I have no beta.
BPOVWe all made it to Shooter's Billiards in under fifteen minutes. Edward gave me a hand getting out of the BMW and even offered me his arm as we walked toward the entrance. He was always the perfect gentleman.
The place was already pretty busy but we were able to reserve a pool table toward the back which gave us some much-desired privacy. Edward grabbed a stool for me to sit on as Jasper went to the pool table and began to rack up the balls. Rose and Alice each grabbed a cue stick and brought one over to me.
Emmett was already talking smack and flexing his muscles. "Emmett, we all know you're a meathead. You don't need to be flexing to prove it," I said while watching him act like a dufus.
"Yea, Bella has a point. Besides, pool isn't a game of strength," Jasper added.
"Maybe not, but you can't deny how hot I look flexing my muscles as I learn over the table and lining up my shot," he boasted.
"I don't think it's your ass that you're flexing," Jasper joked.
"Seriously, Rose, how do you put up with it? Emmett's in a relationship with himself. How do you compete?" I joked and everyone laughed.
"It's certainly exhausting trying to keep his attention," Rose said shaking her head at Emmett's antics.
"I bet. You probably have to peel his lips off his biceps just to get a little attention," I laughed.
The teams were already made, and it was going to be girls against guys. Rose and Alice didn't look too happy with the teams as they were. "Ladies, what's wrong?" I asked them.
"We never win," Rose said with a dejected expression on her beautiful features.
"We have played several dozen games and have never won," Alice added with an adorable pout.
"You mean to tell me that the guys deliberately make the game boys against girls because they consider it an easy win for them? It sounds to me like they are afraid of competition," I said giving each guy a dirty look.
"Hey, we aren't afraid of competition," Emmett yelled.
"Yea, we can't help it if Alice and Rose are bad players," Jasper said.
I turned to Edward to wait for him to say something asinine as well. He raised his hands in surrender. "I don't want to be dragged into this disagreement," he said.
"Too bad, you already are. You should have stood up for your sisters instead of sitting on the fence," I scolded him.
"Well, if you're so offended on their behalf, I guess you're going to try to beat us, aren't you?" Emmett asked as he chalked up his cue stick.
"I have an even better idea. Let's make a bet," I suggested and watched as all three of the guys had a look of greed come over them. Alice was tugging on my sleeve to try to get me to stop while Rose kept chanting 'don't do it' to me.
The guys looked at each other in silent communication. They each nodded their heads and turned to us. "You've got yourselves a bet," Jasper told us.
"What would you ladies like to bet?" Edward asked, looking directly at me.
I knew Alice and Rose were going to want to wring my neck, but an idea came to mind that I wanted to come to fruition. "If we win, all three of you have to wear sexy lingerie that we will pick out and walk around in Walmart, shopping for groceries."
Emmett looked like he was going to be sick, but Jasper jumped in. "Agreed. If we win, we want the three of you to dress like lumberjacks but you have to walk through the mall in Seattle."
"Jas, man, I don't want to go through that again. That guy would not leave me alone. He even caressed my ass," Emmett whined.
"Em, relax. Think for a minute. When have the girls ever won a game of pool?" Jasper asked him trying to get Emmett to calm down. Edward was nodding his head next to Jasper, agreeing with everything he was saying.
I narrowed my eyes at him. Edward may be the sexiest guy I have ever met, but I was now more determined than ever to see him lose. Men are always so arrogant.
"Oh, yea, you have a point. I'm in," Emmett said loudly as he jumped up and down in his eagerness to play.
"To make it fair, we guys will allow you ladies to break," Jasper told us.
I turned to Alice and Rose. Alice's face was blank, and poor Rose looked like she was ready to burst. "I will break if it's alright with you. After all, I got us into this mess," I said. Both of them just nodded their heads but refrained from speaking. I shrugged my shoulders, grabbed my cue stick, and walked over to the table.
The balls were racked and ready with the cue ball positioned at the point of the triangle. I picked it up and moved it off to the right side a bit. "We'll be playing American eight-ball," I announced. I leaned over a bit and lined up my cue stick to take my shot. I pulled the stick back and then hit the cue ball slightly below the center. All the balls flew apart with a few of the stripes sinking into the opposite corner pocket.
"I call stripes," I said as I walked around the table to look for my next shot.
Rose and Alice were shouting and clapping while the guys just stood there staring at me. I laughed at the look of shock on their faces. I caught Edward's eye and winked at him.
I proceeded to sink each remaining striped ball and finished with sinking the eight ball in the right side pocket. Alice and rose tackled me and hugged me tightly. I was just happy to kick the guys' arrogant asses.
"You set us up?" Jasper accused.
"No, you set yourselves up. I just went along for the ride," I told them as Alice stuck her tongue out at them.
"Bella, we shall forever love you," Rose said as she kissed my cheek.
"It's not fair," Emmett cried. "I don't want some gross, nasty guy hitting on me again. And with my legs, you know it's going to happen," he said wailing over his misfortune.
"You're not the only one with nice legs, Emmett," Jasper reminded him. "I shudder to imagine what my lovely Alice is going to foist upon me. You know what she's like."
"You two need to shut up. I'm the innocent one here. At least the two of you have had a past experience wearing women's clothing. This is a first for me," Edward chided.
I whipped my head over to Rose and Alice. "What does Edward mean by Emmett and Jasper having experience wearing women's clothing? Are they cross-dressers or something?"
"Oh, hell no. I'm not a cross-dresser," Emmett claimed loudly.
"Neither am I," Jasper hastily added.
"They aren't cross-dressers, Bella. We were playing truth or dare, and they both lost," Rose explained.
"Man, you Cullens have all the fun," I said feeling slightly jealous.
"You're one of us now, Bella. You'll be able to dare them to do embarrassing things too," Rose reminded me with a quick hug.
"I did enjoy that game of truth or dare we played, but I will not play when you guys are blowing ridiculous amounts of money.
"No worries, Bella, we'd break you in slowly," Jasper said.
"Alright, let's take a break from pool for now. The karaoke is going to start soon, and I bet Bella is getting a little hungry," Alice suggested to which we all agreed. I was getting a bit hungry.
Emmett and Jasper walked ahead of us to grab two tables near the front. They pushed them both together and then grabbed more chairs for us all to sit on. Edward held my chair out for me to sit, and I thanked him. He sat down next to me while Alice sat down to my right.
Alice ordered some disco fries for me and some mozzarella sticks. "Are you trying to fatten me up, Alice?"
"Oh, please, you couldn't get fat even if you tried," she laughed.
"Truth, but I do still try to eat healthily."
"Bella, you need to relax. You do eat healthily, but there's nothing wrong with treating yourself every now and then," Alice said trying to encourage me. I just smiled at her and dug into my delicious fries.
The karaoke was fine but most of the people who sang didn't really have great voices. One girl's voice was okay, but it was obvious that she needed some vocal training. Still, I was surprised at how many people wanted to sing.
"Bella, you need to go sing," Alice suggested which had all the Cullens turning around to stare at me.
"No, Alice, I really don't need to," I told her.
"I agree with Alice," Rose said adding her two cents in.
"Why would Bella need to sing?" Emmett asked in confusion.
"She needs to sing because she has a gorgeous voice," Alice told him.
"When did you hear her sing," Jasper asked.
"Rose and I heard her earlier at the house after you guys left," Alice said to them.
I bent forward and banged my head on the table a few times. I thought no one could hear me since I was singing quietly. Apparently, I was wrong. "You weren't supposed to hear that."
"Well, we did, so too bad," Alice replied.
"Seriously, Bella, you have a gorgeous voice. Go up there and own that stage," Rose added.
"I can't. I didn't sign up."
"Yes, you can. I signed you up," Alice told me.
I gave Alice a dirty look. "You little dictator you," I grumbled. "Fine, I'll do it." I walked over to the DJ to see when my turn would be and discovered that it was now my turn. I swear it's like Alice plans these things in advance. She even picked the song I was going to sing. She is such a dictator.
My name was called and the Cullens were all cheering and catcalling me. There were more cheers and whistles coming from all over and I blushed at the unfamiliar attention. When the first few bars of Dua Lipa's "Love Again" began, I took a deep breath.
Everyone was standing and cheering me on. The Cullens were all dancing by our table, and Edward was staring at me in awe. I gave the song my all and actually enjoyed myself.
Once the final note died away, everyone was going nuts. Alice and Rose rushed up to me and threw their arms around me. "Good Lord, Bella, that was fantastic," Rose gushed.
We walked back over to the table, and I took a seat. I was thirsty and finished off my iced tea. "I'll go get you another one," Alice said as she grabbed my glass and took it up to the counter.
"Bella, you have a fantastic voice," Edward said with a crooked grin.
"Thanks, I usually never sing in public," I told him.
"Why? You have an incredible voice with a lot of power behind it. Why would you want to hide it?" Jasper asked in confusion.
"It's not that I actually want to hide it. Renee was jealous that I could sing and always went out of her way to belittle me for it," I explained. "I just got used to not singing in public so I didn't have to deal with her drama."
"I'm sorry if I offend you, Bella, but your mother is a bitch," Rose stated in anger.
"You didn't offend me, Rose. She's just not mother material. She never was and never will be. There's a reason why I raised myself, you know," I said nonchalantly.
Alice chose that time to place my glass of iced tea down in front of me. "Here ya go, Bella. What's with all the angry faces?" she asked looking around.
"Bella's mother is a bitch," Emmett sneered.
"She's a freaking drama queen and probably the most self-centered person I have ever met," I informed them as I took a long sip of my drink. It was ice-cold with just the right amount of lemon and sweetener.
"Don't sweat it, Bella. Esme will adopt you," Jasper said.
"She does seem to like to adopt strays," I replied as I was looking at Emmett. Everyone laughed except for him.
"What's so funny? he asked looking toward Rose and then Edward for a reply. No one bothered to tell him, so he just shrugged it off.
"Let's head back to the house. Maybe we can convince Bella to play Pictionary with us," Alice suggested.
We made it back to the Cullen house in record time which was probably due to the fact that Edward and Rose decided to race each other back. The way they drive, it's a wonder why my dad hasn't caught them yet.
"You two are crazy," I said as well all walked into the house together.
"I happen to know for a fact that you like speed as well," Alice said.
"Hey, I'm not criticizing. I'm just stating the facts," I hastily explained.
We all met down in the family room after we girls put our purchases away. I reclaimed my seat on the sofa next to Edward who smile at me as I sat down. "So are we doing boys and against girls again?" I asked.
"Yes," Alice yelled quickly. "I see no reason to change the way we do things."
"Who am I to argue?" I joked.
"Edward, tear yourself away from the beautiful Bella and get over here," Emmett ordered pointing to the sofa directly across from me.
Edward gave me a smile in apology and got up and walked over to the other sofa. He sat down directly opposite of me, and I grinned. I could stare at him, and no one would be the wiser.
"There will be no flirting amongst opponents," Emmett said as he looked sternly between me and Edward.
"Emmett, shut up already. Let's get started," Rose said in exasperation. I guess even Rosalie has her limits when dealing with Emmett's childishness.
Alice sat next to me, and Rose sat on her other side. "I'll start drawing first. Bella, how are your drawing skills?" she asked.
"I like to think that I'm a pretty decent artist," I told her.
"How decent?" she pushed.
"You'll have to wait and see. Your definition of decent might be different than mine," I reasoned.
"Fair point," she replied. "I'll go first, then Rose, and then you."
"Whatever rocks your world," I acquiesced.
"Ready to lose, ladies," Emmett asked.
"Emmett, what happened the last time you asked that?" I snorted with a laugh. Emmett was always prectable.
"Oh, please, there's no reason to believe that you girls are going to beat us in this game," Emmett said with a cocky tone.
"I'll handle the cards for the girls," Jasper offered as he went to stand by the gigantic chalkboard Emmett had carried in with him.
"Here we go," Alice said eagerly as she jumped up from the couch and walked over to the chalkboard. She took a glance at the card Jasper showed her. She started to draw a perfect replica of the Statue of Liberty, which Rosa and I immediately called out. Damn! Alice could draw.
Alice took the cards from Jasper and Emmet went up for his turn. After getting a quick look at his card, he began to draw. In comparison to Alice, Emmett was not as good an artist, but he wasn't horrible either. It only took a few minutes for Edward to shout that it was a jet ski.
Rose's turn was now up, and I was eager to see how good she would be at drawing. After taking a quick look at her card, she picked up the chalk and began to draw. I wasn't at all surprised to learn that she was also a great artist. Her depiction of Santa Claus was spot on and Alice and I both yelled the answer.
So far, the score was even. It was now Edward's turn to draw, and I was no longer surprised to see that he was also just as talented as his siblings. He drew a perfect squirrel that Jasper had called out relatively quickly. They high-fived each other as Jasper went back up to the board to hold the cards for me.
I felt a ton of pressure on me as well as the eyes of everyone in the room. I knew I was a decent artist but was not sure that my drawing skills were up to their level. Jasper showed me that card and I smirked. I quickly sketched a replica of some s'mores which both Rose and Alice called out immediately.
"Oh, come on!" Emmett yelled. "She can play pool and she can draw. Is there anything she can't do?"
Edward just sat there and grinned while Jasper just shook his head. "Why don't we all just quit? We know where this is going to go," Edward suggested.
"We win!" Alice yelled while jumping and clapping.
"We're tied. Where do you get the idea that we won?" I asked in confusion.
"My drawing skill are the worst out of all of us which now includes you," Jasper admitted.
Emmett put the chalkboard away and we all split up to go do our own thing. Just as I was about to make my way up into my room, Edward asked to speak to me for a moment. He looked a little nervous which was odd. I've never seen him nervous before.
"Bella, I have really enjoyed having you here, and I was wondering if you would agree to go out on a date with me tomorrow?"
A/N: Going bowling was inspired by drotuno from her Angel series. The idea of playing Pictionary was inspired by the Big Bang Theory episode where Sheldon, Amy, Leonard, and Penny played Pictionary. It was "The Re-Entry Minimization" season 6 ep. 4.