystery of how I had gotten out of there unharmed.

"I'm a fast runner, but you already knew that, right?" Edward smirked a little unevenly, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. He turned the ignition without another comment and sped down Main Street.

"Where are we driving?" I asked him, a little scared. He was going much too fast for my liking and I was a afraid that he was abducting me. He had just forcibly dragged me into his car and driven away without my consent. I watched the speedometer creep towards sixty miles an hour. Speeding was a crime. How much further did one have to slip into criminality to commit a serious offense? "Could you slow down a bit?"

"Of course, I am deeply sorry. It's out of habit." Edward slowed down just enough to avoid a ticket if he were caught. "I'm bringing you to the little café down Main Street. I'm afraid that you'll go into shock, so I want to get some fluid and sugar down your system. Sitting down won't hurt, either."

I opened and closed my mouth a few times to point out that he couldn't know that I was to meet Angela there, but then I realized that he, in fact, didn't know and there was no reason to object. It was a mere coincidence that he had chosen the exact same café that I was heading for. The presence of Angela was likely to calm me down. Also, I wasn't being abducted, so that was a good thing, right?

Edward's earlier words came into my mind as he pulled to a stop in front of "Tracey's", the little aforementioned café. "When you said that you are fast, you meant that you ran so fast that no one saw you?" I inquired.

An uncomfortable expression spread on his face, but then he gave an almost imperceptible nod. "I just had to save you, Bella."

"Why did you rescue me instead of just saving all of the people in the bank and making sure the robber will be punished for his deeds? You could've just abducted the bank robber, you could've tied him up or just stolen the weapon if you are that fast!"

I was a little overwhelmed, which made me aggressively lob questions at Edward, stupid as it was because he had saved me. It seemed that this was a habit that was hard for me to break. But still, he would have been able to do so much more if he had used these supernatural abilities a little more cleverly!

"You are right, I could have taken the weapon." He sighed loudly. "But that wouldn't have solved anything. It would have my fingerprints on it and that's not an option. The robber would've run away, too, as soon as he'd have lost his weapon. If I really had caught him, how would I explain that to the police without risking exposure? Remember, my special talents are wrapped up in a secret that can kill." Edward looked a little weary. "There really wasn't another option. Besides, he won't shoot or harm anybody in there. He acquired the gun for the sole purpose of frightening the people in the bank into compliance. He doesn't even know how to use it properly."

As soon as he had finished the sentence, Edward got out of the car, opened my door and half-dragged me into the café by wrapping an arm around my waist. "Could you let me walk by myself?" I protested. When I willingly followed him, he let go of me and walked a little more slowly. "And you can't really know that he won't shoot if cornered by the police."

"Believe me, I know," was all he said.

"Even if you were a forensics expert or a psychologist, you couldn't know. You could only assume!" I was desperate to make him see reason. There had to be a way to save the others, too! Maybe this was me going into shock, but I couldn't accept that it was right that I got to walk away without a hair out of place while ten other people were left at the mercy of the robber. Maybe this was a type of survivor's guilt, which my dad Charlie had mentioned to me before.

"I know, I am not a psychologist. The police are already coming, so could you drop this, please?" Edward seemed to be annoyed by my persistence.

"No. Besides, I can't hear a siren. So, how do you claim to know that he meant no bodily harm?" I insisted.

"Because he was clearly thinking that it was a good thing no one could tell that the weapon wasn't loaded." Edward answered, seemingly defeated.

"But... I couldn't see that thought on his face. How could you when you were there only fractions of the blink of an eye?" Now that this was irking me, I wasn't going to let it go. My puzzlement was the only thing the adrenaline coursing in my blood would let me focus on. The world felt a bit hazy and my thoughts were chasing each other.

"Because he thought these thoughts and I heard them." Edward let out a breath and asked the waiter for a table for three. We had been arguing all throughout the wait. While we headed for our table, I was at a loss of words. Had he really just said we were a party of three? And how did he know about the third person soon meeting me here?

"You read his thoughts? You've got to be kidding me." Suddenly, I realized that nothing was impossible with Edward. He was apparently already a terrifyingly good actor, had a way of making my thoughts blur when he wanted to distract me, was fast as lightning and solid enough to stop and dent a car with his shoulder. When he just stared at me pointedly, my mouth fell open and I incredulously stared back at him. "So you know Angela is coming here from my thoughts?"

I immediately started playing back all the conversations I had ever had with the bronze-haired boy next to me. I had probably thought all types of awful things about him to his face. Horror crawled up my spine at the thought. Maybe I really had to reign in my more colorful thoughts and assumptions. Renee's running commentary on just about everyone she met had influenced me maybe more than I liked. Was I a judgy person?

Edward lowered his gaze and just nodded in response. "And you're reading my mind right now? Or can you switch it off?" Just then, I had a brilliant idea. He could still be lying or a crazy stalker who saw Angela with me earlier. Edward Cullen was something supernatural, but he wasn't above lying. So I suggested a test:

"If you're really able to read minds, why don't you tell me what I'm thinking right now?" I grinned an evil grin at him and thought of the most unlikely thing to think of that crossed my mind. 'I want to kiss a pink elephant, I want to kiss a pink elephant', I kept chanting in my head.

"See, here's the thing. I can read everyone's mind but yours." Edward shifted awkwardly in his seat. "That's why I decided to talk to you in the first place. With the others, there wasn't the need to. Everything to know about them was already broadcasted across school by their mundane thoughts." It sounded like a bit of a lame excuse. I was just about to ask him more questions (the probing kind, I was trying to change this habit, but I had to know what he meant), when he abruptly changed the topic. "Why don't you get something to drink and to eat?" he said a little too loudly and plastered an obviously fake smile on his previously strained face.

I chuckled at his halfhearted attempt to sidestep my test and concluded for myself that I wouldn't accept his supposed mind-reading as true unless he proved it. In my mind, he could still be a stalkerish, weird supernatural making up an additional superpower to cover for his weird behavior. Or was his assurance that he couldn't read my mind an attempt at making me drop my mental guard? That way he would be able to read my most secret thoughts with me being none-the-wiser. I scrutinized his face looking for a reaction to what I had just been thinking. But there wasn't even a twitch or a blink.

When I heard the sound of police sirens driving by, I decided to let the matter go and ordered a coke and a large chocolate chip cookie when the waiter came to take our orders. Edward didn't get himself anything. "Are you just going to watch me eat?" I was a little uncomfortable with the idea of his unnerving eyes on me the whole time.

"I'm not hungry, so yes. You really have to eat, I don't want you to faint." Edward looked genuinely concerned. Being brought up by a doctor, I decided to trust his advice and I dug in quickly when the food arrived. It was really good, but the fact that he had nothing to do but stare at the cookie while I took small bites of it was disconcerting.

To distract him a little and to hide my uneasiness as the silence stretched out endlessly, I finally asked him, "So you're still not going to tell me what is up with your supernatural abilities?"

"No. It goes against my conscience and as long as this little secret of ours doesn't harm you, I choose to protect my family." he determinedly answered.

"Didn't think so," I mumbled, feeling a bit bad about my continued probing. From his perspective, I must have seemed rude and nosy. But from my perspective, I felt a burning need to figure out just what I had gotten myself into when I moved to Forks. Even though my voice was low, Edward must've heard what I said because he chuckled. He had heard the police's siren from miles away, too, if he hadn't faked the knowledge that the police was already on their way. This added great sense of hearing to my mental list of off things about this Cullen.

Suddenly, a realization hit me. The whole Cullen clan was in on the secret and had to be protected from exposure. This included Jasper as well! He was probably able to run just as fast and hear just as well as Edward. Maybe he could tell me if Edward was really telling the truth about the whole mind-reading thing. If anyone knew, it was him. Somehow, I trusted him more than his brother. I hadn't caught him lying to my face yet, maybe that was it. But for some reason I just knew that he was trustworthy. At least more than Edward who often gave me whiplash with his rapidly changing moods.

Emmett apparently was on my side, too, but I didn't dare to ask him. That I didn't even officially know his name was one of the reasons, another one that he clearly was an intimidating person.

"So, what else can you do? Can you fly or grow a second head for distraction?" I attempted to coax at least some more useful information out of him.

"Do you really think that I'm going to tell you? You're already way too perceptive for my liking." Edward destroyed my hopes in a gruff voice.

"Did you get a dress?" he abruptly changed the direction of our conversation, switching back to polite interest.

I realized that it was a lost cause to try to pry anymore information from him and went along with it.

"Yes, I even got a matching necklace."

Just as he was about to ask another question- most likely about the color of my dress since this seemed to be such an important matter to him- the door opened and Angela entered. She looked around the café with a worried expression. I waved at her and she smiled at me, seemingly losing some of her worried air. Angela came over to our table, and was as puzzled as I had been at the sudden presence of Edward Cullen in my proximity.

"Hi," she greeted me and then turned towards Edward. "I'm Angela. I didn't expect to meet you here. Edward, right?" He nodded in affirmation. "Nice to meet you."

As soon as Angela sat down at the table, Edward made to get up. "I should really leave you two to talk, so I'll be on my way."

"Um. Okay." Angela seemed to be a little confused by his sudden desire to leave but she didn't interfere.

"Did you hear about the bank robbery? I was so scared that something had happened to you because you were there just a few minutes before someone stormed in there with a gun!" she burst out, unable to contain herself.

In the corner of my eye, I saw Edward freeze on his way out. He seemed to be listening to us intently. I decided that telling Angela the truth about the whole incident wouldn't help me convince him to trust me. So I decided upon altering the story just a tad.

"I was just about to enter the doors, when Edward came up. I didn't even get to withdraw the money because he stopped me. He had seen the robber in the bank and called the police. There wasn't anything we could do but get ourselves into a safer area, so we decided to wait here until you came to join me. He was afraid that I would go into shock." I fake-rolled my eyes at his concern, which would have been exaggerated if I hadn't even been close enough to see anything happening. A few yards behind Angela, Edward resumed walking as if he hadn't ever stopped.

Technically, I hadn't lied to Angela. I had only left out the vital parts of the story. It still left me feeling uncomfortable. I was guarding someone else's secret without knowing if that would get me in trouble or if it was something illegal. But whatever this secret was, I wasn't going to about it from the rooftops before I knew whether that would hurt anyone. Plus, Edward had sworn me to secrecy time upon time. I wasn't one for breaking promises!

"Did they get the robber? Please don't tell me that he got away with robbing a bank in broad daylight! He didn't hurt anyone, did he? He gave me a good scare, too!" I was desperately hoping that Edward had been right. Right now, he was opening the café's door, turned around and smiled a thankful smile at me before he left.

"That's a double 'yep'." Angela calmed me. "The police moved in just in time. They have these new safes with a time-lock, so no amount of gun-waving could get him a large amount of money unless he waited ten minutes for it to open. I know one of the customers who was in there during the robbery. She was scared to death, said he seemed ready to kill them all. Luckily, he was only bluffing and agreed to wait if no one moved. The police could easily arrest him. Gretchen said that he dropped his gun as soon as he heard the siren and made a run for it, right into the waiting police lines." Angela seemed to be extremely empathic. She almost looked as though she had just witnessed a bank robbery herself.

I pushed the remaining coke over to her. "You should drink some. It helps with shocking situations. Sugar, liquid and caffeine all in one, you know?"

"Thanks." She took a large sip. "I was so scared when I first heard about it! I thought you were maybe still in the bank, hurt or unconscious. I was walking by and saw the police and the shaky customers being interviewed outside. They already had the bank sealed and I only had Gretchen to assure me that you hadn't been there when it happened. But even then I couldn't be entirely sure because she doesn't know you. I had to force myself to come and check whether you were here over waiting at the bank to check that you weren't still inside or on the way to the hospital."

I felt really touched when I heard her words. She really was a great and compassionate friend. "Thanks for your concern, Angela. I'm glad that I didn't have to be there and that neither did you. It's great to know that you were looking out for me." In the spur of the moment I went over and hugged her. She needed some comfort after the scare and she seemed to find it in my embrace. It helped me to realize that all had gone well. After releasing her, I tried to lighten the mood. "What an eventful day, huh? At least we got our accessories now. I think this'll go down in my books as the most exciting shopping trip ever!"

We both laughed for a good minute, relieved that nothing had happened to either one of us or any of the other customers. As rumors tended to spread fast, I was glad that Angela of all people had been with me today. She definitely wasn't one to gossip about her friends. She probably wouldn't even have a lot of bad things to say about her foes. Edward wouldn't want to mention the incident, either, so I was relatively safe from any unwanted attention.

"Isn't it funny how Edward always just happens to be there when you are about to run into danger?" Angela suddenly asked as we sat in comfortable silence, each deep in our own thoughts.

Yeah, that was exactly what I was wondering about.

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