Toxic Rose

Chapter Three: Dinner Date

"This place is too expensive!" Bella exclaimed without thinking as soon as she saw the place Alice was taking her to.

"Don't be silly," the pixie giggled as she hopped out of the gray Volvo. "Thanks for the ride Eddie," she told her brother as she closed the car door and he speed off. Alice grabbed Bella by her arm and gave her a reassuring squeeze. Bella just looked at Alice with her eyebrows upturned in concern. She knew that Alice's family was ridiculously wealthy but this was crazy. Really, she would have been fine with a free coupon for ice cream.

"Alice, I really don't think I should do this," Bella fretted as Alice dragged her towards the entrance.

"It's fine, come now. Besides, it's not often I get to splurge on friends," Alice smiled before turning to the man at the podium. "We have reservations for six pm." The man nodded his head and led the way in.

Friends? Bella felt anxiety gnaw at her stomach. Things were moving too fast. She was not ready for a friend this early on; especially not one that was miss popular and had the energy and spontaneity of a five year old. Ugh, why did she let Alice drag her into this?

"Ladies, your seat," the man gestured to a secluded booth in the back of the restaurant. The whole place was very dim, the only source of light from the neon blue and red lights on the walls. Bella took her seat and wrung her hands nervously under the table. She was super under dressed for this. When Alice had called her out of the blue on a Saturday morning and told her to get dressed up nice and be ready for pick up in an hour, Bella had no clue that this was where she would be, in a restaurant outside of Forks, in the city of Olympia. Bella had pulled on a nice black sweater and slacks that she usually wore for interviews, only to have Alice pull up in a Volvo wearing a black mini dress complete with perfect makeup and six inch heels that put her almost face to face with Bella. Bella had been stunned that the gorgeous girl could look any more stunning, but she did. And how she walked in those heels without falling was a miracle.

They had gotten into the car, which Edward was driving, and Bella struggled to keep up with the flurry of questions that Alice sent her. Like where she was from, what her parents did for a living, how she liked school, etc. Bella could barely mumble a response to one and the other girl would already be onto the next. Edward would add his own comments from time to time, but otherwise he was listening to soft classical music from his radio, his hands in a vice like grip on the steering wheel as he accelerated to speeds well above the speed limit. Bella sure hoped he knew what he was doing or else they would all be splattered into a paste if they hit any of the trees on the highway. She tried to focus on the conversation and played with the edges of her sleeves to hide her unease. Honestly, she didn't know what was stressing her out more now; Alice's inability to stop talking or the fast speed they were hurtling at. Eventually Alice seemed to sense Bella's discomfort and turned to her brother.

"Edward, lower the speed a little. You're driving so fast that I'm afraid we've left Ms. Swan's stomach behind hours ago, and she'll need it to eat dinner."

"To eat dinner?" Bella asked in confusion as Edward let out a chuckle and slowed down only by ten. Still going too fast for Bella's liking.

"Yes, I wanted to surprise you by taking you to a nice restaurant." Alice beamed and patted Bella's hand.

"But but..I am fine, I um-" Bella tried to formulate why exactly she was against this but failed to do so.

"It's fine. Anyways why don't you take a quick nap. We still have two hours to go and I don't want to tire you out with my talking. I want us to leave something to discuss over dinner."

"Uh, sure," Bella said, grateful for a way out and turned towards the window, her back to Alice. She leaned her head against the headrest and pretended to be asleep. She wasn't comfortable enough to fall asleep in the company of two strangers and listened to the hushed tones as the two siblings conversed to each other about various music genres. Eventually they arrived to their destination and that was when Bella had blurted out her statement of surprise. Alice had not said anything about how fancy this place was.

And now that they were inside the place, the loud music thumping over the laughter of people dressed in elegant garments, Bella felt extremely out of place. She wanted to leave immediately but she couldn't because Alice would see her freak out and think she was weird.

"So what do you think?" Alice smiled and Bella gave her a watery smile back in turn, hoping that would suffice.

"What will you ladies be having?" A waiter approached the two. Bella hadn't even looked at her menu yet but Alice was ready. She rattled off some dishes in a foreign language that Bella could not pronounce and the waiter walked off with the menus and orders.

"Um, so what did you order?" Bella asked, almost shouting over the music so Alice could hear.

"Oh, I got us calf brains in raisin sauce."

Bella almost gagged. "What?" she asked, choking back a heave.

"I'm just kidding. Does the idea really disgust you that much?" Alice smiled and clasped her hands together before twiddling her thumbs. "It's actually pretty delicious."

Bella closed her eyes briefly, hoping to dispel the imagery of gray brains on a plate full of lettuce from her mind.

"I got us pasta and a couple of drinks," at this the Cullen winked and Bella froze.

"What kind of drinks?"

"Special ones," Alice said evasively.

"I don't drink alcohol," Bella muttered. And how were they even going to do so, if they were considerably under age? Must be the power of the Cullen's Bella mussed to herself.

"Not even one, with your new friend?" Alice pouted and Bella let out a long sigh. Alice was pressuring her and she knew it, but she couldn't say no. She was always terrible with peer pressure. "Fine, just one."

"That's great! They have the best wine's here!" Alice reached across the table to grab Bella's hands but Bella just stared at the nicely manicured and outstretched hands in front of her. Bella's hands were still under the table clutching her tablecloth.

"Give me your hands," Alice cried out at last in exasperation and Bella complied. Alice's hands were tiny but warm. "I can tell we are gonna have so much fun in the future!" Bella felt unease go down her spine. What was up with these Cullens? Rosalie was a bitch that apparently thought threatening someone with a knife was funny, but Alice was an energizer bunny that was so pushy and seemingly desperate for friends. Bella hoped she wouldn't have to be involved with the Cullen's anymore. Maybe this dinner would be the last of it. She just wanted to hang out with Angela, who was chill and mellow like her, the two of them getting along very well.

"Oh, here come our dishes," Alice exclaimed and letting go of Bella's hands, began to clap her own excitedly. "And the wine!"

"That's a whole wine bottle," Bella eyed the expensive looking bottle in shock as it was set down. "You said you ordered one."

"Yes, as in one bottle. You wouldn't want to waste it now? It's quite expensive."

Bella held in a groan. She just hoped her stomach could handle alcohol on a four hour drive.

Unfortunately, Bella's stomach couldn't handle it and she had unceremoniously upchucked inside the car. She would never forget Edward's look of shock, disgust and anger as they pulled into a car wash. Alice promised him with a smile that she would pay for the wash, but it was clear Edward was not mad at his sister and Bella just felt terrible. She promised she would make it up to him and he sniffed arrogantly at her before turning away to cool his head while the car was washed. Bella ended up, on the advice of Alice, buying the boy some music Cd's he liked. This seemed to to tide the boy over a bit, and Bella hoped it was the last she would have to put up with the popular kids.

Much to her dismay, Alice was very persistent about becoming friends. She would seek out Bella in between classes and text her and call her on the weekends, sometimes even dropping by the house unannounced. Bella was irritated at first; did this girl have no concept of personal space? But eventually as the weeks wore by and October approached Bella found herself getting used to the weird girl's quirks. At least Rosalie hadn't come up to her or even acknowledged her existence in a while, which suited Bella just fine. Of course Bella had also become friends with Angela. And while she sat with Jessica, Eric, Mike and Lauren at the table she only put up with them for Angela who seemed to think of Lauren and Jessica as her close friends. Eric and Mike still thought it appropriate to hit on Bella, which frustrated her to no end, causing her to ditch the lunch table entirely on certain days. When she did, Angela would follow after her and talk to her about books and movies, until eventually Bella would calm down.

So she expected this to happen today, after she deserted the table when her patience for bad pick-up lines disappeared. Bella flopped down on the beanbags at the back of the school library and pulled out her phone to wait for Angela. She played Angry Birds and waited for over ten minutes. Where was this girl? Bella looked up, to see the library empty, only the librarian at the front desk shuffling some papers around. Bella decided to wait some more and shifted her position so that she was now lying on her belly, back to the library door. Eventually she felt a weight settle down next to the beanbags by her.

"Ugh, Angela I'm so glad that you came. Eric and Mike are as unbearable today as always. They keep trying to hit on me." Bella huffed as she sent a bird sling-shooting straight into a pig's castle.

"Why would they want to hit on you? You're ugly." The cold steely voice immediately froze Bella and she let her second sling shot go too early, her bird crashing into the ground. "Angela?" Bella asked, slowly turning her head around. There, sitting next to her, was Rosalie, smirking an evil grin. "I'd like it if you'd stop referring to me by that bitch's name."

Bella didn't know what to say. She'd thought that Rosalie had stopped bothering her. After all, Bella had stopped looking over at the table. She had gotten used to the Cullen's beauty by now, like Alice predicted she would, and had no reason to stare at them. Except sometimes she would slip up; she still hadn't gotten over Rosalie's beauty and she couldn't stop admiring her long luscious locks. How did she even manage to get them like that?

"I uh, I uh," Bella stammered as she sat up so that she was facing Rosalie now.

"Man it's been so hard to catch you in between classes now, with Alice always with you. She won't let me talk to you cause she thinks I'll scare you again." Rosalie stated and looked at the nails on her right hand. They were red, always a red color like that of fresh blood. "But I don't scare you, do I?" At this Rosalie grasped Bella's chin roughly with her left hand and brought the brunette's face closer to her own. She gazed intently into Bella's eyes as the brown haired girl tried to swallow her beating heart which had somehow made it's way up her throat. She had thought she had stopped being scared of the blonde, but obviously she was wrong. There was something about the older girl that put Bella at unease. It was like Rosalie was a tightly wound string that no one knew when it would burst, and when it did, shit was going down.

"No.." Bella at last let out, when she realized the Cullen was waiting for an answer from her.

"Good," Rosalie said, letting go of Bella's face, leaving crescent marks where her nails had dug in.

Bella wanted to ask what the blonde wanted from her but held her tongue. She wasn't sure how the blonde would react to that.

"Anyways, I've noticed you haven't been staring at us anymore. You don't find us as attractive any longer? Too busy playing with some ugly boys hearts?"

"No, I wouldn't..." Bella breathed out only to have Rosalie scoff.

"Am I not pretty enough to stare at any longer?"

"What? I never-" Bella was appalled. Didn't Rosalie want her to stop staring at them in the first place? And now she wanted Bella to stare? Was she offended?

"Sure," Rosalie sneered and inched forward towards Bella, her expression mean. "Is my hair not luscious enough, are my lips not full enough, my eyes not dazzlingly enough, my body not good enough for you?" At each mention Rosalie got closer and closer to the brunette who sank lower and lower into her bean bag chair, eyes wide in fear and confusion.

"Um, is everything okay here?" a quiet voice stopped Rosalie in her tracks. Without tearing her eyes off of Bella she growled out, "Your girlfriend is here." Then with an easy grace she got out of her bean bag chair and pushed past Angela, hitting her in the shoulder as she passed.

"Ouch, what was that about?" Angela asked, rubbing her shoulder and casting Bella a confused glance after watching the Cullen storm out of the library.

Bella shook her head. Honestly she had no clue. The Cullen's were so weird. She wondered what the rest were like and if she would ever have to meet them. Hopefully not.